Day in the Life: Quarantine Edition
I usually do a Day in the Life post ever season and since I hadn’t done one yet this year, I thought this would be the perfect time – I want to remember what this crazy season looks like for our little family.
This was a weekday last week. I hope you’ll enjoy reading it too!
Day in the Life: Quarantine Edition
12:45 a.m. Tally wakes up shrieking. Bart goes in and takes her to the bathroom and then, when he puts her back into bed, she insists she won’t go back to sleep unless I come tuck her in. I tuck her and go to the bathroom, and then go back to sleep.
6:15 a.m. My alarm goes off. I get up, put on my slippers, and head to my office. I pray and read my scriptures, then quickly check my email and post to Instagram. I respond to some DMs and put in a grocery order. Tally calls out and I go in, give her a drink, and she settles right back down.
7:00 a.m. I work on this post about 4 Weeks to Read. I was planning to be done working this morning by 7:30, but everyone is still asleep and I’m in the zone, so I just push through and finish it up completely, scheduling it to go live in a few days.
7:50 a.m. I go back to my room where Bart is still sleeping, quickly change into my running clothes, grab my phone and headphones and head out the door.
8:20 a.m. Home from my run – I walked about half a mile and then ran a little over a mile and a half, listening to A Good Neighborhood on Libro.fm. Bart’s getting dressed for a run when I get home and the girls are all still sleeping. As I pick out my clothes for the day, I hear Tally calling out and I go get her out of bed. She wants to keep coloring a picture from the night before so she works on that while I make my bed and put away my pajamas and running clothes.
8:30 a.m. I take a shower, brush my teeth, and put in my contacts. By the time I get out, all the girls are awake and milling around upstairs.
8:45 a.m. I go back in my room to put on my makeup and do my hair. I watch some Marco Polos from my family and my college roommates while I do this and then send a few in return. The two big girls come in and I do their hair too.
9:05 a.m. I head into the kitchen to make my breakfast (this is what I eat almost every single morning) and make oatmeal for the girls.
9:30 a.m. I finish my breakfast (it took me a little longer because I read from The Passion of Dolssa while I ate) and Ella starts on her online school.
9:45 a.m. Ani picks out three books to read on her own on the couch, while Star and I do her reading practice in my room (Tally tags along, promising to be very quiet).
10:00 a.m. Ella hops off the computer and I get Ani set up on her daily Zoom call with her classroom aide who does reading practice with her for 15 minutes. While Ani does her call, Ella works on some math homework and Star and I do math and handwriting together.
10:15 a.m. Ani is finished, so Ella gets back on the computer while I read aloud the last chapter of The Best Bear in All the World to the other three. They’re all so enthralled that I grab the library copy of Winnie the Pooh that I checked out just before it shut down and read the first chapter aloud.
10:45 a.m. I remember that I have Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World’s Most Famous Bear checked out too, so I read that book to the girls as well, and we look at the map in the back of WildLives that shows where Winnie was born.
11:05 a.m. My sister texts me to tell me their neighborhood has set up a teddy bear walk with many of the neighbors putting teddy bears in their windows or on the porch and invites us to come take a (6+ foot) walk with them to find them. I quickly get the two little girls dressed and brush their hair and everyone puts on shoes and we head out (I think this is the first time in three weeks that I’ve put all four of my children in the car at once. Feels so weird that we used to do this daily).
11:30 a.m. It’s a gorgeous sunny day and we stroll around the neighborhood, spotting dozens of bears, including one little tea party set up on a front porch.
11:55 a.m. We get back to my sister’s house and load everyone back up in the car. My girls can’t BELIEVE how hot it is (it’s 62 degrees) and they beg for the air conditioner on the way home.
12:00 p.m. When we get home, there are a few packages on the doorstep and I open them to find several new books. The girls, of course, want me to read them immediately and the older girls and I read all three of them while Tally, who got her head smacked a little when we were getting out of the car, goes sobbing to Bart’s office and sits on his lap while he finishes a conference call.
12:30 p.m. Bart and Tally come upstairs and I recruit Bart and the girls to come in our room for a quick photo shoot for this Big Blanket Co campaign.
12:50 p.m. Photos done, we head into the kitchen for lunch. The girls eat some apple slices and leftover caramel sauce while Bart and I fix lunch for everyone. There is a major meltdown about the distribution of grapefruit on Tally’s part (this transition to no naps is very hard on her) and she goes to her room for a few minutes before returning and asking me to feed her the grapefruit.
