10:30 a.m.: I wake up with a cat snoozing on my belly. It’s one of my favorite ways to wake up! I snuggle with Ellie for a bit and then get myself up and at ’em. I take a quick pee, brush my hair and pull it into a pony, and get dressed.

11:00 a.m.: I make a quick breakfast of waffles and then finish up yesterday’s post while eating.

11:30 a.m.: I head outside for my daily walk! (Mom and I decided all of the walking we did at the Running of the Wieners race counted as our daily walk yesterday.) It’s dreary outside and I’m worried it might start raining, but the rain holds off for me.

11:50 a.m.: Back home and I start working on today’s post.

12:05 p.m.: I leave my apartment and head to Publix to pick up some subs for the day. (I will die on the hill that Publix makes the best subs ever.) When I’m back at my car, a woman in the parking lot squeals at me, “I love your cat sticker!” I have an adorable cat sticker on the back of my car and her delight in it made me so happy.

12:30 p.m.: I’m at my mom’s! I give the dogs lots of love and snuggle on the couch with them. Eventually, my brother and older nephew show up. Yay – it’s a party! Something you should know about these football Sundays is that we’re equal-opportunity football watchers. Of course, we have our favorite teams (me: Dolphins, my brother: 49ers, my nephew: Chiefs), but we watch whatever’s on TV on Sunday, even if it’s not our favorite teams. Also, we don’t have any cool NFL package where we can watch whatever game we want. We just watch whatever is on the local CBS/FOX channel. Today, for the 1:00 game, we watch the Chiefs/Jaguars game. I have to keep track of the Dolphins game through the ESPN app. I wish it was on TV because it would have been such a fun game to watch! The Dolphins played so well today.

I eat my sub when the 1:00 game starts and then I settle into a comfy armchair with my phone and my book to watch the game. I think this is what I love the most about these Sundays: I get to be with my family but also be super cozy and lazy, reading my book in between watching the game. Also: dog snuggles.

3:00 p.m.: I reluctantly get up from my cozy spot to make cookies. Thankfully, it’s an easy job because, last week, I froze half of the oatmeal chocolate chip cookie dough I made. I just have to scoop and bake!

Once the Chiefs game is over, we get to watch the end of the Bills/Vikings game, which is an exciting finish in overtime! Sorry to any Bills fan, but I was super excited to see them lose because it means the Dolphins are back at the top of our division! WOOHOO!

4:30 p.m.: We turn on the late afternoon game! This time, it’s Cowboys/Packers. I don’t really care who wins this game. I mostly read my book during this game.

I’ve also started noticing some wrist pain that’s been growing worse and worse as the day goes on. I think it’s from yesterday and carrying the dogs for so much of the day. (I always have some sort of pain after Running of the Wieners because my arms are not used to carrying 10-lb dogs for so long, but it’s typically my inner elbow.) I ice my wrist for a bit and it seems to help. (This wrist pain makes me realize how much we depend on our wrists! Using my phone is painful, and it’s also affecting my grip and how I can open and close things like my mouthwash bottle.)

The Cowboys/Packers game also goes into overtime, so we stay to watch it. It’s a great finish!

8:00 p.m.: I leave my mom’s and head back home. It’s so good to see my little ladies again! I unpack my things and then sit on the couch for a little bit. I turn on my Peacock app to stream the Sunday Night Football game. Tonight, my brother’s team, the 49ers, is playing so I’m very invested in the game! I eat a late dinner and hang with the kitties.

9:30 p.m.: I turn on my computer to start working on this post while going through my nighttime routine. I put on my jammies, brush my teeth, and do my skincare routine. I also tidy up my apartment and put out some more Christmas decorations. It’s looking very merry in here!

11:00 p.m.: I settle in to watch the end of the SNF game, which is very nerve-wracking! I had the game on in the background while I was doing my nighttime routine, but I wasn’t following along too closely. But when I saw how close it was with just a few minutes left to play, I sat on the couch to watch the end. And it was a brilliant ending for my brother’s team! YAY!

