Jen Russum

You are here: Home / Day in the Life / A Day in the Life

A Day in the Life

I captured a day in the life when Zianne was six months and a year old, and I am so happy I was able to do it again now that Talitha is six months old. Right now our weekday rhythms revolve around nap times, nursing, and dissertation writing. We usually escape the house once a day to run errands and visit the gym. Starting this week though, our schedule will change dramatically as I start a new teaching job and the girls attend daycare twice a week. But these pictures below reflect the past few months and what our life has looked like since moving to a new house and a new state. Life is pretty busy, but also very sweet. *I captured these pictures over a few days’ time to catch the essence of a full day from early morning to evening. I don’t actually change my kids’ outfits that often.

6:30am // Coffee and Bible
7:30am // New to me… video workouts at home before the girls wake up
8:00am // Girls get up
8:05am // Morning nursing session
8:20am // Putting new Christmas toys to use. A quick check-up for Talitha…
8:30am // “Brekkie”
8:45am // Squeezing in the last few minutes of a workout with the girls crawling all over me
9:00am // Back up to the nursery to get Talitha dressed for the day
9:10am // Nursery is quickly destroyed by toy explosion
9:15am // Trying to be intentional about reading the Bible to the girls every day
9:20am // Independent play…
9:21am // …while mom tackles the never-ending task of swapping and organizing little girl clothing
9:28am // Sometimes mom reads…
9:30am // …and sometimes Z decides it’s time to read “all by myself!”
10:00am // Morning show during sissy’s nap…
currently in the rotation: Daniel Tiger, Curious George, Super Why, Bubble Guppies
10:30am // Sometimes there are tears when the show is over, and sometimes she asks me to take a picture of her crying. I obliged.
11:00 // Off to the gym and the grocery store.
Leaving the house with two kids sometimes feels like an Olympic sport…
1:15pm // Home for lunch. Talitha adores eating solids…
1:45pm // Nap time… cleaning up all the toys in the living room so I can concentrate
1:50pm // Make afternoon coffee
2:00pm // Work on dissertation while praying nap time is exceptionally long
2:15pm // Both grandmas have been in town over the past few months, allowing me to occasionally sneak out of the house to work at a nearby coffee shop
3:00pm // The dissertation pairs nicely with a cinnamon honey latte
4:30pm // Up from her nap
4:35pm // Time for a drink and a snack

5:30pm // Dinner prep

5:40pm // Helping mom cook dinner in our horrible florescent-lit kitchen
6:00pm // Passing the time before dad gets home with books and more books
These are how our days roll with a six-month-old and a 2-year-old. The hours are a sweet mixture of mundane and beautiful. The days are deliriously exhausting, especially with the pressure of my dissertation always lurking in the back of my mind, but I feel called to be a mom and a PhD student, so I wouldn’t change a thing. I fall into bed each night thankful for every minute of this life God’s given me.

Comments

  2. My day has so many similarities! And you are right, getting two little people out of the house [not even counting the grocery shopping bit] does feel like an Olympic sport. Golly sakes. A full and quite day – those are the best kind and I try and soak mine up as much as I can because I know these sweet days are numbered.