Tuesday, January 20, 2015

A Day in the Life of a Working Mom

Many of my friends and family have asked how I was able to write a book, work full-time, and raise a toddler last year. Well, let me give you a little peek into my life.

This is what my typical mornings look like.

My alarm is set to go off at 5:45, but most mornings I'm up way before then thanks to this neurotic, OCD feline who likes to sit in front of my door and yowl at random times throughout the night.

He's so loud, I'm seriously surprised I don't see zombies from the nearest cemetery walking around outside our condo complex or that our neighbors haven't fired their shotgun through the wall in the middle of the night.

Any who, my work starts at 6am. I'm one of those lucky moms who gets to work from home and while that sounds like heaven, it can also be hell. Don't get me wrong, if given the chance to work in the office or at home, I'd chose home every time. The hell I'm talking about is when my dear daughter decides she needs to wake up when mommy does. That means two hours of working with at very busy toddler in the house before I drop her off at Montessori daycare.

When she does sleep in, I get so much shit done. Some days I'm blown away how I can be so productive in one hour. When she finally wakes up, we go potty first and then I set her up with some breakfast (usually cold cereal, fruit, and yogurt or an omelet) and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. While she eats and watches her show, I get some more work done and then I take a morning break so I can drop her off at school.

The rest of the day I try to make up for the time I spent getting her ready for school. Around 3:30 I clock out, log off my remote desktop, and go pick her up.

After some errands, we come home and it's time for dinner. She watches another episode or two of Daniel Tiger. (If you hear me breaking into random jingles like "If you're feeling mad, that you want to roar, take a deep breath and count to four. One. Two. Three. Four," you'll know where this madness is coming from.)

We enjoy eating supper together, then it's bath time, story time, and off to bed. After she's asleep, I come out and write for an hour or so before I go join her in the land of nod around 9. Some night's I'm so bloody tired, I pass out before she does.

And that's how my days usually go, except for the days I need to go into the office. Then daddy has to drag his ass out of bed and take care of munchkin. (He works late nights so that's why he's usually not available in the morning unless I absolutely cannot handle the demanding little girl).

Somewhere in there, I manage to shower, brush my teeth, and exercise. Some days none of them happen.

Now, it's your turn. I want to hear how you working mamas get through your day. And go.

PS And papas too. :)

Sunday, January 4, 2015

A New Year

Happy New Year!


I am so excited about this year!!! Last year we did a read along of The Art of Extreme Self-care by Cheryl Richardson, this year instead of doing a read along, I will be posting book reviews of parenting, pregnancy, postpartum, and inspirational books I read or am currently reading.

I also want to focus more on the working mom and share little insights and tips I've learned along the way. There are so many mommy blogs out there but I haven't found many focusing on the mamas who have to work outside their home full-time.

In the Spring (April or May), Urban Goddess Mama-to-be, will be coming out. Those months I'll be talking more about pregnancy stuff leading up to the book release.

In May I'll be attending the Birth Without Fear Portland Meet-up. Super excited to be a part of this event. If you haven't heard of Birth Without Fear, please check them out. Talk about empowering women! More to come on that event.

I will be taking the summer off to work on some fiction writing and enjoy my 10 year wedding anniversary with my family.

In the Fall, I plan on blogging about self-care for women (all women not just moms) and creating rituals to bring magic into everyday life.

Hold on tight, it's going to be a great year!

Much love,

Melania