On Tuesday of this week I participated in Ali‘s Day in the Life. I love doing this project once a year. While I normally aim to capture every day moments of our lives, this project always reminds me to get in the photos myself and to capture *my* life, not just my kids’.
I also have found that using my iPhone works best for me. Any time I’ve attempted to use my DSLR and only my DSLR, I easily get frustrated with how imperfect the photos are. I guess my standards are quite a bit lower when using my phone, and therefore my perfectionist self can relax and just take the pictures.
I’m not sure what I’ll do yet with these photos (maybe another Project Life insert?), and I usually don’t figure it out until I start doing it, but gathering the words in one spot will help me get there. One step at a time.
My days start when my husband wakes up for work. I usually lay in bed and check my phone while he showers, which helped me remember to start taking photos at 4:14am. I climb out of bed when he is done getting ready for work, groggily find my glasses and put on a sweatshirt since I’m freezing cold. Then I head downstairs to say goodbye.
Coffee poured and I sit down at my computer and continue to wake up. I do most of my computer work in the morning before my kids wake up or during Alwyn’s naptime.
I hear Alwyn awake around 6:20 and to avoid him waking up Ephram, I go get him and bring him downstairs. Within a few minutes he asks for “george” and so we go to the living room and turn on Curious George on Netflix.
Breakfast and a million demands and fights over what we’ll eat begin when Ephram wakes up. Alwyn decided on Cheerios and milk while Ephram asked for his usual peanut butter toast. But once I made them both their breakfast, Alwyn decided he wanted a bagel like me and thought it was special that he could grab it and put in on a plate all by himself. He later ditched it after 4 bites.
I made an egg and ham sandwich on a bagel for myself.
After we all finished eating and cleaning up the kitchen I urged them to get dressed. But it was raining and that meant quite a few snails were slithering up the windows. We spent the next hour getting dressed, playing with toys, watching a little more George, packing up Ephram’s lunch for school, and then leaving.
Photographing Ephram in the car while waiting in the carpool drop off line turned into a bad idea when I accidentally made him sad by trying to get him to smile for a photo. I should have settled for the ‘extremely tired and out of it’ look he had on before this one. Oh well, his reaction is totally his personality so it’s part of our story. He reminded me the following day at the same time and he actually did smile for that one.
One of my favorite parts of our day is school drop off. Ephram always makes sure to give me a kiss and hug these days, and then blows a kiss once he’s out of the car. Super sweet. Alwyn doesn’t attend yet but has made quite a few teacher friends this year and they look for him every day so they can wave and see him smile.
9:31 and we pull into the garage back at home. My friend Jen is coming over to go walking, so I quickly give Alwyn a snack, check my email, and round up socks and shoes to wear on our walk. So glad the rain stopped because it was my first day wearing my Fitbit and I was curious to see if it recorded a similar step count to when I’m carrying my iPhone. (pretty close!)
I took a shower shortly after we got back home while Alwyn played with toys. He asked for several snacks and then another episode of George which allowed me to start a load of laundry, sweep the kitchen floor, and finish up a project in my office. Then he came back and we drew pictures together at my desk until it was time to go get Ephram from school.
It had started raining again by then and he was interested in the umbrella, so he played for a few minutes in the backyard before we left.
Love Ephram’s smile here while telling me he finished his entire lunch at school today (a nearly daily struggle). Alwyn fell asleep in the car, so I picked him up and brought him to his crib for a nap.
I realized I hadn’t eaten a proper lunch when I discovered we had leftover Chinese food in the fridge, so I warmed that up to eat while I did some naptime computer work. Ephram gets to play phone games, play with toys, and has an after school snack during this time.
Beau came home early because he had a webinar call to do. Luckily Alwyn wasn’t awake for it so I didn’t have to keep the boys from fighting or being too loud while he was on the call. Meanwhile I took some photos for a project.
After Beau was done with work he went outside to work on the yard. He’s trying to cure a bad drainage problem we have when it rains. The boys went outside with him and I began figuring out dinner.
Worms + Bikes + Dirt.
After a quick dinner (where neither Alwyn or Ephram really ate), we headed upstairs for a bath.
The kids had an early bedtime so that they’d be in bed before I left for a Mom’s Night Out with friends. I get them ready upstairs, read books, brush teeth, and then we always come downstairs one last time to say good night to daddy. Then I talk to each of them shortly before they lay down – Alwyn likes to sing Twinkle Twinkle, Ephram likes to talk about which Lego kit he’d like to save his money for next.
After the kids are in bed, we usually watch a show, have a glass of wine, or just chat until we head to bed, but tonight I left for a friend’s house. I stayed up much later than usual and have been paying for it all week, but it’s so nice to get out and laugh and talk without being interrupted by kids every once in awhile.
11:27 and I finally head to bed.
If you’re at all curious or are looking for more inspiration for documenting a day in your life, I highly suggest checking out Ali’s site. I love seeing the differences every time I do this project and it can be super simply done.