Day in the Life Fall 2020

 Hi! It's been a bit since I've done a Day in the Life post! I decided to do one in this season for memory's sake. It's so fun to look back at these other Day in the Life posts. Want to check out old ones?

September 2018

October 2017

February 2017

September 2016

(Guess I skipped 2019?!) 

Ready to spend a random Monday with me?? Here we go! Get ready for picture overload!

I wake up between 5:00 and 5:30. I usually stay in bed until 5:30 no matter what time I get up. I peruse the 'gram, check email, look at the headlines etc.  

I make the bed (I always do this right away), do my hair, and head downstairs (in loungewear) and cook up some scrambled eggs and read about 10 pages of this great bible study I'm doing, "Rest Assured." AJ is downstairs watching the news and having some coffee. I love our short morning hang outs. I head back upstairs around 6:30 and do my makeup, get dressed, and say good morning to Hank! AJ gets him up on school days and gets him dressed. Hank enjoys his milk watching Paw Patrol in our room. 

Hank likes slow mornings! Hank loves sitting around, watching TV, and sipping his milk. He gets mad when I tell him it's time to get in the car for school around 7:15. Sometimes he eats something at home, but today he's not interested in eating yet so I pack a granola bar for him to eat at school. 

And we're off! I love the beautiful view on Mountain View (and yes, I'm at a red light). I drop my sweet boy at school around 7:45 (that's early for me, it's normally closer to 8:00ish) and then hit up the Sbux drive thru.

While I wait, I listen to my new fave Podcast, Be There in 5. And score! I ordered a grande americano (with almond milk and sugar free cinnamon dolce) but they are out of grande cups so I get a venti. I hope the kids are ready for my energy after that bad boy! I also get a venti iced water. I'm trying to really hydrate lately and shoot for 60 oz. during a work day. And people, please, wear a mask in a drive thru! The employees wear ones to keep us safe, we owe them that same respect (soap box). 

School time! I work on some lesson things for today and draft my weekly newsletter. I start my newsletter on Mondays so I can add to it for the next few days as things come up, and then schedule it to be sent on Thursday mornings. I don't like inundating parents with reminders so I try and consolidate my communications to once a week. 

The kids arrive and they share their "Weekend News" (they are all dying to tell me about their weekends anyway, so I just build that sharing time right in), calendar, and I teach a math lesson. We are making subtraction equations out of pictures. Before I know it, it's time for my class to go to STEM class and recess. I drop them off and get to work emptying their weekend folders and grading those papers as well as some from math today. I love being alone in my classroom for a little mask break! I eat a protein bar and get as much grading done as I can in an hour. (And how cute are those pumpkin earrings a student brought for me?!). 

The kids have snack when they get back from recess and then it's a quick journal prompt, then centers for the next hour. I am doing word making with my group today. The other students (when they're not with me) are getting time with our literacy aide, writing our poem of the week (this week it's a pumpkin poem), reading, doing a math sort, and logging onto Lexia. 

12:40, it's finally lunch time and I am hungry! I have a teriyaki chicken bowl (leftovers from last night). 

Back to class! The kids and I read our story of the week, a non-fiction story about animals. I read it to them, then we choral read, then they read it with a partner. Tomorrow we will dive deeper into the story, today was just for reading it. We have a bit of time before recess, so the kids continue centers work while I call kids to my table for a sight word assessment. I enter their scores when they are at afternoon recess. There's only 30 minutes left before we have to clean and pack up so we do an oral phonics lesson and the kids end the day on our online literacy or math program. 

Home time! I arrive home around 4:30 just as AJ comes home with Hank. He had a fun day at school, ate all his lunch, and didn't have an accident. Woohoo! I check the mail and see this cute stamp I ordered arrived. I'm hungry so I snack on some pretzels and this veggie tray I made on Sunday. Hank has some pretzels too.

We all change and head down to the basement for a speedy 25 minute workout. Today I focus on abs and arms with weights instead of cardio. I really didn't want to workout but I always feel good when I'm done! While AJ and I workout, Hank drives around the basement in his Paw Patrol car. He loves zoomin' around! Hank and AJ head to the backyard to play catch while I plate up dinner. I did all the prep for Mediterranean bowls on Sunday (see the recipe HERE). While I plate up dinner, I also pack bowls for AJ and I for Tuesday's lunches. Hank doesn't love quinoa so I make him some mac and cheese with veggie straws and raisins. 

We clean up dinner and I have a bunch of over ripe bananas so I make a baked oatmeal that we love. It's so easy. Hank helps me stir it up. 

It bakes at 350 for about 30 minutes. We turn on "Spookley The Square Pumpkin" on Netflix for Hank (he LOVES this) and I go upstairs to quickly shower (but not wash my hair. I SO do not have time for that everyday) and get in my cozy fall pjs. 

Spookley ends, the banana oats come out of the oven, and at about 7:30 we head upstairs. Hank has earned a dance party (he gets one for good manners and no time outs in a day). He cracks us up with his dance moves. His signature songs are "Chicken Nugget Dream Land" and "Baby Yoda." Yeah, toddler music is crazy, guys. Haha. I read him his nightly bible story, and he chooses another book. AJ rocks him every night and I go downstairs to start drafting this post. Hank takes longer than usual to get to bed. He keeps wanting to go play. By 8:00, though, he's out. He's a tired little man. 

