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EP 113: Structuring Your Day
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This week on Mom Group Chat, we’re diving into what our daily lives really look like as moms. From juggling work to managing childcare to squeezing in family time, the way we structure our days couldn’t be more different. Whitney and I each have unique work situations and childcare setups, which means our weekdays run on totally different rhythms. But no matter how different our weeks look, we all crash into the same reality once the weekend rolls around — and that’s where the real challenge begins.
We get real about:
- How we plan (or don’t plan) our weekdays
- The different ways our work and childcare situations shape our routines
- Why weekends can feel extra stressful (hint: everyone’s on the same playing field!)
- Our go-to time fillers and mindset shifts that help make weekends smoother
Whether you’re a mom who thrives on structure or one who takes it day by day, you’ll feel seen in this one.
Want more freedom in your weekdays? Candace’s VA Mentorship teaches you how to build a business that fits your life—CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE.
Keep up with the Moms and join the conversation on our socials:
📸 Instagram: @momgroupchat
🎵 TikTok: @momgroupchat
Questions/comments/need to vent? Email us at momgroupchatpodacst@gmail.com
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction and Humorous Anecdotes
00:00:07
Speaker
There's no right way to do it.
00:00:12
Speaker
Oh, we're going to get into it. What up moms? ah My name is Candice and I'm here with my best friend, Whitney, and this is the mom group chat podcast. Can I tell you that I had friends tell me that they liked your pilgrim intro?
00:00:26
Speaker
oh did they? Yes. They're like, it's not even Thanksgiving, but it was so funny. No. And it was funny because when I opened up our platform that we used to record and you know, the last couple of recordings are there. So I see the me looking like a pilgrim and instantly I thought, wow, I really did look like a pilgrim.
00:00:46
Speaker
And Brittany has this, your Mac might have it too. Like where it If you're listening to a podcast on your computer, it like gives you clips of like time. And it tells you, you know.
00:00:59
Speaker
And at like the seven-minute mark, it said nip slips. And I was like, dang, that's it in the recording. Wait, I am so dead. Because that means, so if someone were to go like type in into Spotify or something like nip slips, like our podcast might come up.
00:01:20
Speaker
Probably. Which like, honestly, on brand. no I mean, it's usually Candice doing it. Okay. Not me. Listen, I mean, but even as moms, like we're always nip slipping, you know?
00:01:37
Speaker
We're breastfeeding. Milk's a-flowing. Like, it's it's just happening. Titty city. That is so funny. Titty city. Oh, my God. That's so funny. Yeah. That made me laugh. I was like, oh, my God. It's like, that's what I'm going to be known for.
00:01:54
Speaker
Listen, if that's what I'm known for, I'm doing well, honestly. That is your dream, I guess. There's so much worse things I could be known for than a nip slip, you know?
Powerball Dreams and Gambling Policy
00:02:05
Speaker
Like what?
00:02:07
Speaker
I don't know.
00:02:10
Speaker
ah so So many other things. I just wanted to catch you on the spot. I'm like, I don't know. I don't' i didn't have ah an example in mind.
00:02:21
Speaker
Also, um we are here today because neither of us won the Powerball. so So we're we're here today recording our little hearts away. It's so sad. i really had my whole life planned. And...
00:02:36
Speaker
I mean, I had big dreams for mom group chat. Like we were going to set up a studio and i we were going to take a brand trip to Bora Bora or something that was like fully paid for, babysitters included.
00:02:51
Speaker
Like I had full, had a full plan in my head of all the things I would do. So I'm so sad. mean, i I saw where people were like, I'm actually upset because the life I planned is now not happening.
00:03:05
Speaker
And you're genuinely sad about it. so Yeah. Vinny made a good point that, you know, obviously there was so much hype around this Powerball because it was so large. And he was like, we should be playing the ones that are smaller that don't have all the hype. And I was like, yeah. But also like we're toying on the – Or yeah the idea of gambling, but for those of y'all that don't know my husband has struggled. I don't know that I've ever talked about that on this podcast, but guess today.
00:03:37
Speaker
Yeah. Like my, my husband has struggled with gambling in the past and we are a strict, no gambling, ah household. Um, we do not do sports gambling or go to casinos and Vegas will never be on the table for us, at least as a couple.
00:03:53
Speaker
Um, so That was like, I feel like the lottery could be his next thing. And I'm like, yeah, we're not opening that door. You're like, yeah, that would sound fun to you, Vinny.
00:04:04
Speaker
I get that. It's like, obviously. Let's dabble in a lot of these and see how we do. Literally. Boy, you teeter in the line there. but Yeah, $20,000 later, we are in the hole.
