I hope you all had a wonderful Labor Day weekend! Welcome to Day One of my very favorite series–“A Day in the Life.” This is our third year of teaming up with a fabulous group of bloggers and asking them to share how a normal day flows for them. Every year, I come away with great new ideas to manage my time, organize my home, and so much more.
This year’s lineup includes some bloggers that we’ve known for ages. Amy and I have been blogging since 2010 (!!) and thought it would be fun to choose ladies that we’ve looked up to since the beginning. Three of us will be posting today, and three of us tomorrow (the full lineup is at the bottom of the post).
If you’re coming over from Traci’s at Beneath My Heart, welcome!
My name is Christy and I blog with my dear friend and former college roommate, Amy. I’m currently in North Carolina and she lives in Virginia. My husband has been in the Army for 28 years and so we move a lot–so it’s a good thing that I love to decorate and DIY! You can read more about us and our families HERE.
| Me and my husband |
A Day in the Life is different from our usual posts in several ways, but mostly you’ll notice that my photos aren’t as picture-perfect as usual. Because I capture everything on the fly, most of them are just from my phone. Also, if I have a source that I want to share, I’ll link to it under the picture, but let me know if I miss anything that you’re wondering about.
A typical day for me begins as late as possible. I love all of y’all who are early birds, including my husband, but I am a night owl. Fortunately, my oldest is away at college and my youngest is a high school junior, so they are both independent in the morning. I stagger downstairs somewhere between 7 and 7:30 and find coffee pronto. Everyone knows not to talk to me until I’m at least halfway through the first cup!
I do my level best to read a devotion or two in the morning because if I leave it until later in the day it’s a lot less likely to happen. Here are two that I’m reading right now:
| Praying the Scriptures for your Adult Children | The Power of a Praying Wife | Coffee Mug | YETI tumbler |
The front porch of our new (old) house is one of my favorite “rooms” and I try to spend as much time on it as possible while the weather is nice, so I’ll take my coffee out there a lot of mornings.
| See more of the front porch here |
Once my husband and daughter are out the door, I eat breakfast if I’m going to and then head upstairs to get ready. I’ve written a bit about my kind of wacky eating habits in an earlier post, but I rarely eat breakfast and if I do, it’s usually a peanut butter Perfect Bar. I also don’t work out “officially” although I’m super active and do a lot of yard work and dog (and cat) walking.
My day feels kind of off until I get showered and dressed, even if I don’t have to be out of the house early in the morning. Thursdays are always an up-and-out day because I volunteer at our local church-sponsored thrift shop, but most mornings I spend working on the computer.
This is an example of why I don’t do a great job at sharing fashion posts:
| Chambray shirt | Belt | Sandals |
While it’s a perfectly cute outfit, it’s also old. Here I am with Amy wearing the same outfit in 2015. Seriously. I can’t even find the shorts on eBay to link them for you. 🙁 I also find a lot of awesome stuff at the thrift shop that I volunteer at which is great quality but hard to duplicate for our readers!
Amy and I are planning to share all the details about our morning routines (hair, makeup, vitamins, etc) because I always love watching other people’s tips and tricks, but I did snap one picture of some of my make up must-haves for you:
| Shape Tape concealer | White eyeliner | Melted Matte lipstick | BB tinted primer | Eye primer |
As a woman “of a certain age,” these are the products I’ve added to my makeup regimen over the past few years. Shape Tape is a concealer that also highlights/contours. I use it for uneven skin tone and undereye circles. It also comes in 30+ shades for a perfect match every time.
The white eyeliner goes inside my bottom eyelid and then I use my regular brown on the outside of the lash line. The white helps older eyes to look more bright and open.
Melted Matte lipstick is the only one I use. I don’t have to wear lipliner with it, it stays in place for hours without becoming gloppy on my lips, and it doesn’t smudge. I wear Queen B 95% of the time but also like Cool Girl and Sell Out for colors.
I actually wear the BB primer as my foundation. I love how smoothly it goes on, the coverage is just right, plus it has 30SPF in it.
Last but not least, I can’t live without my eye primer. This keeps my eyeliner from drooping under my eyes and my eyeshadow from disappearing into my creases. I’m sticking with the Smashbox brand after trying quite a few.
It might sound like a lot but my makeup takes under ten minutes!
