I’ve done several “Day in the Life” posts in the past and even though they are always really long posts full of mostly blurry pictures, they are my absolute favorite ones to look back on. Each one feels like a tiny time capsule and serves as a reminder of what a regular day looked like in a particular stage of our life. I haven’t done one since last March so it was definitely time for another!
A couple notes about this day. In the past I’ve always documented a weekday, so this time I decided to document a weekend day and chose a random Saturday. This Saturday felt particularly relaxing because I was able to go grocery shopping on Wednesday this week and I just finished up the dining room renovation so I’m currently not working on a home project. I also included a few bonus pictures of our Sunday at the end of this post because Sunday was Valentine’s Day and I wanted to include a few shots of our special holiday festivities. (Edit: I got a great reader suggestion to include my kids’ ages for these posts – LJ is 3 years 2 months, Vi is 17 months).
Saturday, February 13 2021
For the past several months, Justin and I have taken turns with who gets up with the kids on weekend days so the other person can sleep a bit longer. I offered to get up with them on Saturday, and Vi woke up around 6:50 am with LJ following shortly after.
I had made some hardboiled eggs earlier in the week, so LJ helped me crack and peel them for breakfast. He loves to do things independently so I try to step back and let him do things his own way, even if it’s messy.
While they ate breakfast, I started a load of laundry. At this point in our lives, I’m probably averaging 2 loads of laundry each week which isn’t bad. One benefit of all the time spent at home is there aren’t a lot of outfit changes. Plus LJ is in a stage of never wanting to change his clothes so unless we’re going somewhere or his clothes are actually dirty, we let that argument go. At least it means less laundry!
I snuck upstairs to let the dogs out of our bedroom to go outside and Vi helped me feed them – she loves helping with this daily chore.
After breakfast, I took the kids downstairs to play in the basement. A few weeks ago we purchased a bounce house for them and it has been a HUGE hit.
I really wanted to come up with something for the kids to do that would help them get some energy out and have fun without leaving the house (on top of the pandemic, there’s currently several inches of snow on the ground outside and the “high” temps are in the teens!) and this purchase has absolutely been 100% worth the investment.
Justin joined us around 8 am – he enjoyed waking up at his own pace, getting to eat breakfast without anyone stealing his food, and reading his devotions in peace. He took over with the kids in the basement so I could go upstairs and have a little time to myself. The kids love special time with daddy!
First things first, I went upstairs and got ready. Even when I’m not going anywhere, I like to at least put on a touch of makeup to make myself feel put together for the day.
I’m part of a bible study reading Genesis this year, so I read the day’s passage and answered our study questions.
Then I treated myself to a little reading time with a cozy blanket and candle burning. I’ve been so busy with home projects lately that it’s been a long time since I’ve just sat and enjoyed a book in the morning so this truly felt like a luxury!
I did a few quick updates on my Instagram stories and then Justin and the kids came upstairs and I headed downstairs for a workout. I did a 30 minute ride with Cody – he just has the best music to ride to and this one was a fun pop playlist.
I came upstairs to move the laundry over to the dryer and get lunch ready and came upon the sweetest little scene of Justin reading a book with the kids.
Justin was on call for his job this weekend and had to head in to work for about an hour so I took over and got lunch around for the kids. This is a typical scene for us at lunch – half the breakfast dishes are still out, there’s food everywhere, and it’s all a bit of a mess. Someday we’ll have things a little more organized but for now, this is our life.
After lunch, I let the kids watch a show (right now LJ is very into the movie Wall-E, or as he calls it “the robot with the trash”) while I cleaned up the kitchen and washed dishes. During this time I also sent video messages back and forth to one of my friends discussing all our thoughts on the book Majesty (love you Denay!) Marco Polo has been such a blessing for keeping in touch with friends near and far.
At 1:00 I headed upstairs to put Vi down for a nap. Vi has just recently become interested in having us read books to her before naps and she always wants to read this personalized book my sister bought her for Christmas.
She still wants to breastfeed before sleeping and always insists on holding her books (she calls them ‘bibles’) and all her dolls. It’s quite the crowd!
She also wants to take everything into the crib. Today she also insisted on taking three of LJ’s little farm animals with her. Bless her sweet little heart.