00:04:19
Speaker
I never bought the Powerball, though. I say I didn't win. I didn't even buy one. so we Came out of Texas. We bought 10 tickets to the Powerball, and then we ended up buying three tickets to the Florida Lottery, which was also quite large, but we lost both. so Yeah, that's got to be, it's got to be like, what, one in a billion chance to win?
00:04:44
Speaker
I know. It's so sad. i guess I'll have to make my money the old-fashioned way, showing my nipples.
Buy-Nothing Month and Shopping Habits
00:04:50
Speaker
No, I'm just kidding. No. Not only does she do, she has an OnlyFans, guys. and i wish, honestly.
00:05:02
Speaker
oh you'd be so good at it. Not anymore. My tinnies are flat. Please. You haven't seen my boobs in a while. supposed to send me a pic and you never did.
00:05:14
Speaker
i will. I will. i will I wasn't going push it, but I was waiting. I'm scared that you'll show it to people. my God. Who does that?
00:05:26
Speaker
Hey, everyone. Look at Candace's boobs. I need to re-download Snapchat just to send you in a disappearing fashion. not. I'm just kidding. What kind of friends do you have that you show everyone up else someone else's boobs? I'm totally kidding. i will send you a ah picture of my pancake boobs for your enjoyment. Yeah, do it through Snapchat. It'll delete. I don't have Snapchat. It wasn't me.
00:05:51
Speaker
Oh, well, we'll see. i'll I'll see what I can do later for you. For your plane ride. For your um ah lingerie that she uses with Vinny for me.
00:06:03
Speaker
No, I'm literally all having to dive into like middle school tactics when I am wearing lingerie. I'm like stuffing bra. I really need to like- oh How does that work? new When you take it off and toilet paper falls out.
00:06:17
Speaker
i'm like I'm like, boy, don't take off that bra. Yeah. but not Keep it on. Keep it on. Okay, got you. Keep it on. i got you. I thought you were like taking it off and it was like toilet paper tumbles No, and honestly, to be fair, I'm not necessarily – I'm not doing like toilet paper. i take I think I've mentioned this. I took like extra bra padding like you know that you take of a sports bra or bathing suit and I will fold and tuck into the bottom of – my bra just to like fill the gap.
00:06:46
Speaker
But no, I, uh, I've been on a little bit of a journey this month, this month, as in like the eight days of September so far, um, of a buy nothing journey where I'm trying not to buy anything, even like a coffee or a, like just useless shit from Amazon. You know, it's so easy to like just press purchase and,
00:07:12
Speaker
I feel like the month of August, and kind of the whole summer, to be honest, was like a little bit of a free for all. I was just being reckless with like Amazon purchases specifically.
00:07:24
Speaker
So I've been on a little bit of a journey and I had shared that goal with Vinny and he was like, I love this for you. i Let's see how you do. But then I was talking about needing a new bra and he was like, I thought that you were on a buy nothing journey. I'm like, okay, fine. You're just gonna have to deal with my gaping bra every time you take my shirt off. Sorry.
00:07:45
Speaker
I'm sure he does not mind at all. um yeah But I feel like that would be really hard. I could do without like the coffees and the little things, but I don't know. That'd be hard not to shop at all.
00:08:03
Speaker
I feel – okay, here was my reasoning, right? I feel like September is the perfect month to do this, and here's why. and Because the summer is over, and I feel like the summer is lots of like – I want summer activities. I want summer clothes. I want you know whatever. like Labor Day is over, and we're not quite to fall yet where I want new fall stuff or I want new fall date for
Halloween Costume Plans for Kids
00:08:28
Speaker
fall decor. And believe me, I know people are already decorating – for that now.
00:08:33
Speaker
I personally don't really do that until October 1st. Yeah. Anyway, so I kind of feel like September is great because it's that it's a little bit of an in-between time.
00:08:46
Speaker
And so come October 1st, I can still buy things for fall and for the holiday season. and I won't feel like – I feel like if I were to do it any later than this, I would be like, oh, I really want a pumpkin spice latte. it's not um It's not time for that yet quite.
00:09:05
Speaker
Yeah. I've already had one though. I'm not going lie. Damn it. It was good. Yeah. It was fine. that's my reasoning. i don't know. if it makes sense in my brain, but – Yeah.
00:09:17
Speaker
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. and good And also back to school is over. Yeah. and I mean, I'm not thinking of this Halloween costume. Like, that was a little stressful for me.
