- Name: Allison
- I am a… : Stay-at-home mom or full-time parent depending on who I’m talking to
- Child’s age and Name #1: Natalie, 5
- Child’s age and Name #2: Corinne aka Coco, 17 months
- Name: Lindsey, Momographer
- I am a… : Self Employed Single Mom {Always Trying to Figure It Out}
- Child’s age and Name #1: Little Lady (keeping name private), 10
6:30a.m. This is when I get up every single day of the week and weekend. Like clock work. I’ll only sleep in only if I am jet lagged or catching up from a 40th birthday party. My little lady sleeps 11 hours. I sleep seven hours on a good night. I always wake up first to get myself in order(shower + dress) and make the school lunch. This must happen before sending our little dog Huey aka the alarm clock to get the little lady up at 7:10a.m. SHARP. If sharp does not happen, we’ll get a tardy slip 100%. She needs her 25 minutes to get the uniform on, organize and reorganize her backpack and homework and then eat her raisin bread cinnamon toast with peanut butter. My breakfast is always on the go. Protein bar eaten while waiting for my Iced To Go Coffee from the Cable Car Drive Thru 5 minutes away. I must go there 5 days a week.
7:35a.m. Out the door and in the car Monday – Friday
8:00a.m. Leave school. Stop at Nugget market for salad bar lunch if needed for particular day and sparkling water. I’ll maybe grab some more items for the school lunch and sometimes dinner if Sun Basket is not being delivered. I love Nugget market too much. Lots of my money goes there:)
8:45a.m. Orange Theory for an hour for me! I need this and always feel better when I leave. I don’t always want to go and am always always happy that I did!
10a.m. Home to shower and change for the shoot(s) of the day. Always very happy that I already got my salad to go. This is a very fast 30 min for me. Have to be back out the door at 10:30am for whichever shoot I have on tap the for day! From now until 2:30 I have to squeeze in what should be a normal 8 hour work day into 4. The momographer is very productive in this timeframe. It can get crazy but I do my best. This is actual shooting time and not computer/email/editing time. So, during the week I will do one or more of the following types of shoots: newborn, family, product, styled, specific brands and venues, headshot(s), and my favorite for The Style Safari herself :)
12p.m. Sneak in lunch always and especially if I have done Orange Theory or workout that particular day. Otherwise hot cranky mess;) Eaten in less than 10 minutes. It’s a treat to have longer than that!
2:30p.m. Switch gears back to mom mode. Must leave wherever I am for the school pick up. School does have an after care program, but that can add up if consistently used because I am running late. I try to keep on plan. Better for everyone. If I can’t switch gears and have longer work commitments, I am VERY LUCKY to have the help of many wonderful friends and fellow moms who always are happy to help us out. My little lady also has the help of her two favorite uncles who live in the city along with my parents who swap time between here and Maui. My team is a strong one and I am always grateful and thankful. THANK YOU family and friends!
3:05p.m. School pick up. Stop at Nugget again for more snacks! The snacks I have in the car have already been eaten! The Little Lady is always hungry especially this time of year with swim team! Growing…eating….studying..
4:15p.m. Swim team drop off. The Little Lady does an hour of swimming. I’ll take Huey for an hour of walking on the bike path or the dog park. He’s only 1 1/2 and needs some serious exercise and making new friends time or he’ll run laps in our house for 3 hours straight.
6:00p.m. HOME! DINNER! STARVING! Dinner can be tough for the Little Lady and me. I order Sun Basket once a week to encourage the making of healthy dinners for both of us. Of course most 10 year olds think healthy is gross and just want Annie’s Mac N Cheese and with some form of chicken nugget. We meet half way. I make the paleo dinner from Sun Basket, divide up the meat and veggies and add a huge pile of mac N cheese to the Little Lady’s plate. If her meal is finished ENTIRELY and not just pushed around and reorganized, an ice cream bar is allowed for dessert!
7:15p.m./9:15p.m. The constant battle of homework vs. slime making. This is every night. Someone tries to sneak in the slime pre-homework. Bold move as this will put slime on the time out chair for the entire week. Homework first. Then slime. This is also when I clean the kitchen, download photos from the day and do laundry. Landry and searching for matching socks is my never-ending daily task. I am pretty sure my dryer eats half of our socks.
8:30-9:00p.m. Little Lady bedtime. When school is out, this time frame is more flexible, but for now this is the strict rule. Swim team makes this easy. The kids need their sleep!!!
9:00p.m. 11:30p.m. Switching gears for the final time. Back to work photographer mode. I’ll rent or buy an On Demand movie to keep me awake and then I’ll get to work. FYI don’t rent Annihilation, unless you don’t want to sleep. This 2 1/2 timeframe is when I power edit photos, catch up on emails and organize the calendar. It feels like there is never enough time, but I am pretty sure many of us feel that way. You have to shut it down at some point…so…. 11:30pm Lindsey out! This is my bedtime. I must be in bed by midnight at the very latest during the school week! I am a complete mess if I don’t! Obviously I have to break my rule every once in awhile. This all depends on the photo jobs and edit deadlines I have each week. I really try my best to avoid this for overall work/life balance. I am 100% a better mom, photographer and friend when I get those 7 hours in consistently!!! 7 is the lucky number!
