A Day in the Life 2018: Christy

Hi, everyone, and welcome to our second annual “A Day in the Life” blog series.  Everyone enjoyed reading about a typical day in the lives of some of our blogging friends last year, so we decided to repeat the series again in 2018.

I love reading everyone’s posts and think you will, too!  Each blogger outlines what a typical day in her life is like and also shares her favorite tips and products that help keep her day on track.  Last year, I was able to borrow several great ideas and make them my own because I always, but always need help keeping my act together!

I am leading off today, then Amy and the rest of the participating bloggers will be sharing their typical days tomorrow.  Be sure to stop by and visit all of them:

|   A Blissful Nest  |  Citrine Living   |   Driven by Decor   |  Haneen’s Haven   |  Kelley Nan   |

|   Less Than Perfect Life of Bliss   |   Life on Virginia Street   |

My morning generally starts at 7:30am, which I gleefully admit is super-late.  My daughter changed schools this year and they don’t start until 8:45am.  She’s usually up around 6:45, but she’s also completely self-sufficient at fifteen, so I am enjoying a bit of a break after years of dragging myself out of bed while it’s still dark outside.  I’m a night owl and often up way past midnight, so it evens out.

By the way, I highly recommend the Sleep Cycle app for a wakeup that times the alarm to your sleep-wake cycle.  It’s available free {here} but for iOS only.

After I brush my teeth and throw on jeans just to look moderately presentable when my daughter gets picked up for school, I find coffee.  Community Coffee with chicory is my favorite right now, and Annabelle’s is Electric Buzz. I stopped adding sugary creamer and sugar to my coffee when I was doing a Whole30 back in January, and now I use Nutpods (almond and coconut creamer) instead.  I have it on Amazon subscribe and save since I can’t find it locally, and they have a new pumpkin spice flavor that is really good (I’ll link all my sources below the photos).

| Nutpods | Pumpkin Spice Nutpods | Community Coffee | Electric Buzz |

My daughter gets picked up for school around 8:15 am; we carpool with friends and they drive to school and I pick up.  Once she’s out the door, I’ll sit down to handle messages and emails that came through overnight. If I’m really on the ball, I’ll read my devotions in the morning, although I’ll admit sometimes that doesn’t happen until bedtime.  My day always goes better when I do it in the morning, though.

Annabelle picked our current book, “A Year With CS Lewis,” since she’s read more of his books than I have (parenting fail), so I bought us each a copy.  She reads hers at night and we try to discuss it in the morning when we’re sitting on the front porch waiting for her ride.

| A Year With CS Lewis | Coffee Mug (similar) | Savor | Praying the Scriptures for Your Teenager |

I also alternate “Savor,” which Amy recommended, and the “Praying the Scriptures” book I linked to ^above ^.

Annabelle takes our golden retriever, Harley, on his first walk/run when she first gets up, but I’ll usually take him on another one later in the morning.  One of his favorite routes is to visit George, who is the resident mouse exterminator at the nearby stables.

George seems to think he’s a dog (or maybe Harley thinks he’s a cat?); they have a truly sweet friendship.

Sometimes I eat breakfast with Annabelle, and sometimes I wait until after I walk.  We usually eat something like a piece of toasted Ezekiel bread with smashed avocado and a fried egg on top (if you have a Trader Joe’s nearby, try their Everything But the Bagel seasoning blend sprinkled on top), Greek yogurt with fresh fruit, or granola with almond milk.

After our walk, I shower and get dressed.  You will hardly ever catch me in “athleisure” even though that was definitely the case when I was younger; I just feel more productive if I’m fully accessorized and ready to go. That being said, jeans are still my uniform so it’s not like I’m truly dressed up!

This is a typical casual day:

| Striped top | Jeans | Sandals (similar but less expensive here) | Earrings | Watch | Bracelet (similar) |

These leopard block heel sandals are so comfortable; Amy and I always say that leopard is a neutral!

I recently had bangs cut into my hair again (gasp!), mostly to cover the frown line on my forehead (LOL!–but seriously). Sometimes I blow it straight and sometimes I curl it; either way I can usually get three days out of it and that is a big time saver. I use a curling wand and once I got past the burn-the-heck-out-of-myself phase, I really love it.  My hair doesn’t like to hold a curl but it does with this wand.

| L’ange Ondule Wand| Chambray Shirt | Perfect White Jeans |

After dressing my bod, it’s time to get down to work.  Most of my day is spent in front of the computer–working on social media, emails, editing photos, or writing posts.  I do try to get up and move frequently, and that’s how I accomplish most of the laundry and housework.  Some days I have appointments, lunch dates, and even a few local or online decorating clients, although that is very limited because I just don’t have enough time for it.

