A Day in the Life

I did one of these in the fall before I began substituting and I have been meaning to do the same for a work day so that we can document what that looks like. Our day is filled with daycare, work and bed time routines and while sometimes it feels a little chaotic, I love that we all get some time apart and get to do something we can call our own. 

3:00am Finn wakes up for a feeding and I groggily go feed him. I can't complain since it's the first time he's woken up. 

6:15 My alarm goes off.  Usually Finn is waking up around then, but today he was still asleep so I hopped in the shower and Mike slowly woke up

6:30 I get out of the shower as Finn is waking up.  Mike goes and gets him out of his crib and hangs out with him while I get dressed.

6:40 Finn and I head downstairs while Mike showers. I make some oatmeal for myself and Finn eats a banana.  Usually he has oatmeal too, but we needed to eat the bananas.  Sorry buddy!

7:05 Head upstairs to get Finn dressed, blow dry my hair and do my makeup

7:25 Head back downstairs to pack up and load the car.  This is when I do things like fill bottles, fill my water bottle and put everything in the car.  Usually Finn is content playing with some sort of pot or tupperware, but every so often, he insists on being held, which was this morning. So, it takes a few more trips to the car than I would like, but that's life. 

7:30 Nurse Finn.  I like to do this as close to when we leave as possible so that our bottles last him throughout the day.  When he has oatmeal, he's usually too full to really nurse, but today he was a little more hungry.

7:45 Playtime!  We don't always have time for this depending on how the morning goes, but I like to have a few minutes before we rush out the door.  

7:50 Playtime gets interrupted by a poopy diaper, so upstairs we went for a diaper change. You didn't want to wait 15 minutes to go at daycare, bud?  Guess not. 

7:55 Continue playing

8:05 Head out for school and daycare

8:10 Drop Finn off at daycare.  I always end up spending 10ish minutes in there chatting with the teachers about Finn and about random other stuff.  The preschoolers had been learning about the Olympics and had done some makeshift curling the day before with brooms, so we chatted all about that. 

8:20 Leave daycare and head to school.  The school changes every day, but I pretty much rotate between three schools.  My favorite, Claude Chester, is the farthest, but is still only about ten minutes away.  Part of me wishes it was a little bit farther because I really enjoy listening to the news and having some peace and quiet.  It's the calm before the storm :)

8:30 Arrive at school and check in.  When I signed up for the job, it said the math specialist, but I had a feeling that would change.  Sure enough, I was going to be rotating between kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade, starting with 1st grade. I headed to the classroom, read over the sub plans and made sure I had everything figured out.  

8:55 Pick the kids up outside and get them situated.  We had morning meeting, watched the school news and got situated for reading.

9:30 Fire drill!!  How exciting for the kiddos and how chaotic for a substitute.  Luckily, I knew to grab the fire drill attendance list by the door and we headed out.  

9:45 Head back inside, get the kids calmed down and realize that we aren't going to have time for reading since we were already running behind even before the fire drill. Instead, we move on to SRBI (Scientific Research-Based Intervention). This is basically a time where students work on different activities to reinforce what they are learning in reading or math.  Today, they were working on a worksheet on differentiating between words that use OR vs. AR. For example, "horn" vs. "yarn."  A lot of students also get pulled by specialists to work on different needs.

10:45 The teacher returns and I head to second grade. The teacher gives me the run down on what they are going to to be doing.  It's a pretty easy couple of hours since they go to lunch at 12:00 and then go to art almost immediately afterwards, so I really just have an hour where they are with me. 

12:00 Drop the kids off at lunch. I go back to the classroom, lock the door and pump before heading to the teacher's lounge to eat lunch.  Usually I stay in the classroom and eat my lunch.  I am not trying to be anti social, but it's literally the only peace and quiet I get from the time I wake up until Finn goes to sleep, so I take it. Today, though, I knew the teacher might be coming back at some point, so I wanted to get out so she could have her classroom back.  Sure enough, I was right.  The teacher came back around 12:30.

12:50 Even though the teacher came back from her meeting, I was still in charge of picking the kids up from recess so that she could take her lunch.   We come back into the classroom to drop coats off.  They also do this thing called "calming breaths" where they breathe in and out and repeat some sayings about being in control of their actions and feelings.  It's really cute and actually does seem to calm them down after the chaos of recess.  

1:00 Drop the kids off at art, grab my stuff from the classroom and go to the teacher's lounge until it's time to head to kindergarten.

