a day in the life Working Mommy - meet Brooke

Happy Wednesday!

Thanks Brooke for sharing your day with us!  

Hi! My name is Brooke.  I am wife to Joe and mommy to Makayla (2 1/2) and we have one fur baby named Tika. I work full time as an outsourcing coordinator at a local accounting firm. I typically work 8 am until 5 pm three days a week and until 3pm two days a week.  I also run my etsy shop www.sewblessedbaby.etsy.com in my “free” time.  I have recently been working hard to build up inventory for the holiday season. This part of my “work” is really a time to zone out and relax and I love being able to do it and have a husband that fully supports that!  Joe works full time as well as a financial planner and leads a small group of middle school boys at our church.

The Day to Day:

A typical day in our house starts with me getting up at 5:30.  I usually get showered and ready for the day by 6:15 and head downstairs to pack lunches, make coffee and have breakfast.  Joe will usually gets up between 6 and 6:30.  He will help me get Makayla ready if I am taking her to daycare however, most days he takes her.  His morning schedule a little more relaxed compared to mine.  If I take her to “school”  we try to leave the house by 7 if not a little earlier.  We live a distance away from our offices and traffic can sometimes be a bear.  I have found on days I drop her off that taking something to go for breakfast works well.  Makayla is just a slow eater sometimes and this helps the morning to move a little more smoothly.  I drop her off at school and arrive at work about 8 am.  I usually pick her up in the afternoon and we start our trek home, arriving between 6 and 6:30 most nights.  I try to have easier meals to prepare for my longer days and cook something a little more “fancy” on my early days.  We buy all our meat in bulk and I divide it out into meal portions before freezing in food saver bags.  This helps with meal prep tremendously not to mention the grocery budget! We usually keep are nice assortment of fresh veggies so that any meal can easily be thrown together.  I used to meal plan and really need to get back into it!!  Anyone have any great meals?  I got burnt out on our routine meals.

I try to do something every night to keep the house “in order”, whether it be doing a load of laundry, doing the floors, cleaning the kitchen, etc.  We try to pick up toys every night before bed.  I find I am more relaxed when sitting down for the night if the room I am in is somewhat picked up. :)  We do most heavy cleaning on the weekends, Joe is a huge help with this.   We also do yard work on the weekends.  We started a garden this summer and just recently replanted for fall.  Hoping to get lots of greens and beets!

Quality Time:

With Makayla quality time is usually spent according to her needs.  Sometimes she just wants someone in the room with her while she plays independently.  Other times she wants to be very interactive.  We adjust accordingly.  Activities with her include reading many books(this girly loves some books), going to the library, playing with her kitchen and having a pretend picnics, singing songs together, and playing outside (especially with sidewalk chalk). 

With Joe we have most of our quality time in the evenings once Makayla is down for the night.  We love to have stay home dates and enjoy a wine and cheese spread.  Some nights we play cards, watch a movie, sometimes we have deep discussions, or even just watch a couple shows that we enjoy together. 

We just purchased our first house under a year ago and have been busy with making it our own.  We have very different schedules than most of our friends, and live a distance away from many of our friends.  This makes time with them a bit more challenging.  We are currently looking for a small group to join with our church.  We LOVE our neighbors and really enjoy hanging with them as well. 

Hope you enjoyed reading about our little family.  Visit us over at www.jandbfriend.blogspot.com for more of our busy life!