1:20 p.m. Bart does the dishes, and then, when the tree trimming guy arrives, I take over so he can show the guy what trees we need quotes for. The big girls help me clean up a bit and I tuck Tally into her double rocking chair in her room with some blankets and turn on an audiobook for her.
1:30 p.m. Quiet time officially starts and I get to to work, answering a few quick emails and responding to IG comments before opening up this post to catch up on the morning’s events. Tally calls out and I go into her room to find that she needs a new coloring page, so I print one a new one off.
2:25 p.m. I download the Big Blanket Co photos and edit six of them, write a caption and then submit them for review.
2:50 p.m. I create this book-ish survey for IG Stories and post it.
3:30 p.m. I record a couple of sponsored IG Stories and send them off for approval.
3:45 p.m. Bart comes up from his office to spend 45 minutes with the girls so I can keep working. They head out to the backyard to play croquet. I get notification that my Big Blanket Co post has been approved and I post it. I spend some time working on London Littles, responding to DMs on Instagram and then plan out my emails for April.
4:35 p.m. Bart goes back to his office for a call and I close down my computer. I go into the kitchen and start dinner. The girls come in and get some clementines for snack then head down to play in the basement. Tally has an accident, so I clean her and the floor up and get her changed.
5:00 p.m. Tally comes in and asks for me to read her a few books. We snuggle up on the couch and read four books while Ella works on a puzzle.
5:15 p.m. The girls and I go down to the basement and fold and put away all their laundry.
5:50 p.m. Bart is done with work and comes out of his office and helps the girls hang up their shirts and dresses, while I go upstairs to finish up dinner prep and set the table.
6:00 p.m. Bart comes upstairs and goes out to the backyard to plant the two raspberry bushes I bought on Saturday. The two little girls go out in their pajamas and help, and I come out at the end to water.
6:25 p.m. We all gather for dinner. Afterwards, when Bart is doing the dishes, he suggests that I make some cookies, so I whip up a half batch of our favorite chocolate chip cookies while he finishes the dishes and the girls get in their pajamas.
6:45 p.m. With the cookies in the oven and the dishes done, we do family scripture reading. Ani reads aloud a picture book to the two little girls and then, when she’s finished, we come back to the kitchen table for warm cookies with vanilla ice cream.
7:30 p.m. I help the little girls brush their teeth and then put Tally to bed while Bart runs to the grocery store.
7:50 p.m. I sit down at my computer to update this post.
8:00 p.m. Time to go read to the girls – we just started Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM last night!
8:40 p.m. Six chapters later. . . (I can’t help myself when it’s a good book AND when the girls are all taking turns brushing and braiding my hair). I come back upstairs and clean up the living room, dining room, and kitchen a bit, including putting away the rest of the cookies. I update this post again, send some texts back and forth with my assistant about analytics (wheee!), and spend a few minutes planning for tomorrow.
9:50 p.m. Okay, I meant to get in bed at nine so I could read for an hour, but I spent way too much time looking at Book Outlet so now I’m finally in bed and I read for about 25 minutes while Bart watches one of the Thor movies on Disney+.
10:15 p.m. Bart and I pray together and turn off the lights. After about two minutes, Bart says, “Are we going to do anything for April Fool’s Day tomorrow?” He grabs his phone and I grab an eyeliner pen and we sneak into the three older girls’ bedrooms and draw big curly mustaches on their faces. None of them wake up, despite the fact that Bart and I can hardly control our laughter.
10:25 p.m. Back in bed and time to sleep.
You can see all my previous Day in the Life posts here!
I need to do one of these too to remember these crazy days! I haven’t had my kids in a car for almost 3 weeks now and it already seems crazy that we used to load up before 8am every day for school drop-off! Life is so very different right now!
When you say that you “watch some Marco Polos from my family and my college roommates“, what does this mean? I really enjoy your blog. Thanks for posting daily in addition to all of the other things that you do! Our stairsteps are now teens, but I well remember those days when it felt like I was “trying to put out three fires” while meeting one child’s needs & then the next. Reading helped to keep me sane & still does.
Marco Polo is a free video messaging app. It’s super fun and simple!
Thanks for explaining! I appreciate it.
You guys are just the best! I love reading your blog, and not for reading suggestions(though I love those) and not for recipes(though I’ve made/loved plenty) but just because your family is adorable and you’re so down-to-earth. Thanks for sharing your delightful family with all of us.