It wasn’t too long ago that I shared my Day in the Life post. But Trish from Love, Laughter, and a touch of Insanity is hosting a Day in the Life Blogger Event so I thought I’d join in. My last post was a pretty light workday. Since I had a trial during the first part of this week, I thought I’d share what a busier day is like for me. My first post was heavy on the parenting. This post, not so much.
***
5:30 – Ben gets up. I hear him today because I haven’t slept well (pregnancy combined with a fear that I will oversleep). I go back to sleep.
6:20 – My alarm goes off. Ben is gone. I think he leaves around 6am. I hit snooze.
6:30 – Alarm goes off again. I check my email then get out of bed and get ready while watching an episode of Gilmore Girls.
7:00 – I get Evan out of bed. He’s sitting up and waiting to show me that his owl nightlight is green and that it’s time to get up. I get Evan dressed and we go downstairs for his breakfast. He eats yogurt and cereal while I drink some orange juice and make his lunch.
7:22 – We are both ready and head out the door into a torrential downpour. We are soaked by the time we get in the car.
7:30 – Arrive at E’s preschool at the earliest allowable time. He is the first one there and asks where all the friends are. It makes a working mom feel good.
7:35 – I start driving to Tampa. In the torrential rain. It is a 25 mile drive. It takes me an hour and 15 minutes. At least I have an audiobook. And some tea, a granola bar, and a pear.
8:50 – Arrive at the court house, 20 minutes after our 8:30 court call. My boss is meeting with the defendant (he has no lawyer) so I join them.
9:40 – We are done meeting with the defendant and are waiting for another case to pick their jury before us. I check my email throughout the day just to stay on top of it. And to argue with my organic coop over whether or not we actually get a share this week. As you do.
11:00 – We return to the courtroom. The potential jurors have accidentally been excused until 1pm so we discuss a few matters with the judge before an 11:30 recess.
11:30 – Meet with defendant to go over exhibits.
12:05 – “Lunch.” We review potential jurors and eat Jimmy Johns in a tiny little conference room.
12:45 – Back in the courtroom to pick our jury.
2:00 – Jury is picked and we proceed to opening statements.
3:00 – We call our first witness.
3:45 – We call our second witness.
4:35 – We rest. Judge calls a recess until tomorrow at 9am. Boss and I briefly meet to plan for tomorrow.
4:55 – I leave the courthouse and head back home. I listen to my book for a bit but then I get bored so I call my mom. We have an interesting chat.
6:20 – I arrive home. The same 25 mile drive took me an hour and 25 minutes during rush hour. And there wasn’t even any rain.
6:25 – I sit down to the family dinner that is already in progress.
6:45 – We send Evan to play independently on the lanai while Ben and I chat about the interesting conversation I had with my mom.
7:00 – I take Evan upstairs to play for a few minutes while Ben puts E’s laundry away.
7:15 – I start to get Evan ready for bed. It’s not bath night, so it’s just getting him in pajamas, washing his face and hands and brushing his teeth. Ben and I tag team this. Then we all read three stories (Green Eggs and Ham, Sleepytime, and Hogwash).
7:30 – We say goodnight to Evan and leave him in his big boy bed. He doesn’t go to sleep right away, but he doesn’t get up. We’ve started putting him to bed at 7:30 instead of 8 to see if it helps the nap situation.
7:35 – I take a shower while Ben does dishes.
8:00 – Ben takes a shower while I watch the last ten minutes of that Gilmore Girls episode and fold a load of laundry.
8:10 – We make the grown-up decision to do work WITHOUT the tv on. I prepare notes for the closing argument for tomorrow. Ben starts a load of laundry so that I can have pantyhose for day two of trial tomorrow and then sits down to do some lesson planning.
8:45 – I send my boss an email, check to see if there are any other important emails I may have missed while in trial (or traffic), and put my work away for the night.
8:46 – Ben is still working so I come here to write up this timeline.
9:06 – Ben finishes working, puts the laundry in the dryer, and gets us some ice cream.
