Day in the Life: Stacy (Preacher’s wife and homeschool mom of an 11, 7, and 2 year old)
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Written by Stacy K, Contributing Writer
I’m a little anxious about this post.
You see, I’d really like for you all to think I have it all together.
But I don’t.
There’s also the underlying fact that I am a preacher’s wife.
Aren’t preacher’s wives really supposed to have it all together? Whatever “it” is?
The day I am sharing with you is one in which I stayed up too late the night before. I started out on the wrong foot and was quite unprepared for my day. But, this happens often enough to be a legitimate day in the life.
So here you go . . .
Note: We are in the week before officially starting our homeschool year, although we are still doing some school year round. I would like to have completed more school work this day, but as I said, I started out on the wrong foot.
It’s 7am and I’m still in bed.
My eyes fling open to the sound of my two year old daughter calling me.
“Mommy. Mommy! Mommy!!!”
I jump out of bed and run across the living room to whisk her from the crib before she wakes her siblings. I’m not ready for everyone to be awake yet.
She tells me she is hungry, so I give her a little yogurt and try to read my Bible while she eats.
I’m hoping to read all of Ephesians, but realize that might be a little ambitious.
My little girl wants some attention.
I try not to berate myself for sleeping late. It’s OK. I am tired.
I manage to get to chapter five, although I’m not sure I actually took a lot of it in.
I check email. Then set her up with some toys in the bathroom while I have a shower.
We take some mail out to the mailbox and notice it is foggy. This is the normal summer weather on our part of the California coast.
My older two children are waking up now and I get the laundry going and check on my oldest daughter to see if she is still planning to make protein pancakes this morning.
Sadly she is sick. So I leave her in bed and get the batter ready.
My 7 year old son is running around the living room, playing some type of game with his little sister. It is all fun, but a little too loud for my taste.
Everything seems so loud when I don’t get enough sleep!
I ask him to be quiet.
He doesn’t listen.
I tell him to get out his math and start working on it at the table while he waits for breakfast.
He does.
I remember to email my Azure Standard group and remind them that orders are due today.
It’s kind of handy that pancakes cook slowly. I can wash dishes, send emails, and discipline my kids all while cooking breakfast.
My math punishment backfires fairly quickly as he gets to a part where he needs help!
My husband comes to help and then asks if I’m making coffee today. I wasn’t going to. But I do now. He likes my coffee.
I get the coffee going and continue to flip pancakes. While at the stove I think about what we will have for dinner. Oh yes, I forgot to plan ahead. Hmmm.
I rummage in the freezer and find some humungous steaks.
I put these into the crock pot and figure I’ll decide what to do with them later. I can’t get them apart and have to put them in with the paper still stuck in the middle. I plan to take that out after they have thawed a little.
I’m still flipping pancakes and realize I emailed my Azure group the wrong deadline! Order cut off is not today, it’s tomorrow. So, I jump back on and email them again.
It seems like a good time to take a picture of the frozen steaks with the paper in between. Surely that will amuse someone.
As I lean over to take the picture, I notice that I forgot to turn the crock pot on!
So I turn it on.
Perhaps all this multitasking is getting to me.
These pancakes are taking forever and I remember why I am so grateful that my 11 year old makes them most of the time.
Finally breakfast is finished and we clean up.
My daughter comes out to eat with us and then helps me order some of her favorite jam from Azure. I take a little break and drink some coffee with my feet up.
The kids practice their piano.
I switch the laundry and start folding while my son works on his piano theory at the table.
We notice our Blue Jay is outside.
This bird visits us almost every day.
We go outside and lay out peanuts for him.
The sun has come out, so we stay a while.
I tell my son to bring his work outside and we sit on the swing and finish it.
I try to get pictures of the Blue Jay.
Before I know it, it’s time to make lunch. We are eating early today since we have piano lessons at 1pm.
I call the piano teacher to let her know my daughter won’t be coming since she is sick. My husband says he will stay home with her. This is the bonus of having my husband work next door!
I read a post at Simple Homeschool on my iPod while stirring lunch. We are having spaghetti. The post is about being an introvert and homeschooling. This catches my attention.
While lunch is simmering I go to change the laundry and find that I forgot to turn on the dryer! Oh, yes I did.
My husband comes to have lunch with us. I enjoy having him home for lunch every day.
I pack up the 2 and 7 year old and we head to piano lessons. We take along some cookies we made yesterday and hope to share them with the family who hosts our lessons in their home.
We enjoy our time at piano lessons; I spend the first half sitting in the sun with my two year old . . .
