cute top ny pearly vine! adore their updated classics!
Now that SO many of us are working from home and navigating the big change I thought I’d share a bit about how I work from home WITH kiddos!
A little backstory… I worked from home full time the first few years of our marriage and then took a job working full time in a design office, eventually transitioning to part-time at home and part-time in the office once AG was born. With the exception of leaving the house to take design clients I’ve been working from home with two littles for nearly a year now!
Most of my hours are spent taking care of the kiddos but getting work done is important too so I have to be pretty strict about our schedule in order to protect work time! When Pearce is home he’s more than willing to jump in and help and we have a lot of family nearby that helps as well! It takes a village.
printable from the fernandina paper co digital library
Anytime I’ve asked for suggestions on blog posts, a reader has commented asking for a “day in the life” post – so I figured it was finally time to share a bit about what our everyday looks like! So here’s a look at how I take care of two little ladies all week and still manage to get work hours in! It’s never perfect. Sometimes we have a late night causing me to sleep in a little too long and then our entire day is thrown off. Sometimes AG wakes up sick and the entire day is thrown off. Sometimes there’s a work project that needs more of my attention and our typical schedule needs to be rearranged or I need to call in backup. Never perfect but having a plan makes it easier to adjust as needed! 🙂
OUR TYPICAL WEEKLY SCHEDULE
6 – I wake up, start the coffee pot, take a look at my planner for the day, grab coffee (first things first!) and then sit down to read my bible. Currently reading through the Seamless study again! After that, I tackle whatever emails are in my inbox and then I jump onto Instagram. Each day I TRY to do all of my IG engagement and share my posts for the day before the girls wake up, but that doesn’t always happen so I jump on Insta again once they’re down for a nap. I’ve been getting better about planning ahead to prep posts and content for all of my accounts so this is getting easier!
7:30 – I try to get ready before getting the girls up but if they’re already up and calling my name I’ll get them ready first. If they wake up before 7:30 they just chat in their room until I come in to get them. I change their diapers at the same time and get them both fully dressed for the day. Alba Grace is always hungry first thing in the am so I fix her breakfast and then make Millie a bottle. If I haven’t gotten ready yet I’ll let AG watch half an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or the youtube kids worship after breakfast while I get ready. So yes, the TV sometimes serves as a babysitter for 15 minutes while I get ready. I usually listen to a podcast while I’m getting ready and if it’s a good one I’ll finish listening when we get in the car or go for our walk.
8 – I clean up breakfast, usually throw a load of laundry in the wash or unload the dishwasher and make AG’s snack if she’s going to school. If we’re going on another outing that day I pack up the diaper bag and stroller and then we’re off!
8:30 – Leave the house. Our days are so much easier when we plan to leave the house for a morning activity. Twice a week AG goes to school and then Millie and I will go for a walk or run errands, once a week AG has tumbling class but the other two days we either walk to the beach, walk to the park, meet up with friends, go to the library, go to the zoo, etc!
Once a week I’ll ask Pearce’s mom or my Nana to watch the girls from 10-1ish so I can tackle some additional work. This is a great time for biz phone calls or zoom calls. This is also a good time to run to the printer to pick up products that I need to photograph for the Paper Co. or to run other errands that are easier to run alone. Which is everything haha. If I don’t get to those errands on a day I have the help, I’ll usually tote Millie along while AG is in school! She’s the best little shop assistant! 🙂
12:00 – Lunch! On school days I pack AG’s lunch to go and we walk while AG eats. The other days we’ll both eat lunch in the kitchen or out at her picnic table if the weather is nice. I’m intermittent fasting again so this is usually my first meal of the day and takes a bit longer to prep. After lunch, if there’s time I like to do an activity of some sort with AG (play in the playroom, read books, work on a craft) and then it’s time for a nap. Both girls take a nap around this time. Sometimes I lay them down in their room together but if they’re not super tired I’ll put Millie in another room so they don’t keep each other up.
1-4: This is when the girls take their nap. I try to squeeze a full workday into this 3-hour window! I also take breaks to switch loads of laundry and clean things up. So I’m really only working about 2.5ish hours.
4: If the weather is nice we’ll go for a walk. Walks are big around here if you haven’t caught on! It’s the only way I can squeeze a bit of exercise into our busy weekdays. Everyone seems to be in a better mood when we get out and get moving! During baseball season we usually walk up to the baseball field to see Pearce in the afternoons. I like listening to my audiobooks while we’re walking!
5: Around five I start making dinner while Alba Grace has a little independent playtime. She has plenty of activities in her playroom that she can access without my help. These days she wants Millie in the playroom with her so I usually sit Millie in her walker and pop my head into the room every few minutes to make sure all is well.
