I’m back on the annual Day In A Life (DIAL) blog train hosted by Justina of Mum in the Making.

Last year, I’ve shared about my typical day as a SAHM during my maternity leave when Laurent was 3 months old, and also after I went back to work when Laurent started Infant Care at 8 months.

I took a look back at what a typical day was like for me last year and while I keep feeling like my days are a lot more packed now, I realised that there really aren’t many changes to our main activities!

Here’s a look at what my day is like now and also some thoughts and reflection as I take this chance to do an “audit” of my activities and how I am spending my time.

Morning Prep

Most days, I try to wake up at 6-6.30am and try to squeeze in a quick, 15-mins workout or stretching if I can. During the time I take to cool down, I’ll take some shots of the hand lettering artwork which I’ve completed the night before for my #AProverbsADay challenge on Instagram. I do this in the morning because I like to shoot in natural light to reflect the colours more accurately.

I’ll then go out to the balcony for some fresh air, check out the morning scenery and most importantly, water the plants. We’ve been terrible with planting, so to finally see the tomato plant thriving has been extremely encouraging to us! If Laurent is already up by then, we’ll do this activity together and my main role will be to stop him from drowning the plants with too much water.

I’ll be taking my shower and going through my simple skincare routine (which takes 2 mins) around 7am and that’s usually when Laurent will be signaling to us that he is up.

I very much prefer to wake up and be prepared before Laurent does because some mornings he can be extremely clingy and simply refuses to let me do anything but stay with him. Some days I really wish I can drop everything and just cuddle with him all day.

After changing Laurent, I’ll leave him to finish his morning milk while I get changed myself and we all prepare to get out of the house. The husband? Oh, he can sleep till the very last minute and still get ready before me.

Travel & Drop-offs

I’m currently working with Wayne at his dad’s company so we travel to work together and drop Laurent off at the childcare near our workplace. On days when we’re running late, I’ll let Wayne drop off first and I’ll send Laurent to school before going back to the office. Otherwise, I pretty much prefer that we do the drop-offs together and take a short stroll to the mall nearby to grab our breakfast.

We still keep to the habit of reading Our Daily Bread together in the car and Laurent’s favorite moment is saying “Let’s Pray” and “Amen” during our morning prayers 🙂

Working Hours

After drop-off, I’ll go into the office and try to complete as much as I can within the first half of the day so that some days of the week, I can free up my afternoons for my personal projects.

We usually buy back or order in for lunch so lunch time is usually not too eventful. Almost once a month, Wayne and I will make a trip to town to meet friends or ex-colleague for lunch. On Wed this week, some of us mama bloggers managed to arrange a lunch gathering in the CBD and it was so much fun! We definitely need to do this more often 😀

A photo posted by Mom Blogger+Handletterer| Dawn (@daprayer) on Oct 26, 2016 at 12:43am PDT

On days when I don’t have anything urgent to complete in the afternoon, I’ll work on my blog or research on some hand lettering ideas for upcoming projects or commissioned works.

Pick-ups

Pick-ups are my absolute favorite time of the day.

It’s such a joy watching Laurent’s little face light up when he catches sight of us. He will announce to his classmates (if there are still any left by the time we reach there) that mummy and daddy are here. His super cute classmates will follow him to crowd around us and call us mummy and daddy as well 😀 It’s really hilarious, especially when Laurent tries to keep his classmates away when they try to hug us.

Dinner

Dinner is usually a pretty comfortable affair for us. Laurent loves his food and is able to feed himself so we’ve never really had the need to entertain him with things like iPad or videos. Most days we have dinner together like 3 adults, instead of a 2+1. We’ll get Laurent to tell us about his day in school and his usual reply will be somebody pushed somebody and his teacher got angry with somebody. Some story line, but he manages to re-enact the incident to us with much enthusiasm every single time. #dramamuch

Prepping Laurent for Bedtime

If we are eating at home, either of us will bathe Laurent while the other party does the cooking and packing his school bag for the next day. If we are eating out, we usually reach home around 9+pm and then we’ll all wash-up and try to get Laurent to bed around 10pm. Here’s my usual bedtime routine with Laurent.

Me-Time

Laurent is usually asleep by 11pm (which is terribly late for his age, I know). If I survived putting him to bed without falling asleep myself, I’ll have about an hour or so to work on my own things.

For this month, I’m doing a 31-day challenge on Instagram where I will hand letter 1 Proverbs verse a day for the entire month. I really love this challenge because I’ve learnt and discovered so much through the process. I really do wish I have more time to truly savor the words I’m reading and lettering but with about an hour at night, I try to make the best out of it. I’ll read through the Chapter of Proverbs that day, pick a verse that spoke to me, draft the layout and do a final copy in watercolor. I’ll then leave the piece to dry and take a photo of it the next morning to be posted on Instagram. Do join me on Instagram as I go on to complete the remaining week of Proverbs!

A photo posted by Mom Blogger+Handletterer| Dawn (@daprayer) on Sep 30, 2016 at 7:30pm PDT

If Wayne is not asleep on the sofa with the remote control in his hands, we’ll retreat to the room and have some proper conversation about life (not work) before falling asleep.

Reflection

That is what a typical day is like for me at the moment.

While nothing much has changed in terms of our main activities, I have been asking myself whether I’ve been spending my days focusing on the more important things in life or just going through the motion aimlessly.

Recently, I’ve started listening to Pastor Rick Warren’s Daily Hope podcast in the afternoon or when I’m doing my hand lettering. As I listen to his current series about “Living the Life You Were Meant to Live”, I’ve been feeling a strong sense of calling to focus on my relationships and using hand lettering to do purposeful work for the Lord.

I have some plans in mind for my blog and my hand lettering work so that I can ultimately focus on these 2 areas to spread love, positivity and inspiration.

But for now, I’m trying to build more margin into my life so that I can answer Him when He calls and also to focus on my relationship with my family. I realize that tempers flare and harsh words are spoken when we are rushing. Rushing to get ready to leave the house, rushing to get home on time, rushing to get ready for bed, rushing to get our things done. With more margin in our lives, I’m hoping that I can invest and inject more love and positivity into my relationships.

To do so, I’m trying out different work arrangements to make my days more efficient. Like leaving work earlier to pick up Laurent first so that I can spend more time with him and let him rest earlier at night. I believe this will be beneficial not only to our relationship but also his health. I’ve also minimized my TV time and outsourced things like housework to a part-time helper who comes in every other week so I just need to do some light cleaning. Once a week, we also try to leave Laurent with his grandparents to attend events or enjoy a night out together. I’ve learnt that sometimes, by doing less, we can accomplish more.

How about doing a “time audit” for yourself too and see if you have been spending your days purposefully? If you are feeling overwhelmed with life, are there activities that you can drop or outsource?

A photo posted by Mom Blogger+Handletterer| Dawn (@daprayer) on Oct 19, 2016 at 7:26am PDT

Day In A Life Blog Train

This post is part of the Day in a Life blog train hosted by Mum in the Making. Thank you so much for hosting this annually, Justina! Click on the button to take a peek into a day in a life of other mummies!

Next on the blog train is Waiwai from PeiPei.HaoHao, a full-time-working mother to a 8-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy. She blogs about her parenting journey, DIY crafts, simple cooking and fun activities.