From about 8:00-9:00, AJ does some grading and school work and I watch 90 Day Fiancee and CNN (I love Don Lemon!). I pop some popcorn (probably an unhealthy portion size) and snack on some of these freeze dried dark chocolate blueberries. They are so good! I also do a load of laundry and switch it to the drier. I'll fold it in the morning. I'm too beat tonight. 

After watching CNN, I decide the world is messed up and we need a palate cleanser, so watch an old episode of King of Queens together and head upstairs around 9:30. I read for about 30 minutes and then it's lights out! I am one tired lady! That is actually a very typical day for us during this season of life! Thanks for joining along! 

Savor Your Sparkle,

Leslie 

A Day In The Life

It's time for a Day in the Life post! I like to do these posts occasionally so I can look back and see what a snapshot of my life during a certain season was like. If you'd like to check out previous Day in the Life posts, click HERE.
Everyday is different but this was a pretty typical Monday. Here we go (get ready for picture overload!)....

My alarm goes off today at 5:00 and I snooze for a few minutes. I finally get up around 5:15, throw on gym clothes, an hit the gym for a 5:30 class. I try and listen to a podcast each today. Today's comes from Oprah. It was a great leg workout and I spotted the gorgeous full moon on the way home.

I come home and make breakfast: cinnamon sauteed apples (I prep these on Sundays) over Greek yogurt with walnuts. I love this yummy filling breakfast. I put out Hank's lunch food on the counter for my mom to feed him. I make the bed, turn on Unexpected, hop in the shower, and get ready for the day. Sometimes Hank is up at this time and it makes for very busy mornings but today he's still snoozing away. 

 My mom arrives around 7:15 and Hank gets up. Please note that Hank often gets up around 6:00. Then mornings are a bit nutty, but today he blissfully slept in!  I snuggle him for a minute, then I'm off for the day. I leave around 7:45 this day.

 Once I get to work I get some things ready for the day. I love the sun streaming through the windows in the morning. I get my water cups filled (I am obsessed with the pebble ice in the sick room) and munch on some apple energy bites (Costco) while I prep for the day. I've been doing a daily affirmation with my class and I write today's on the board: I enjoy new challenges! I have morning duty this week so I don my stylish vest and head outside at 8:45. Monday mornings are a little bit of crazy with putting new homework in folders etc. but my morning was MADE by one of my sweet gals making me a fall drawing. My kids know what I like!

We spent the morning sharing about our weekends and working on journaling and handwriting. It's apple week so we watched a video about an apple orchard while the kids ate their snacks. Then it was time for Centers! The kids love centers and I enjoy the chance to work with a smaller group. In my group today I did a "power words" assessment then taught the kids how to play Puppy Phonics so now it can be an independent center. After centers time around 11:30, we played a boys vs. girls math challenge game and did a 100 frame "Watch Think Color" activity. One of their activities during centers was this Apple ABC order sheet. I could tell the kids were struggling with it so we took some time and worked through it as a class before lunch.

12:20 was lunch time and I was starving and wishing I packed more to eat. It's nice to have a little breather with my teammates. In the afternoon, we worked on spelling and phonics. My kids went to recess and had PE in the afternoon so I used my prep time to catch up on emails and search Teachers Pay Teachers for a fun apple center to use this week. I had an awesome parent helper put up my fall bulletin board. Love those parent helpers! After I picked up my class from PE (after handling some discipline issues. Grrr), we ended the day by making 3D apple trees.

By the time the bell rang at 3:35, I was exhausted. I went outside for afternoon duty, then came in and worked on prepping sub plans for a conference I'm going to next month (really I just got the template ready to do throughout the week), then I hit the road around 4:00. I finished my Oprah podcast from the morning so I turned on the second half of Jonathan Van Ness's podcast for the ride home.

I stopped at Savers on the way home to drop off a big trash bag of clothes to donate. I try and clean and organize our closets every season and bring in a bag of donations. I last did it in June so it was time again! I love a good cleaning session. After I dropped that bag off, I went home to hug my guys and got to say bye to mom before she left for the day. I changed into comfy sweats, laid out Hank's outfit for the next day (isn't that fry shirt just the cutest?!), popped in a load of wash, and had a snack of chickpea puffs (obsessed) and a hard boiled egg.

AJ left for the gym and I played on the floor with Hank then fed Hank a bottle. I could tell he was getting fussy. The sweet little guy passed right out right after his bottle! I turned on the rest of Unexpected and packed our lunches for the next day. He stayed asleep for about 45 minutes so I logged onto the Smith's site and started building my Clicklist order for the week. I may have also had some wine I drafted my September Books Post on Sunday so I added the photos and published it. AJ got home and grilled chicken and I put together these taco salads while AJ gave Hank his dinner. We ate and then cleaned up , Facetimed Oregon Grandma and Grandpa, and went for a quick neighborhood stroll.

When we got home, AJ bathed Hank while I folded the laundry. When he got out of his bath (is there anything sweeter than a freshly washed baby?), we read him a story and he was asleep by 7:30. AJ and I headed downstairs and I had a major sweet tooth so I whiped up THIS recipe for an easy berry cobbler. AJ did some grading and I ordered part of my Halloween costume and we watched 90 Day Fiancee. AJ also changed out the diaper genie and I just had to take a pic. So gross. Lol.

We headed to bed around 9:30 and I read about 15 pages in a new book and then fell right asleep! This is a glimpse into one day in the life during this season! 

Savor Your Sparkle,

Leslie