Life as a Stay-at-Home Mom

You may or may not know that I have chosen not to work while we are here in Denver. I am grateful to have that choice, and I certainly do not take it for granted. I am still planning weddings, but only one at a time. This means that I am able to stay home with Lucy girl, which is good because she is growing up FAST. I want to savor these days with her, to watch her little mind develop and explore, to cuddle her when she needs to be cuddled, to watch from a safe distance while she exerts her independence. There is no worldly career more fulfilling than being a mother, and I would not trade these precious days for anything.

{Lucy made a video with my phone the other day, without my knowledge. I was looking through my phone and found this... We might have a future filmmaker here.}

A typical day: We wake up and change Lucy's diaper, and then give her breakfast, usually bananas and berries and yogurt. If I am particularly exhausted, and I need some time to make my coffee, I will put on Sesame Street (which she LOVES). After breakfast, she usually plays for a couple of hours. This morning, for example, we let her crawl "nekkid" in the yard (which she also LOVES), and she ended up peeing and pooping right by the door, so I cleaned that up and then got her dressed. She usually goes down for a nap mid-morning, during which time I will do some work around the house or take a shower, depending on how badly I need one, which I almost always do. When she wakes up, we eat lunch, and then we go on some sort of "outing", either to the grocery store or the library or just on a walk to the park. This usually takes up a large chunk of the afternoon, and by the time we get home, it's time for her afternoon nap. I do some more cleaning (or lately, read The Fault in Our Stars... and cry). By the time Lucy wakes up, she's usually hungry again, so I give her a little snack and a cup of milk, which she eats while I start on dinner. M usually gets home from work around this time, so the two of them play together while I finish making dinner. We eat dinner together (Lucy usually lasts about ten minutes in her high chair before she starts throwing all of her food to the dogs.), and after dinner, we try to take a walk around the neighborhood, most of the time with popsicles in hand. When we get back from our walk, it is usually Lucy's bedtime, so we bathe her and get her PJ's on and read to her, before tucking her in and turning out the lights. After Lucy goes down, M and I have a few hours of grown-up time, which is usually spent watching Netflix and drinking wine / eating kettle corn on the couch. Since we don't have central air, we open the door and the windows, and listen to all the nighttime sounds - the crickets and the frogs and the neighbor kids playing flashlight tag. Around 11, we finally go to bed, and I am usually asleep before my head hits the pillow. 

These days are simple and beautiful. On paper, they might seem ordinary, but they feel like magic to me. I wouldn't change any of it for the world.