9:09 – We put on an episode of Friends. I check my email and end up doing a tiny bit more work. Then I mess around on the internet, play with our budget and talk to some friends about – oddly enough – work/life balance.
10:20 – We go upstairs, put away the laundry, and get ready for bed.
10:35 – We put on more Friends but Ben falls asleep right away so I switch to Gilmore Girls.
11:15 – I’m probably asleep around now. My alarm is set for 6:20 again the following day.
***
You should pay attention to all of the things that I didn’t do. I didn’t pick up Evan from school. I didn’t cook dinner. I didn’t do the dishes. I am blessed with a wonderful partner who takes on more than his half of the domestic responsibilities despite working a full time job and adjuncting in the evenings three nights a week. He picked Evan up at 3, parented solo until I got home at 6:20, and even managed to cook us a real meal and have it waiting for me when I got home.
I’d love to see what your typical day is like. Join the fun. Check out everyone else’s posts on Trish’s blog.
my books. my life. 
So glad I don’t have to commute. And although my days are sometimes loooooong, I pretty much never work after dinner (just squeeze all in earlier).
LikeLike
Thankfully my normal commute is 15-20 minutes (maybe 25-30 during March/April) and it is very rare for me to be working once I’m home. Other than checking email, which I do constantly.
LikeLike
Ben sounds like a gem – be sure to keep him!
LikeLike
That’s the plan!
LikeLike
I always get SO CRANKY when I’m called for jury duty, I never even thought about it from the lawyer’s side. Fascinating stuff. And just when I was getting intimidated by your awesomeness and fancy job, you started watching Gilmore Girls. It is the show of my people, so clearly, you are my people. High five!
LikeLike
I’m not fancy at all. I wish I could just watch Gilmore Girls all day. 🙂
LikeLike
The commute sounds rather dreadful and what a busy day! It’s definitely nice all Ben helps you with but I bet you do your share as well. I’m thinking about starting Gillmore Girls. I tend to watch Netflix when I’m getting ready or folding laundry sand I’m almost done with my current show. Hope you’re able to squeeze more relaxing in sometimes!
LikeLike
Have you watched Gilmore Girls before? It’s basically on a constant cycle in my house. 🙂
LikeLike
I work three jobs (by choice), some of which wasn’t reflected in my own day of notes. My husband is a god-send…doing dishes, sweeping floors, etc. so our life is not a wreck while I’m commuting and doing all these self-imposed THINGS. In short cheers to great partners. AND I just love following your everyday on Instagram. 😀
LikeLike
My life would be a mess without a supportive partner. 🙂
LikeLike
Wow, it was quite the busy day! Enjoyed reading about it and what a precious little boy. What did we all do before the audiobooks? Make a commute so much better and glad to hear that yours is not that long all the time. You guys sound like you have a system down pretty well and doesn’t it help so much to have a partner that helps out so much. Raising kids takes time, but is so worth it. Have a good weekend!
LikeLike
Audiobooks are lifesavers, for sure.
LikeLike
I worked for attorneys through undergrad and grad school. They even wanted to send me to law school, but they forgot I saw what they did every day. 😉
I do, however, miss the hustle and bustle at times. I’m still friends with a lot of the people I worked with, and that atmosphere is definitely addictive at times. And voir dire! So fun! (At least it was for me. I always thought jury psych would be fascinating stuff.)
Looks like a good – busy – day!
LikeLike
My undergrad degree is in psych and I once thought it would be pretty cool to get an advanced degree and then focus on the psychology of picking juries.
LikeLike
Ben sounds like my husband- so cheerfully helpful.
But really all I saw was “Jimmy Johns.” I’d like a #5, add peppers, please.
LikeLike
I get the #6.
LikeLike
So busy! Your little guy is so cute! It’s the best to have a helpful husband.
LikeLike
Thankfully not every day is quite this busy. Or at least not busy in the same ways. 🙂
LikeLike
This is so interesting! I’ve always wondered what real life is like for a lawyer, and how it compares to the TV shows. 🙂 And Gilmore Girls, FTW. I love that show.
