a day in the life - jessie

Good morning!  First things first, today is my bestie's birthday!!  If you feel like spreading some love you should pop over to her blog and wish her a good one :).  Happy Birthday Meg!!  Love you lots!

Now as for 'a day in the life', today you get a little peek in Jessie's world.  Her day is definitely a busy one in my opinion!  Strong work mama :).

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Hello! I'm Jessie and I blog over at Our Adventures in Parenthood. The blog has become my main source of memory keeping and keeping family up to date. Mainly what you'll find is recaps of our weekends (I live for the weekends these days), lots of pictures, some milestones, some recipes and some random thoughts from me. I'm a full-time working mom of 2 little ones, Brody is 4 and Madelyn is 2. I'm married to my high school sweetheart, Heath. We've been together for over 11 years and married for almost 7! Here is a peek into our day!

5:10- My alarm goes off and I roll out of bed, brush my teeth, brush my hair and get dressed for Jazzercise. I love getting my workout in early, mainly because it's my only option! If I don't get up and go, I will not get a workout in for the day. I love Jazzercise because I get my cardio and strength all done in one hour. And as a former dancer, getting up before the sun to shake it is perfect!
5:20- I quietly head downstairs for a half cup of coffee and to check facebook and email before I head out the door.

5:40- Jazzercise begins! While I'm at Jazzercise, Heath gets up and gets himself ready before the kids get up (ideally). If they do wake up, he gives them the iPad, Disney on TV and some apple juice and they are usually ok for him.

6:40- On my home to shower and get myself and the kids ready to get out the door. There is a 50/50 chance that the kids will be up when I get home. If they are not up, I make sure to go wake Brody before I jump in the shower. He's our slow waker. Madelyn is a light sleeper, so it doesn't take her long to follow on her own.

6:55- Get the kids clothes on, or at least motivate them to get their clothes on. We just started having Brody dress himself after the preschool teacher let us know that he should be doing it himself...oops! Madelyn now also gets herself 90% dressed on her own, too. I'll take it.

7:00- I start to blow dry my hair so that it doesn't dry funny and do my make up

7:15- Go downstairs to make protein shakes for me and the hubby, and usually either leftovers of ours or some type of smoothie for the kids. It depends on how smoothly the morning goes for everyone.

7:20- Brush the kids' teeth, put on shoes and jackets and get their vitamins.

7:25- Heath and the kids are out the door. He takes them to daycare because it is on his way to work. Our daycare is about half way between my office and his which makes it really convenient if he needs to go in early and I need to take drop off duty for the day. We've been with our daycare provider since Brody was born. We left for a short while but were back because we realized she was the best! I think having Heath drop the kids off and leaving me at home every morning really helps my attitude towards working. If I was leaving them every morning (especially when he was a newborn) I think that I would have a harder time working. It's all mental, but it works for me.
7:30- I get dressed and finish my hair while watching GMA in the background. I usually also have the iPad propped up on the bathroom sink to catch up on blogs while I dry my hair.
7:45- I finish packing my lunch. I have the best husband. He started making my lunch when I was breastfeeding Brody and it has stuck. Usually he just makes me a sandwich and I pack up all of my extra snacks for the day after he leaves.
7:50- I grab my protein shake, coffee, water, lunch, purse, iPad and Brody's backpack and I am on my way.
8:00- I arrive at my office. I am the marketing coordinator for a large commercial landscaping company. I get my computer booted up, check my emails and figure out what I need to get done for the day. My job is great because I do something different everyday. I handle all of the photography, so one day I'll be out taking photos or editing them, and another day I'll be researching leads, or writing for our blog or newsletter. I can kind of work on whatever I'm in the mood for at that time, as long as I get everything done. Which is really nice when you are working in a creative environment. My creative brain is not always on! I'm currently working on improving our SEO for our website, so I'm dedicating the first hour of my day to working on that.
9:30- I usually start to get hungry for a snack. Usually I eat some string cheese and clementines or whatever fruit we might have at home.
11:30- I start to get hungry again, so if I'm doing something that I can eat and work on, I'll eat my sandwich.
11:55- Head out to pick Brody up and take him to school. Our daycare is about 5 minutes from my work one way, and the school is 5 minutes the other way. I'm right in between, so it makes it nice that we can have him participate in the program that the school district offers. He's a peer in a Peer Model program and he's doing great. His teacher and the classroom culture there are a perfect fit for him.
12:25- Brody gets out of the car and waves to me until I drive away. I always leave there with a big smile because he's such a great kid. Some days I will run home and switch over a load of laundry or empty the dishwasher or get something ready for dinner and some days I will just go back to the office. I even sometimes use this time to run an errand to the grocery store, Walmart or Target. On this particular day, I run to the grocery store to pick up a prescription.
1:00- Back at my desk and realize I really need some caffeine, so I head to the vending machine and get a Diet Coke.
3:00- It's snack time again! Cottage cheese and an apple.
3:20- Brody gets picked up by my sister. She works at the high school a mile away from Brody's school, so it works out perfectly. She takes him home with her and he watches TV or plays outside while she gets her dinner ready.
5:00- Quittin' time! I head straight for my sister's house to get Brody and Heath goes to the daycare to pick up Madelyn!
5:05- I get to Julie's house and chat with her and get Brody ready to go.
5:20/5:30- We all get home and I start to get dinner going. We're Dave Ramsey people, so I am pretty strategic with our meal plans for the week. Or at least as good as I can be with the time that I have. I usually try to pick meals that are easy, quick, healthy and affordable without being too processed. I make 99% of our meals from scratch, but there are times that I take shortcuts to save time or money when necessary. Tonight we are having Cajun Pork Chops that I had in the freezer and some Not So Dirty Rice (without the sausage). I'm a big believer in having everyone eat together at the table. When we were first married I would always cook, but we usually ate in the living room. After Brody came along and could sit in a high chair, we moved dinner to the table. We always talk about our days. One time at dinner, Brody asked us "what was your favorite part of the trip" from Dora, and it has stuck, so we will ask him "what was your favorite part of the day" and he asks both of us the same. Sometimes he'll initiate it if we've taken too long!
7:00- Dinner is done and Heath does the dishes for me. Another chore he started doing when I was breastfeeding that stuck. I love that he does this because he spends some time with the kids to keep them out of my hair while I'm fixing dinner and I play with them while he does the dishes. The weather is nice so me and the kids head out to the back yard while daddy finishes up the dishes. Sometimes if we finish dinner early, we will go for a walk around the neighborhood, but since dinner took a little longer to cook, we stay at home.

