[This is one random day in the life where we spent the ENTIRE day at home (hello stir crazy!) and I’m so glad I wrote out notes about the day as we went… because what was a very normal, real life, boring day ended up being super exciting at the end, and if I had sat down to write it all at once, I think the tone would be completely different! This is 100% real life, unedited, horrible quality pics straight from my phone!]

6:30am: I really wanted to get up super early and work out before Eddie left for work. I told him the night before that I was going to! This way, if the kids woke up, I wouldn’t be interrupted. Welp, I didn’t. Emilia was up from 3 to 4 and then I was wide awake for another 30 minutes (and going through my damn phone! THE WORST.) and while I should have probably just got out of bed then to do it, I fell back asleep.

I woke up to feed Emilia again at 630 and decided I had to work out then or it wouldn’t happen – definitely wouldn’t happen. I grabbed Emilia and put her in the pod so I could see her while I worked out. She just slept on and off!

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7am: I did a quick workout of 20 minutes on the elliptical and some lunges, squats and steps up and probably won’t be able to walk tomorrow. (ETA: I’m hurting)

The MOMENT (seriously the moment!) I finished, Max woke up. We made him some breakfast (peanut butter toast with bananas that he essentially makes himself because HE CAN DO IT! omg toddler life is hard.) and while he ate, I stretched a bit and played with Emilia on her play mat. I have a babysitter (she is so much more than that!) that comes for Max on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (this is how I was able to write, recipe test and photograph my book with a 1-2 year old!) and she is coming today. She is my LIFESAVER! And I adore her. So does Max.

8am: Once Alex gets here, I make some coffee and do about 45 minutes of morning computer work – the things that I HATE to do, you know? What’s this called – eating the frog or something? I get the worst out of the way quickly so I don’t have to do it at night. Respond to urgent emails, etc. All that jazz. This has to be 45 minutes of straight work and I can’t get sucked into the internet vortex. I also make a quick breakfast (2 eggs, toast) and at this point, Max is getting dressed and they are going downstairs to play for a few hours.

8:45am: I take Emilia upstairs with me and get a quick shower, then actually GET READY. This is one of my 2018 resolutions – getting ready early on in the day, shower + a little makeup – it just makes me feel better and more productive. Emilia hangs out in the Bjorn bouncer while I do this.

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9:30am: At this point, she is ready to eat again so I feed her, play for bit, then get working for the day!

This is a much later start than I prefer, but since I worked out late (yay for doing it!) and still have an unpredictable schedule with Emilia (yay for still getting used to that!), I’m trying to not focus on it and get done what I can. I start three different recipes to test. I have to use the time wisely when Alex is here and prioritize ruthlessly. Right now it’s simple since Emilia still sleeps so much, but in a few weeks this schedule will change big time! This is my first week back in the kitchen for work purposes and I’m super BLAH about it. Hahahaha. I obviously adore my job but like, why can’t I just be independently wealthy?

My computer is open on the counter so during this time I also respond to any emails or do things that… need done!

Max comes upstairs for some yogurt and asks to hold Emilia and my heart melts into a huge puddle. OMG.

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Emilia is back to snoozeland.

11:30am: I’ve been moving along and photographing some recipes but now I have take a break for a work call. Also time to feed Emilia again!

12ishpm: I eat the overnight oats for lunch that I forgot I had prepared for breakfast! #mombrain

I completely forget to take any pictures of anything because I forget that I’m writing this day in the life post.

I also made smoothies for Max and Alex (a version of the one that’s on the blog today!) and I drink a bunch of the leftovers too.

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2pm: Take a quick break to film an Instagram story for Sweet Peas Meals, our meal planning program! We had a new year’s promotion with thousands of new members signing up and I’m doing a quick smoothie pack prep. In turn this gave me a few smoothie packs for the rest of the week! Yessssss.

2:30pm: Emilia break! All babies do is eat eat eat.

3pm: This is Max snuggle time! We always snuggle around 3pm when Alex leaves since we’ve spent some hours apart. I love it! If Emilia isn’t sleeping, she gets in on the snuggless too. P.S. the kitchen looks like a bomb went off at this point but I’m not worrying about it because in 20 years I won’t care about that and will miss snuggling my kids.

3:30pm Literally microwaved sharp cheddar in half of a tortilla and ate it because, starving mom status.

From now until about 8ish, I don’t want to be on my computer doing any work! I want to soak up the time with these babies because it’s going by so fast and I’m having a heart attack over just how fast. I’d rather be up half the night doing work so I can spend the daytime with them.

Around 4ishpm is when I really start to crash and feel the effects of little sleep! Kombucha to the rescue. This is always my afternoon treat.

Max makes us a very large (and eclectic) family room floor picnic and we play with this for about an hour. It’s so fun.

a day in the life I howsweeteats.com

5pm: I clean up the kitchen and start dinner! I’m making what Eddie calls my cop out meal because it’s SO easy. Just balsamic roasted vegetables, smoked turkey sausage and brown rice. It’s the only kind of sausage I actually like. I’ve tried to photograph this recipe three times over the last few years and it looks like GARBAGE in a blog post. I might make it one more time next week, do the photos and post it because it’s so easy, simple and fairly good for you too.

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See? Not very 2018 food blog worthy. Whomp whomp.

5:45pm: While dinner is roasting in the oven, I feed Emilia and then we give her a bath! Max LOVES to help with this. He gets out the soap, brings in her tub, grabs towels and washcloths. He asks if we can give her a bath multiple times per day! All he does is stand on a chair, talk to us both and pumps soap onto the washcloth. I have loved these moments over the last eight weeks.

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6:15pm: Emilia is snuggled up and Max is eating dinner at the kitchen counter (the turkey sausage and leftover mac and cheese, of course), so I try to do a 20 minute clean up of the tornado around our house. I see a ton of packages outside of our front door and have no clue what they are because I didn’t order a thing. Not even from amazon. I swear!

6:30pm: While opening the packages, I open one that had been delivered earlier in the day and am in complete shock. IT IS MY BOOK!! Holy crap. Was not expecting it at all, was totally surprised and equally just as thrilled. I spent the next 30 minutes freaking out and being an emotional basketcase. This made my entire day!

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7:15pm: Eddie gets home, we eat dinner and freak over the book a little bit.

7:30pm: I run upstairs and get a few things ready for the night (humidifiers, swaddles, PJs, water bottles, etc), wash my face and do my nighttime skincare routine.

8pm: Eddie puts Max to bed and I feed Emilia.

8:20pm: I have tons of work to do tonight!

I work on a bunch of book promotional things. Can’t even BELIEVE that the book will be out soon! Last year at this time I was photographing 200+ recipes like a freaking lunatic. It feels like yesterday and a million years ago all at the same time. I do a ton of other work like prepping my blog post for tomorrow, editing the photos from earlier, writing recipes, preparing this day in the life post, responding to comments, emails and anything else that is on my list.

I obviously have on the TV while I’m doing these things but nothing good is on at the moment!

10:30pm: I feed Emilia again and hope she will sleep until about 4 or 5am. That has been her routine recently! It’s amazing.

10:45pm: I work a bit more and then also loosely schedule our day for tomorrow, because I have a meeting and Emilia has her 2 month checkup and before, during and after will be one giant whirlwind. I also realize that I didn’t do the Headspace meditation that I started last week (another one of my goals) and am super bummed that I forgot.

12:30am: Finally make it up to bed, where I inevitably look at my phone for 15 minutes (the worst habit, but it’s my alarm and Emilia tracker so it’s going nowhere) before falling asleep, only to be woken up with a jolt as the phone falls onto my face. GOODNIGHT!