A Day in My Life {Stay at Home Mom with Two Kids}

+J.M.J.+

When I shared about our general daily routine and my rule of life in this post earlier this month, a lot of you wanted to know what a day in the life looked like with a bit more detail.

Every day with a family has lots of variation, but the following is what a typical day would look like for us. (Of course there are always a few twists and turns!)

Morning

6:00 am – The alarm goes off and Ethan I pray the Angelus immediately. He turns on the lamp and we then have mental prayer time for 20 minutes right then. (We keep our prayer materials by the bed and it faces a beautiful image of the Sacred Heart.) The girls may come in our bed during this time if they wake, but they need to snuggle in quietly with us while we pray or go back in their room to play until we are finished.

6:20 am – While Ethan gets ready for work I make breakfast and get the girls ready for the morning. We lay out clothes the night before so they can dress themselves. I quickly make the beds during this time and throw the laundry in the washing machine if we need to do a load.

We usually listen to the Benedictine sisters of Mary Queen of Apostles while our day gets going. They have several albums but “Adoration at Ephesus” found here on Amazon is my personal favorite. (You can stream it for free on Amazon Music if you have Prime!)

7:00 am – We eat breakfast. Ethan leaves at 7:20. The girls and I kneel down for our morning prayer in front of our little home altar in the living room. You can get the details of our prayer routine in this post here. After prayer I get dressed, do my hair and makeup, fix the girls’ hair, and I wash the breakfast dishes/tidy the kitchen.

8:15 am – We read some books, do pre-school work, and video chat with my mom, sister, and baby niece. (Our preschool is veeeeery low key as I believe play is the most developmentally important and appropriate activity for my 4 year old. You can see what we do for preschool in this post here.)

We made a New Years goal of going to 8 am daily Low Mass one to two times during the week, so if it’s a Mass day we will be at the church at 8, and everything else gets pushed later.

9:00 am – Depending on the day, this is when we would either go grocery shopping, head out to a playground, visit friends for a playdate or have someone over, do more preschool work if Philomena wants to, and if we’re home we very often end up playing with play doh or kinetic sand. I will do a little mid-morning prayer here as described in my prayer post linked above, the girls will have a snack, and they will end up playing pretend in their room for a long time, too. I will switch out the laundry and clean some in here too if we are home.

11:15 am – Lately this is when the girls ask for lunch so I prep their meal, pack Ethan’s lunch for the next day, and fix mine. I love to prep anything I can for dinner in here if I didn’t do that earlier in the morning. Our evenings go so much better when dinner has had some or all prep-work done before 5! Sometimes I eat lunch with them and sometimes I eat later, but I sit with them regardless.  They often like to video call Ethan’s parents while we eat lunch. After they eat we usually read some books and they will play for a bit while I clean up the kitchen again. I also do a 20 minute focused clean here where I set a timer and do absolutely everything I can in that time period.

Afternoon

12:30 pm – We have a mandatory quiet time in our house, whether or not anyone is going to sleep. Philomena goes into their room and reads or plays. She sleeps maybe 2-3 days a week right now. Zelie goes into Ethan and I’s bed because she’ll never nap in her room if sissy is there to play with! She sleeps 5-6 days a week right now. Regardless of sleep they have to rest for 45 minutes. This gives me time to work on projects, make phone calls, or just relax (but I’m usually working or blogging!)

1:30 pm – One or both girls may be awake depending on if they fell asleep during quiet time. I’ll have more quality time with someone awake and we can read, play with sand, do a craft etc. I’ll do a chore or two in here as well.

3:00 pm – Lately I’ve been exercising in the afternoon and the girls will join me for a bit and then go off and play. I’ll quickly shower after working out. Then we will likely play together for a bit, and I’ll do pre-Ethan-getting-home chores. This is stuff like putting laundry away, tidying the kitchen and table, restoring order to the living room which is no doubt crazy at this point, and vacuuming.

 

Our mail comes in this time so I’ll also grab it and immediately pay any bills that arrived so nothing falls through the cracks. I’ll make sure dinner is getting put together in here as well. I will also give baths in the very late afternoon if it’s bath day, and then they put on pajamas. (Our girl do much better putting on pajamas and getting their hair braided for the night right before Ethan gets home rather than waiting until after dinner when they’re getting really tired).

5:30 pm – Ethan arrives home and usually gives me a break. I’ll decompress for a few minutes while he spends time with the girls, and finish dinner.

6:00 pm – We eat right at 6 most evenings. I’ll tidy up after dinner while Ethan plays with the girls or reads books with them.

6:45 pm – We brush teeth, they go potty/get a fresh diaper.

7:00 pm – Family Rosary in the living room.

7:30 pm – Bedtime is next. We tuck the girls in and chat with them a few minutes. They’ll usually be awake until about 8:00 in their rooms chatting and calling out for us to check on them, which we do. Usually after a half hour they’re asleep!

7:40 pm – Ethan and I will do any chores we might need to, finish any kitchen cleaning, and get ready for bed.

8:00 pm – Unless I have something pressing for my online job, this is our time together to read, chat, play a board game or cards etc. I can’t keep my eyes open much past 9:45 or 10:00. At that point I pray my final prayers laying in bed, and we go to sleep.

Our days may not look anything like yours, but I hope seeing another mama’s schedule might help you if you’re needing ideas on structuring your own day. God bless you!