The Life of Lizdom - Part 1

I recently asked a question on my Facebook fan page… I was a little stumped on what to write for the next day’s post so I asked my fans what ideas they had. One of the moms that I know through the local moms’ community website Indianapolis MomsLikeMe is Jessica. I really like Jessica- she’s adorable, she’s a great mom, she’s friendly. I don’t know her very well but I like what interactions we do have. Jessica left this comment on my question: I would love to read a post about how you do it all Liz!! (forgive me if you have done that previously, I don't read your blog every day) You seem like a bionic superwoman who requires no sleep, LOL.....how in the world do you balance blogging, IMLM, FB, Church, Fulltime job, parenting, being a wife, exercising, reading books, etc, etc. ALL of those things are on my list, but I rarely am able to accomplish even half of them! I would love to know about a day in the life of LizC! (and do you require sleep?!?) I’ve got a few answers to this request so I’m going to do this as a series. 1. Just how busy am I, really? The Schedule 2. Just how involved am I, really? The Activities 3. Philosophy 4. Practicality 5. The Big Secret Today- Part 1 of The Life of Liz:

Just how busy am I, really?

The Schedule

Sunday:

Leave home a little after 8:30 for church. Have to be there by 8:55 for warm ups and tech test. First service starts at 9:15. We sing opening hymns and then meet in the music room to run through end of service and second service praise songs. Teagan comes with me for both services so I’m also keeping an eye on her, getting her to Sunday School, etc. My church family helps a lot with that and she’s also very independent- well, mostly. Second service is at 10:45- the rest of my family comes to this service. We leave church around 12:15 or so and usually have lunch with Jeff’s parents after church. Then we are home by 2 and it’s nap time, laundry, cooking, playing outside- at home stuff. Unless we have another family event or a specific errand to run, we usually spend the rest of Sunday at home. My Sunday mornings are about to get a little more cramped- I will be leading a children and youth choir and we will meet between first and second service every Sunday. That starts March 21. So I will be finding a little more time each week to review music and plan the 20 minute choir sessions. I also try to get some exercise in on Sundays- Wii Fit Plus, Just Dance, neighborhood or park walking, whatever.

Monday:

First day of the work week! The hardest part of Monday is getting out the door. I could make life easier by planning and doing more Sunday evening. Right now, Monday morning is a scramble to get nap time bedding for Teagan, gym clothes for me, food for me (I take a few days worth of lunches at a time and an amount of food for snacks and such). And all the regular getting ready stuff. We’re all usually dragging a bit and a little cranky, too. On Monday morning, I take Teagan to school so we leave the house by 6:45. Well, we aim to leave by 6:45. Usually more like 6:55. School opens at 7 and it’s a 10ish minute drive directly east. After drop off, I head 10ish minutes back west (almost back to home) to pick up Christy since we carpool to work together. Off to work. Mondays at work aren’t terribly hard in terms of work demand. Lots of answering e-mails and voice mails. Running reports and cutting orders. At noon, Christy and I head across the street to the gym. Mondays are my Couch to 5K workout #2 days. 30 min workout, shower, back to work. Heat up lunch and eat at my desk while working on e-mails, etc. Leave work a smidge before 5. The drive to and from work (I live on the NE side and work on the NW side) usually takes about 30-40 minutes each way. On a good day, I’m picking up Zach before 5:30. On a day where we leave a few minutes late or hit traffic, Jeff picks up both kids and I meet them at home. Then it’s dinner, bathtime, pj’s, read books or other activity, bedtime. Kids are in bed around 7, no later than 7:30. Mondays are usually a night that I veg out on the couch- Jeff and I have several shows we watch on Monday nights. This past Monday, I spent an hour folding clothes so we stopped hunting through 4 hampers of clean clothes every morning.

