Day in the Life: Rachel (Busy Mom of a 3 and 5 year old)
Written by Rachel, Contributing Writer
I am 30. This might be young to some while older to others, and even though age isn’t significant in motherhood, at 30 this year has been the hardest year of my life.
Although I would like to give you my “ideal” scenario day, this is my life… for now and sometimes the day that I think would be better if x, y, and z, I know the Lord is preparing my heart for something beyond my dreams!
God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us. Ephesians 3:20 Message Bible
This year I went from being a stay at home mom to a working mom and now a part-time working mom with the intentions of being a stay at home mom once again… while going through a much awaited upon vision from the Lord, pregnancy losses, starting a new adventure in homeschooling and growing in the Lord more than ever before.
I have 2 types of days, the working ones and the non-working ones, not including weekends, which sometimes are working days and most of the time are family days. Also, this year we enrolled our kids at a University Style school, meaning they go to school part-time and homeschool part-time. We just started our first year, Pre-K and K and we are all enjoying it.
Working days
With a huge life changing mission comes much “blood, sweat and tears” and although there hasn’t been any blood, this year has shown me that with diligence, sacrifice and hard work, you can really help change peoples lives.
You see, God created you with the most incredible ability to heal yourself. When your little child gets a scrape, what do you do? You clean it, put a band-aid on the wound and after a couple of days the boo-boo is all better.
Well, many people have no direction or go in the wrong direction with regards to health. Owning a wellness clinic means a few things: we don’t live by the world’s rules of health, we create an environment that welcomes the healing spirit of God and we travel the country to learn the latest protocols in natural healing. We literally see miracles happen weekly and the cool thing: God gets the glory.
Working days consist of all kinds of things, mostly work at the office, greeting friendly faces, showing patients how to do the spinal exercises, etc. Sometimes we have workshops, sometimes recipe nights, sometimes public events and sometimes life-changing nights in regards to health, and most of the time we have our kids alongside us in this journey.
My workdays are Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and sometimes the other days of the week and look something like this:
Mornings: Roll over to hit snooze on my alarm clock, then again and possibly again. Wake up, go into each child’s room, attempt to wake them, brush my teeth, go back into the kids’ rooms to really wake them up, tell them to get dressed, brush their teeth, go downstairs to quickly eat breakfast, get in the car and drive them to school, drive back home, maybe exercise, clean, work on my blog, etc.
Afternoons: Go pick up kids, talk about school in the car while eating a snack (it’s a 15 minute drive), get home and kids’ change clothes, take a nap or rest. While they’re doing that I will get some things ready for work, clean, prepare an easy dinner, or quiet time, and lately sprouting grains, then I wake kids up (usually by carrying them to the car), drive to work, and work. Thankfully, we don’t have to be there until 3:30pm.
Evenings: After work, we usually get home late. We will scramble some eggs, serve something that was prepared in the crockpot, or heat leftovers up in a pan. Then we eat, get kids ready for bed, pray, sing Jesus Loves Me, and give them a kiss goodnight. My husband and I unwind by facebooking, talking, recently reading Love & Respect by Dr. Emerson Eggrichs or watch TV, then go to bed. On workdays, we are all pretty wiped out.
Fridays are a little different, we work the morning/afternoon shift and leave around 1-2pm. Then we get to enjoy our day, and my husband comes home around 6pm. We usually have a family night consisting of homemade pizza and a movie or an activity.
Non-Working
The non-working days, I breathe a sigh of relief, this means I can wrap myself up in my kids, cleaning and any other duties that need to be done.
My non-working days are Mondays and Wednesdays and it wasn’t too long ago that everyday was a working day.
Mondays are our homeschool days. We will wake up a little later, enjoy our morning with breakfast then start school around 9-9:30am. The amount of book work is very limited since we are in the early years but we do many other activities such as math with manipulatives, reading books, watching videos about the subject we are learning about, puzzles, and other activities. After our school time is over, we might bring a picnic to the park and play, or just play at home.
While the kids have a rest/naptime, I will work on a chore like washing laundry. The basket sometimes gets full and doesn’t get put away, I’m sure you can relate! I’ll do the dishes, vacuum, clean our rooms, etc.
