A Day in the Life of a Work from Home Mom--Ashley Style

Today I am honored to have my good friend Ashley guest posting.  We have a lot of common and have shared several emails back and forth with advice or just to vent about our day.  Her little boy Thatcher and her family call The Big Easy home.  I have enjoyed many of her posts about life in New Orleans whether it's about football or a Mardi Gras parade.  Give her a warm welcome! :)

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Hey y'all! I am Ashley from Happiness Is... and I am so excited to be guest posting for Natalie today! I am a full-time working mom (though let's face it, which mom isn't?) and am proud to call New Orleans home. I love the Saints, get annoyed when people get married during football season, once beat my husband in a sushi eating contest and like to sip on sauvignon blanc from New Zealand, Diet Coke and iced coffee. Not at the same time. We have a 15 month old little boy named Thatcher, and I am still learning to balance working and mommying (along with friending, Churching, socializing and resting).

I thought it'd be fun (for me at least) to do a day in the life of a work from home mom. I am blessed with a flexible job that allows me to pretend like I have it all together and can achieve balance. And by the way, it is really hard to remember to document an entire day! Try it sometime. And, this is photojournalism at its worst. I didn't have the time, patience or energy to get great pictures, so I am fully acknowledging the poor quality in most of these!

The husband's alarm goes off around 5:00 or 5:30am. He works in finance and is out the door no later than 6:00am every day. That means I am on my own in the mornings. Many days I will get up and enjoy alone time reading and reflecting. On many more days I don't. Some days I even let Thatcher serve as my alarm clock. Working on it. One thing I love about working from home is that I get to wear gym clothes every single day. It's my wardrobe.

You know how babies wake up so rested and happy and smiley? Yeah, mine didn't get that memo. He wakes up crying for his morning bottle. Ain't nobody happy until Thatcher has his milk. It's easiest to let him drink while you change him, and don't even think about taking it away to put a shirt on. Usually he's awake around 7:00 or so.

Our house looks semi-calm, but it's not. Imagine a barking dog in the background because Coco needs a treat the very second she's back inside from going to the bathroom. So after Thatcher's done with his first cry of the day, the dog gets her treat and breakfast and we're all dressed, we usually get a few minutes of quiet time to watch The Today Show.

Around 7:30am we head to school. Coco insists on coming and I indulge her. At this point, imagine me wrangling a 25 pound toddler and yelling at the dog to get in the flipping car, cursing myself for allowing her to come again. We have a 3 minute commute, unless we get stuck behind the garbage truck in which case it's a 6 minute commute. I kind of miss my commutes to be honest.

Thatcher looooooves school. He is so excited to get there every day. Which halfway breaks my heart, halfway makes me so thankful for wonderful childcare. There are about 6 babies in his room, and he really loves his friends! We are so lucky to have such a wonderful childcare situation.

On some days when I am procrastinating, I will take a detour by the coffee shop on the way home. Today happened to be one of those days. I am usually back home by 7:45 or so. My desk is in our guest bedroom (hopefully nursery #2 one day), and I absolutely love this room. It's at the front of the house, and it gets great natural light. It's just a really happy room, and I love being able to watch everyone walk/run by. It's kind of hilarious because most people can't tell that I can see them, so I know who picks up after their dog and who doesn't.

The next 8 hours consist of a lot of emailing, phone time and, if I am honest, The Today Show. One wonderful thing about working from home is being able to run a few errands during the day toddler free. Today I bought a few birthday gifts and stocked up on Mother's Day cards. You see? I sort of have my act together. On many days I am interrupted a bajillion times by the doorbell ringing and other such nonsense, but today was a productive day. A lot of people don't understand that working from home means you actually work. It's not a front, people! Promise!

And then around 3:30pm I get to go pick up the toddler again. He's always so happy to see me, which makes me smile. Coco usually demands to make this trip as well. And no, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you - Thatcher got a wardrobe change at school today!

On most days we will meet our friends for a walk or park playdate, but today was gray and I had a little more work to do, so we came home to play indoors. This is where the juggling begins because I have a few urgent things going on at work, so I was emailing while conference calling while chasing a toddler around. It's a handful, but I love the flexibility I have so I do it. Thatcher loves to get juice right when he comes home, and he is all about some Sesame Street. My view on TV is that everything is okay in moderation. We only watch PBS and only on afternoons where we're home. But really, I try not to sweat the small stuff with this mom thing.

Thatcher usually enjoys a snack, followed by dinner, at which point he starts to LHS (lose his you know what). And then mom starts to LHS. The texts to the husband start pleading for help.

Because really? After dinner I am not in the mood to put all of the koozies and tupperware back in the cabinet one more time or pick up the crunched Goldfish on the floor. On this particular day I left those for dad to deal with.

Around 6:00pm enter dad through the back door. Hallelujiah! Between 6:00 and 7:00, we bathe, play and take care of random stuff around the house. Thatcher actually prefers to shower these days, but I forgot to document. I think you can imagine what a toddler in the shower looks like. After that it is time for books and milk. Thatcher is sneaky because if you say "drink your milk or it's bedtime," all of a sudden he is dying for milk. Otherwise he just wants to read one page in every book we own. It's kind of an exhausting routine.

And then I crash on the couch, check my work email, drink wine, blog, talk to the husband and just chill. Oh yeah and eat dinner. We're usually in bed by 9:30 or 10:00.

So that's what our days are made of these days! On some days I feel like we have it down, and on others I wonder what in the heck I am doing. For the most part I think I have found balance and am enjoying working, but at other times I wonder if working is worth it. Except I really like smocked clothes and pedicures, so work seems like the prudent thing for now.

Thanks for having me, Natalie! I had fun capturing our day. There's not always much to them, but I know these are the days I will miss the most once Thatcher is grown.

-- Ashley Happiness Is... www.livinglifegratefully.blogspot.com

Thanks Ashley for giving us a view of the work from home mom!  That Thatcher is a cutie and keeps you on your toes.  Now hop on over to her blog to learn more about her family.