00:09:30
Speaker
Yeah, but I feel like I would buy that in the beginning of October. Hope all the – I'm not going to stress it. Never mind. Mm-mm. I mean, last year I bought her is, like, the week before, –
00:09:44
Speaker
Oh, God. I, like, need to buy mine yesterday. Well, also, Alice is already... I think I had mentioned she wanted to be Poppy from Trolls, but she has made a hard return back to Frozen all of a sudden and wants to keep saying Elsa, which, in that in that case, I already have an Elsa dress.
00:10:01
Speaker
like, I don't know what else I would buy. If I were to look up Elsa costume, it would be the ones I have. So, i i don't know. We're going to see. need already, like, order mine because...
Structuring Daily Life: Work and Childcare
00:10:12
Speaker
Red Hulk is definitely coming from China. like that Is that what he wants to be? Red Hulk?
00:10:19
Speaker
What's Red Hulk? There's a Red Hulk? News to me.
00:10:26
Speaker
This is so interesting. Okay. So I was at a play date on Saturday and they have a little boy that's literally great in Sage. I think his birthday is November 2nd or something. Um, but same age as Alice.
00:10:40
Speaker
And we were just trying to keep the kids busy so that we could chat and have a glass of wine and whatever. And, um, his, His mom was like, ah does Alice like superheroes?
00:10:54
Speaker
And I was like, I sat there for a second and I was like, I don't think she really knows them. Like we're a girl household. Like we're not watching Spider-Man and Superman.
00:11:05
Speaker
um And her and her husband started dying laughing. They were like, could you imagine a world where we don't know where so what superheroes is? no And it kind of, from I mean, you asking or talking about Red Hulk, I was like, I've never heard of that in my life. We've taken a hard turn into superheroes. Like it's all this sudden.
00:11:24
Speaker
Yeah. It's like weird age at two. It was all about like cars, maybe three. It was all cars and dinosaurs. And now it's pivoted to Marvel. Like he loves Iron Man, loves Hulk, likes, likes Spider-Man, but his new fixation is a Red Hulk.
00:11:43
Speaker
Apparently he's new. um So like I said, i have to buy that costume tomorrow to get here in time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's more niche. And that's the thing is... Here's here's my... um Sorry, not to like keep going back to the Halloween costume thing, but...
00:12:01
Speaker
if i If we were to do Poppy, I feel like it's a costume I would kind of make. Yeah, that's true. She wears a dress and then I would do the spray paint hair with the headband. I would probably make the headband out of felt myself, honestly. yeah So that's kind of that. And then Frozen, I already have.
00:12:18
Speaker
like If Alice came out of the woodwork randomly and was like, I want to be... some very niche character, I don't know, then I would start to panic. but And that's the thing. My hope is that my girl stays mainstream.
00:12:31
Speaker
He just keeps changing his mind. So I've talked about that 1,000 times. He just keeps changing his mind. So I've been pausing on the costumes. He asked to look at it again this morning. He's like, let's look through costumes.
00:12:44
Speaker
He knows how to get my phone out. like That'll get me to allow him to look at my phone is and okay you're into Halloween like let's look and so he's still into that I think that's what he'll be I need to just do it Yeah.
00:12:59
Speaker
That's exciting. i can't – yeah. we're We're on the cusp. I'm excited. Yeah. Well, you're gear gearing up for a work trip right now.
00:13:12
Speaker
And ah one of the things that we get ah we've gotten a lot of questions about in the past, and we've kind of been wanting to record this episode for a little bit, is – um We've gotten some questions about how we structure our day and also just like the differences between Whitney and I's schedule. So I obviously work for myself and own my own business and Whitney works a full-time corporate job. So we have different experiences.
00:13:42
Speaker
Different lives, different schedules, but we are still moms with two kids that also live like similar lives. So I think it's interesting to like hear about our own like ways we structure our lives and schedules. Oh, we also have totally different like childcare situations, which is interesting too.
00:14:03
Speaker
So, um and then also something we talk about quite often in our in our own group chat is like filling the time of every day and how are we getting to nap time, to bedtime, how we are keeping these kids entertained.
00:14:21
Speaker
And before I pressed record today, I said I'm scared that Alice is dropping her nap because she's been fighting at hardcore, which just means I'm going to have more time to fill. And that makes me scared. So I don't know. That's what we're going to talk about today. We're going to talk about how we structure our day. We'll talk, give you guys a peek behind in the curtain um each of ah each of us and how we structure it. And then also talk a little bit about just filling your day as a mom and the mental gymnastics behind that.
00:14:52
Speaker
I want you to start because I am so curious about how you've scheduled your day, how you've created your boundaries, because I know just like as even just work from home, it's the boundaries are hard. And I mean, I work for a company, but like for you as a business, you're like,
00:15:08
Speaker
I can't turn this off. I could be ah making extra money. So I'd love to hear how you've like learned from that. Cause you've been doing this how long? Five years? Over five years. Yeah. I started my business in August of 2020.