I am a complete and total Type A and am always trying a new planner, but for the past three years I’ve used the Day Designer.  It’s big (you could give someone a concussion with it if you really wanted to), but it’s great if you’re a plan-on-paper person.

| Day Designer Original Flagship Planner (or here)|

I also swear by these post-it to-do notes; I should have them on autoship, too!

| Post it notes |

Speaking of autoship, Amazon’s Subscribe and Save was a game-changer for me.  I have a standing monthly order for dog and cat food, contact lens cleaning solution, the above-mentioned Nutpods, and a few other things that I hate to run out of.  Now I never do!

If I have Etsy orders, I handle those daily.  This week I was working on 50 jeweled pins for an upcoming event for a local philanthropy, the Patriot Foundation, that our family supports. They provide scholarships to the children of our fallen; it’s hard to think of a more worthy cause.

Just before 2 o’clock, I hop in my car to pick up Annabelle and her friend Sarah from school.  They both get to leave early because their last class of the day is online, which is great for days when they have rehearsal.

We usually drop Sarah off at her house so they both can get in a few hours of homework before ballet begins at 6pm, but on Mondays they need to be there at 3pm so I bring them both home and feed them an entire watermelon first (just kidding, only a half of a watermelon).

I continue working during the afternoon hours, and Harley gets another walk later in the day.  We don’t have a fence at this house but he doesn’t seem to mind walking 3-4 times a day!  Today he got a special treat–a pup cup of frozen yogurt with a milkbone at the bottom.

Life is very, very good for our rescue pets.

Around 5:30pm I’m back in the car to run the girls to dance and get in a quick evening errand or two, usually a quick Aldi run for dinner ingredients.  We have a really small kitchen right now and I have to shop frequently since there’s not a lot of storage.  Some nights I have evening meetings; it just varies based on the day.

Random tip: I swear by my Yeti tumbler and credit it for the fact that I drink a decent amount of water every day.  Until I tried one, I thought they were overpriced and didn’t believe the hype, but I like my water cold and the fact that my ice never melts is a very good thing and definitely worth $29.99. It’s the only cup I use anymore.

| Yeti Rambler Tumber |

Speaking of water, this is definitely not a typical day, but we were getting ready for Hurricane Florence while I was writing this post, so here’s one of my potable water stashes in my shower. Those are gallon ziplocs, so that’s about 3-1/2 days for us and the pets (don’t worry, we have more!).  We are still in the thick of things as I pressed “publish” today and we are probably the ONLY house in the county with power, but we are safe and dry at our house.  Please lift up all those in the path of this storm in your prayers!

Sarah’s mom drops Annabelle off after dance and we eat dinner together then, and while it’s served very late, it’s usually very healthy.  A typical meal is grilled chicken or fish with roasted vegetables, like kale, sweet potatoes, or brussel sprouts, or pasta over zucchini noodles with turkey meatballs.  Annabelle is a better intuitive cook than I am and we’ll usually take turns cooking and washing dishes.

Take out Chinese is a favorite lazy night favorite and we almost always watch Gilmore Girls while we’re eating.

After dinner, Annabelle works on homework and I usually talk to my husband on the phone and work on social media or posts.  The good thing about blogging is that the hours are completely flexible and the bad thing about blogging is that the hours are completely flexible.  I’ve been known to overextend myself with volunteer commitments because of that flexibility, and then I wonder why I’m working until 2am.  See, that 7:30 wakeup time comes in handy!

Last but not least, we walk the dog one more time before bed (the cat goes along under the safety of the cover of darkness) and go to bed so we can live to fight another day.

Here’s Annabelle’s room:

| See more here |

And here’s my room:

| See more here |

We really, really miss Chris and Connor, but with 24/7 messaging and social media we stay in very close touch with both of them and we’re fortunate enough to see Chris every month or so. Still, we can’t wait to be together as a family again soon!  In the meantime, I’m grateful that my girl is such a fabulous roommate and that we get along so well.

Thanks for sticking with me through a “typical” day.  Sources are below, and please leave me a comment if you have any questions!

Don’t forget to visit the rest of our participating bloggers, and thanks for stopping by!

|   A Blissful Nest  |  Citrine Living   |   Driven by Decor   |  Haneen’s Haven   |  Kelley Nan   |

|   Less Than Perfect Life of Bliss   |   Life on Virginia Street   |