Welcome to the 4th Annual “A Day in the Life of…” photography project! The concept is simple, but the results are awesome. Take one picture every hour, for one day, and an unique hour by hour snapshot of your day is created.
For 4 years, I’ve been taking my pictures on January 18th. This year the 18th was a Saturday. It was fun to document a weekend this year. I hope you enjoy my pictures and I look forward to seeing yours!
A Day in the Life of Rebekah – January 18, 2014
7:00 AM – Noah woke up, but I was able to convince him to go back to sleep for a bit. We are not early risers in our house.
8:40 AM – Noah woke up again and this time we were ready to stay up. We are still breastfeeding twice a day – first thing in the morning and right before bed at night. I’ll be honest. I hesitated including this little fact in my day for everyone to read. I know that he is “way too old” in some people’s opinions, but in our house we nurse until about 2 years old. I’ve struggled in the past with being embarrassed and I’m not going to be ashamed this time around.
9:15 AM – Noah and I are finishing up our morning cuddles and finally headed downstairs at 9:30. This picture is extremely accurate. Noah practically lays on top of my head every morning.
I thought that Nate and Grace were downstairs, but the house was empty. Nate had to go to work for a little bit and he took Grace with him. This is pretty normal. Grace enjoys going to “Daddy’s work” on Saturdays.
I made breakfast for Noah and let him help me make coffee. He is OBSESSED with our coffee maker.
10:15 AM – I’m finally ready to sit down and enjoy my breakfast. I almost always eat breakfast in this chair. I sit there so the kids don’t climb all over me while I’m eating, yet it rarely works out that way.
After breakfast Noah and I took a shower.
11:15 AM – The alarm on my phone (to remind me to take my picture each hour) went off right as I was stepping out of the shower. We got dressed and then went back downstairs.
I tried to play with Noah and enjoy this alone time while his sister wasn’t around, but it didn’t last long. He was in a mood where he was making a mess out of everything! He is a thousand times more interested in my things (coffee maker, hair dryer, kitchen cabinets) than he is in any of his toys.
12:15 PM – I started making lunch and attempted to empty the dishwasher while Noah continuously cried at my feet. I should have stopped putting dishes away and found something else to distract Noah with, but I was feeling stubborn. Every. single. day. he is destroying my kitchen and demanding to play with all of the appliances. It isn’t safe or convenient. I was mad.
Thankfully, Nate and Grace came home. I dished up everyone’s lunch (spaghetti) and escaped to my bedroom. I browsed Facebook and chatted with some blogging buddies online. I needed that break.
1:15 PM – I was walking down the stairs after laying Noah down for his nap. I was still in an awful mood and was completely forcing my fake smile. Praise the Lord for nap time!
I decided I wanted to conquer our toy mess and try using a toy rotation system. Nate tucked Grace in for her nap while I gathered all my toy rotation supplies. Just my luck, I forgot to get the empty bins out of the office. I had to walk through Noah’s room to get to the office. It was a risky move, but I went in while he was sleeping and managed to get out everything I needed without waking him up.
2:15 PM – This was the chaos just before I started sorting everything. Nate picked up the rest of the house while I organized the toy rotation system.
3:15 PM – Things were getting closer to something that resembled organization instead of a toy hurricane. The bins were almost completely filled.
Nate mopped the kitchen while I continued working on the toy rotation. When everything was packed up, Nate put the bins in the basement and I reorganized the few toys we kept out.
4:15 PM – The living room was back to normal and I took a break to sit on the couch with the kids while they watched a Barney DVD. I jotted down some notes about my day for this post and vacuumed the living room.
5:15 PM – We decided to go out to eat for supper and headed to Applebee’s. Since it was a Saturday night, the place was swamped. That was poor planning on our part. We waited for 30 minutes.
While we waited, an elderly woman commented sweetly on Noah’s thumb sucking. She said all of her children had been thumb suckers. I asked her how they eventually broke them of the habit. Without skipping a beat (or smiling) her husband chimed in, “Cut their thumbs off.” Oh my! I had a good laugh about that one.
6:15 PM – I was so hungry by the time we sat down. I was too hungry to talk. I even apologized to Nate for my bad mood.
I ordered a cowboy burger and only ate half of it. I purposely saved half my fries so I could have it for lunch the next day. Then as we were leaving the restaurant, I knocked the take-out box out of Nate’s hand, it fell on the floor, opened up, and spilled everywhere. I was soooo close to shoving all that food back into the box and taking it home anyway. It was a burger and fries. It’s not like I spilled spaghetti on the floor. However, the table next to us and our waitress witnessed the whole scene, added in their own dramatic gasps, and watched to see my reaction.
I picked up my food and left it on our table. Then I climbed into our car and cried. *sigh* I was so frustrated. Yes, it was overly dramatic, but it wasn’t just about the wasted food. It was also about my fussy toddler, the naptime that was filled with a task instead of any downtime, the long wait for our table… It wasn’t my best moment.
7:15 PM – I ate chocolate. I needed chocolate. Apparently, Noah thought he needed some too.
Nate gave Grace a bath and I played with Noah. Then I dried Grace’s hair with the hair dryer. Of course little Noah wanted a turn too.
8:15 PM – This picture is from me sitting in Noah’s room nursing him before bed. Then I tucked Grace into bed and we share our “rose & thorn” of the day. My thorn was dropping my food at the restaurant.
I came downstairs. Nate and I had our nightly 10 minute date. This time is it ended up lasting 30 minutes. After our date I got out my laptop.