00:15:21
Speaker
So it's, I've been doing it over five years And to be honest, it is a ever-changing work in progress. And I think as we have gone through different like phases, like obviously like the super baby phase when it was just Alice in there, she's napping twice a day, is like one phase. And then to when we get to the point where both of them or either of them can like walk through the house and find me is like a much different phase. Yes.
00:15:52
Speaker
So I will say for me, like I would say at least once a year, like my schedule and how I structure things is like massively changing. um So I definitely talked about this in a past episode very briefly, but I think back in March after we had our stint, our small stint in daycare and then ended up in the hospital with pneumonia and all of that, I kind of like. Did bring it up?
00:16:16
Speaker
Ever? What? Did you ever like talk about that? I so. Oh my God. I don't remember. There was so much going on in that time in my life. Like, ah it's crazy. That, I mean, crazy.
00:16:28
Speaker
It was like before that, I know, I don't even know where to begin. Because before that we had flooded and we're not, we didn't have a house. And then we moved in February and like that was its own chaos. And then we moved in February.
00:16:40
Speaker
There was a lot going on with my mom and her health. And so we decided to put Evie into daycare. And then that was, that was really hard. And she got so sick.
00:16:51
Speaker
We ended up in the hospital. And so it just, it pushed me to the point of needing to sit down with Vinny, back at the, it was like end of March, beginning of April and being like, listen, this isn't working.
00:17:04
Speaker
I, um I love my work and I need to work, but the childcare is not working. The structure of my day is not working.
00:17:15
Speaker
Like we need to figure this out together. and I also needed to take a look at my own boundaries with clients and my business to be like, I have to set different boundaries here. So, um, I don't know. That was such a long winded answer, but the, yeah, it makes The truth is that it's always changing.
00:17:34
Speaker
Yeah, and I think your your short stint was just you trying to find in any any sense of normalcy and consistency. I really was. And you were grasping at straws and nothing was working. So I think it was such a smart decision too for you to like talk to Vinny and kind of like how you always give me the advice when I'm feeling overwhelmed. You're like, can't Chris take the kids for two hours on a Saturday or Sunday? And I'm like, you know what?
00:18:00
Speaker
Hell yeah, he can. like Thank you for reminding me that I can. Yeah. do things and and not feel guilty about it. So yeah, I am. I'm glad you did that. but Yeah. So the way that we structure things right now in this moment, and like I said, there's a high chance of changes, you know, in the next six months or something, but um I have childcare typically around like 25 hours a week, I would say.
00:18:28
Speaker
So my mom, I usually have two days a week where my mom will keep the kids full time, Also, Alice is in school now five days a week. So she's in school every day from 8.30 to 12.30.
00:18:41
Speaker
And two of those days, my mom picks Alice up from school and takes them back to her house and I pick them up at five. So I have like full normal, like nine to five work days.
00:18:53
Speaker
And then the other two days, my mom um will drop them off right before nap time. So around 1230, one o'clock, she'll pick Alice up from school, bring them back here.
00:19:04
Speaker
And then I have them for the rest of the afternoon. Now, typically they both nap. And then those hours I call like my flex hours. um And that's because like I never book a call or anything during those times because you know how naps are. no You never fucking know.
00:19:21
Speaker
So, um, I use that time to like do work, but I don't take calls during that time. And then typically Fridays are my day with the girls where I don't have any childcare.
00:19:32
Speaker
I try really hard not to work. That's very hard. Typically ah during nap time on Fridays, I'm doing some sort of last minute work to like tie up things, um, for the weekend. Um, um,
00:19:45
Speaker
But yeah, so like in total, and then there, I mean, one of the greatest things about what I do is that like nothing I'm doing is like urgent or I mean, it's not brain surgery. It's not life threatening. Like if I need to finish things in the evening, which I've definitely talked about here, I'm more of a night owl girl. I do my best work from like 9 to 11 PM, honestly.
00:20:08
Speaker
So I will do some work at night if I need to. Candice and I couldn't be more opposite. Like, holy moly. Don't talk to me after five. Literally.
00:20:21
Speaker
I need, i want to do a poll. Are there, and I feel like and all these people, all these people, um like moms typically have kids and then I feel like everyone is forced into being a morning person and then every mom is like, don't talk to me after 6 p.m.
00:20:36
Speaker
But like, there's got to be some people like me. I think most of my friends are like you and I'm the weird one. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. I want to do a poll about that. I want to i want to see. i want to find my people, my night owls.