After Vi is down, it’s LJ’s turn. He sometimes naps, sometimes doesn’t, so last week I started a “quiet time box” with a few small trinkets that he can play with quietly in his room if he doesn’t want to sleep. His routine is read two books (often choosing the picture searches in his Highlights magazine), sing two songs, and then snuggle with his four puppies and Edgar the elephant. He’s my routine lover!
He also has spent the last several months sleeping on the floor, entirely by choice. We’ve tried everything we can think of to get him to sleep on his bed, but he insists on the floor. He won’t even let us put blankets down first and wants to sleep on the carpet! At this point, we just let him have the independence to decide and let it go.
Once I finished his routine and left his room, I headed into our bedroom to fold the laundry and put everything except the kids’ things away.
Normally, nap times are when I try to get all the things done. But I had already finished laundry and dishes, and I’m currently in between home projects, so today was a real treat where I got to snuggle up on the couch with Macie and read some MORE! What a day!
Justin came home during the kids’ naps and headed out to his woodshop. Woodworking is one of his hobbies and he’s been wanting to make a little stand for the dog bowls and has been working on that in his free time lately.
Vi was the first one up after taking a nice long nap.
Justin came inside around the time Vi woke up and LJ woke up (he actually napped!) shortly after. Justin and LJ hung out downstairs while Vi and I hung out in her room. She wanted to sit and read her books – a girl after my own heart!
It lasted until LJ came to join us and then things got a *bit* rowdier.
During this pandemic we’ve been trying to order out from local restaurants at least 2-3 times a month, so tonight we ordered from one of our favorite places. Justin and LJ had a special adventure to go get the food – LJ was SO excited for a trip with daddy!
Vi was very upset about being left behind and kept wanting to put her hat and socks on to go too. The only way I could distract her was with the thing she loves almost as much as going outside – bath time!
The boys returned with food – burgers for mommy and daddy and chicken nuggets and fries for the kids. Levi was very proud that he got to use his “big muscles” to help daddy carry the bag of food.
After dinner we four played in the playroom together until our food had digested a bit and then . . .
. . . we finished the day with a special treat of ice cream.
My dad was babysitting for my niece this weekend while my mom was out of town visiting my sister, so we video chatted with dad while eating ice cream.
Vi didn’t want to get back in her clothes after her bath and we were cracking up over the fact that she was just sitting there in a diaper and backwards hat.
Then after she ate it all and there was just a little melted ice cream left in the bowl, she lifted it up to drink every last drop! Like I said before, girl after my own heart haha.
After ice cream we got in our jammies and watched a little more Wall-E, then put the kids down around 8:00 pm.
Justin and I talked about playing a game after the kids went down, but we ended up just lounging on the couch talking about lots of different things and looking through old videos of when our kids were younger. It was a nice low key evening hanging out together – I’m forever grateful for this Valentine of mine.
Bonus – Valentines’ Day Activities
The next day was Valentines’ Day and it was my turn to sleep in. I went downstairs around 8:30 and Justin had to head into work for a couple hours. The kids and I spent the morning doing a few little Valentines’ activities!
First up, we used a large piece of packaging paper that came in a recent delivery to create a Valentine message for Justin. I had the kids lay down with their arms spread out in a big hug and traced their outlines. I wrote “We love you this much!” and they had fun coloring the paper.
LJ then helped me tape it to the wall in our dining room. It may not be a glamorous Valentine but this was a labor of love and the kids were really proud and excited for daddy to come home and see it!
Next up, Valentines cookies! I just got a simple little kit of pre-cut cookies from the store for the kids to make. Vi is upset because she kept trying to eat the dough and wouldn’t follow what we were doing with pressing them on the cookie sheet so she wasn’t allowed to keep helping with that step. I thought about leaving off this picture, but you know what, this is just what life looks like sometimes.
While the cookies baked, we made frosting! I always try to let the kids help as much as they are able and they both enjoyed this part.
We played for a bit until the cookies were cool enough to decorate. There was a lot of sampling going on haha but eventually we got the cookies frosted. LJ enjoyed choosing sprinkles for each cookie.
So proud of his hard work!
The kids were so excited to show Justin all their surprises when he got home and we enjoyed eating cookies before watching our online church service.
The rest of the day was pretty low key but it was fun to have those few little activities to make the holiday feel special!
I think I’m going to try doing these posts a little more frequently in the future. The kids just grow and change so much these days! To read previous Day in the Life posts, you can find them all here:
simplify the chaos 
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