11:20 p.m.: It’s time to finally crawl into bed. I’m planning on just listening to ASMR videos to lull me to sleep. No reading for me tonight!

11:40 p.m.: Lights out!

And that’s a wrap on this year’s Week in the Life! Thanks for following along this week. 🙂

sunday in the life: 2020, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014

9:30 a.m.: I wake up naturally… but with a pounding headache. I don’t know why I always seem to wake up on the weekends with such a bad headache! Grinding my teeth, maybe? In any event, I take some Advil and then crawl back into bed. I snuggle the cats, read a bit of The Smart One, and play fun888 เข้าระบบ games on my phone.

10:30 a.m.: I finally get out of bed and take a shower. Then I sit on the couch with the goal of finishing The Smart One. When I’m nearly finished with the book, I order Ubereats for lunch because I don’t really have anything here to eat.

11:45 p.m.: I finally finish The Smart One (2 stars – meh). I quickly blow dry my hair and a few minutes after I’m finished with that, lunch arrives! I eat it while finishing up yesterday’s post and reading blogs.

12:45 p.m.: I straighten my hair and put on makeup. I also tidy up the apartment, make my bed, and feed the girls. (Side note: Are my cats Enneagram 9s? They never bother me about their food. They graze on food throughout the day, so I just try to refill it every morning, but even if their bowls are empty, they don’t say a word about it.)

1:30 p.m.: I leave to run a few errands (Publix to pick up a prescription, the library to pick up a book that was on hold) and then head to my mom’s house.

2:00 p.m.: Mom and I leave her house with the dogs in tow. It’s Running of the Wieners race day! This is one of my favorite annual events. We started attending in 2012 with Dutch, and now I get to enjoy the spectacle of this race with Chip and Lucy. Running of the Wieners is exactly what you think it is: a race solely for dachshunds. Because what’s more fun than watching a bunch of short-legged wiener dogs race each other? The event happens in a cordoned-off rectangular space (maybe it’s 30 feet? I’m not good with measurements like this!) On one side are “Wiener Handlers” who hold the dachshunds and the owners stand on the other side of the rectangle cheering like crazy to get their dachshunds to run to them. The first dachshund to cross the finish line wins their race! They separate the dogs into age divisions (starting with “Baby Brats,” which are all dachshunds under a year old, and ending with “Senior Sausages,” which are dachshunds aged 10+). This year, Chip is in the “Feisty Frank” division (ages 3-4) and Lucy will be in the “Little Links” division (ages 1-2).

2:40 p.m.: We make it to the event (Running of the Wieners is a part of Dogtoberfest, which is a pet event that raises money for the Suncoast Animal League, a nonprofit, no-kill animal welfare agency), and register the dogs for the race. And then we meander around for a while. Mom gets a hot dog to eat and I sip a Sprite. We check out some of the booths at the event, and I have to steer clear of the cat adoption tent. NO, STEPHANY, NO. Mikaela and her family join us, too, and it’s fun to see them! Eventually, it’s time to wander over to the race site so we can snag a great spot. I wanted to be right by the finish line on the outside of the fenced-in race site so I can take video of Chip and Lucy, and we got the ideal spot. Woohoo!

4:00 p.m.: The race starts! They begin oldest to youngest, so we have to wait a while for Chip and Lucy to race. But soon, it’s Chip’s turn! AND HE WINS HIS HEAT. Y’all, we have been coming to this event for a DECADE now (with a year off for the pandemic, of course, and we may not have gone during Dutch’s last year of life) and no dog of ours has ever won a race. We’re just happy if they can find the finish line! I was so proud of him! He had to face off against another dog in his age division to see which dog would be going to the final and… CHIP WON THAT RACE, TOO. Homeboy was going to the FINALS! We were ecstatic.

Lucy raced after Chip and I had high hopes for her because she is so fast when she’s racing Chip outside, but she came in third. It was a photo finish, though, and she was just a second behind first place. But she found the finish line and we were proud of her for doing that!

