Hellobee

Before I share the ins and outs of my day with you, I want to preface this post with a few things. My goal was to become a WAHM long before we started a family. I started my freelance work nearly ten years ago with the intention of turning my passion into my career.  It took a long time, a lot of hard work, and even more trial and error to get where I am today, and this did not happen easily, quickly, or overnight for me. For many years, I worked two full-time jobs — that’s how passionate I was about my dream, and how I was able to save for my future family and make my dreams become a reality.  Today I am blessed to work full-time as a professional graphic designer in my home studio.

Our family, Summer 2012

This is my career, my joy and my passion. My job helps pay for our household groceries, our mortgage, our car payment and other miscellaneous household expenses. Starting this fall, it’s going to pay for my daughter’s preschool, too.  (Wait, wasn’t she just swaddled?!) 

Working from home means that I often struggle balancing my home life and my work life. Emily Ley really encouraged me to figure out what mattered most. I had this unrealistic expectation of what being a working mom would be like. Everyone told me that babies would sleep so I assumed I’d be able to work during her nap times, and that just wasn’t that case for us.  My baby didn’t like to sleep.  In the first few months, I found myself absolutely exhausted and pulled in way too many directions. I didn’t feel like the best mama or the best designer, I saw the dishes and laundry piling up and I just felt so, so, defeated.

I took a few days to reflect, figured out what mattered most, and set aside my pride. As much as I hated to admit it, I needed help.  Last summer, we hired a caregiver, I set office hours and my life completely changed. I felt balanced. I watched my business explode. I had a schedule.  I wondered why I didn’t take Emily’s advice eight months earlier.

With that said, what exactly do I do all day?    

6:00 am – 7:00 am
I wake up sometime between 6:15 and 7:00 every day. My husband’s alarm starts going off at 6:15 and he’s the master at hitting snooze.  Depending on how tired I am and what time I went to bed the night before, I might snooze for a bit too. Other times, I reach for my phone and do a quick check of my email, Facebook and Instagram. It’s really the only true quiet time I get of the day. I delete all the spam emails I got overnight, read any IG comments I may have gotten, and check my Facebook messages and comments.

7:00 am – 7:30am
Chloe is usually up by 7 but there are days that she sleeps until 7:30. Once she’s up, she doesn’t like to be in her crib for very long. If Papa Jumper is still home, he likes to get her up in the morning. I brush my teeth and start making coffee while he gets her and changes her diaper.  Then I get her dressed and start breakfast.  We alternate between strawberry oatmeal, yogurt, fruit, homemade waffles, french toast, and whole wheat cinnamon raisin bread.  She’s a big eater, and likes a big breakfast to start her day!  Papa Jumper is always out the door by 7:30am to get to work.

We love breakfast waffles!

 7:30 am – 9:45am
After breakfast, it’s play time!  We spend our mornings coloring, playing Princess (my favorite), and reading books.  I spend some time cleaning up after breakfast, throwing in a load of laundry, folding laundry from the night before and putting it away, vacuuming the living room and generally trying to clean up.  It can be a bit difficult and counter productive when Chloe is awake.  She’s 17 months old now, and one of her favorite games is to dump every toy out of the toy box or throw every book off the book shelf.  I spend more time picking up her toys than I do anything else, and I often wonder why I even bother.  I have to, though, or else you couldn’t walk through our house.  We usually have a snack before the sitter gets here, too.  This kid likes to eat!  Chloe is in a dress up phase, so she changes her clothes several times a day.  She likes to play with my old purses and jewelry, and I often find her trying to walk in my old heels, too!  I kind of hate that she can reach her dresser drawers and can open her closet.  I also kind of hate that she is starting to be able to dress and undress herself. 

We love our KidKraft Kitchen!

10:00 am – 11:30am
I’m at my desk by 10am. I load up Spotify (I can’t work without music!) and go through my inbox again.  I get a lot of junk mail.  I read through all my emails, and flag the messages that must be answered immediately and leave the rest for later.  I filter them in order of importance and deadline.  I spend some time responding to the messages that are most important.

I normally schedule consultations or phone conferences in the morning.  If I don’t have any consultations or conferences, the morning is solely dedicated to design work and packaging orders for delivery.  If samples have been ordered, or I have orders to ship, I do this first thing in the morning.  Our mail carrier usually comes before noon so I make sure these are done before she’s here.

My actual design schedule is different every day and relies entirely on the types of orders I get.  Then I start going through all my open orders, and fire up Adobe Illustrator.

11:30am
I force myself to stop at 11:30 to take a lunch break.  I make lunch for Chloe and myself, and even though our caregiver will feed her and I eat at my desk, I make sure to take this break every single day. I like being able to take a break and see her!  Lunch for Chloe is usually mac n cheese, wedding soup, grilled cheese, chicken fingers, leftovers from dinner the night before (a pasta dish, a homemade Mexican dish, meatballs, etc) and I heat myself up something quick (like soup, a quick salad, bagel bites or left overs from the night before) and eat at my desk.

Today we’re having chicken, green beans, guacamole, string cheese & mashed potatoes for lunch.  Yum!

11:45am – 2:00pm
After lunch is when I get the bulk of my work done. I take care of administrative tasks during this time period, there’s bookkeeping to be done, receipts to be filed, financial transactions to be tracked, inventory to be taken, and inquiries to be responded to.