7:30- It's a bath night! Really, it's not because we had baths last night, but we are going to do them anyways because I am going out to dinner with some friends tomorrow night. We do baths every other night unless they are particularly dirty from playing outside. Baths are a mommy thing. Heath has never enjoyed giving baths, so it's just something that I do. If I have to be gone for a night I will usually give them a quick bath before I leave or I will make sure to do it the night before.
7:45- Get the kids' jammies on, brush teeth and read 2 books. 2 books is our standard, so that gives me some room if the kids aren't behaving during their bath or getting dressed, I take one book away. I hate to take the books away all together, because they really love their book time, and I value it as a way to connect with them during the short hours that I do have with them each day. And I also will let them have an extra book if they've been extra cooperative during the bedtime routine.
8:00- Kids are down. Sometimes Brody will come out and tell us, "I have to tell you something..." "ok, what?" "Ummmm...." and then he'll make some random observance. "Ok, buddy, back to bed." Madelyn will cry some nights when we first put her down, but it doesn't take her long to fall asleep either. We've been blessed with good sleepers! Heath has conference calls for work on Monday and Tuesday nights. He works for an international technology manufacturer, so he has coworkers and customers in Asia that he has to talk to.
8:30- Heath gets off his call and I'm downstairs on the couch on the iPad. We use this time to get caught up on DVR'd shows or just watch whatever is on. We very rarely watch anything live!
9:30- I head upstairs to get my workout clothes and clothes for the next day laid out. It saves so much time if I take a minute and do it at night so that I don't have an "I HAVE NOTHING TO WEAR" moment in the morning!
10:00- Local news is on for a few minutes, then when we find we're dozing, I switch it to King of Queens and set the sleep timer for 30 minutes. We're lucky that we're good sleepers, too! It doesn't take us long to fall asleep at all!

1. What is the most surprising thing about being a mom? I think that the thing that surprised me the most is how natural it all comes. I used to be a pretty hyper person, but I've really become more laid back since I've had kids. I've learned to trust my instincts and go with the flow, which is totally not my personality. I think I've channeled that energy differently since I've had kids, which is a good thing!

2. What advice would you give new or soon-to-be moms? I would say do what is right for you and your family. It is easy to compare and there is so much out there to read, but if you surround yourself with a good team of family, friends and resources, you'll be set. We've been lucky to have a great pediatrician, parents as teachers parent educator and daycare provider that have helped us to overcome any obstacles and help us to make decisions that are best for us. Also, they grow so fast, so make sure you enjoy the time you do get to spend with them and BLOG ABOUT IT! I started my blog when I was pregnant with Brody, but I didn't really get into it until Madelyn was almost 1! I regret that I missed all of those months of Brody's life. I always tell my friends that you won't regret doing it, you'll regret not doing it.

3. What are your top three baby products? After going through 2 babies, these are some of the things that I will definitely be using for our next baby:

1. Halo sleep sacks- loved the comfort of knowing that they were warm, but not at the risk of suffocating.
2. Madela double electric pump- I have worked full time since Brody was born, so being able to breastfeed both of the kids was awesome for me. Time will only tell if I will be working full time when our next baby is born, but I will still have a pump so that I can freeze all of my extra to be able to feed the baby when I have to be away for whatever reason. I sold my pump because after using it for a total of 12 months, 3+ times a day, I felt like the motor was going out a little. This is definitely on my "list of things we need for the next baby"!
3. It's hard to choose just one more thing...We loved Dr. Brown's bottles...a baby monitor is a must (we still have one in Brody's room)...we loved our fisher-price swing, bouncer and jumperoo...bumbo seat...Oh, and those dishwasher baskets to hold all of the bottle parts! Our dishwasher has a sanitize cycle, so most of the time I washed our bottles in the dishwasher. I'm sure I'm forgetting something...it's been a while since I've dealt with 'baby' products!

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Thank you for sharing your day with us, Jessie!