After all of the dogs had raced, we had our winners who would be entering the finals, one dog from each division. I was so nervous for Chip! On the one hand, even making it to the finals was amazing. No dog of ours has ever done that. On the other hand, I wanted him to win! I’m competitive, ya know?!

Okay, drumroll….

Chip came in second place!!! OMG, I was so excited! I truly didn’t expect him to place, but he was so focused and wanted to come home with a trophy. (Orrrrr maybe he was just having fun running with other dachsunds?!) It was a photo finish, too, and they had to consult MULTIPLE people’s phones who video-d the race. (I tried to video but I got so excited that I didn’t capture the end at all.)

How fun is that!? Chip came home with a big trophy, a winner’s ribbon, and a $50 gift card to PetSmart (my mom is adamant that the gift card is to be spent on stuff Chip would want, not food or something boring like that). We were on cloud nine!

4:50 p.m.: We leave the event, tired but very, very happy. After getting back to my mom’s house, we just lounge around for a while. The dogs are tired and sleeping on me, which I love. I play around on my phone and have an awful time with today’s Wordle. Sheesh! It took me way longer than it should have to figure it out.

7:00 p.m.: We leave for dinner (Mom, Robert, and me). First, we take a pit stop at Home Depot to buy a part they need for their pool but it’s an online-only item, so we leave empty-handed. Then, we head over to BJ’s for dinner! I order a yummy bacon-guacamole burger and, of course, Mom and I share a pizookie for dessert. Our second pizookie of the week!

8:50 p.m.: We get back to mom’s house and I cuddle with the dogs for a minute before leaving and going home. I haven’t seen the girls all day. I miss them! I give them love and treats, and then immediately start a bubble bath. I’m feeling so grimy from today (and it was so hot outside, ughhh).

9:45 p.m.: I sit down at my computer to work on this post and read a few blogs.

10:30 p.m.: I start my nighttime routine. Today, I need to scoop out the litter boxes, tidy up the apartment, and do my skincare routine. I also decide to do a 15-minute clay mask tonight. I try to do a mask once a week, but I’ve been slacking. I also take some breaks to respond to blog comments, read a few email subscriptions, and fill out my line-a-day journal.

12:10 a.m.: Nighttime routine is finally finished! I crawl into bed with a new book (Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean). I can only keep my eyes open for one chapter of the book, so I put it down and turn on ASMR videos to lull me to sleep.

12:30 a.m.: Lights out!

saturday in the life: 2020, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014

6:50 a.m.: My gentle Sleep Cycle alarm begins waking me up. Lila is snuggling with me on the bed, so I pet her and she decides she wants to bite my fingers. It hurts when she does this!

7:00 a.m.: I get up, pee, brush my hair into a pony, and then put on clothes (yoga pants and a t-shirt). Then, I drive to Starbucks so I can get my first peppermint mocha of the season! Yum, yum.

7:40 a.m.: Back home. I finish up yesterday’s post while sipping my mocha and eating a breakfast sandwich. Then, I start working on this post.

8:00 a.m.: It’s time to get the workday started. I answer a few emails and Slack messages that came through overnight, and make my task list for the day. My morning is pretty uneventful! I complete a bunch of tasks, have a quick huddle with my director to talk through an idea that was brought up in one of her meetings, and answer emails as they come in.

11:15 a.m.: I was planning on running some errands today, but it’s raining outside and I’m feeling lazy so I decide to order Ubereats for lunch. While I wait for it to arrive, I knock out another task on my to-do list.

12:00 p.m.: I lay on the couch, reading my book (The Smart One) while I wait for lunch to arrive. When it does, I chow down while reading the Survivor Reddit thread.

12:30 p.m.: I’m back to work. While we don’t “officially” have half-day Fridays anymore, it’s generally accepted that you can log off early on Fridays if you want. I try to stay logged in until 1 or 2, just to catch any straggling messages that may pop in before the weekend. I finish up a task, clear out my inbox, and then tidy up my desk before shutting down.