Moving on to my workday, I recently shared our breakfast room on the blog; it’s right between our kitchen and living room:
| See more of the breakfast room here|
While it looks so pretty and neat in the photos, that round table is also my desk, and most days it looks more like this:
That’s my daughter doing weekend homework, and if you look at the rug, Harley (our rescue golden retriever) has a bone out for convenient chewing.
I generally spend the morning sending and answering emails, scheduling social media posts and replying to questions and comments, reviewing contracts and negotiating with sponsors, and planning/staging/photographing/editing/writing posts.
Amy and I share a Google calendar for our editorial schedule, but for my personal calendar I have to use paper and swear by my Day Designer; I’ve used one for four years now.
| Day Designer | LePens |
Speaking of planning blog posts, here’s a decision I could use some help with for an upcoming sponsored post. Which chair color do you prefer–blue, black, or beige striped? I am having the hardest time deciding because I like all of them in the space for different reasons!
| Chair |
I’m going to put two of them in our living room, probably where this bergere chair is now:
| See more of our living room here |
In the afternoons, I usually run errands, schedule my appointments, take care of all the things around the house, and work on my DIY to-do list. Since we’ve only been in our house since early July, there are still a TON of projects on my to-do list. My progress has slowed down a little since we’re approaching our busiest time of the year from a work perspective, but it will all get done eventually!
| Tote bag |
Our last house had a super-tiny kitchen with no pantry so I got into the habit of going to the grocery store a couple of times a week. I’m an ALDI shopper and if you’ve never been there, you are missing out because it’s always an adventure! Plus I live in a small town and always see friends at ALDI so that makes it even more fun. My daughter adores grocery shopping because she hasn’t been doing it for 30 years so I usually wait to go until she’s out of school. I remember the days when I had toddlers and used to love the rare opportunity to go grocery shopping alone, but she is so helpful as a teenager that I hate to go without her.
Once I’m home from running errands, I take care of things around the house. I always make my bed in the morning, so that’s done, plus I usually start a load of laundry then, too. We had a basement dungeon laundry room in our last house so I love that we have a laundry room now and that it’s right off the kitchen.
Random aside: I got this drying rack for Mother’s Day years ago (I asked for it, I promise!) and I love it. My daughter is a ballet dancer and we have tons and tons of hang-to-dry stuff. It’s so much prettier than the old one I had and I can take it with us when we move.
| Drying rack |
Another product that I only recently discovered but already swear by is Lenny, my robot mop. He’s made by the same company that makes Roombas, but he mops and dry sweeps our floors, which is awesome because we have all hardwood and tile in this house. He’s scheduled to mop three times a week and sweep twice a week and all I have to do is make sure that he has cleaning solution and pads and that the floors are picked up and ready for him to go work. Can you tell I adore him? I feel a little like I’m living in the Jetsons with him but this is technology I can absolutely get behind!
| iRobot Braava Mop | Frame TV |
My daughter doesn’t get her driver’s license for another month or so, but her best friend has hers and lives close enough to give her a ride to and from school and ballet. That literally saves me two hours or more a day that I used to spend in the car! Once she heads out it’s time to get dinner going (she’ll eat when she gets home around 9pm). I’ll also admit that if my husband isn’t home from work yet I’ll sit down at the computer to get a little more work done.
If you’re like me, easy but good weeknight dinners are always a challenge and I love to hear other people’s recommendations. Here are two current favorites:
| Panera Copycat Turkey Chili (serve with cornbread) |
| Honey Chipotle Crockpot Pulled Chicken (serve with corn tortillas, chopped cabbage, radishes, and hot sauce) |
I almost prefer it when my husband works late or I have an evening meeting because then we can eat together with Annabelle after ballet; even though it’s late it’s nice to eat as a family. As most of you know, we lived apart from my husband for the past two years while he was stationed away from us and we have only been under the same roof again for a little over a month. I’ll never take family dinner for granted again!
We walk the dog and the cat after dark–the cat prefers the cover of darkness for her stroll–and then if I’m lucky I’ll be in bed by 11 and asleep by midnight. I always read a bit before bed to unwind (you can see my recent favorites in this post) and get my mind to stop running.
I hope I didn’t bore you to tears with my day–if you’ll head over to visit my sweet friend Rhoda at Southern Hospitality, she’ll almost certainly be more interesting. Here’s the full lineup; we hope you’ll join us tomorrow for another day in the life!