. . . and the second half watching her bounce on the trampoline. Yes, there is a trampoline at piano lessons. My kids love that!
After lessons we run to Whole Foods for peanuts. I want to make peanut butter (I try to keep my mother-in-law well stocked and my kids love it, too). We then head straight home.
Since it’s so late, I decide to forgo nap time and put on a video instead.
I throw some green beans in the crock pot and hope they will make a good dinner.
I check in with my 11 year old who is writing and drawing (her favorite thing to do) and then do a 30 minute workout in my bedroom.
I burn 333 calories in just under 32 minutes. Woot!
My workout and the video are over at about the same time and we all start cleaning the house.
This takes quite a while since I’ve been fairly slack this morning.
After clean up time is over, we sit on the couch and read stories for a while.
It’s then time for dinner, which didn’t turn out too badly. I served the steaks with barbeque sauce and green beans and carrots on the side.
Now it’s time to quickly clean the kitchen and get ready for Bible class. I usually teach the toddler class on Wednesday night, but since my oldest is sick, we stay home. I get baked oatmeal ready for the morning and send my son to class with his Dad.
While they are away I get the two year old ready for bed. We find an old book that I used to read to the other kids when they were younger.
We read it cover to cover. It contains: Goldilocks, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Little Red Hen, The Three Little Pigs, and The Gingerbread Man.
She loves it!
I brush her teeth and read her two more stories (which were actually the first two in the book we just read). I then sing “Jesus loves the little children.” (She requests it every night). We say a prayer and then she goes to sleep.
Now I can finally have some good one on one time with my oldest. I’ve been missing her today. She spent a lot of time doing quiet things, but did join us for a while outside and even practiced her piano.
I sit on her floor and chat while folding laundry.
These night time talks are always the best ones.
My husband brings my son home at around 8:15 and then goes back out to finish talking and closing up the church building.
The kids get ready for bed and meet me on the couch for a few chapters of By the Shores of Silver Lake.
They get to bed around 9pm and I head to the couch. I decide I will not write any blog posts today.
My husband comes home and talks to me about Bible class.
I realize I forgot to read the kids Bible stories today! And on the very day I’m recording our activities for a day in the life post.
Sigh.
Am I the worst preacher’s wife you’ve ever met?
Don’t answer that!
My hubby and I go to bed around 10:30 and I feel happy with my sweet little family. I hope and pray that even though my children have a highly distractable, random mommy, they will be alright.
Fantastic post – I love the reality of it! Wouldn’t life be dull without a bit of “random”?
Yes, I think so. Random keeps life interesting 🙂
You sound like me:) I think I have adult ADD. Thank you for sharing. What kind of church does your husband preach for?
That sounds like my kind of homeschooling! What a beautiful life you life 🙂
Thanks, Lauren. It is a beautiful life 🙂
Hi, just leaving a note of encouragement for Stacy. Your “day” posted looks a lot like any mommies’ you know? Thanks for being real. I am always thinking of our pastor’s wife and wondering how she does it. And what about when you don’t feel well? ;). God gives grace. Praise the Lord, our children are in his His faithful hands…..as I see their little sinful ways, it makes me long for Christ to keep working on me. My heart is a reflection of theirs:(. You all read a lot! That is very important. We farm and seem so “busy” and never sit down enough. Anyway, just wanted to say God bless you, you are doing great!
Thank you so much, Tammy.
Your comment was so sweet and thoughtful.
Thanks for the reminder that we are in His hands.
God bless you.
Hi! I just read your entire mornings post. I have to be honest…I signed up to read your blog awhile ago (can not remember why now) because I do not go to church and I do not home school. The thought of homeschooling has crossed my mind from time to time so that is probably what caught my eye come to think about it now. Unfortunately until today nothing in your subject lines has caught my attention thus far…sorry just being honest. BUT and this is a BIG BUT..today after reading your post I want to tell you I think you are the most put together person i have come across in a VERY long time. You are an absolute inspiration to me. I was hoping we could chat via email a bit privately as there are some things I would like to ask you. Please give me a shout sometime today. i am in need of your help…desperately! 😉 Thanks again, and I will be READING EVERY POST FROM NOW ON!!! 😉 You are awesome!
Thanks for your post! My day looks like this most days as well, we have a 20 month old boy & 4 month old twins!
Wow, Ashli! You have a busy household. Keep loving those kiddies 🙂
I loved this! Thank you for sharing 🙂
You’re welcome! Thanks for saying you liked it 🙂
Ah I really cannot believe how busy you can be in one day, tired yet still working out. Teaching your kids and still managing to prepare 3 meals a day?! That is seriously impressive!