00:20:50
Speaker
ah Trust me, bet it'll be like an eighty twenty Interesting. Because I feel like most of – like in my mom group, I feel like most of them are early birds.
00:21:01
Speaker
Hmm. Wow. I feel like all my friends, they like joke about me. Like if they're still texting past nine o'clock, they're like, Whitney will see you this in the morning. like I'm out. way i'm not I'm not responding.
00:21:13
Speaker
um But I don't know. Even people at my work work. Like I'll talk about I talked about with one of my coworkers. I was like, yeah, like I get up at like five something most days. And she goes, I bet I can count on my hands and that I've stayed up until 5 a.m. more than I've woken up at 5 a.m.
00:21:33
Speaker
I was like, damn. It was so funny. I was like, okay, love you. You're crazy. But that could never be me. Yeah. yeah I mean, staying up till five is she's a raver. Yeah. Oh, okay. That makes sense. That makes sense. Go off queen. Honestly.
00:21:52
Speaker
um Okay. The other thing I'll say about what I do and kind of to come back to your question is with me working from home and working for myself, the boundary setting like has to be so firm. And I'm going to be totally honest here.
00:22:08
Speaker
i It took me two and a half to three years of me doing this to be confident enough to set those boundaries more firmly. So I am super clear with all of my clients. like I don't work past 4 p.m.
00:22:23
Speaker
and um I do not work Fridays. I mean, obviously, if there's a switcheroo in the schedule where like I have to work a Friday or something, like I will tell them, but I'm really clear and have super like big open communication with clients.
Transitioning to Full-Time Work and Weekend Planning
00:22:39
Speaker
And then something that has really helped me is a having a dedicated workspace, AKA this office, me working around my house without a dedicated office.
00:22:50
Speaker
I typically find that I like can't separate the two. It's like I get to walk out of this room and shut this door and like that's in itself a transition. But um the other thing is having some sort of transition activity.
00:23:05
Speaker
um And whether that's like going for a 10 minute walk outside or like running a personal errand. I don't know. There's something about that. Like there's always something I need to return to UPS or go pick up something from Target.
00:23:19
Speaker
I will a lot of the time like schedule a personal errand at the end of my day around four o'clock, four 30. And then it's like, I get to leave and then come back into my house. And it's like, when I come back in my house, like work is shut off.
00:23:34
Speaker
I also have all of my notifications auto set on my phone to not notify me past, you know, X amount of time or whatever.
00:23:45
Speaker
um and I've really tried to like lean in on those like digital things. ways to help me separate the two. um So yeah, those are all my, I don't know, ah my transition tricks. How you feel?
00:24:00
Speaker
Because I know you have like clients that you've had for a while and I know that you have new clients all the time. So how do they take your boundaries? Like are when you tell them up front, are they just, they like, oh, you can't work Fridays or do they appreciate like more of the transparency and they're mostly like, you're good.
00:24:17
Speaker
Like how did people take Every single client appreciates the transparency. They're like, great. Thanks for telling me. I won't bother you on Fridays. Like, um I will say I've had dozens of clients in the past who don't know a boundary to save their life. Like I cannot, I had clients that would bother me at all hours of the day.
00:24:37
Speaker
And it took me dealing with that as a mom for a while for me to be like, okay, I cannot work with you anymore. If you are going to bug me at all times and all hours of the it just doesn't fit my life currently. yeah.
00:24:50
Speaker
so i've I have found, A, that I like to work with moms because for that reason because they get it and they understand. They also – like the time with their kids is also a prized possession to them, you know?
00:25:05
Speaker
So like I would – I'm thinking about my clients right now. All of them are moms. So i'm honestly, like setting those boundaries, as long as I'm upfront about it, they are very accepting and like they're just great. I love all of my clients currently.
00:25:21
Speaker
Yeah, that's good. I know. oh that's what I was going to say is that it's kind of like you said, at different stages, you can do different things with your kids at different ages. Like when Evie was smaller, it was probably easier to kind of take on that extra work of them going over that five o'clock mark of bugging you or I guess reaching out, not bugging, but Um, but now that they're both toddlers, it's just like, there's no way I feel that way.
00:25:49
Speaker
I mean, there's like ways where it gets easier as they get older and there's ways where it gets harder and working at home with them. Like if my kids are homesick, I just have to be like a take the day off because i I, just can't absolutely like, especially with Margo Graydon, maybe I could take a call or two, but Margo, if she's homesick, it is not happening. so hu I know, especially with sickness, I feel like they're like barnacles, right? They're like attached to you all the time. So you can't like, you're like, what am I going to do? Be on this Zoom call with like this baby on my hip who's like whiny? It's not happening. Or you could be like Margo who had hand, foot, mouth and acted like
00:26:30
Speaker
not a damn thing was wrong with her. And I was just like, let's stay at home and play with mommy all day. And so I literally was just entertaining her all day. I'm like, you should be sick.
