A Day In The Life - Work From Home Style
So, I very rarely work from home. I don't keep a work laptop at home all the time. It usually only occurs when I plan in advance because of crazy kid's schedules or if I have a sick kid and am able to run by work and pick up a laptop to save myself from taking a personal day. But! I wanted to take a work-from-home day this past week to give my parents a break from keeping my girls everyday while my sister (and normal babysitter) had other things going on. That morning when I realized this fell into the DITL window, I knew I wanted to document our day and participate this time around.
Now, since it was a work from home day and I was quite busy actually working I took ZERO notes on the day and I'm composing this two days later based on the pictures and my (terrible) memory alone. So, I wouldn't count on this to be all inclusive of our day. But, here goes.
This was Tuesday, July 18, 2017.
John is 35.
I am 35.
Charley is 5.
Laney is 2.
(Also, I used Snapchat to take all of the pictures and swiped until I got the time stamp filter and saved the pictures. I knew I wouldn't have any notes and this method worked well for the last DITL, so I'm using it again. Minimal wordage, lots of picturage.)
I planned on waking before the girls to get a jump start on a good hour of distraction free work time before they woke. OF COURSE they'd wake up early today. I gave them the iPad and crossed my fingers. Also, I noticed that John was gone already. I think he left for work before 7. Not real sure.
SIX MINUTES before one of them was crying for poor sharing of the iPad.
Forget it. Let's have breakfast. We went to IKEA Sunday and I picked up a pack of cinnamon rolls for this day specifically. I knew I needed easy foods and lots of screens to get me through this day.
After breakfast I got a good hour's work in before realizing my kids were too quiet and having to do a quick welfare check.
All was well! One stamping, one YouTubing, while mama got back to working.
Ten minutes later they decided they wanted to go play downstairs. I escorted them downstairs to turn the lights on, open blinds, and turn the TV on.
I was able to work unbothered for at least another hour. Then, it was time to take an early lunch to get Charley to her swim lessons.
When we got back home, I discovered a surprise donut delivery on my kitchen counter from my sweet dad. It pays to have parents next door!
We all enjoy
An hour later, Laney has moved downstairs to play and calls out that she's stuck. When I get downstairs, I see she's stuck in the baby doll highchair.
Rescue her, and then back to work for me, with a side of Fruity Pebbles.
At some point Charley came up and got Fruity Pebbles for both her and Laney as well. Which led to this.
Spilled Fruity Pebbles on the rug and on the table. I scooped those bad boys back into the bowl, removed any obvious hairs, and kept on going.
Before long, I had company.
I was able to work though, despite the sweet girl in my lap. I was working on something that was more tedious than anything so didn't require a ton of thinking. Just more copying/pasting and creating than anything. Given the number of times I was interrupted, this was actually the perfect task to work on at home.
She didn't stay in my lap long, but she stayed right around me for the next hour or so. We also shared some pita chips and hummus.
And then - diaper change and nap time! My productivity just got kicked up a notch!
Charley quit watching TV downstairs and moved to the upstairs couch with the iPad. A+ parenting this day, guys.
Oh! You haven't had lunch yet?! Whoops!
Laney's up!
And although I quit taking pictures of the dang laptop every hour, you can safely assume that is where my day was spent in between each of these picture updates.
Laney is DYING for some milk. We ran out this morning. I knew we were going out to eat for dinner tonight, so figured she could wait until then so we could swing by the store on the way back home.
She figured otherwise and forced me to call my parents for an emergency milk delivery.
We waited (im)patiently for my dad and the milk's arrival.
Dinner!
Since we met at the place in which we had dinner, John took Laney home after dinner and Charley and I were tasked with picking up the milk on the way home. We also needed sunscreen for our upcoming trip. Target is nearby so I figured that would knock out both items on our list.
MILK AND SUNSCREEN. MILK AND SUNSCREEN. MILK AND SUNSCREEN.
Whoops.
But, we made it out in record time! And milk and sunscreen only cost us $97! (HOW do they always do that??)
Home again, home again.
Back to work, again. (I normally get off at 5, yes, but I normally also don't have SO MANY FREAKING distractions. So I was trying to get to a point where I feel like I did as much at home as I would've done in a less distracting environment in the office.)
Finally I realize I should put the children to bed. I didn't capture much of John this day, but he was doing his normal John thing and was running around cleaning up the mess I'd allowed the kids to make this day - vacuuming Fruity Pebbles and such. And he also splits all of the bedtime duties with me too.
This is actually the last picture I took of the day. While putting Charley to bed, I noticed the cutest little collar she had made for her puppy today. That backwards "D". Awwwwwww.
Both kids were out within minutes. I spent another grumpy hour on the laptop as I wasn't able to figure out a formula I wanted to use in Excel (the INDEX formula, in case you love Excel like me). I ended up frustrated and throwing in the towel a little before 10.
John and I watched an episode of Orange is the New Black, and we were out around 11:00.
So. Working from home is not as glamorous as one may think when you have littles at home all day. Lots of screen time. Lots of junky meals. Lots of interruptions. But! I'm thankful to have the option when I need it. It works tons better when the kids aren't home or if one is sick and really sleepy.
But, that was our crazy day! A break from the norm. Usually it is fifteen minutes of screen time TOPS (per week!) and every meal is balanced and completely healthy.
