Allow me to introduce our final Day In The Life guest writer this week, Justine! She’s a wife and mom to 5 kids (including one learning to drive!!) and lives in Raleigh, NC! This was really fun to see a glimpse into life with kids a little older than mine!
A Little About Justine
Hello! I am so excited to be a guest writer for Christina! My name is Justine and I am married to my husband Aaron. We have been married for 16 years- and fun fact- we met on Match.com almost eighteen years ago! We have five children: Charlotte is 15, Cora is 13 (turning 14 in one month!), Celine is 12, James is 10 and Marshall is 8. We also have three dogs: Cammie, Callie and Izzie — they are all Havapoos. We live in Raleigh, NC and LOVE it here!
My husband is a podiatrist who specializes in wound care and limb salvage (I know- it sounds kind of like a rough gig. HA! He loves it though!). He works in a very busy multidisciplinary clinic. I am a speech-language pathologist and my career has ebbed and flowed as our family has grown. Currently, my “main” job is being the CEO of our family household and during the school year I work with a handful of kiddos at my childrens’ school.
We are in the thick of summer break at our house and honestly, it is going by too fast! I absolutely LOVE summer break. While most would say the holidays are the best time of the year…I would argue that June, July and August are the most wonderful time of the year!
A Day in Justine’s Life
Here’s a look into a very “normal” summer break day at our house!
I wake up between 5:30-6:00 am. During the school year- it’s 5:15-5:30 am…so it feels VERY luxurious to sleep into 6:00 am some days! I LOVE my morning quiet time SO much. I drink my coffee, read several different devotionals, check my favorite blogs (Carolina Charm being at the top of the list), catch up on emails, make to-do lists…all the things.
At around 6:00 am- my boys wake up. They watch some shows for a little bit and then they unload the dishwasher. That is one of their daily chores. Then they make themselves breakfast, get dressed, make their beds and take our dogs for a walk. They are very self sufficient!
I head upstairs around 8:00 am and situate our laundry room. Fold laundry in the dryer and get another load started.
Then I get dressed in my workout clothes and go up to our “home gym.”
I am a die hard Peloton member. I joined a few months before the pandemic hit and have been hooked ever since! We have the bike, the tread and weights in our gym. I typically do a strength class followed by a run, walk or walk + run class.
While I am working out, my boys play and my daughters are hanging out. They sleep later than their brothers and usually get downstairs between 8:00-8:30 am. They watch a show and eat breakfast. After I get done working out, my girls head up to the gym or go outside to get their workouts done. Everyone is expected to get at least 30 minutes of daily movement in our house. There definitely used to be A LOT of complaining about this rule in our house…but everyone knows it is a non negotiable so they just get it done so they can move on with their day!
My oldest daughter started working this summer. She is a lifeguard at our neighborhood pool. Her schedule changes every week but on this particular day she was off! YAY!
I told everyone to be ready to go run errands around 11:30 am.
My kids are all at an age where I can tell them to be ready and I don’t have to do anything to help them get ready. I definitely have to give reminders: “do you have your water bottle? did you get a snack? did you brush your teeth?” HA! But overall, they are able to take care of themselves! It’s pretty awesome!
Charlotte currently has her driver’s permit so that is the “fun” adventure of this summer. She drives us everywhere we go! Let me tell you…teaching your child how to DRIVE A CAR is a whole new level of parenting!
Our first stop of the day was my daughter’s high school. They have chickens, and students sign up to take care of them over the summer. Today was our day to check on the chickens. Charlotte fed them, got them fresh water and we even got a few eggs to bring home!
After we took care of the chickens, we headed to Costco. We picked up the things we needed and got out of there as quickly as possible. HA! Why is Costco always SO busy?!?
It was SO HOT and the kids were being such troopers that I decided we should make a pit stop at Sonic to get some slushies. It was an interesting experience having Charlotte park in one of the stalls at Sonic. HA!
We got home around 1:30 pm. The kids helped me unload all the things from Costco and then everyone made their lunch. I always wait until the kids are done eating and then I eat my lunch. I have been doing this since my kids were babies! I would always get them down for their naps/quiet time and then I would eat my lunch. It’s a small way I pause from the noise and chaos for just a little bit. HA! After I ate my lunch, I prepped a chicken rice casserole dish for dinner. Then, I cleaned up the kitchen and told the kids to get all their library books rounded up because we were headed to the library.