00:26:42
Speaker
Act sick. She was like, this is my chance. We're going to play princesses all day. i cannot complain because, oh my gosh, a whiny, attached, sick child is so tough. So I'm not not complaining that she did not feel well. So Yeah.
00:26:59
Speaker
Okay. I want to hear about your, like, give everyone the rundown of your work and your schedule and your, like, childcare situation. Because you've also had a decent transition in the past year because you were part-time and you came back to full-time. So maybe just give us ah the lore. Yeah.
00:27:20
Speaker
The lore of my my work. ah So it has been a full year since I've been back full time. um which you Congrats. I know. I literally was just looking at that. I think it's been a full year. um And like I said, I was part time. And I did that for ah about two and a half, almost three years maybe. um And then once Margo turned one, so this was this time last year, she was one. And was like, you know what? I'm feeling like I can...
00:27:50
Speaker
work full time again. And I'm ready to like transition back into that full time work, kind of feeling more like myself again, willing to like dedicate a little more of my time to myself and my work again. So went back full time. Both of my kids are in daycare.
00:28:07
Speaker
i will say when Margo was like that three month ish mark to nine months, we had a nanny. um i just decided to go that route because I liked having her at home. i Didn't necessarily want her to get sick at such a young age. I wanted her to be able be able to sit up. I liked that she was crawling and could play at daycare. So I waited until nine months until daycare.
00:28:31
Speaker
And then um she's been in that ever since. And Graydon has been in daycare since he was nine months old as well. um I work a typical week, like work from home. i go into the office on Thursdays. um But a typical like morning is that the kids get up and ah they're at daycare by like 720 and I'm back home before eight o'clock.
00:28:55
Speaker
so that I can get to work. And I mean, it's really just kind of flexible. Like I work as much as I can until I pick up the kids or Chris is either off and he picks them up. So kind of like boring, regular old life over here with the nine to five.
00:29:13
Speaker
But I start at like eight. So eight to four. I mean, I am remote for most of the week and then just going in on Thursdays, which is so nice i'm sure most of you millennial moms like can take like if you've gone into corporate and then now everything's kind of remote it's like so nice it's yeah such a game changer from what it used to be like having to be in the office at all times like i know don't know i could ever go i mean i'm like how did we do that. I wouldn't even, I'm not even going to put that in the universe.
00:29:46
Speaker
was going to say i I wouldn't mind going in twice a week, but I would want one of those days to be flexible. Like I want, if I wanted to come in at 10, like to not hit any traffic in Nashville and just like work from 10 to two, i would like, and do that if I had to be there another day a week, but also like work at home and in the morning and just leave. But Yeah, it's the traffic that's so annoying. Like, mm-mm.
00:30:13
Speaker
ah Yeah, for sure. I don't love that part. Okay, I'm going to get a little nitty-gritty here about um schedule stuff. So, obviously, like, what time do the kids typically wake up?
00:30:27
Speaker
And do you prefer – like, if you had to choose – Okay, let's just say that you and Chris had to divvy up morning routine and evening routine.
00:30:41
Speaker
Which one would you choose? ah feel like this is a given. Who's not going to pick morning? Who's not going to pick morning? True. That's when they're sweet and like they wake up so sometimes. Green sometimes is's my little sour patch.
00:30:57
Speaker
But like they wake up and you're like, and you have, this is so bad. You have an end goal. which is out the door by 7.20. So it's like, huh and my kids, oh God, they wake up anywhere between 6 and like 6.45. Like they're up.
00:31:17
Speaker
So, I mean, have like a full hour and a half with them most days in the morning. So by 7.20, like, It's time to get out. Time to go. Time to go. yeah, yeah. Oh, they're already wrecking the house.
00:31:29
Speaker
So, and they serve breakfast at school. So, I'll take them and we'll eat breakfast together. and then. so nice. And then I'm out. That like a big perk. It's a nice perk. I'm not having to make eggs at home anymore. Like. Yeah. They have sausage. They try new things. I'm like, this is. We used to not do it.
00:31:47
Speaker
And now, all of a sudden, like, Graydon saw friends doing it. And he wanted to. And then I'm like, what? What have I been doing? Like, this is so nice to have a meal off of your plate. i Sign me up and because that's I think what's most stressful for me in the mornings is ah breakfast time and then.
00:32:07
Speaker
Like cramming in because I have to be out the door by 815 in order to get Alice to school by 830. And unfortunately, I cannot drop her any earlier than that or I would.