6:00: We don’t have a set dinner time but it seems like we’re eating around 6 most days! We meal plan on Sundays and then Instacart or grocery pickup on Monday. This way we know what we’re having for dinner every night of the week in advance. I try to avoid going into the grocery store by having groceries delivered or running through the pickup line. Saves so much time!
6:15-6:30: Bedtime! We give the girls a bath (unless we’ve had a crazy day and then we skip baths!), wrangle them into pajamas, read a book, pray and then turn the lights out! If I still need to take a shower we’ll skip the bath and I’ll take a shower with both of the girls. They love it and it’s efficient! Win Win!
After bathtime Pearce and I are both exhausted so we’ll fold laundry while we watch a show, I’ll get any work done that I didn’t get done during the day (although I try really hard not to work at night) and then we get to bed pretty early! I wish were better at prepping for the next day at night but we’re usually pooped and take advantage of some time together while the girls are sleeping.
Baseball season throws some of our weeknights off. If we have a game we don’t get home until after 8 so those nights are a bit more chaotic! We still follow the same bedtime routine but everyone’s usually wired and it takes longer to get the girls to calm down. We’re moms on call people so our nighttime routine is something we just don’t veer from – even if everyone’s tired!
When it’s not baseball season we do a Tuesday or Thursday night beach night! I get the girls up from their nap a little early, load them up in the car and then Pearce gets home from work and hops in! We go grab dinner from the Harris Teeter hot bar and then drive down on the beach to run around until sunset. Those are the best nights. Praise the Lord for four wheel drive and living at the beach!
Weekends: Saturday mornings one of us usually makes breakfast. We have a lot of fun while Pearce is home and other than a set naptime and bedtime, we don’t really have much of a schedule! We live for the weekends, especially during baseball season since we don’t get to see much of Pearce. A few of our weekend favorites: walking downtown for a Friday night dinner, early church service, day trips (we have so much to see on our island and all around us!), and lots and lots of beach days in the summer! Counting down the days!
Once a month I’ll do a Saturday work day where I catch up on Paper Co. bookkeeping, product planning, and marketing! 🙂 Pearce gets some solo time with the girls while I do that. This is on the calendar well in advance so everyone knows when to expect it. I usually try to shoot blog content on the weekends too!
Pearce’s mom usually texts us several times a month to see if she can watch the kids while we go out for a date. We always say yes! 🙂 God bless grandparents!
Because we have a pretty consistent routine and schedule, I feel like it gives us freedom to be more flexible when fun stuff comes up. We’re more likely to say yes to playdates with friends, visiting Pearce at work, girls lunches, etc when I know what needs to be moved around on the schedule!
WFH TIPS
Designate a work space! In our last home I had a home office that I totally took for granted! Even if I didn’t exclusively work at my desk, it was so nice to have a room where I could keep all of my work junk and shut the door for a zoom call! In our current house I had to get creative. So I’ve turned an empty area in our living room into my little workspace! I threw my favorite gatopard tablecloth onto a pedestal table we had in the garage, that way I can keep all of my office essentials (including my printer!) hidden underneath.
Set Hours. See above schedule for how I managed to incorproate work hours into our busy weekdays! Having dedicated work time (whether it’s early in the am, during naps, while you have a sitter, or even a few nights a week!) helps define boundaries so you can be fully present when you’re not working!
Turn your phone off. I get zero work done when my phone is around. So I try to put my phone in a different area of the house (like on the charger in my room) while I’m working. If I need to hop on Insta after putting my phone down (for work – not to scroll) I sign in on the computer!
Set timers for things. I can get way too caught up in perfecting something instead of just getting it done. So sometimes I set a timer on my phone and make myself get things done within that timeframe!
Pick a day for online errands. This probably sounds strange but many of us have online “errands” like signing up for warranties, registering for things, paying bills, amazon ordering, etc. I schedule time on Mondays to get all of my online errands done so that I’m not using precious work time to tackle those. So if something comes up and it’s not urgent, I add it to the following Monday’s to-do list in my planner.
Have a plan. I write everything in my planner. Each day when I sit down to work I know what I need to accomplish. I write down our schedule for the day, what activity I hope to do with AG, what we’re having for dinner (especially important so I can see if something needs to be thawed or thrown into the crockpot!) and I even write down what needs to be shared on IG that day! If it’s not in the planner, it doesn’t happen.
Time block. I do well when things are neatly organized into boxes. For example: On Mondays I work on interior design boards, Tuesdays I use work time for new paper co designs, on Wednesdays I photograph paper co designs and drop them in DB for social media scheduling, on Thursdays I write and schedule blog posts, and on Fridays I plan and schedule social for the following week. Again, having a set schedule makes it easier to be flexible when things come up AND it helps me stay on track while working!
