I wish sometimes I could have someone follow me around for one day to take a few snapshots of our life right now. Not for fame reasons, but more so to remember some day the billion of things that there are to do as a mom.

I recently got myself an iwatch and I seem to constantly hit the goal that my own watch set for me (don’t know how or why) of standing for at least 12 hours a day. Weird! But, it’s something I had never realized before. I often wonder why I often feel so tired and mentally exhausted by the end of the day, and lately I am finally being able to see why.

This post is not to discourage anyone into motherhood. Neither would I change anything right now. I will not lie though and say that it does require a lot of physical and mental work.

I do find a lot of strength in one thing. Exercise! Exercise has totally saved my life. Even though jumping and squatting and lifting weights for an hour technically should drain all my energy and leave me with nothing left to give, it’s what drives me to know that I have the strength in me, and that my muscles can handle it, when I have to go up and down the stairs at home for the 50th time in one day. Or when I am folding 200 pieces of clothing from my laundry basket.

And I don’t even claim to be the busiest mom out there. I am sure lots of other moms have bigger problems, bigger lists of to do’s, more errands than me, more concerns than me. In fact I want to know how a day in YOUR life is. What do you do that’s different than me?

So I am going to write a tentative list of  some of the things I do on week days on the daily. My stay at home mom routine is also for me to remind myself that when someone asks me what I do all day, (I usually can’t even come up with the answer for some reason) it’s mostly serve cute tiny little special future human beings. Leaders and spirits that deserve a good life and that are loved.

1. Wake up and give baby a bottle

2. Break up a fight between my boys. (My little one likes to wake up his older brother at 6.30 on a school day and beats him up to do so)

3. Bath time for little ones

4. Change diapers

5. Wake up older kids for school.

6. Get older kids groomed, make sure they make their bed, brush, wash, eat, get their homework, send kids off to school with dad.

7. Get younger ones showered and dressed

8. Do younger kids’ hair

9. Pick up toys that younger kids have already scattered throughout the home

10. Make beds

11. Put clothes and things away from night before. Start laundry load.

12. Get dressed and hopefully get some light tinted foundation on and brush hair and teeth.

13. Eat breakfast real quick

14. Gym

15. Errands

16. Younger boy goes to preschool

17. Feed baby

18. Nap time for the baby

19. Shower for me. I know, by now it’s 1 o’clock!

20. I have 2 1/2 hours before everyone gets out of school.

21. On a lucky rare day I can read, write my blog, read scriptures, ponder, maybe nap for a few minutes.

22. Most days: laundry, cleaning, start prepping dinner, eat lunch, fold laundry, do another laundry load.

Baby wakes up and there usually is a big number 2 diaper waiting for me to be changed. . Hopefully the diaper didn’t leak which requires new outfit and sometimes a second bath.

23. Pick up everyone from school

24. Feed everyone second lunch. (I don’t know why they even eat lunch at school.)

25. Have kids change and put things away.

26. Nap time for younger boy. I cuddle and read stories beforehand.

27. Baby’s feeding time again.

28. Homework for older kids.

29. Younger boy wakes up and runs around the house playing and destroying everything I cleaned while he was in preschool.

30. Sports for kids. Luckily right now this is only twice a week. On one really good day, three of them go the whole hour which is AMAZING for me. I get some one-on-one time with the baby. If for some miracle she falls asleep on the way there I get an hour to read, ponder, work on a hobby from my phone. If not, we usually go inside and I watch my kids and sometimes I text them on their watch to step it up! And sometimes I watch my younger one instead falling everywhere and not even caring, and occasionally pushing other kids and cutting in line! He then waves hi to me all the time, and seems to be having the time of his life.

31. Home and pajamas for everyone, diaper changes for younger kids.

32. Pajamas and bath for older kids.

(Sometimes Dorian will jump in too so it’s a second bath for him. He can’t resist playing with water)

33. Feed baby while I cook.

34. Go upstairs to check up on kids who flooded our bathroom and make sure they pick up all their clothes. They seriously got water to come down from our ceiling about a week ago.

35. Baby goes to sleep if she’s too tired.

36. Dinner bell. We all eat dinner. Hopefully my kids like it so we don’t spend an hour trying to explain to them why they need protein, or omegas, or vitamins, or just food in order to function and survive.

Sometimes they end up doing this if they don’t like their food:

In that case they win and they get to go to bed.

37. I am crazy but I will still brush their teeth even if they are asleep. Hey! None of our kids have ever had a cavity here and I am determined to keep it that way.

38. His day may be over, but ours isn’t. We now have dishes and clean up to do. If I don’t do it tonight I have no idea when I’ll find the time to do it tomorrow being that most days go like the list above.

39. Scriptures and prayer.

40. Teeth for older kids.

41. Some cuddles and family time with older kids if the day allows.

42. Ask them to go to bed for 15 times.

43. Now I need to get ready for bed. And I do have to floss, and brush teeth, wash my face, change, put things away, read, pray, veg for a bit, etc. etc.

44. One more round around the house to check up on all the kids and make sure they are in bed.

45. Lock up and secure home. Turn off lights.

46. I forgot to include our dog that needs to be taken out at least 3 times a day through out the day. Usually our kids or us do it in between errands and the daily hustle.

47. Time with hubby. Time to set goals and ponder.

48. Sometimes I get to do online shopping. Luckily I can even do store pick up for the next day. I am grateful that we can order things online too. I can’t imagine going clothes shopping with my four kids. Well I can cause I have done it, and I don’t plan on doing it anytime soon again 🙂 let’s just say that kids should be allowed to be kids and play and be free and not fit in a small fitting room with moi. Not to mention I can’t make decisions when my kids are around.

49. Pee before bed. Which at this point even having to pee is annoying!

50. When I can turn off my brain I crash and finally squeeze in what I hope will be a full night of sleep. Or at least uninterrupted sleep. Doesn’t happen very often, but lately we are improving on this one.

Ok! Now I am really curious to know what other mom’s days look like! Tell me, how is your average day? What things do you do that are not on this list?

As tiring as a mom daily routine can be, it’s gives me purpose and it’s the  reason I wake up each day and do it over and over again!

PHOTOGRAPHY BY Jenna Elizabeth Photography @jliz23