00:32:18
Speaker
yeah um but it's um And it's I also have to pack her lunch and a snack. So I try and do a lot of that in the like evening times before if I can.
00:32:32
Speaker
But there are also times where that just like doesn't happen. You know, yeah understand. Yeah. So i feel like the if if I could have breakfast off my plate or if they were to start serving lunch at school.
00:32:47
Speaker
That's what changed my life because they have lunch at school too. So breakfast and lunch we don't do at all anymore. yeah It's nice. it's so nice.
00:32:58
Speaker
um Dinner, you get what you get, kids. Mama ain't no cook. Yeah. you know so We've been trying ever since we talked with ah feeding littles.
00:33:13
Speaker
um We've been trying to eat dinner as a family at the table. And it's ah really changed the game that my kids are eating things they never ate before, honestly. And it's just because they're seeing us eat it and they will ask to try. And I'm like, what did you just say?
00:33:29
Speaker
um grain's been trying foods margo's always been a much better eater than him she still is she'll still eat whatever like we got poke bowls last night and she was eating it and i'm like girl pop off you love tuna cool so she's just funny god that's amazing yeah yeah i mean i i'm not trying to brag i'm just like my children couldn't be more different like you're not bragging and also if you're allowed to brag honestly Okay. I want to transition to talking about the weekend days because obviously everyone has their own like work schedule and ways that they have to structure structure their childcare and all of that.
00:34:08
Speaker
But I feel like we're all on a level playing field for the most part on the weekends. So let's. I don't know. I think I have a tendency to so like be on to like I swing hard one way or the other in the sense of like I love to be packed with plans and have every hour planned or i swing real hard on we're keeping the days open and then I get in that day and I'm like why the fuck didn't I plan something?
00:34:41
Speaker
i always want it packed no matter what. Yeah. Yeah. Like we had us we had a very packed Saturday and like this past weekend. And to be honest, the day went by so fast to because we were packed. I will say I was a exhausted going to bed though.
00:35:00
Speaker
But –
00:35:03
Speaker
Our day went by so fast. That's all I got to say. We did something new this weekend. What did you do? Well, we have like ah the Brentwood Library here Graydon's been dying to go and I've always just been like, save it for a rainy day. Like, let's not go to the library when it's the summer.
00:35:19
Speaker
And it was raining on Saturday and Graydon woke up and he goes, you know what we get to do? The library. And I was like, God, you have the mind of an elephant. He remembers everything. so We went, it opened at 10, which was late.
00:35:33
Speaker
You know how I feel about 10 a.m. That is like half the morning's gone. Anyway, we waited till 10 and they had story time at 1030. And it was so cute. Like we never did any of those cute music classes or like toddler classes because they've always been in daycare. So I felt like this was my first time experience. Like I felt like I was in New York going to the library doing story time.
00:35:56
Speaker
And they did like all these songs and All I kept thinking was if Graydon was any younger, we would be the ones like picking up and leaving because he would be all over the place and wild. But I kept him in between my legs and controlled him.
00:36:12
Speaker
Even at this age, I had to like sit down. And he was so good. Margo's chilling. She was chilling. She loved it. They did a craft. I was like, whoa, that took up.
00:36:24
Speaker
some time this morning. Like we were done by 11 it was so cutie. i loved it. That's so cute. I always see people in my neighborhood or in my like, you know, community doing library things.
00:36:39
Speaker
And we've definitely been when, when I just had Atlas and she was like super little, But I haven't done any library things in a very, very long time. We got lucky with the timing of it all. And it was crowded. I mean, it was raining. All the parents were like desperado for something to do. so But it was really cute. So I loved that. I'm thinking we're going to get Margo into gymnastics. So that'll probably take up some time on the weekend.
00:37:07
Speaker
the The best middle ground is is to like have an anchoring activity either before a nap or after nap. And I always think about Shannon when she would talk about how she structured her day.
00:37:20
Speaker
And I find what works best for us on the weekends is – to have at least one thing planned both weekend days, like at least one activity planned Saturday and one activity planned Sunday. And it can vary on what it is or when it is like it could be morning.
00:37:40
Speaker
It could be evening, but I feel like having that one anchoring activity is game changing. um And then whether depending, like at least one of those days having that activity be outside.
00:37:55
Speaker
um I feel like that is the master blueprint of like yeah filling time. Yeah, now that it's getting um nicer out, like the pool will definitely be closed, which is boo, so sad. Like the water's already cold. We don't have a heater in it. So it's like, man, our um outside activity is gone.