2:00pm
Our caregiver leaves at 2:00pm.  Chloe naps during this time, although her nap schedule isn’t always predictable. Sometimes she’ll nap from 1-3.  Other times she’ll nap from 2-5.  Sometimes, like today, she’ll boycott naps all together. During her nap time I’ll take care of a few household chores, like finish the laundry that I started in the morning and put away the dishes.  Then it’s back to my studio to finish working on open orders, send files to print, and edit photos for blog posts and update my sale listings.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that I have to be focused and work diligently.  There’s no time for distraction during work hours.  As much as I’d love to browse Pinterest all day I simply can’t, but I do make some time to Pin and re-pin new items.  If there’s any time left before she wakes up, I schedule blog posts and Facebook announcements.  I run promotions seasonally, so I use this time to design and schedule newsletters as well.

On a good day, Chloe sleeps until 4:00pm.  Sometimes she’ll surprise me and nap until 5.  Regardless of when she wakes up, I stop what I am doing and am back into mama mode the second she’s awake.  There’s lots of hugs and kisses involved, and a diaper change, too.  I make her a snack and fill her sippy cup, and we settle in the living room for snack time.  I usually finish folding laundry and we watch Disney Junior until Papa Jumper gets home at 5:15. 

2:15 – 4:00pm
There is no such thing as negotiating with a toddler.  Today Chloe decided to boycott sleep.  She refused to sleep in her crib and threw a tantrum.  Awesome!  I tried to get her to take a nap with me and even let her lay in our bed, but we spent over an hour giggling under the covers and talking. I’m waving my white flag and have settled on calling my mom instead.  I need some adult interaction!

4:00pm
Oh my heavens, she’s taking a nap.  You might think this is a good thing, but a very late nap is bad news bears.  I plan on waking her up by the time her papa gets home.  Otherwise, she’ll never go to sleep tonight.

5:15pm
Now that Papa Jumper is home from work, we get to have family time!  Chloe is always so excited when her papa comes home, and for the next twenty minutes or so it’s like I don’t exist.  She and her papa play, read stories and run around the house.  By 6:00, we’re all starving and it’s time for dinner so we start cooking.  Chloe has to change her clothes again.

Watch out, Papa!  Peanut loves Tiffanys!

6:00pm – 7:00pm
It’s dinner time.  We meal plan a week in advance so we don’t waste time wondering what’s for dinner every night.  Meal planning allows us to maximize our family time, eat healthy, and try new foods and recipes.  Every Sunday, we make a meal plan for the week then go grocery shopping based on the list.  Between couponing and meal planning, we’re able to maximize our savings.  Tonight we’re having homemade Mexican — Mexican rice, black beans, tomatoes, marinated chicken, homemade guacamole, tortillas and sour cream.  Chloe approves.

This is how she smiles now.  We hope she learns to smile before her first school picture!

7:00pm
After dinner, it’s bath time for Chloe.  Papa Jumper is in charge of bath time, and I’m in charge of cleaning up after dinner.  I try to hurry through the dishes so I can tackle the living room and dining room next. Our daughter is like a tiny tornado, and even though we have a small house, it takes her five minutes to destroy the entire house.  Like I said, her favorite game is to empty every toy box and bookshelf.  After bath time, it’s quiet time.  We put on her PJs, read a book, and snuggle in the living room.  We let her watch Doc McStuffins at 7:30pm.

8:00pm
She knows that when Doc is over, it’s bedtime.  At 8:00pm on the dot, she’ll walk into her bedroom, give us kisses and tell us “nite nite.”  She’s pretty good about sleeping through the night, but lately she’s been waking up a few times before she really settles for the night.  Thankfully, she’s been waking before 10pm so we still get a full night of sleep.  Chloe mostly needs reassurance that we’re still here, or wants some water, or needs a diaper change.

She likes to sit in her Big Girl Chair, play on Papa’s iPad & watch TV… all at the same time.

8:00pm – 11:00pm
Most evenings, my husband and I settle on the couch together to catch up on our favorite shows.  On Sundays, we watch Shameless. In the summer, we watch TrueBlood and Dexter.  His work schedule has been a bit demanding lately, so there are some evenings after Chloe goes to bed that he has to work.  These nights, I either go back to work myself or catch up on the DVR.  I’m usually in bed first, though, and depending on how tired I am, I go to bed anywhere between 9:30pm and 11:00pm.  My husband is usually in bed around 11:30 and 12am.  I’m almost always asleep first!

We’re homeowners, so it’s important to note that we have to sprinkle in care for our home as well.  There’s renovation projects (the bathroom and kitchen are hopefully being tackled some time this summer), and there’s seasonal maintenance like lawn care, shoveling snow and gardening.  Depending on when these tasks are taken care of and what time of day it is, my work load may have to be put on hold for a bit.

I’d love for working at home to be glamorous. But did you notice that in my day, I never once mentioned taking a shower?  Putting on make up?  Getting dressed for the day?  That’s because every day, I roll out of bed and wear the same yoga pants I fell asleep in the night before.  If I’m super lucky, Chloe will sleep in and I’ll get to take a hot shower.  If not, I’ll wait until Papa Jumper gets home from work.  I don’t wear make up unless I am leaving the house and I can’t tell you the last time I used a flat iron.  I’m saying this as the person who used to take two hours to get ready in the morning before leaving for work!

Our family of three, September 2012 // Photography by Leeann Marie Photography

I absolutely love being a wife, a mama and a designer.  My day may sound hectic, but I promise you that it’s organized. I have a Type-A personality and having a schedule allows me to prepare in advance and streamline my home life and my business.  We’re hoping to add to our family in the near future, which means we need our days to be organized in order to be successful.