9:15 PM – The rest of the night went by quickly. I do all of my blog work and professional Pinterest work while the kids are napping or sleeping at night. This night I started out doing some Pinterest work.
10:15 PM – I chatted with blogging buddies on Facebook.
11:15 PM – I wrote the post Curing Thrush with Gentian Violet.
12:15 AM – I tried to pretend that I wasn’t awake this late by skipping a picture of the dark house, but I was awake. I didn’t fall asleep until after 12:30. I am constantly going to bed too late. No wonder I wanted Noah to go back to sleep when he woke up at 7:00 AM!
Now it is your turn to share your day! Use the link-up to add a link to a post on your own blog. If you are reading this in your email or RSS reader, you’ll need to click over to Simply Rebekah to add your link and/or see the posts that other bloggers have shared. For more details about the Annual “A Day in the Life of…” Link-Up click here.
That picture of Noah right after his shower is too cute! Loved a glimpse into your daily life!
Krissa, that was my favorite picture from the whole day. I love that little guy!
Thanks for sharing your day and for inviting us to link up (The Travel Bags).
I’m an extended nurser too. My current nurser is two. You go, girl!
I loved reading about your day, Christy. Thanks for linking up and for your breastfeeding encouragement. I appreciate it!
Sounds like a lovely, productive Saturday! And, we are so not morning people around here either!
I’m dreading the day when Grace starts school and we have to start waking up earlier. Yuck!
Two is not too old to nurse! I’ve nursed two of my three older children at least that long (or longer!) and plan to nurse my 4th that long as well. Good for you, Mama!
I love how honest you are in this post. We all have THOSE kind of days.
This is my first year linking up to this and it was a lot of fun! I look forward to reading through the other entries!
Thank you for the breastfeeding support. I don’t feel like Noah is too old, yet most people I know don’t nurse this long. I’m trying to be bold and not hide it like I did with my first.
Thank you for linking up!
I love your honesty about how your day went. Too many of my days are like this and I react badly :(. My son is 10 months old and I’m not sure how long I’ll breastfeed but I still love it now. And i don’t think he wants to stop anytime soon!
Yeah, this wasn’t my best of days. Yuck. But each day is a clean slate, right? 🙂
Your day looked like more fun than mine. I started my spring cleaning. I’m so tired of winter and living with the house all closed up.
Thanks for the party.
Angel
Angel, shhhh! Don’t tell anyone, but… I have never done a full spring cleaning of my house. I just can’t imagine getting it done with my little ones under my feet. You’ll have to share some tips with me.
Good for you with the extended nursing. I nursed my oldest, now a high schooler until she was two. It was definitely not acceptable to most then but I kept on until my daughter was ready to wean. My son came along ten years later and he didn’t wean until much later. But that was fine with me. I didn’t get as much resistance then. It amazing how attitudes changed in just 10 years. Or maybe my friends learned it was no use to try to sway me.
As I read your post I could feel this day was a frustrating day for you. Some days are so hard.
My son would rather take apart things and see how my machines work rather than play with toys too. Which is good until it’s a kitchen tool I really need. 🙂
Yes, this was a hard day. It seems like more and more of my days are difficult as this winter continues to drag out. I am looking forward to spring and getting these kids out of the house!
Thanks for linking up and for the breastfeeding encouragement. It means a lot.
Good on you for sharing your story and for nursing experience. It ‘s a good idea to write down a day in hours and look back and see how it went. I have done this on a weekly basis. And I would see what was achieved and just how I handled it.
You write down the details of your day every week? What kinds of things have you learned from doing that?
Nursing is a parent’s personal choice based on the baby’s need. Son #1 and #2 for 15 months each. Son #3 for 2 yrs. Son #4 for 3 years. Seriously I had NO support from anyone but my husband. Some would say I did it long because I am bull headed. 🙂 I have always worked night shift full time. This was time no one could take away from me and my baby.
*Please continue your self breast exams. I had breast cancer when last son was 3. Thought the lump was a plugged milk duct as I was still nursing when it was discovered. Survivor 12 years out.
Sheila, I’ve been really irresponsible with self breast exams while nursing. Thank you for the good reminder and congrats on being cancer free for 12 years!
I love this idea! I am terrible at remembering to take pictures so this would ne such a great way to just knock some out in one day and a great keepske for our girls!
Also, your day sounds like my every day the last couple weeks…including the tears:) my littlest also likes to go to every cupboard to empty everything out when i’m in the kitchen…my husband always asks why we bother with toys when all they want to play with is the stuff they aren’t suppose to have!
Emily, have you used any baby proofing gadgets in your kitchen? We have one for the cabinet under the kitchen sink because of the soap and stuff, but that is our only one. I keep going back and forth about adding more. It would be nice not to deal with the drama from Noah, but it would be annoying to not be able to easily open my drawers and cabinets. How do you handle it?
I’ve been stubborn with my son lately, too. It’s like a test of wills and sometimes I just want to win! Some days can be so frustrating.
We’re also proud extended nursers; I never thought I would be, but when he turned 1 we weren’t ready to wean and life is so much easier with boobie!
Yes! It is totally a test of wills! Yikes. Motherhood is hard stuff!
Thanks for the breastfeeding support. It sounds like we have a similar story. That first birthday came around and there was no need/desire to stop nursing.
I would have cried when the food spilled! How frustrating! 🙁
I tell Gigi all the time that there is a rule that moms need chocolate every day. I always tell her I’ll buy her chocolate when she’s a mom. I think she gets a kick out of it. It’s true though I think. 🙂
Good for you for the toy rotation. I’m way too bad at follow-through for something like that!
LOL! I can’t believe that line about chocolate works for you!