After nap, I will prep dinner, go outside for a walk, finish any errands that need to be done, have fun in the playroom and wait for my husband to get home. We will eat dinner together and many nights he will have to go back to work, I will put the kids to bed.
Wednesdays are take kids to school days. The morning and afternoons look exactly the same as the workdays except the evenings are just like Mondays. I know, is it ever confusing but somehow we stay on top of it.
A little secret… I am not a very scheduled person but somehow manage! So cut yourself a little slack if you don’t have it all together! Sometimes I think or say, I’ll do better when… I’ll be more scheduled when… and the truth is, it’s this moment and how you handle your life and circumstances, not the woulda, coulda, shoulda’s!
We do our second day of homeschool on either Friday afternoons, Saturdays or Sundays as of now.
So this is what my very busy “day in the life” looks like! No matter what season of life you are in, remember God has a plan a purpose for where you are at in this moment.
How I understand you…. your days look like mine… I work full time tuesdays and thursday and part time mondays, wednesdays and fridays… my two girls go to school becausa here in Italy you can’t homescholl… but I go through the homeworks with them….
I have really started to understand that God has always his plans for us …… and always helps us in his way…
Cheers
Maddalena
Maddalena, “Hello” all the way from Italy, I’m so glad you stopped by and commented. You are making do with your situation and have faith that the Lord will help you… what a strong mother you are! And remember you are in charge of “homeschooling” them spiritually… they’ll learn the love of God from us as examples… speaking to myself too! 🙂
I also work full time, although every day (Mon-Fri). I can hear the craziness of your days in your post and boy can I relate! I’m up by 5 am, the kids (3 and 1) are up by 6, and we are out the door by 6:45. The kids go to daycare/preschool and I go do work. We are home by 5 and the kids usually play great together on the porch or sometimes I will put on some Sesame Street if it’s a rainy/cold day. Dinner, baths, a little play and cleanup time, and then bed. Then my cleaning/next day prep begins! I so wish I could spend more time with them, but that’s just not in the cards right now, so we try and make the best of our weekends and I take days off work now and then and do something fun. I believe that no matter what stage in life I am in, I have a huge responsibility to my kids and my husband to provide a clean and loving home, complete with home-cooked, sit-down (most of the time) meals and to teach them the knowledge of the Lord. It’s constant chaos in my life, but we somehow manage and God has been good to us. He always provides a way and gives me energy and patience when I need it!
Emily what great encouragement to those of us moms who work, He is faithful and does provide our needs! You have a great attitude towards your situation, thank you for sharing!
Wow, Rachel! Your days are seriously full. I’m tired just reading this.
Your clinic sounds very interesting. Would love to attend your workshops. They sound excellent!
LOL, Stacy, I am sure you are a busy lady too! And if you are truly interested in the workshops, there are clinics all over the US and world, I can see if there is one near you if you want me too!
BTW, are you going to Allume this year, would love to see ya if so!
Well, you’ll see my kind of busy soon. My day in the life post is coming up 🙂
I’m not going to Allume this year. Wish I was. It would be lovely to meet you.
Praying for you working moms! You have my deepest admiration….there is so much to do in a day. May the Lord bless you for your amazing effort, patience and love for your children!
Michele P, thank you! I am not discounting in anyway a SAHM’s job, you do great work too!
Thanks for this post! I work Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, and sometimes from home on my off days, and my husband works a rotating 12 hour shift, so we barely have anything resembling a schedule! He goes to a sitter usually 2 days a week, stays home with DH one day a week and is home with me 2 days. And sometimes I have a family member come and play for a few hours while I work from home. And we are REALLY struggling with him not having a daily routine for nap time right now. There is a light at the end of the tunnel!
Angie, There is light! All you have to do is keep surrendering to God’s will even if it’s not where you think you should be at… with that comes rewards. (Have to tell myself this daily too!) Hope you are blessed for all your hard work!
