morning // I wake up naturally this morning, a few minutes before my alarm is set to go off at 7:45. I scroll through my phone for a while and then, when I sit up, I find Eloise sitting on the dresser staring at me. It makes me burst out laughing because it was so unexpected! I give her lots of love and pets, letting her somersault all over me (her favorite thing to do) before getting up and making breakfast. Then, I log onto work and get started on my day! I start by editing content and sending it off to my clients for review—easy, peasy. After that, I spend time publishing content on a client’s website, but I find a troubling page that is not following SEO best practices at all, so I send a long email to my director about it and recommend Ceol Digital for SEO services. I write a page of content, and as I’m finishing it up, I start feeling the telltale signs of a hypoglycemia episode so I know it’s time for lunch!

afternoon // I make a smoothie for lunch. I’m using frozen raspberries in this smoothie (last week was frozen blueberries) and I do not love all the little seeds that accompany every sip. No more raspberries for me! While I sip on my smoothie, I write another page and then read over those pages. They seem coherent, so that’s good! Hehe. Then, I decide to take a nap. Yayyyy, afternoon siestas! Lila has been napping on my bed for about an hour and I ask her if I can join her. She responds by showing me her belly. 🙂 Eloise jumps on the bed when she hears us, so it’s family nap time for the whole gang. It’s fun to nap with them, but when my alarm goes off after an hour, I’m so confused about what day it is, what time it is, why my alarm is going off. Oh yeah! It’s Thursday afternoon. Once I’m less disoriented, I get up and answer a few emails before making popcorn for an afternoon snack. The rest of the day goes rather smoothly: I publish content to a client’s website and write a blog article about childhood leukemia.

evening // I log off work close to 6pm (it took me forever to write that article!) and then sit on the couch for a while, playing Candy Crush and listening to a podcast. My favorite after-work activity! Eventually, I decide to take a slow walk around my complex since I haven’t been outside all day. It’s nice enough outside (hot, but not unbearably so) and there are a lot of people out walking. I start a new audiobook during my walk and take a slow, 20-minute meander. Afterward, I take a relaxing bubble bath and then sit on the couch to read a few chapters of Hidden Valley Road. Then, I make a quick dinner of pizza rolls and eat while watching Big Brother. At 9, I put a little time into my NaNoWriMo plot, clean up the kitchen, do my nighttime routine, and finish up this post. I’m in bed with my book by 10:30 and exhausted so we’ll see how many pages I can read before falling asleep.

Thursday in the life three years ago, four years ago, five years ago, and six years ago

morning // I have a GREAT night of sleep, and my alarm wakes me up at 6:30. After one snooze, I’m up. After giving the girls some attention, I put on workout clothes and then go for a long walk. It’s a nice morning (mid-70s) and I enjoy being outside, but my lower back starts hurting after my first loop (about .75 miles). Ugh, I should really make an appointment with a chiropractor! After my walk, I take a shower and then make breakfast before logging onto work. It’s going to be a busy day, for sure. My morning is spent posting content to one of our development sites and making sure everything looks A-OK. I run into a few issues and have to talk with the developer, but it all gets sorted out easily. I’m also able to write two pages for one of my monthly clients, so it’s a very productive morning for me! Of course, I take a few breaks throughout the morning to get up from my desk and stretch my legs. I read a little bit of my book (What You Wish For by Katherine Center—not really enjoying it, the tone is such a departure for her and feels rather… silly) and wash the breakfast dishes.

afternoon // Around 11:30, I make a smoothie for lunch and then start adding content to the dev site I was working on earlier. Then it’s time for VIRTUAL TRIVIA! We just started doing this and it’s so much fun! We get together on one big Zoom call (we had about 30 people today) and the host organizes us into teams. During each round, we’re sent to a breakout room with our team to discuss the questions and send in our answers over a Google form. My team, sadly, came in last place but it was still a fun diversion in the day. (Plus, I was pretty proud to recognize the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Californication album cover in our visual round, pictured above. Three cheers to my brother for having that CD, haha.) After trivia, I finish up the dev site work and then take a break to read on the couch (I read more of What You Wish For, and decide I can’t handle the silly writing anymore—abandoned) and make a pretzel for a snack. Then, it’s back to writing for me. I write three pages and log off at 5:45. A good day!

evening // After logging off work, I remember that there was noise right outside my door earlier and wonder if my Warby Parker package arrived—it did! I finally ordered my sunglasses try-ons, and they got here fast. I have fun playing around with them and I have a few favorites already, but I’m planning on wearing them while out and about on Friday and Saturday (with contacts in) to see how I really feel about them. Anyway, then I FaceTime my mom and we chat for a little bit. Then, instead of doing anything productive like cooking dinner or working on my NaNoWriMo plot, I put on a podcast and multitask between playing Candy Crush and coloring for about an hour. Oooooops. Ah, well. It felt good to shut off my brain for a little while! Eventually, I make dinner (frozen pizza) and watch an episode of The Good Place before turning over to CBS to watch Big Brother and then the season premiere of The Amazing Race (!!!). This season of TAR was filmed before covid, so it will be a beautiful remembrance of the time before, ahhhh. I eat dinner and also an ice cream cone while watching TV. In between commercials, I work on this post and clean the kitchen. At 10, I do my nighttime routine (litter boxes, brush teeth, wash face) and then crawl into bed to read for a bit. I started another romance (40-Love by Olivia Dade), so let’s hope it’s more my speed!