Thank you, Roxana! Your comment really made me smile.
Thank you for keeping it real… and relate-able! 🙂
You’re welcome, Melinda.
Love it! And so glad I am not the only one not so great at multi-tasking! 😉
Thanks, Michele. Yes, multitasking does get me into trouble sometimes 🙂
🙂 I often forget to turn on the dryer… and sometimes I even forget to switch over clothes til the NEXT DAY… which requires another run through the machine…
And even when I plan ahead… I forget to pull meats from the freezer until it’s too late to do anything about it… So, all-in-all… your day sounds a lot like mine 🙂
Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Oh, I hate it when I forget to switch the clothes over like that! It happens, though.
I’m notorious for getting the meat out too late as well. I do much better when I pre-cook a bunch of stuff. I found out I can even put a solid, frozen lasagna (I froze the leftover half), right into the crockpot on low, and it turns out great!
Glad you could relate. Here’s to cooked dinners on time 🙂
Yes. and Yes. I’ve decided that the Proverbs 31 woman didn’t do it all in one day! I’ve started not multitasking as much as focusing one or two things at once…trying to love life instead of the mindset of getting as much done as I can each day.
I agree, it’s better to slow down and focus on one or two things instead on tons!
The funny thing is I often intend to do that, but then the phone rings, the kids need help, and the smoke alarm goes off!
Ah, such is life 🙂
But you’re right. Intentionally doing less helps a lot.
Funny! You have it more put together than I do. Last week it took me a whole hour to realize I hadn’t turned the crock pot on 🙂 I am the wife of a Children’s Pastor and therefore my husband and I are supposed to me the best parents in the world, ha!
Oh yes, you should be the best parents EVER! 🙂
It can be a lot of pressure having a family while you are in the ministry. I have an awesome mother-in-law and she always encourages me teach our children to do things because we are Christians, not because we are the preacher’s family. I’m so grateful for that wisdom as I think it has helped me to do things that are best for my kids and not because I want to look “right.” It’s hard though.
I’m so glad I’m not the only one who has put meat in the crockpot with the paper still on! 🙂 And I was thinking you were going to show a picture of what meat cooked with paper looked like at the end 🙂 Glad you didn’t have to, though!
I was encouraged by how calm you sounded as you wrote all this. Even though you felt like you were behind from the beginning of the day, you still took things in stride and did your best to make them work. I’m sure you’re a fabulous pastor’s wife! 🙂
Ha, ha, ha! Well, glad to know I’m in good company. It’s amazing that I managed to remember to take the paper out! Miracles do happen 🙂
Thanks for your kind words. I appreciate them so much.
We try so hard to be the ideal wives, mothers, friends, and everything else and too often beat ourselves up over our (inevitable) failure at perfection.
Thank you so much for sharing from the heart and the trenches!
You are so right! We do try so hard to be ideal wives, mothers, friends, and everything else. I wish we wouldn’t beat ourselves up so much. Since in reality, it is impossible to do it all perfectly.
Thank you for your encouragement.
some days are better than others, I enjoyed reading this. I’m a mom of 6…ages 18 to 4 yrs old. My oldest 3 help in the kitchen…some times that is a good thing & some times it isn’t.
I am with you on it sometimes being a good thing and sometimes not when the kids are helping in the kitchen!
I am so thankful my daughter has grown into a good little cook. We still have a LOT of work to do on cleaning up after cooking though.
Stacy, I do those things too, forget to put the wet loads of laudry into the dryer, forget to do something until the last minute, sometimes even my KOTH posts but it’s not ever because I forgot out of laziness, more times than not, it’s because LIFE happened which distracted me…. the same with you. Why do we moms (myslef included) think we aren’t living up to the next mom, because the truth is we aren’t perfect and thankfully we all are under grace! Keep up the great days and loving your family the way you do!
You’re right, it’s certainly not laziness! You know, it was actually a good exercise for me to keep track of everything I did during the day. I often feel that I accomplish very little, but in reality, a lot is being done, even if it’s not as much as I want to do or in the way I want to do it 🙂
Thanks for encouraging me.
I am a preacher’s wife too and it was refreshing to read your post. I have days too when I forget to start the dryer. It’s a crazy life, but a blessed life!
Yes, such a crazy and blessed life. Grateful for it and hoping to grow with it 🙂
Oooh, I hate when I forget to turn on the appliances! I have totally done that with both the crockpot and the dryer. And the washing machine, come to think of it!
Glad I’m not alone 🙂 It really is a pain to forget, isn’t it?