00:38:17
Speaker
But now that it's getting like crispy, Chris was like, let's take the kids to Arrington, which is that winery we took you to. And I was like, Chris, I love you. That is definitely a Saturday activity I want to take the kids to.
00:38:30
Speaker
So we're we're probably going to start doing that because the kids can run around on a lawn. Hell yeah. Like go for it. Yeah. There's just like lots of little things. We've been going to the creek.
00:38:41
Speaker
There's like a few creeks around here. we know. I've been seeing your creek content and I'm like, girl, what is that? Just some creaking, you know, our little southern creeks. There's like a park that has a creek next to it um that we went to a few weeks ago. And like we accidentally like I had left my car at a friend's house because we had been drinking the night
Favorite Activities with Kids and Business Mentorship
00:39:03
Speaker
before. So we only had ah the single stroller, which ended up working out because we made Graydon take his ah scooter And so he was forced to ride it and then they would switch like Margo would get on the scooter and in it like forced them to do it versus sitting in a stroller. Yeah. So that was really fun. And then we went to the Amish market this past weekend. I want to do that. Oh my God. They have the best cookies I've ever had in my entire life.
00:39:30
Speaker
And then we played in the creek back there and it was so cute. Oh my gosh. I need to look for things like that. I just saved a post and it was a master post of all the fall festivals happening around like Tampa for the next two or three months. And I was like, okay, i got to keep this in my back pocket for filling the time in the next couple of months, especially as the weather starts to get like more enjoyable Yeah.
00:39:57
Speaker
um I feel like also i was going to mention a couple of my like standard go to things when my all creativity is gone and ah what I do to fill the time. And one of those things is go to the car wash.
00:40:13
Speaker
Yeah. Graydon asked to go this weekend. He goes, I'm not scared of it anymore. I'm like, were you? I don't remember. That's like my go-to kill 30 minutes. Like the girls love it. I open up, I don't open my sunroof, but you know, I put the cover back you can see out of it and they have like a light show and they get to see and we play music and then My, uh, our car wash gives out popsicles to all the kids. So they get a popsicle.
00:40:42
Speaker
Yeah. And I get my car clean and it's like, there's 30 to 45 minutes that are gone by the time we're done and back. um And then the other thing that we do quite often that has been a game changer, especially on mornings that are beautiful in the sense that there's like not a cloud in the sky and like it's hot, but like it's pretty is we will do what we call a breakfast drive, which is where we will put breakfast in like a bento box. We'll do like pancakes and
00:41:14
Speaker
like fruit and stuff. And we will just go on a morning breakfast drive to get us out of the house. And those are, we usually do those on mornings where like someone's woken up on the wrong side of the bed, whether it's me or the kids, like if the, if, if one of those parties is like feeling off, just getting out and having them eat breakfast in a contained chair is is game changing and we'll like drive over the bridge so we can like see the water. ah That's one of our go-tos is a breakfast drive.
00:41:47
Speaker
That's a great idea because I'll do that on the way to daycare sometimes if I'm running late. I'll do like breakfast in a cup and they think that's so fun. Yeah. But...
00:41:59
Speaker
Yeah. Do you have any go-to fillers? Not really. um I thought it was Target, but now that is a no-go taking both kids there. like You can't.
00:42:10
Speaker
They go nuts. They want everything. can't take them there anymore. But now it's gotten to be just family walks in the morning. um It was the pool.
00:42:22
Speaker
I'm going to have to find new stuff. Yeah. I feel like there are so many different ways to like structure your day in life. And one of the things we've talked about billion times is missing the stay at home mom perspective from Shannon.
00:42:37
Speaker
um And i would love to crowdsource other time killing activities from all of you moms out there. So we'll definitely do that on our Instagram when this episode goes live.
00:42:51
Speaker
I also just wanted to quickly say that, um I mean, I mentioned in this episode, like I own my own virtual assistant business and I've been doing that for over five years. And i have a mentorship where I help other women um start their own businesses and like build the schedules that they like to spend more time with their family and make more money, e etc et cetera, et cetera. And the next round of my mentorship opens up at the end of this month.
00:43:15
Speaker
So if you're interested, i will um post the link the week that this episode goes live. You can also find the link to join in the show notes of this episode or find me on Instagram. Ask me a question.
Listener Engagement and Podcast Promotion
00:43:28
Speaker
I'm an open book um and I'd love to help you if that's something you want to do.
00:43:33
Speaker
Love it. um I love you guys and we'll talk to you soon. Love you. Thank you so much for being a part of our mom group chat. New episodes drop every Tuesday. And don't forget, the group chat is blowing up on our Instagram page. So make sure you're following along over there.
00:43:51
Speaker
All right. Got to go. My toddler just put something in her mouth.