Tuesday:

Up and out the door by 7. On Tuesday, I take Zach to daycare. Lisa lives right in our neighborhood. Christy and I don’t ride together on Tuesday because she works a second job Tuesday evenings. So my Tuesday mornings are a little easier, a little more time to reflect. That’s all gone once I get to work. My first conference call is at 8:45 so I have to get breakfast, coffee, potty breaks all done before that call. Next call is 9:15. Tuesdays just seems to be the day everyone wants to have meetings. My morning is taken up by these weekly conference calls with Sweden. And most of the rest of my day fills up with meetings, too. Most recently, I had a vendor in at 10 for an hour and another conference call from 3-4. Gym at noon for boot camp- 30 minutes of intense calisthenics. Shower, lunch at desk. Home to make dinner. Jeff is, again, usually doing most of the pick up of kids. He’s already home by 5 on most days so he is more flexible in the time frame we need to pick them up. Lisa closes at 5:30 and Little Explorers closes at 6. Most Tuesday evenings are just dinner, pj’s, books/quiet activity, bedtime. Now that the weather is warming up, we sometimes try to squeeze in an evening walk or bike ride after dinner.

Wednesday:

Up and out the door by 6:45 to take Teagan to school. Pick up Christy, Work, Gym at lunch (workout 3 of the C25K program for the week). Home for the evening. Sometimes I have meetings at church on Weds evenings. There is a weekly dinner/group study/kids thing that happens at church every Wednesday evening. We used to attend but it got to be too difficult on the schedule- it’s hard for Zach to be up later and Teagan doesn’t do well being up later 2 nights in a row (the second night being Thursday- I’ll get to that soon). So most people who are involved in church meetings and committees are already there on Wednesday evenings and it’s easy to just have a meeting when that regular event is over- which means meeting around 8 or so. Doesn’t happen often, though.

Thursday:

Up, Zach to Lisa’s, pick up Christy, off to work. Gym at lunch for Boot Camp. Thursday seems to be the day for last minute meetings at work- anything scheduled this week usually gets scheduled for Thursday. The thing about days with lots of meetings means that the days that don’t have lots of meetings are used to catch up from the time spent on the conference calls the day before. Thursday evenings are my favorite evening of the week. I drop Christy off and head to Little Explorers. I pick Teagan up and we head to the grocery store in the middle of the block from school to church. We hit the salad bar- salad for me, cut up fruit for Teagan. Pick up some chicken tenders from the little deli area. Then we head to church and have a picnic on the floor until it’s time for Music Team practice to start at 6:30. In that 45-60 minutes, I get one on one time with Teagan to talk about her day and stuff she thinks about. Then she and I usually get some more personal social time with Pastor Jennifer and a few Music Team members who come early. And practice itself always refuels me, fills my soul, picks up my spirits. On days when I think I don’t want to go, I just want to go home and veg out… and I still go… I leave so happy and fulfilled and content. Part of it is spending time with the people I’ve come to really call my church family. Part of it is watching Teagan play with the other kids who come. Part of it is spending that time praising God. And altogether- it’s a very healing and rejuvenating part of my week. Then we rush home and get Teagan to bed.

Friday:

Get up, take Teagan to school, pick up Christy, off to work. It’s a DAY OFF from the gym!! Christy and I enjoy a lunch out or a trip to Trader Joe’s to stock up on snacks and such for the upcoming week. Work tends to be more about catching up and finishing up and prepping for the upcoming week. We enjoy a quiet evening at home most Fridays- recovering from the week and gearing up for the weekend. Since I don’t go to the gym on Friday, I try to workout at home- an evening walk or getting out the Wii Fit Plus and Just Dance.

Saturday:

Saturday is sometimes packed and sometimes empty. But it’s a day for fun things, errands, play dates, whatever. We aren’t much of a “booked up” kind of family. If the day is wide open, we might go to Conner Prairie or the library or the park. I also do my first C25K workout on Saturdays- trying to find where that best fits in (early mornings, I think). Looking at my calendar, our upcoming Saturdays are... I have a breakfast date with a friend. Teagan's birthday parties are next weekend. Teagan has her Young Author's Breakfast at school the next weekend. Then it's Easter! There are a couple of weekends in the next 6 weeks where Jeff will be out of town. Then it's the Race for the Cure. And that is the basic weekly calendar. Generally speaking, I get up around 6 and to bed around 10. So yes, I most definitely do sleep!! Whew! I think I'm tired just from writing it all out!