Wow, thank you for being real. I am also a Pastor’s wife and some of my days go very similar to yours. I’m not naturally “organised” so any attempt at being very structured with myself result in missing the mark but at least some improvements in life (especially for those around me). I’m super visual so writing and doodling everything and keeping it all in a homemaking binder keeps me close to on track. Thank you for your honest encouragement (pregnancy has increased my dryer/crockpot incidents drastically:)
God bless!
Thebellared.blogspot.com
Pregnancy always increased my dryer/crockpot incidents, too! Hang in there.
Thank you for your kind encouragement.
LOL Thank you. You just reminded me I have wet clothes sitting in the washing machine. And I should probably get something ready for breakfast tomorrow. Baked apple french toast sounds pretty good. Maybe we should have some sausage penne for dinner tomorrow. It’s too late to start another loaf of bread, but if I start it with breakfast it should be ready for lunch. I’ve had a disaster of a week, and I think you just saved our weekend. The most timely post I’ve read in quite a while. Thank you, thank you, thank you. 🙂
Oh Saira, I laughed out loud at your comment!
Glad I could save your laundry!
The sausage penne sounds yummy 🙂 Hope you have a great weekend.
I think it sounds like a great day! 🙂
I think we buy into the feminist lie that we can have it all, but the truth is, we can’t, not on this side of Heaven anyway 🙂 And I think we need to show ourselves a little mercy when our days to-do lists don’t get all checked off because we stopped to do what was needed that wasn’t planned or just to read our child their favorite story…again…
Good job mama!
I love reading Day in the Life posts! I don’t think I knew you were in CA too! I can totally relate to so much here…everything does seem so much louder when I haven’t gotten enough sleep! I can usually get my laundry all the way through the washer and dryer okay, but my problem is getting it folded! Half the time it just stays in the laundry basket and we pull from there all week! Ahh! Anyway, thanks for sharing! 🙂
We’ve been in CA for almost 3 years.
Laundry will get easier once the kids are older. My 11 year old doesn’t let me fold her laundry anymore 🙂 Yay!
But I do still have to take care of my own. I have good weeks and bad weeks 🙂
Stacy, I read this post first thing Friday morning, and I was so blessed by your transparency! Thanks for paving the way for the rest of us…now my post will be easier to write since I know I’m not the only KOTH contributor who doesn’t have it “all together”! 😉
For some reason I thought of you later in the morning when I was loading up the girls to go somewhere and realized my 22 month old was not wearing shoes!
I’ve been thinking about this post ever since I read it earlier this week. It brought me so much encouragement that I’m not the only one who isn’t keeping it together quite as much as I’d like. It’s hard to let go of expectations of keeping a perfect home. I’m so impressed you got a home cooked meal on the table for breakfast, lunch, AND dinner by the way! I’m linking to this on my Weekend Links post.
Thank you for your candid shot of your sweet life 🙂 Many of our days look like that — keep on truckin’ mama!
I too thought I would get to the end of the post and see that you forgot to take the paper out! I would probably microwave a few seconds to be able to get out out because I know that one it goes in the crockpot, there is no way I would remember to take it out! I justforgot to turn the dryer on the other day. Sigh. 😉
Mine is coming up next week so you’ll see what my home really looks like….
I like hearing that your life isn’t perfect. It seems to me that all these Christian moms have all this built-in prayer and Bible time everyday and they wouldn’t dream of not doing family devotions and Bible stories and praying with their kids, scheduled, several times a day. It does not look like that in our home. We read the Bible when we want to, we talk about Jesus a lot, but we certainly don’t have this perfectly planned, mandatory time everyday.
Of course we don’t have perfectly planned anything. Our life is amorphous with a general routine and I hope that being present with them and trying hard is enough! I think (hope) a lot of moms, like you, feel the same!
I am just now getting around to reading this post and loved it! It might not seem “perfect” but that is how every day is around here. I have found that if I have a very short to-do list it is more likely to get done, but even then it doesn’t always work. Thanks for your honesty!
As a stay at home mom, most of my daily activities aren’t conducive to wearing nice clothes. I still want to feel pretty though and I find some simple jewelry usually helps. Her earrings would be just the touch I need!
Stacy, I will be sending this to a pastor’s wife friend of mine who has been completely overwhelmed lately with a difficult marriage and financial struggles. This is exactly what she needs as she embarks on a new job to help support her family.
Stacy, you’re awesome. Thanks for sharing honestly, sounds very much like a day of mine… Bless you! xxxx
I forget to turn things on all the time & we don’t even have kids yet. Our poor children. 😉