1:30 p.m.: Mikaela sends me a text, asking to give her all the details about Running of the Wieners. She’s thinking of coming to cheer on Chip and Lucy! We have the same sort of anxiety brain when it comes to logistics, so I send her a 10-minute video on Marco Polo giving her allllll the details.

1:45 p.m.: I get comfy (i.e., remove my pants and bra) and crawl into bed. This is my favorite time of the week: When I can crawl into a cool bed in the middle of the day and know I can take a long nap. I read for a bit (I’ve switched over to The Bodyguard) and then set an alarm. If I don’t set an alarm, I will take a 4-5 hour nap, no lie. Then it’s off to dreamland for me!

5:30 p.m.: My alarm wakes me up. (Told you!) I’m a little groggy so I let myself slowly wake up. Mom texts me to say she did her walk today, and I know I need to try to get mine in before the sun goes down.

5:40 p.m.: I finally get out of bed. The girls are snuggled together on the couch AGAIN. (I wish I could get a photo of this, but the minute I move toward them, they get up. Argh!) I get dressed and go out for a walk. The sky is showing off tonight!

6:15 p.m.: Back home and I Facetime with Mom for a bit.

6:40 p.m.: After chatting with Mom, I’m feeling lazy so I sit on the couch, read my book, and play games on my phone.

7:00 p.m.: I force myself to get up and make dinner. It’s breakfast-for-dinner tonight! Yay! I make scrambled eggs, sausage, and waffles. I turn on an episode of Love is Blind to watch while I eat.

8:30 p.m.: I sit on the couch for a while, reading and playing games on my phone, and eventually get up to take a bubble bath. Only the bath isn’t as hot as I like it and I didn’t put enough bubbles in, so it’s a little disappointing. After my bath, I sit on the couch to read more of my book (I’m back to The Smart One).

9:30 p.m.: I putter around the house for a bit, tidying up and poking through one of my Christmas bins to see what I want to put up. I take down some of my “everyday” decorations and place them in the bin to make room for Christmas decorations.

10:00 p.m.: I sit down at my computer so I can start working on this post and read some blogs. I am incredibly behind on Nablopomo reading! I get up a few times to tidy up the kitchen and brush my teeth, but that’s about all I feel like doing of my nighttime routine. I should wash my face, but I’m feeling very lazy tonight.

11:30 p.m.: I crawl into bed with my book with the intent of finishing The Bodyguard, which I do. It was an enjoyable read, maybe 3.5 stars? More to come in my next reading recap, of course. After finishing it and rating it on Goodreads, I read a chapter of The Smart One and then listen to some ASMR videos on Youtube to fall asleep.

12:30 a.m.: Lights out!

Do you like taking naps?

friday in the life: 2020, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014

6:50 a.m.: My gentle Sleep Cycle alarm starts waking me up, and I realize it’s going to be an interesting day here in the Tampa Bay area! It’s rainy and super windy (30 mph winds). I may have to do my daily walk on the spin bike!

7:05 a.m.: I finally get out of bed, pee, and then take a shower. Afterward, I make myself a simple breakfast (cereal) and finish up yesterday’s blog post. I blow dry and straighten my hair, make myself an iced coffee, and then settle down at my computer to work.

8:30 a.m.: I get started on my day. I answer Slack messages and emails that came through overnight and then settle in for my first task, which is reviewing website content (I’m doing a lot of this task this week, but it’s not something I do too frequently). At 9:30, I have a meeting with a few people to discuss one of our clients who has been unhappy with some of our communication. My role isn’t client-facing but as part of the content team, I need to understand how our department can best support this client. Afterward, I continue to review website content and come across a major issue: this client’s August content may never have been posted to their site. Eeks, chaos! This account has been assigned to one of our contractors for a long time, so I shoot her an email to see if she can fill me in.

11:00 a.m.: I’m hungry so I make popcorn. I had planned to use my lunch break to run errands and pick up a few things from the grocery store, but the storm is keeping me hunkered down at home. Thankfully, I have a spare pizza in the freezer (this will be my third time eating pizza this week, ha!) and have a few snacks I can munch on throughout the day. It’s been steadily downpouring all morning long and it’s still very windy, so it’s best to stay off the road today!

