A Day in a Parenting Blogger's Life - Mummies Waiting

Good day to you all. It’s Friday. Time for “A day in a parenting blogger’s life”. Have you got any plans for the weekend? The weather has been so nice in the last week, I hope it stays for the weekend so I can get a few bits and bobs done.

Today I have Jade joining me who blogs at Mummies Waiting.

First of all, tell me a bit about yourself.

I’m Jade, I’m a mum to two princesses. Naminé who has just turned 2 and Kairi who is 3.5. I am married to Ryan and we have a Miniature Poodle called Coco. Ryan brings in the most income with his job as a Graphical User Interface Developer (Basically he makes computer games). As I want to contribute to our house financially, I work self employed one evening a week running a Youth Group and spend a lot of time on my blog www.mummieswaiting.com and youtube channel www.youtube.com/mummieswaiting.

How many times were you woken last night ?

8 times that I can remember but I try to keep my eyes closed as much as possible.

Do you co-sleep?

Co-sleep or bed share? We bedshare (following the safe bedsharing rules) and have done since the day Kairi was born. The staffs at the hospital were great and advised it. Our set up is a kingsized bed with a toddler sized bed next to it (though it’s usually just the dog in there!) We breastfeed throughout the night so I have 1 girl each side of me to make life easier.

What time do you normally wake up?

If left to it, the girls will let us lay in until 10 or 11am. However Tuesday through Friday, we usually have to get up at 7 to get ready for the day ahead.

How much average sleep do you get a night?

How much do I get or how much do i feel I get?! I guess I receive around 8 hours, but with 8 wake ups I feel like I get into bed and get straight out.

What’s the first thing you do when you wake up?

Open my eyes, feed the girls then check my phone and upload to Instagram.

Tell me about your typical morning routine.

I’ll go for a 7am wake up day.

7:00am Alarm goes off I get out of bed and get washed and dressed.

7:30am I get the girls up if they are not already, feed them breakfast and get them dressed while I try to apply some makeup and brush my hair so I look human.

8:15am I make sure the bag is packed ready to go and start getting shoes and coats on. (Oh how I love the easiness of summer!)

8:30am We are out of the door, with me wishing I had gotten up earlier so wasnt so rushed but had more sleep at the same time.

9:00am We are usually sitting at the train station hoping that our train isnt delayed or cancelled again. The girls love to watch the feight trains leave so they’re either really occupied or we are finding what we can learn. If they are occupied, I can grab my phone and make some notes and check on my social media for the blog between then and when we get to the destination.

When and how often do you prepare the family dinners? Give us a few examples what you would cook.

I usually prepare all meals in this house.

Breakfast, I usually make this as soon as we get up, the girls have a choice out of toast or cereal (though the 3 year old will often just ask for plain bread). I usually skip breakfast as I would rather have the extra time in bed or to get ready. My husband has cereal in his draw at work so will usually eat when he gets there but occasionally he will take a flask of tea for the journey.

I always try to serve dinner just as Ryan walks through the door at 7:15. A family favourite in this house is Tortellini so we will have that every Monday night. Rattatoulie, Mustard toad in the hole, Salmon and filled jacket potatoes are all regular dishes that I like to make from scratch.

What’s on the menu for lunch?

Lunch is around 1, some days we will eat as late as 2:30 and others as early as 11:00, it totally depends on when we woke up and ate breakfast or if we have had a morning snack. For lunch the girls like a ‘pic’n’mix’ which consists of cucumber sticks, cheese, yogurt, fruit, tomatoes, peppers, carrot sticks and crackers. Occasionally they will have 1/2 a bag of crisps or a treat. For me I like to have a salad of rocket, cherry tomatoes, croutons, feta and a balsamic glaze, if I’m still peckish afterwards, I will grab a yogurt or fruit. Hubby has a draw full of food at work and will grab a cup of soup from there, his work also provide them with fresh fruit and biscuits so they don’t go hungry!

What activities have you got planned for the day for the kids?

As we are a pre-school home educating family, we do lots of learning through play. We attend 3 parent and child groups a week and I will always set up at least 1 messy play/tuff tray activity (usually on a monday as that’s the day we stay in). I have a tracker in my bullet journal to make sure the girls are hitting all their developmental targets and try to provide them with activities in all areas over the week. On a Thursday, we visit family and the cousins all play together.

Do you generally eat dinner together as a family or get the kids fed first?

We eat together, for us dinner time is an important time to be a family and discuss your day. It’s a great chance for the girls to talk to their dad and perfect to set an example to the girls of how to eat properly and use manners.

What do you do after dinner?

After dinner we have some downtime, we try not to have any television throughout the day so we will usually watch a movie or 2-3 episodes of a show. The girls will either play or join us on the sofa. We spend a lot of time talking and the girls use this time to show their daddy what they have learnt.

What is your bedtime routine?

We don’t have a set routine for bed, the girls always tell us when they are tired and then we take them up. Sometimes this can be 7 o’clock but others it can be 10pm. We will get into our pyjamas, brush our teeth and have milk and a story.

Most importantly, when and where do you normally blog in those 24 hours? Do you have a schedule?

Monday is our home day, I usually clean, catch up on Admin hours for my self employed work and write a blog post or two. During the weekend I will make sure all the SEO for the post is done and schedule facebook and twitter. Daily I post to instagram first thing and then check all social media platforms and emails regularly, although it’s usually a few days before I can sit down and reply to an email. If it’s a week where I vlog, I will either do it all from my phone and edit and upload in bed or I will vlog and then edit and upload on the pc during the weekend.

Thanks for sharing Jade. It sounds like a busy family life you have there but yet very organised. I love the way you do all developmental targets at home.