We visit our library weekly during the summer. My oldest daughter LOVES to read and my boys really enjoy checking out books too. My two other daughters are not big readers, but they always leave with at least a couple books to read. I LOVE the library because it’s FREE! It’s one of the very few places where I don’t have to tell my kids “no.” I also love the library because there is no pressure to like or finish a book- if you don’t like it, no big deal! Try another book!
After the library, we went to fill up our car with gas and take it through the car wash. These are all things that I make Charlotte do since she is learning how to drive. Parking and driving into the car wash are two of her least favorite activities. HA!
We got home around 4:00 pm and the kids brought their library books up to their rooms and got changed to go swimming. There’s really nothing better than swimming on a super hot summer afternoon!
While the kids were swimming, I made some “healthy-ish” granola bars. Please don’t ask for a recipe because I don’t have one. HA! I just mix stuff up until it’s a good consistency and it tastes yummy.
After I cleaned up my mess in the kitchen, I headed outside to hang with the kids. Some days I get in the pool with them and other days I will just sit and read my book while they swim. I tried to read a couple pages of my book, but every other second, one of my kids was yelling, “LOOK MOM!” So I ended up judging a lot of splashes and handstands.
The kids finished up swimming around 5:30 pm and I headed inside to get dinner put together. I warmed up the chicken casserole I had made earlier in the day, put some broccoli in the microwave to cook and toasted some Italian bread in the oven. I knew my boys wouldn’t be huge fans of the casserole, so I gave them a little bit of it along with a hot dog. All of my girls really enjoyed it! I had a big grilled chicken salad for dinner. My husband was working late so he was not home for dinner.
After dinner, the kids went back outside to play with our dogs for a little bit. While they were outside playing I got the kitchen cleaned up!
Around 7:00 pm, everyone came inside and headed upstairs to shower. My boys always watch a show after they have showered. We put them to bed around 8:30 pm during the summer (during the school year we try to stick to a strict 8:00 pm bedtime). My girls do their own thing at night. They take VERY long showers (HA!), they do their skincare, sometimes they watch a show together, sometimes they hang out together…it all just depends on the night.
My girls take our dogs outside one last time around 9:00 pm and then they put them in their kennel. Then, they will usually go finish the show they are watching or go read in their bedrooms. Depending on the night, I will sometimes head to bed a little early (around 9:30 pm) or my husband and I will watch a show.
And that’s a “normal” summer day in the life at our house!
A few “notes” about meals that I thought would mention!
We keep meals extremely simple in our house. I really don’t like to cook, but I do because my family likes to eat. HA!
For breakfast, my kids will make frozen waffles with peanut butter, sausage and cheese biscuits (I pre-make a bunch of biscuits and keep them in the refrigerator with turkey sausage patties — the great value frozen buttermilk biscuits are the BEST), bowl of multigrain cheerios, smoothies and sometimes one of the kids will make pancakes for everyone.
Lunch consists of bagels + cream cheese, deli meat sandwiches, peanut butter sandwiches, chips, fruit, cut up cucumbers and carrots, and sometimes my girls like to eat leftovers from the night before.
For dinner, I make a LOT of grilled chicken. I will pair that with bread or mac’n’cheese and a green vegetable. We usually have good ol’ ground beef tacos once a week, buttered parmesan noodles are on regular rotation, we always have pizza on Friday nights and we grill hamburgers every Sunday night. My priority is our family eating dinner together every night. Spending a lot of time in the kitchen…not so much. HA! I try to keep things as low key as possible!
I could keep rambling on about all the things- but I am sure Christina would like me to wrap this up so it’s not a mile long blog post!
Thank you for taking the time to read about what a day in the life looks like for us!
I hope you have a wonderful day and ENJOY your summer!! It will be over before you know it!
KittyLuvr
Saturday 27th of July 2024
Love this post!! I enjoyed seeing MY Costco and also MY library! Love living in Raleigh too....great post and enjoyed the simple approach to feeding your family. Thanks for posting!
Mary
Friday 26th of July 2024
Oh Justine, Iโve missed your blog so much! So glad you wrote this guest post - made my day! ๐ I hope you have plans to continue your blog.
June, July & August is the most wonderful time of year for me too!
Gentry Blackwood
Friday 26th of July 2024
This was such a fun one to read! I have a toddler, so getting a glimpse into the future was great!
Aileen
Friday 26th of July 2024
I keep my dinners very simple as well and I only have one child to feed. Good luck to your daughter for driving, I feel her pain about washing the car and parking!!
Enjoy your summer :)