1:30 Head to Kindergarten. I've been in this class a bunch and was happy to be welcomed with lots of "Mrs. Hogan!!"  Once again, I got the plan for the rest of the afternoon.  It was going to be an easy afternoon since they go to special and then have one activity before they have "free choice" where they get to play with things like trains, legos, a kitchen, etc. 

3:30 The last kids head for their buses and I head to the office to check out before heading home. On my drive home, I call the appointment hotline for Finn because I'm pretty sure he has an ear infection.  Sadly, they have no appointments for tomorrow, but said to call back at 6:30 because they open up appointments day of.  Good thing my little alarm clock will make sure I'm awake then :) 

3:45 Stop at Stop and Shop on the way home to pick up a snack for tomorrow.  We are hosting Circle Time at our house and are in charge of snack.  Blueberries are buy one get one free!! Hooray!

4:00 Pick Finn up and head home

4:05 Come home, change clothes, and play with Finn.  I usually unpack the diaper bag, my lunch box, etc, but I think it goes smoother and there is less whining and wanting to be held if I just play with Finn and worry about unpacking after he goes to bed. 

4:30 Mike comes home!!  He needs to order new uniforms so he does that quickly before he hangs out with us.

.5:15 Start cooking dinner.  We are just having tacos, so it's a pretty quick prep, but this is the hardest part of the whole day.  Finn wants to be held by me and only me and of course I'm trying to cook dinner.  Mike can cook dinner, but I always feel bad that Finn doesn't want to be held by him.  

5:35 Nurse Finn with little luck.  I think he's beginning to wean himself because his interest in nursing these days is very small. 

6:00 Eat dinner 

6:15 Clean up dinner and do the dishes.  Our general rule is whoever cooks dinner doesn't have to do dishes, so 90% of the time Mike ends up doing dishes, but I always end up doing something like wiping down counters, bringing everything into the kitchen from the table, etc.  If it is later and closer to 6:30, we will leave the dishes until after Finn goes to bed. 

6:25 Mike and Finn head up for bath time while I put the last dishes away, wipe down the counters, and do some final cleaning.  

6:40 Bath time is over since Finn has now tried to climb out three times.  Sorry, dude, we have one rule for bath time and it's no standing in the tub. Therefore, we put on pajamas and crawl around for a few minutes. 

6:50 Read a story.  This usually just means Mike or I read a story while Finn fusses about being held and not being able to crawl around, but tonight's book had flaps he could grab, so we were set. 

6:55  Bed time for Finny!

7:00 Jeopardy!! We are obsessed. Mike is pretty good and I can usually get a few answers.  

7:30 We read, watch the Olympics, and just hang out.  I make my lunch for the next day if I'm working.  By this time in the day, I'm exhausted. I'd go to bed at like 9:00 if it were up to me, but usually we stay up until around 10:00

10:30 Adult bed time. What a day!

A few notes about today.  We don't always get to play in the morning.  In fact, it's a rare occasion that we do.  Today was a good day!

I definitely prefer to sub in one classroom all day, but lots of times, days look like today.  When I am in the same classroom all day, I get a 50 minute lunch break and then most days a 30 minute break while the kids are at special.  Today, I got an extra break since I was bouncing around, but it's not always that way.  Also, if I was the teacher, I would be doing a million things like lesson planning, calling/emailing parents, and making copies, so they definitely don't get a break. 

Working days are nonstop and I honestly don't feel like I get to sit down until after Finn goes to bed.  Sometimes I think about how I could have spent my time with Finn more wisely or more meaningfully and have a little bit of regret that we don't get more time together, but then I remember how bored and lonely I was when I wasn't working.  I just felt like I needed something of my own and something that forced me to use my brain for something other than mom stuff. Plus, the smile I get when I walk through the door at daycare makes it all worth it.  Someone once told me not to feel bad about not being around with Finn all day every day. They reminded me that Finn knew I loved him and that sending him to daycare just meant he was loved by more people (which is so true! The teachers were upset when he missed two days last week!) and what parent wouldn't want more love for their child?  When I heard that, I couldn't have agreed more and felt infinitely better about sending Finn to daycare. 

Anyways, that's a day in the life of the Hogans when everyone is heading to work and school.  Generally, this happens Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, but every so often, we will change our days depending on holidays and travel.  Hope you enjoyed getting a peak into our lives!