A Day in My Life (Behind the Scenes of This Blog)

For those of you who have asked or wondered–“What do bloggers do all day?” –this post is for you!  My friends at 11 Magnolia Lane invited me to join them and several other blogger friends to share what a day in our lives typically looks like.  I’ll share the links to all these girls and their posts at the bottom.  But, today, I’m sharing mine, and I’m warning you–this isn’t all pretty, and some of it is just plain boring, but it’s true-to-life, and I love it!

My day starts at 6:00 a.m. almost every day of the week.  With my two oldest kids away at college, we have our two youngest girls at home, and they set their own alarms and get dressed for school while my husband and I get ready, and we all meet for breakfast around 6:30.  Everyone helps themselves to their choice of breakfast, and I normally just start with coffee.  After making thousands of kids’ lunches through the years, I have turned the responsibility over to my kids to make their own lunch for the first time this school year, and it is glorious!  It was my husband’s idea for them to start doing it, and they are more than capable and doing a great job at it.  Most of the time, they make them the night before so everything is ready to go in the morning.  They know where all their supplies are in the pantry, and we still try to use our pantry chalkboard I made years ago for keeping up with what we need.  (The hard part is remembering to take a pic of the list before heading to the store!)

We have always tried to have breakfast together at the table through the years to discuss the day ahead, and Dave always reads a short devotional to help us get the day started off right!  (By the way, this is exactly what my parents did in our house growing up, and I’m hoping my kids will all continue the tradition.)

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After breakfast, the kids do their morning chores, which consist of a rotation of taking care of Scout, doing the dishes, or clearing the table.  (Not to mention– beds are all supposed to be made before coming to breakfast.)  My kids have been doing the dishes on a rotation for many years now, and by now, they all love it. (HA!)  Okay, they don’t love it, but they do understand that this is just part of living in a household and that there are many privileges to enjoy along with that.  Also- if it sounds like my husband and I are plotting to get these kids to run this place on their own–you may be on to something! But seriously, it has helped our kids to mature and become more independent by taking on these responsibilities at an early age.

So– after everyone leaves for school and work, my day really starts.  I try to take a few moments as soon as things get quiet to do my own bible study and prayer, because everything just goes better this way!  (I am currently using this Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible which is really helpful for understanding passages in their original meaning and context!  So enlightening!)

On Mondays, I often letter out an inspirational verse or thought to share for Pray for Me Monday.  My typical favorite pens for lettering are these Microns which I’ve been using for years.  Notice- Scout is normally right by my side anytime I’m sitting down somewhere.

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About this time, I’m on my second cup of coffee, and if I do feel like eating any breakfast, I snack on some granola or cereal.  This Bear Naked Cacao and Cashew Butter is my favorite!  It’s low on sugar, and this price on Amazon pantry is cheaper that I can get it at the grocery store.

I usually chat with my mom for awhile on the phone while I finish getting ready for the day.  And like Christy mentioned in her post, I do my hair, make-up, jewelry, etc, every single day.  I’m not a lounge-wear type of girl.  If you see me in yoga pants out in public, keep your distance because I might be sick!  Just kidding– but I do prefer to dress up rather than down, and I never leave the house without lipstick!

When I finally sit down at the computer for blogging and catching up on emails, it’s normally right here at the kitchen island.  It’s just the most convenient place for me to be since it’s at the center of the house and easily accessible to the laundry room for switching out loads while I’m working.

I do use my pretty desk space in my room, however, when I’m doing my “quiet writing” for special posts and I need to be free from distractions.

As you may or may not know, a blogger’s job is extremely multi-faceted.  I like to compare writing a blog to publishing a magazine.  Only, instead of a team of people working together to produce an issue, there’s normally just one or two people doing everything from start to finish.  This may include coming up with an idea for a project…planning how the project will unfold and the supplies that will be needed … then shopping the house for items that can be re-purposed for the project.  In my case, I’ll give you a glimpse of a corner or two of my basement storage area, which serves as my mini warehouse of supplies and decor. (I told you this might not be pretty!)

And after searching the house, I may need to go out to find a few more things, which usually means heading to Hobby Lobby or one of my other favorite places…

Next comes the execution of the project, which might be in the kitchen if it’s a recipe, or in a certain room of the house if it’s decor, or here in my craft room if it involves sewing, painting, gluing, etc.

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My sewing machine, which is a basic Singer like this one, is the one I’ve had for almost 22 years, and it’s the one I’ve used for every sewing project I’ve ever done on this blog.  I keep it in this cabinet and just pull it out when I need it.

This table was in our kitchen in our previous home, and now it’s decorated with drops of paint, ink, glue, and other forms of natural distressing, and I love it for this purpose!

After designing and executing the project, it’s time to shoot the photos!  Here’s a little shot of me taking some pics for my recent Eclipse Party post.  I use a Canon EOS 60D camera like this one.  I have a few lenses for it to help with wide angles and close-ups, and I really love it.

After the photos are done, I head back to the computer to choose which photos to use, edit them if necessary, and then finally write the post!  After the post is published, there’s still more work to be done with promoting to social media and emails so that the final post can actually reach the audience.  And of course, there’s the correspondence with my readers, which is one of my favorite parts!  Does that sound like a lot of steps?  It is!  But it’s worth it because I love every step of the process.

With this job,  I am able to set the schedule I need so I can still find time to be there for my friends and family when they need me, volunteer at the school on occasion, help my husband with certain projects at work, or just meet him for lunch dates!

And by the time the kids get home and start their homework, I can focus on getting dinner ready (which I may or may not take pics of to blog about later) and then just spend the evening in my favorite roles as a wife and mom.

This is the job I would have said I wanted to have when I was younger and someone had asked what I wanted to be when I grew up– except that there was no such thing at that time!  But I did use to say I wanted to be a wife and a mom and a writer and an artist and an interior designer and a marketing director.    And with this job, I get to be all these things, plus a little more!  And I love having you along for it!

I hope you enjoyed this little peek into my days.  Here are several more of my blogging friends who are sharing their days as well!  I hope you’ll stop by each one to meet them if you haven’t already!

Amy – 11 Magnolia Lane

Megan – Honey We’re Home 

Haneen – Haneen’s Haven  

Mallory – Style Your Senses

Sam – Simply Organized 

Erin – Sunny Side Up