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- Name: Julie
- I am a… : Pharmacist
- Child’s age and Name #1: Oliver, 2
- Child’s age and Name #2: 39 Weeks Pregnant
- Name: Elizabeth
- I am a… : Work (part-time) with kids at home Mom
- Child’s age and Name #1: Winslow, 6
- Child’s age and Name #2: Fiona, 4
Typical day when both kids have school.
6:30 or 7 am Everyone wakes up and they can wander in our room after 7am. We hang out in bed and chat about the day and check the weather etc. We all get up by 7:30 to get dressed and head downstairs for breakfast and to feed and let the dog out. If I have a work project, then I try to get up earlier and start to work at around 5:30 before everyone is awake.
Kiddos get themselves dressed in clothes that were picked out the night before. They brush their teeth and come down for breakfast. Winslow usually practices his violin for 10 minutes. Breakfast is a mixture or cereals, granola and fruit, frozen pancakes from previous breakfasts that are toasted, bagels and cream cheese or eggs. Hair gets brushed while they are eating breakfast in an attempt to minimize the screaming.
8:15am The warning alarm goes off and everyone must finish what they are doing and put on shoes and backpacks. We then walk to the bus stop for an 8:30am pick-up for Winslow. After the bus takes Winslow to kindergarten I then walk Fiona to preschool down the road. After both kids are at school the dog gets a walk and I finish my now cold coffee. I then work or get a few chores done that are easier to do without kids in tow until I pick Fiona up at school at 1:30pm. I try to schedule all of my work calls during school time so that there are no distractions. Every once in a while, I meet a friend for coffee or lunch without kids! Fiona goes to school 3- 1/2 days week. If she is not in school, we are hanging out or if I am lucky my mom takes her or picks her up from school so I can work. If not, we just make it work.
1:30pm After I pick-up Fiona from school we usually play in the playground with friends for 45 minutes to an hour. We then come home after and have a snack and read some books for quiet time. Fiona does not nap anymore or else she does not go to bed very easily at night. If I am in the middle of a work project I usually set-up a craft project for her to work on next to me. Sometimes this works out well other times it is an epic fail and work is put on hold until after bedtime. If it is not working out, then we usually do kid friendly chores. Fiona loves to fold clothes, garden, wash the floors and windows and help cook dinner.
I try to get dinner mostly ready before afternoon activities start. Someone usually has an activity (dance, violin, swim lessons, soccer etc.) almost every afternoon during the school year. Hence the need to have dinner ready so that we can eat and get ready for bed when we get home. The nights when we don’t have an activity are great! We usually go for bike ride, family dog walk or play at playground for a bit before dinner.
3:45pm Winslow gets picked up from the bus. We then scoot off to someone’s activity. They have a snack in the car on the way (smoothie, sliced apples, crackers and cheese, almonds). If it is Winslow’s activity, Fiona will play with friends or toys that we brought while we wait. If it is Fiona’s activity, then Winslow does his homework so we don’t have to do it when we get home and then plays until Fiona is done.
6pm We finally head home for the evening and eat dinner, I try not to schedule activities that get us home past 6pm. If I am lucky it was a premade meal and all I have to do is make a salad or veggie and heat it up. If not, I try to make it before we pick Winslow up at school. I will roast a chicken or bake a frittata while I am working during the day. We eat a lot of luke warm food…the kids don’t like it hot anyway? Our kids eat what we eat- we don’t make them special food. After dinner we play if there is time. I try to get the kids to play together or by themselves for a little bit each day either before school or before bed.
7:15pm We try to head upstairs to get ready for bed by 7:15pm so that the kids can pick out their clothes for the next day, and take showers (maybe 3 days a week unless it was a messy day…we conserve water). We usually all rotate through the shower. I cannot tell you the last time I blow dried my hair and the legs never get shaved anymore unless I am on vacation. We brush teeth together to make sure it gets done well. We then read books in our bed together and try to be asleep by 7:30-7:45. After stories I tuck them both in and they each tell me their top three activities from the day.
7:45pm Once the kids are in bed, then it is time to do dishes (hopefully Robert did these while I was tucking in the kids) and make lunches for next day. The kids usually like leftovers from dinner or else they have yogurt, fruit, quesadillas, crackers, hard boiled eggs etc. If we did not go on family dog walk, then the dog goes out for an evening walk. Once all of this is done it is adult hour with wine. We usually watch TV for a bit or work for a few more hours. We try to be in bed by 10 but sometimes it is not until 11 or 12 depending upon work.
Robert also works from home. Depending on his schedule he tags along and helps out throughout the day or one of the kiddos can stay home with him rather than being dragged to the others activity.
A few things that keep me sane:
ALARMS
I set alarms for everything. I have a get out of bed alarm, to the bus/preschool alarm, pick-up from pre-school alarm, bus stop pick-up alarm, cooking food alarm. If I am working on a project or have kids asking me a thousand questions I sometimes get side tracked and this keeps me from forgetting my children at school or burning the house down. I also set them so that I can snooze them once or twice. This gives me a chance to wrap up a work activity, game or book with Fiona or get a snack together before I run out of the house.
PRE-MAKE & FREEZE DINNERS
Whenever I make something I usually make double so that I can freeze one for another night. Every once in a while, I spend a weekend cooking so that I have a bunch of meals on hand for weekdays. Some of these include lasagnas, soups. Pasta sauce, zucchini pancakes, and eggplant parmesan. This also keeps us from spending a fortune on take-out, partially made meals, or eating out.
