A Day In The Life

I know a few of you are interested in how our days look with Nik working nights and me working days. I think I have done something similar in the past but I thought I would show you what a day in our life looks like right now!

I have read these posts on other blogs before and I love having that peak into other people’s lives - why is that?! 

I recapped last Thursday - which I would say is a pretty typical day….

6:15am: My alarm goes off and I usually hit snooze 1 time while I “wake-up”. Then I run through the shower and start getting ready for the day. At some point between 6:15 - 6:45am Jaxen makes his way into my room. He likes to sit in a chair next to my bathroom and get cozy while he wakes up. Sometimes we talk, sometime he reads, or if it’s after 7am (that’s my rule) he can do electronics for 15 minutes. On this particular morning we talked about Lava Lamps. He was selling coupon cards and he could get a Lava Lamp if he sold like 30 cards. Well, I kind of crushed his dreams. So we looked them up on Amazon to see how much they cost. Then, he got his money and counted it. He has a ways to go before he can afford the one he wants!

7:15am: I try to be ready by this time every morning. Jaxen starts getting dressed for the day and I am in the kitchen preparing his lunch, getting his backpack together and making myself breakfast (scrambled eggs, sausage and cheese). 

7:22am: Zane strolls in, boots on and ready for the day!

7:30am: I then get the boys settled with breakfast and a show. Guess what Zane wanted for breakfast? Green beans. Warmed up. Jaxen had a chocolate granola bar :) Opposites!

7:35am: I told Nik good-bye, told the boys bye, got my stuff and head out the door for work.

7:50am: At work! I turn on my computer, put any snacks/drinks away that I brought, get a cup of water, make a cup of hot tea and sit down at my desk.

8:00am: Eating my breakfast while I check my calendar, task list and answer emails. I have found that eating breakfast at work is (normally) more relaxing than at home. I get interrupted too many times!

I had a very busy day - which I like. There are so many different things going on right now that I am overseeing and I worked really hard to make sure everyone is all on the same page and things are moving in the right direction (or twenty directions)! 

Meanwhile…

Nik makes sure Jaxen has his teeth brushed and hair done (if he wants it fixed), shoes and socks on and then they all head out the door to take Jaxen to school. His school is just a few blocks away and drop-off always goes quickly and smoothly.

Some mornings Nik and Zane run errands but today they stayed at home playing.

Swapped sunglasses!

12:00pm: I came home for lunch - ate leftovers and enjoyed visiting with Nik and playing with Zane. Lunch time is really the most Nik and I see each other in a day - so we try to make the most of it. Then I headed back to work while Nik and Zane hung out the rest of the day.

3:30pm: Nik and Zane loaded up in the car to pick Jaxen up from school. The boys play while Nik gets dinner prepped/cooked.

5:20pm: I walked in the house from work and Nik said “here wifey” and put a grilled turkey/cheese sandwich on the table for me. I love coming home to dinner made :)

We ate dinner and then Nik went to take a nap. 

6:00pm: Zane hopped in the bath while I helped Jaxen with homework. We reviewed his spelling words, read his reading assignment and finished up some unfinished schoolwork he brought home.

Since Jaxen and I’s conversation earlier that morning, he has decided to try to earn money for a Lava Lamp. Which I think it’s hilarious that he wants one. So he asked to do some chores tonight for money. Those chores were: take out the recycling, vacuum the floor with the shop vac, and bring all the books up from downstairs and put them back in the bookcases in their rooms.

6:45pm: Jaxen hopped in the bath and I sat with Zane while he finished eating his dinner. He played some afterward, while I worked on a menu and grocery list.

7:15pm: After Jaxen got out of the bath, he read a night-night story to Zane and Zane went to bed. I spent a little more one-on-one time with Jaxen until it was his bed time.

7:35pm: Zane was not asleep by yet, so he brushed his teeth (again) with Jaxen and they both went pee pee in the potty. Then off to bed for both of them. Some nights I put them down at the same time, and others, I let Jaxen stay up a little later. Really, it depends on attitude! They played for awhile and I had to eventually go tell Zane to get out of Jaxen’s bed. (Jaxen loves Zane in his bed until he is ready for sleep. Then - it’s time for Zane to go!).

7:50pm: I finished up my meal plan, grocery list and to-do list for the next week. I used to do all of that on the weekends but here lately I have decided to do it on Thursdays. Nik goes grocery shopping on Friday - and it has really helped in a few areas: we don’t eat out anymore on the weekends (because we have a kitchen stocked with food), I can quickly get this done while everyone is asleep on Thursday nights verses trying to do it on the weekend when I am interrupted by kiddos or would rather spend time with Nik and then I can do some baking or food prep over the weekend for the upcoming week. So for me, this works out great.

And then I picked up the upstairs.

8:00pm: Nik wakes up, takes a shower and gets ready for work. I piddle. Not sure what I did, but I don’t like to “settle" until Nik is gone. We talked for a few minutes before he headed out.

8:30pm: Nik leaves for work and I get cozy on our couch and do my Bible study.

9:30pm: I take Jaxen potty, and then I wash my face, brush my teeth, take out my contacts and head to bed! I check in on social media, work a crossword puzzle and check the weather before going to sleep. 

10:15pm: Zane woke up and I was up and down with him for the next hour. I finally put him in my bed at 11:15pm and we both fell asleep shortly there after! 

3-4:00am: Nik comes home! He eats, unwinds a bit and then heads to bed himself. 