Be sure to visit all of this year’s series participants:
Tuesday
Christy at 11 Magnolia Lane | Rhoda at Southern Hospitality | Traci at Beneath My Heart
Wednesday
Amy at 11 Magnolia Lane | KariAnne at Thistlewood Farms | Chris at Just a Girl
Hey, Christy, thanks for inviting me to do this series with you and Amy! Loved reading these posts and I have gone back and read the past ones too with participants. It’s so interesting to see how everyone navigates blogging as a job. So glad your hubby is home now & you are all together!
Thanks so much, Rhoda! I always love writing this post but really enjoy reading everyone else’s. I get so many good ideas. We were thrilled you could join us this year–thank you!
Christy
I use Jodie berndt daily prayer guides to pray for my adult children and the one for kids to pray for our grandchildren. i found this series interesting even though I’m a reader, not a blogger. many helpful hints too.
Yes, I use her book for kids, too. So many of the topics overlap for children of all ages and she is just such a good writer. I’m glad you enjoyed the series; regardless of what kind of work you do, most of the systems for staying organized and focused work for a variety of occupations. Glad you could join us!
Sounds like your days are as busy as mine. I need more hours to my day.
A big amen to that one, Marty! At least 28 hours instead of 24, in my opinion!!
Christy
I really enjoyed reading a day in your life! Thanks for the makeup suggestions, and the crockpot chicken sounds yummy! If you have a Fresh Market near you, I really like their little big meal, which is only $20, ver good, and feeds a family of four. They have a different one every week, and it’s just nice to have everything together to pick up for a quick meal. Another thing I’ve enjoyed lately has been subscribing to Every Plate. I’ve tried other subscription meal services, but they’re twice as expensive. Every Plate is only $5 a person. We get the two person plan even though there’s three of us, and I just add some extra meat and veggies if I need to. The recipes are delicious! I don’t get it every week, just usually once a month. It’s easy to skip any weeks you want to. I’ve held on to all the recipes to make again at a later date!
What great ideas, Jeanine! Another friend recently recommended the Little Big Meals at Fresh Market and I fully intend to pick one up this week. We have a store right by my daughter’s school so it’s super convenient. I haven’t heard of Every Plate athough the other meal subscription services are on my radar. If you’ve kept all the recipes you’ve made, that’s really saying something. I will have to check them out. Thanks so much for sharing!
Christy
I still love that turquoise dress. I remember you posted about it once. Hope you still have it in your closet. I’m curious about how and when you met your husband. Was he in the Army when you met? How many places have you lived? I have been reading and enjoying 11 Magnolia Lane for several years so you may have written about this in the early years
Thanks so much, Elena! Yes, I still have that dress in my closet; that was my $3 thrift shop purchase (new with tags). Can’t beat that! I’m on the lookout for another one since we have that same fundraiser event coming up at the end of the month.
Chris and I met at James Madison University as undergraduates. He enlisted in the Army right out of high school and served in the Ranger regiment. Then he came to JMU on an ROTC scholarship and graduated as an officer and headed to flight school. We dated through college and married in 1995 while he was in flight school, so our honeymoon was at scenic Ft. Rucker, Alabama. From there we moved to Fayetteville, NC (Ft. Bragg), then back to Ft. Rucker, then to Clarksville, TN, then to Virginia Beach, then back to Fayetteville, then Nashville, TN, then Savannah, GA, then Southern Pines (Ft. Bragg). The kids and I stayed in Southern Pines and this is the beginning of our fifth year here. Chris was here for the first two years and then went out to Ft. Riley, KS, and deployed to Germany, but he’s back at Ft. Bragg within the last month. Phew! Just writing that makes me tired! I think we have a few years left before he retires (he’s been in for 28 years now) but we are definitely getting close.
I hope you’re still awake after all that! 🙂
Thanks for writing–
Christy
I came here from Thistlewood. Thanks for sharing this day in the life, and your planner. I am a pencil and paper person, so I appreciate that! I am pretty new to blogging, so this series is insightful!
Jenn, thanks so much for coming over to visit! I’m sorry for the delay in replying. I try to reply to comments every day but sometimes life happens. So very glad you enjoyed the series! Last year’s was much more specific about managing a blog vs. managing a day, so I’d definitely recommend you take a look at those. Just search for “A Day in the Life 2018”.
Take care–
Christy