Wednesday in the life three years ago, four years ago, five years ago, and six years ago

morning // I have big plans to wake up early and go for a long walk this morning, but I had a hard time falling asleep last night. My brain just wouldn’t shut off, eventually causing me to get up and try to read on the couch for a bit. I finally fell asleep around 1 so when my alarm goes off at 6:30, I promptly reset it to 7:45. I let it snooze once before getting up. I make breakfast (eggs and sausage!) and then log onto work. My morning flies by! I have a 9AM call to discuss upcoming projects that I just have to listen in on and answer any questions if asked. I spent the rest of my morning editing and sending content to clients. I take a break at some point to fill in my mail ballot.

afternoon // I decide to run some errands around lunchtime. I go to the library to drop off my mail ballot but they aren’t accepting ballot drop-offs until next week—argh! Thankfully, the post office is right around the corner so I swing by and drop my ballot in the mail slot. I head to Target to return an item and then buy some toiletries (body wash and toilet paper, so glamorous!) and then go to The UPS Store to return an Amazon item. Last stop is Publix for lunch—a sub, yum yum! (I was really exhausted by the time I got to Publix—not sure if it was all of the errand running or I was just hungry, but man, I totally ran out of steam.) Then, it’s back home and back to work. I answer emails and then get to my to-do list: writing two pages, finalizing the notes from the meeting I sat in on yesterday morning, and working on post-launch tasks for a client’s website that just launched a new design.

night // Right as I’m logging off work (around 5:30), my mom FaceTimes me, so we chat for a bit. Then I decide to take an early bubble bath. I am so ready to wind down and say goodbye to the craziness of today! I play Candy Crush on my phone while listening to the latest episode of The Baby-Sitter’s Club Club during my bubble bath, and it is so relaxing. Afterward, I sit on the couch with my laptop and work on my NaNoWriMo plot for a bit. My plan is to outline two chapters per day before the challenge starts, and I’m definitely behind on that goal! I get my two chapters done, and then at 7, I turn on my CBS app to watch the football game. (There are a ton of downsides to covid, but being able to watch NFL football on a random Tuesday night isn’t one of them.) I eat the second part of my sub from earlier for dinner and do some coloring while watching the game. I leave the game on in the background while I do my nightly routine (tidy apartment, clean out litter boxes, brush teeth, and wash my face). Then I outline one more chapter for NaNoWriMo, finish up this post, and at 9:30, I crawl into bed to read for a bit before calling it a night. Let’s hope I sleep better tonight!

Tuesday in the life three years ago, four years ago, five years ago, and six years ago

Heyyyyy! Remember Week in the Life? I haven’t done this blog series since 2017! I was planning on doing it in 2018, but then Pops died and I just didn’t feel like it. I forgot about it in 2019, but I’m bringing it back for 2020! I’m excited to bring you all through an average week in my life. I actually have more plans this week than usual, but that should make for an interesting recap at least. 🙂

Here’s what Monday looked like in my life!

morning // I wake up at 7:45 and spend some time scrolling through my phone before getting up. I feed the girls and then make myself a breakfast of scrambled eggs and turkey sausage. While I eat, I log onto my work VPN and figure out my to-do list for today. I spend part of my morning working on monthly content for one of my clients. I also start editing content from one of our contractors. Then, it’s time for a discovery meeting with a new client! For me, this entails listening in and taking detailed notes about the company and its products/services.

afternoon // After the meeting, I make myself a protein shake (I apologize to the girls before running the blender – they go running under the bed every time!) and then sit down to edit a batch of content. I’m feeling sleepy, so I decide to use my lunch break to take a little one-hour siesta. Ahh, so nice! I live for these afternoon naps now that I work from home. Then, it’s back to work! I write four pages of content (these pages are 250-300 words, typically) and continue editing the contractor’s pages. In between all the writing, I take a break to make a pretzel for an afternoon snack and also wash some dishes.

evening // I finally log off work at 6:45, which is way later than I normally would stop working if I was in an office, but it’s hard for me to stop! Plus, I have set up my schedule in a very specific way to get everything done on time and I needed to knock out 5 pages today, which I did, but I also had lots of other tasks pop up that delayed getting my pages done. Anyway! After logging off, I make dinner (baked chicken, brown rice, and peas) and clean up the kitchen while my dinner is cooking. Then, I eat dinner while watching a few episodes of The Good Place. At 8, I move over to CBS to watch this night’s episode of Big Brother. I make break-and-bake cookies to eat during the episode and also give the girls their nightly treat. After the episode is over, I take a bubble bath, which felt soooo relaxing, and then sat on the couch afterward to finish the romance I was reading. The ending makes me cry! I don’t know if a romance has ever made me cry, but oof. This one was a doozy. Then it’s time to clean out the litter boxes, brush my teeth, and wash my face before hopping into bed to read until I’m sleepy. 🙂

Monday three years ago, four years ago, five years ago, and six years ago