That’s a pretty typical day for us! Hope you enjoyed a little glimpse into our life :)

All About Zane

Jaxen got a lot more blog time when he was younger, than Zane does. I remember doing updates pretty often on Jaxen…but when you throw in a second child, plus moving a few times plus working… blogging about your child’s updates/milestones sometimes takes a backseat. And I’m okay with that. That’s just life.

So today you get a post all about ZANE!

There are so many things from this stage of life that I don’t want to forget. This is a great stage. We have not hit the “terrible three’s” yet…(although I think we are close) and he is just so funny! He is learning new things everyday and yet, I still see “baby Zane” in him.

Like last night. I don’t think he was feeling well. At one point he was standing in our living room crying. Just standing there. I picked him up and sat down on the couch with him. He was asleep in minutes. The rest of my night went on hold from that point forward…I just enjoyed that sweet time with him!

This is probably normal for any kid this age (it was with Jaxen too) but Zane loves baths. He could take one multiple times a day. Whenever he is fussy, a bath will normally help and the tone is changed after that!

Zane will drink milk non-stop. He loves milk. I’m glad he likes it, but man, we can go through the milk with that kid!

Although his appetite has increased some in the last week, he does not eat much throughout the day. And he will almost always choose vegetables over meat. However, he will choose french fries over anything, anywhere, anytime (as most of us would!). 

Zane loves me, but adore his daddy. There for awhile, I would be sitting in a chair with Zane and when Nik walked in and sat down, Zane would get off of me, take my blanket and climb up with Nik. True story. It’s better now…now he wants to sit with me some and loves when I cuddle with him first thing in the morning and in the evening. He say “Sit on me, mom”. That means, he wants to sit in my lap.

Zane loves to sing and dance. My favorite is when he is in the bath and I can hear him singing! We sing lots of silly songs like “Baby Shark”, “Daddy Finger”…etc. And he loves dancing to these certain Dino Music Videos (I don’t remember the name) and the fun “Pop See Ko” and “All I Eat is Pizza" videos off You Tube.

Zane has never been a great sleeper - however he is sleeping more consistently at night. He will now only wake up 1-2 times. He rarely climbs in my bed anymore in the middle of the night and ever since we stopped naps, he goes to bed much easier and at a better time. He still naps every now and then, but overall, we are done with naps.

I mentioned before that Zane loves milk. If he asks for milk and you don’t get up and get it (in his time) he will open the fridge and carry the whole gallon of milk to you, with his cup! It makes me laugh. He always says “heavy” when he hands it to you. He can even carry a full gallon (although once he dragged it down the stairs and I was so worried I would have to clean up the biggest milk spill ever - thankfully I stopped him before that happened!).

While we were working on our house (more than we are now) we visited Home Depot a lot. Now, Zane loves Home Depot. It probably helped that they had all their Christmas stuff out (especially the huge inflated Christmas characters). He would ask to go there all the time. My favorite though is how he said Home Depot. It was more like “Ho-De-Toe” and it is too cute!

We have reclining couches downstairs and Zane thinks his job in life is to put the recliner (leg part) out. It is so frustrating when I pick up down there, put all the couches down and start vacuuming just to around and have them all out again!

 I mentioned before that Zane loves vegetables. Especially carrots and raw broccoli. Here lately though every time I get him a bowl of baby carrots he wants it warmed up in the microwave because they are too cold. No joke. And if I don’t do it - he will pull a chair over, climb up, open and close the microwave and hit buttons until it starts. Nik caught him microwaving popcorn before (in the plastic sleeve, still).

Zane loves any kind of ball. And any kind of truck. He will play with them for a very long time, and be so happy. I recently unpacked 4 “big” trucks he got for Christmas last year and he has had a blast playing with them again!

Zane also loves dinosaurs. He watches Dino shows, plays with plastic dinos, wears dino clothes, sleeps with dinos, reads book about them and even pretends he’s one of them! Which is fine, except when he scares little kids because he will walk up to them, look them in the eye and “rooooaaaaar”. Poor kids. Zane just wants them to play along! Some of them cry and run to their mommy.

And that is Zane for you! He is a blessing to me and is the perfect fit for our family. He keeps me on my toes but keep me laughing too. He is so sweet and funny and you can’t help but to smile when he’s around!

Oh and when you ask him what his name is, he says “Zaney bo”. Oops :)

Random

Well, it’s Friday!

We made it through the week.

It was a good week…just seemed long.

Here is a bit of randomness for you :)

I love getting pics like this throughout my day...

Jaxen was taking a bath one night and called me in to take a picture -

he had painted his whole body (or so he thought…until he saw the picture). 

The next day, apparently Zane called Nik to the bathroom and wanted picture taken…

he had seen his brother do this the night before - lol!

(It’s a little harder to see on Zane).

I built the boys a fort “tunnel” into their tent...

And then they “opened the garage” so they could watch TV!

I am “lucky” to get to drive home while the sun is setting.

These sunsets have been pretty great, though!

Zane wanted to help me stir the “hot dogs” (aka kielbasa sausage, peppers and onions).

No, he is not potty trained, but we put him in undies every now and then to 

see how he does - let’s just say there has been lots of laundry still!

Game night!

We pulled out Let’s Go Fishing and it was so much fun!

Let me clarify…it was so much when I didn’t have to help Zane the entire time 

and Jaxen wasn’t beating us! Ha!

And…this is how my children get things that are out of their reach.

Happy Weekend!

I’m so glad it’s Friday...and that Chicken Fajitas are in the oven!