11:30 a.m.: I chat with my director about an SOP she just put together and give her a few revisions I would make, and then I finish up the task I had started earlier, and I feel good about marking it off my list.

12:30 p.m.: I’m sleepy and it’s been rainy and dreary all day, so I decide to take a nap. It’s the perfect weather for it!

1:30 p.m.: I wake up after a lovely little nap, answer some Slack messages that had come in over the last hour, and then jump on a huddle with one of our content strategists to help her with a Monday.com issue she was struggling with. It always feels good to impart some knowledge! Then, I work through a few sets of content that needs to be posted to our clients’ websites. I take a break at 3 to attend an editing workshop that one of our senior writers is hosting. It’s very informative and hopefully, it’s helpful for our writers, too. Afterward, I answer some emails and send out a few content plans to our clients for approval.

4:00 p.m.: I need a break, so I read a chapter of The Bodyguard and then do a quick tidying of the apartment. I also select a few more Christmas decorations to put out. It’s feeling Christmassy in here! In the midst of this break, a package arrives! I ordered a new purse, wallet, and some holiday pillows, so I’m really excited about this package. 🙂

4:30 p.m.: Back to work! I’ve finished up my most pressing to-do’s, so I’m able to get back to work on my large project that I talked about on Monday. It truly is one of those projects that I just do when I have time, and I’m glad I have some extra time this evening to work on it!

(At some point this afternoon, Ellie was sleeping on the couch and woke up meowing. It honestly sounds like she’s saying “MAMA? MAMA?” when she meows, and it melts my heart. I answered her with, “What’s wrong, Ellie-Bellie? Did you have a cat-mare?”)

6:00 p.m.: I shut down for the day and I’m excited to find out that the rain has stopped, so I can still go for my daily walk (albeit in the dark)! The walk is a good one, although it started sprinkling about halfway through and I was worried I was about to get stuck in a torrential downpour. But nope – just a light sprinkle for a few minutes. Whew!

6:20 p.m.: I come home and Facetime with my mom. We chit-chat about our days and other things that come up. She told me she finished listening to this week’s episode of The Friendship Paradox, and that I sound very confident in these episodes. I like that compliment a lot!

6:50 p.m.: After getting off the phone with my mom, I preheat the oven and then work on this post while my pizza cooks. (I’ve had pizza three times this week. Oops.) I also read some blogs and respond to blog comments.

7:30 p.m.: My pizza is finished baking, so I sit down with last night’s episode of Survivor and then Facetime Mom to discuss the episode (we both watch it and always discuss it afterward!). Then, while I should start my nighttime routine, I decide to put on an episode of Love is Blind and eat a bowl of ice cream instead. I’m starting to see why I get to bed so late now, lol.

9:40 p.m.: I start my nighttime routine way later than I should! I clean out the litter boxes, brush my teeth, do my nighttime skincare routine, and tidy up my apartment. Halfway through my nighttime routine, my mom Facetimes me again and we chit-chat about random things. I told you we talk to each other a lot throughout the day!

11:10 p.m.: I crawl into bed with my book (tonight, it’s The Bodyguard) and play a few rounds of Candy Crush in between chapters. I also realize I never completed today’s Wordle so I do that with 7 minutes to spare. Whew. (Got it in 4.) I lull myself to sleep with a few ASMR videos.

12:00 a.m.: Lights out!

How much TV do you watch on a typical weeknight? I try to keep it to one show (or two if it’s a 30-minute show), but today I did not adhere to that!

thursday in the life: 2020, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014

6:50 a.m.: I wake up before my alarm today. The one good thing about the fall time change: mornings are much easier! (I still hate it, though. Darkness at 5:30pm is not my favorite!) I’m not ready to get up, though, so I play Happy Color on my phone and then read some election coverage. Some good news, but also lots of bad news. Bleh.

7:30 a.m.: I finally get up, pee, brush my hair, and then sit down at the kitchen table to eat breakfast and read blogs. I also finish up yesterday’s post and publish it.

