Nothing makes time feel like it’s flying more than these day in the life posts. I keep them all archived here and whenever I feel the itch to record a day, I glance back and see it’s usually been at least 6 months or more since I’ve written one and one of the girls has inevitably had a birthday.
Still, I’m grateful to have these little snapshots to reminisce on, so while they may seem not all that exciting in the moment, it’s really fun to look back and see a little slice of what life looked like during those ages. Watching us all grow up together is pretty special.
Sappiness aside, let’s take a look at a current day! H is 14 years old and K is 11. We’re into our fall rhythm of homeschool and activities and the weather? Full on fall goodness.
Day in the Life: 14 Years Old & 11 Years Old
My alarm goes off at 6:05 so David and I get up and moving. I start the coffee, turn on the fire, and set up in a living room chair with my computer to finish and publish my blog post about our home gym. Just after 7:30 a sleepy H wanders down, smiles, grabs a blanket, and curls up to stare out the window while I finish up my computer work and she slowly wakes up for the day.
By 8:00, K has silenced a few of her Yoto alarms, so I go nudge her awake and return to the kitchen to start breakfast. H makes herself an everything bagel half with cream cheese, sriracha, and a fried egg. K opts for pumpkin bread and butter. I make David and myself eggs and sourdough and dole out our cod liver oil and vitamin D. H turns on World Watch and our day begins!
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After breakfast the girls go get ready for the day and I head out for a quick mile walk in the woods with Finley. I get back and pop her inside before going check on the chickens.
They are currently working on carving a pumpkin- how cool is that?! You draw a face on a pumpkin, the shave off the outer tough skin of the areas you want them to peck at, then they do the rest. I still think it will take another day or two to see the final result but I think it’s the coolest Jacko-lantern party trick!
Back inside I feed the sourdough starter, clean up the kitchen, get myself ready for the day, then join the girls in the homeschool room. They’ve already dived into their assignments and I assume my (new to me this year with our new co-op) role of being an assistant, ready to help when needed. H is largely self sufficient but I still get to be involved a bit with K.
Around 11:30, I leave them to finish up and head downstairs. The house is freezing but the sun out front feels amazingggg so I heat up my vegetable barley soup, add a scoop of leftover pot roast, and sit on the front porch to eat it. Did I really set up the self timer on my camera to snap me in action? Yes, yes, I did.
I heat up some leftovers for the kids and call them down just after noon to eat while I read. We haven’t yet figured out how to master our morning time activity routine with our new homeschool style, so I’m experimenting with transforming “morning time” into “lunch time” and doing out reading, crafting, art study, bible study, and book club rotation to midday instead. Today’s lunch time activity is puzzling while I read The Hobbit.
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Shortly after lunch, H and I leave for her piano and music theory lessons. I drop her off at Furman and head to The Swamp Rabbit Grocery, which is adorably decorated for the season. I grab a few things I need for dinner and a pumpkin latte just for kicks.
An hour later, H and I are headed home. David has an short window of time so we quickly mix our preworkout and creatine and head straight downstairs to get in a quick Madeline Moves workout. 30 minutes later he’s heading to musical theater with K and I’m up in the kitchen getting started on dinner, sipping on my aminos.
H decided to go for a run and joins me afterward in the kitchen around 4:00. By this time I’m blasting those fall jazz tunes and cooking dinner. She chats with me for a bit while she works on a paper she’s writing.
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She goes to shower and I walk Finley down the street and back before coming back to feed her. Then I go let the chickens out to free range. I’ve been doing this every evening around 5:00/5:30 because it gives them a couple hours to play around before they tuck themselves away in the coop when the sun sets.
I go shower and get comfy, then H and I grab bowls of chicken and white bean soup and a crescent roll and settle onto the couch to watch Gilmore Girls. Neither one of us have ever seen the show before, and we’re only about halfway into season one, but it’s been fun mother daughter time to share together when David and K are out of the house.
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We watch two episodes and I have the kitchen cleaned up and the coffee for tomorrow set by the time David and K get home around 7:45. We sit and chat with them while they eat, then we all cuddle up to watch an episode of Wednesday. We’re watching season 2 and (spoiler alert) the kids got the biggest kick of the episode where Enid and Wednesday body swap!
By 9:00, we are shutting things down. The kids give hugs and kisses, then head up to bed and I go out to lock up the chicken coop. Well, well, well, to my surprise I see that one of them must had accidentally knocked the door closed so they couldn’t get back inside at sunset, so instead I found them snuggled into two groups, snuggled on top of the nesting boxes and the top of the backstairs. I felt so bad that they had been locked out but it was really sweet to see them all snuggled up and sleeping together. BFG even had her wing completely draped around Buttons, helping to keep her warm I’m guessing? It was seriously the cutest! I scooped up each chicken and delivered them all into the coop, sleepy and confused, then locked it up and headed in.
That about sums up the day! Back inside, David and I get ready for bed and by 10:00 we are dosing off.
As simple as it was, this day feels like such a sweet snapshot of our current season — full of routines, little adventures, and cozy fall rhythms that make home feel like the best place to be. This time of year passes so quickly so the plan is to keep soaking up this season before it slips quietly into the next.