Rachel, you are an amazing woman to be able to do so much! I work full-time 5 days a week and hardly get to spend much time with my 2 kids during the week. (And I hardly do any housework, so I don’t know how you do it.) It’s so great that you get to see your kids so much. My older one is at my company’s preschool (from 9am – 6pm), but fortunately it’s an amazing program so I don’t feel so bad about her being there all day. My toddler goes to my mom’s house during the day (my husband transports her). It’s 7:00 before we are all home and then I sometimes cook dinner. I wish I didn’t have to work, but I’m grateful that I have a job with a great company.
Then don’t! If your priorites are your children, then be with them. People say that it’s a money thing, but if you downsize (house, cars, etc) and cut a lot of unecessary things out of your life (cable, satellite, data plans, high speed, eating out etc) you CAN stay at home with your little ones. The rewards are enourmous, bettering relationships, and even improving physical and mental health – and you don’t miss a thing in your kid’s lives. Your children want you, not an extra paycheck. Something to pray about. Ask yourself, “What does God want me to do?”
I loved hearing about your day, Rachel!! You are so busy! I pray you can become a full-time SAHM again very soon!! Like you, I’m not naturally a scheduled person, but I’m working on it! I can’t wait to hear how you like the UMS! I am really hoping we can send Little Girl to our UMS next year!
I just left my job of 6 years and we moved the family across a few states so that I could be home for our twin boys. For the last 4 years my husb and I would swap off working hours so one of us was always available. He’s been great with them but not much interested in more than making sure everyone stayed alive and fed. LOL I’m really looking forward to being there for them everyday.
I just left my job of 6 years and we moved the family across a few states so that I could be home for our twin boys. For the last 4 years my husb and I would swap off working hours so one of us was always available. He’s been great with them but not much interested in more than making sure everyone stayed alive and fed. LOL I’m really looking forward to being there for them everyday.
Day by day He gets us through.
Love you lots my sweet daughter, Jesus has truly blessed me with you.
So, you homeschool and they go to school too? Do you take your kids to work with you?
As a stay at home mom, I can’t imagine leaving my kids at daycare. I just feel that, as soon as I gave birth to them, it was my calling and duty to be there for them, raising and teaching them to live before God…not someone else’s. My husband feels that he is the provider for the family while I take care of our home and children. And taking care of two littles is quite the job in itself!
I want my children to remember Mommy being there for them, baking, crafting, cooking, wiping their little noses, hugging the hurts away and kissing their owies. 🙂
Renee, if you read through the links Rachel included, you will see that her heart’s desire is to stay at home with her children. Not every mother who works does so because she doesn’t want to be there for her children.
If you read through the links to Rachel’s site, you will see what an incredibly difficult year it has been for her–with 2 pregnancy losses and starting the new business that the Lord has called her and her husband to…her husband is a chiropractor, and their health and wellness business is not only their only livelihood…it is also a ministry.
Rachel’s position as a part-time working mom is temporary…but I would ask that you open your heart to not be critical to those women who may have to work full-time. You never know another family’s situation. You say your husband feels that he is the provider for your family. That is wonderful! But what if another person’s husband is not in the same place? What if another mother so desperately desires to stay at home, but she is married to a man who wants her to work? Your words may come as a sting to a mother like this who probably already has a hard time with working and not being there with her children.
What if a mother works because her husband is disabled? What if a mother works because she is a widow? What if she works because her husband has left her? What if she works because her husband has been laid off his job in this tough economy?
Or what if she works simply because her husband has a low-paying job? Even while trying every penny-pinching method out there, there are still some jobs that cannot fully support a family. I may have not realized this before–but it is true. My husband is a teacher. He has a masters degree and 3/4 of a seminary degree. He is doing what he feels God has called him to do, but in our state teacher salaries have been frozen since 2008. Our insurance premiums continue to rise, and the cost of living in general continues to rise. Thankfully, he was able to get a new job this year at a school that pays more. But, for the past 3 years, if I did not work from home as a writer and editor, we would have literally qualified for food stamps on his salary alone. I’m so thankful for the ability to do the work I do from home…but not everyone has that option.
I don’t think there are many mothers who don’t want their children to remember their mommies “being there for them, baking, crafting, cooking, wiping their little noses, hugging the hurts away and kissing their owies.”
In my experience, those of my friends who have to work outside the home for whatever reason probably appreciate those special times with their children even more than those of us who stay at home.