8:10 a.m.: I make myself an iced coffee, get dressed, and then prep my apartment to get Roomba’d. It’s a process, which is why I don’t run my Roomba as much as I should.

8:30 a.m.: I start the Roomba and then start my workday. I answer a few emails, set up my task list for the day, and complete my first task of the day, which is reviewing website content that was posted to make sure it’s formatted and linked out correctly. The Roomba decides it’s done after 30 minutes, which IT IS NOT, so I make it restart. Silly Roomba! I also do a little bit of meeting prep and accept some blog submissions that were sent over by contractors. Crossing off tasks left and right this morning!

10:00 a.m.: Roomba is finished (yes, I run it for 90 minutes; she’s not as efficient as I expected!) and I put my apartment back together and also do something I’ve never done this early: I pull out my Christmas decorations! I like to slowly decorate my apartment with decors, such as a Vintage Rebel USA Flag, adding just a few things every day, so my apartment won’t be fully decked out until after Thanksgiving (and I’m not putting up my tree until I come back from my cruise), but it’s fun to get the containers out.

10:30 a.m.: Back to work! I start a big task, publishing content on a client’s website. Their website has a funky setup, so it takes a bit longer to post content than other websites. For Website Creation Services, you may consider getting expert help from professional services like Affordi-Build. But I can listen to my audiobook while I do this task, which is great. I take a break at 11:30 for my weekly managers meeting, which is pretty easy-breezy. Afterward, I have a nice little venting chat session with a coworker. I hope everyone has a coworker they can vent to about work stuff.

12:20 p.m.: I start looking over my health insurance options as it’s time to select my plan for 2023. I am weighing the pros and cons of a PPO plan ($70 per paycheck with a $1,000 deductible) and an HSA High plan ($60 per paycheck with a $2,000 deductible). I don’t know which one to pick! In 2022, I’ve been on an HSA Low plan ($31 per paycheck with a $3,000 deductible) and I don’t like it at all. Meeting a $3,000 deductible is not an easy feat for me (something I am very grateful for!) so I’m leaning towards the PPO plan. It’s a little higher per paycheck, but it would mean paying less money overall for therapy/doctor’s appointments/etc. I call my mom to work through my options because I’m a 30-something who still needs my mom’s help with stuff like this.

1:00 p.m.: I need a break! I stop for lunch, which is leftovers from last night’s dinner. Yay! I read blogs while eating lunch and then lounge on the couch for a bit, reading The Smart One.

2:00 p.m.: I head outside for a walk. The weather is dreary thanks to the tropical storm that’s coming our way (doesn’t look like it will affect us too much!), but it’s also in the low 70s and breezy, which feels great. I wear a hat just in case it’s super windy (it’s not TOO windy, but I’m glad I had my hat).

2:30 p.m.: I’m back at my desk to tackle some more work. I’m feeling pretty unmotivated this afternoon, but try to knock out some tasks. I start with the website content posting I was doing before my meeting earlier today. Around 3:45, I huddle with my director on Slack. We have a standing meeting every Wednesday afternoon and I love having this time with her! She’s become such a great mentor to me, especially talking through issues I’ve come across as a manager and how to address them. Plus, we’re both readers so sometimes, if we don’t have much to talk about, we wind up talking about what we’ve been reading lately. This week’s meeting is pretty easy: I tell her about the issue I came across yesterday and the solution I implemented and then bring up an issue that one of my writers has talked to me about before that I wanted to get her feedback on. All in all, an easy meeting! Afterward, I take care of some follow-up tasks from that meeting and then decide I need a little break.

4:30 p.m.: I take a half-hour to myself to wrap Olive’s presents, tidy up the apartment, and make myself presentable for tonight. I also poke through my Christmas boxes and pick out a few things to put out. DON’T JUDGE ME.

5:00 p.m.: Back to work for a bit. I answer a few emails and Slack messages that have come through and then finish up the content posting task I had started so much earlier in the day. (I told you this one takes a long time to post!)

5:40 p.m.: I wrap up work for the day, shut down my laptop, and getting all of my stuff together to head over to Mikaela’s house for the night.

6:20 p.m.: I arrive at Mikaela’s house and her daughter, Olive, is excited to see me. Since there are some new people reading my blog, a little background on Olive: When she was 14 months old, she was diagnosed with a rare, aggressive form of liver cancer. Only a few people in the entire world have ever had this cancer, and none as young as Olive. She was given a 9% chance of survival. She needed surgery to remove the tumor in her liver but most pediatric surgeons weren’t comfortable doing the surgery. However, thanks to a family friend (actually, the woman Mikaela’s father dated before marrying her mom!), they found a surgeon in Boston who was confident he could do the surgery and it would be a success. And it was! She got through the surgery and many rounds of chemotherapy afterward and is a true warrior baby. She finished treatment in July 2021 and has had clean scans ever since, and she gets to have her port removed next week. Today is her third birthday and it’s just such a miracle that she is celebrating her birthday when we didn’t know if she’d be here. And not only is she here, but her cancer treatment didn’t slow her down at all. She’s above average developmentally and might be the smartest 3-year-old I’ve met.

Anyway, it was fun to see Olive and surprise her with some birthday gifts. I haven’t seen her in a while so I was worried she’d be shy around me, but this kid is the opposite of shy. She was bubbly and fun and gave me a big hug when I arrived. She was so cute opening her presents, gasping with pleasure and saying “Thank you, Aunty Steph!” after each one. We had dinner together, I gave Eleni a bottle while Olive took a bath, and then we read from the book I got her before it was time for bed. It was such a lovely little night!

7:50 p.m.: I leave Mikaela’s house so that she can get the kiddos to bed and drive home. And here’s some real talk for you: I had a lot of anxiety after leaving Mikaela’s. I’m a naturally quiet and reserved person, and sometimes I feel like that leads to being boring when I’m with other people. I started getting into my head that I wasn’t as bubbly and fun as I wanted to be, which lead me down a spiral that I’m just not a fun person to be around. All lies, I know! But I think it’s helpful for others to know that if you also spiral after fun nights like this, you’re not alone!

8:15 p.m.: I get home and the girls are snuggled together on the couch! I nearly die from the cute, as my cats aren’t big cuddlers together. But sometimes they surprise me! I start a bubble bath after giving them a treat and play games on my phone, which feels very relaxing to me.

8:45 p.m.: I work on this post for a bit and then it’s time for The Amazing Race! It’s a very good episode and I’m thrilled with the team that got first place this episode. Yay! I eat some ice cream while I watch and do a little tidying up, but mostly, I lay on the couch.

10:00 p.m.: I Facetime my mom to discuss our thoughts on The Amazing Race (we both watch), but she’s not answering. Annnnd here is the second anxiety spiral of today, wheeee. She should have answered the call but she doesn’t, so I figure: maybe she’s putting the dogs to bed or is in the bathroom or something. But when she hasn’t returned my call after 5 minutes, I try her again. No answer. So I send her a text, but it doesn’t deliver correctly so I figure something must be up with my phone. I restart it, call her again (we’re now 9 minutes into the spiral). Nothing. She FINALLY calls me back at 10:10 and asks why I haven’t called her. ACK. Phones, man. AND BRAINS. Why does my brain automatically shift into fight-or-flight mode when I don’t hear from my mom immediately? Why can’t it be normal?! Argh. Anyway, we have a very good conversation about the show and Olive and our days.

10:35 p.m.: I continue to work on this post, edit some pictures, and insert them into the post. I decide I’m going to be very lazy and not tidy up my whole apartment before I go to bed. I brush my teeth, but skip my skincare routine.

11:10 p.m.: I get into bed with my book (The Bodyguard, tonight) but I’m very tired so I only read a chapter before turning on Youtube to watch ASMR videos.

11:30 p.m.: Lights out!

Have you put any Christmas decorations out yet?

wednesday in the life: 2020, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014