LikeLike
It is nothing like the tv shows. Far less dramatic. Much more scrambling. 🙂
LikeLike
Early pick-up and late drop offs are the worst! My kids would always make a comment if they were the first ones there or the last ones to leave. Breaks a mom’s heart.
LikeLike
Luckily Ben is able to get him pretty early in the afternoon and I generally drop him off after a few other kids are there. 😉
LikeLike
It really does make a world of difference to have a hands-on partner to help share the load. And I’m impressed about the “adult” decision to not watch TV while working in the evening. And super impressed that you entrusted Ben to dry your pantyhose. LOL!
I’ll be doing another one of these in the fall…will be interesting to see how your day changes with the little! (though you might still be on maternity then–would make for a really interesting record).
Now off to catch your other day!
LikeLike
My life will certainly be different in the fall!
LikeLike
It’s great that you and your husband can be a team on days like this. When I think about attorneys, I sort of assume they’re always in court or being part of a trial, but I get the sense from attorney friends that this isn’t really the case and a lot more of it is writing and paperwork.
LikeLike
Yeah. This is the first trial I’ve had since December. And I’m only in court for a hearing once every two or three weeks.
LikeLike
Great post! Combining pregnancy, motherhood, and a career as a lawyer sounds exhausting to me. I am so glad you have a wonderful partner who helps pull the load in every way. 🙂
LikeLike
It can be exhausting – but most days it’s actually manageable. 🙂
LikeLike
Friends and GG in one day? Well-played. Those little lights they have for kids to show when it’s okay to leave their room/get out of bed seem pretty genius. I want one from my room that stays red until like ten am on Saturdays and Sundays.
LikeLike
Unfortunately, I can’t program it to be different on weekend. Design flaw.
LikeLike
I enjoyed reading about your day! I liked working at the courthouse when I was assigned there. That seems so long ago now. It’s also good to read about another parent’s schedule who works outside the home. I am grateful for all my husband does too. Sounds like we married two terrific men.
LikeLike
I have no idea how single moms or moms without helpful partners do it.
LikeLike
Great post and love how you both share the duties of every day! I also enjoyed knowing that you like Friends and Gilmore Girls – two of my all time favorite series.
LikeLike
I love having familiar television shows to turn to at the end of the day. No thinking, just enjoying.
LikeLike
I found out about Trish’s event too late to participate (silly blogging breaks), but I’m loving reading about everyone else’s days. You’re making me want to break out my Gilmore Girls DVDs (yeah, I still have the whole series in boxed form)!
LikeLike
I still have all of the DVDs, too. But I love that they’re on netflix now.
LikeLike
A one day trial? I want to be on YOUR jury. 😉 And you made me even more grateful than I already am for my 5 minute commute. I can’t even imagine.
LikeLike
It was about a day and a half. Most of our trials are 2-3 days. And this one had pretty limited issues.
LikeLike
Somehow I always got the impression that picking a jury was a long, arduous process. Chalk that up to my never having been officially summoned for jury-dom/John Grisham novels. Sounds like you definitely got a winner with Ben and like you’ve got a good method worked out for sharing the work. Thanks for sharing your day!
LikeLike
Jury selection can be long. My experience is that it’s relative to the length of the trial. A longer trial has a longer selection process.
LikeLike
I’m surprised that 7:30 is the earliest you can drop him off. That seems late to me. Though I do have to say, I leave for work way before my daughter heads to school, so if she was little that would be me too. She gets the bus but when the weather is bad my husband drops her off. Since I get off work before he does, I do the after school running around. There is always so much to juggle with kids. Having a partner helps.
That was really interesting. Thanks for sharing!
LikeLike
It’s been 7:30 at both E’s old daycare and his school. I think the big centers open a lot earlier. I am going to run into some issues with two drop offs and early court calls next year.
LikeLike
When the kids were little, our daycare opened at 6:00 AM. Our kids were there at 6:30, and they weren’t even the first ones. I did have more than one proud moment when my kids were both the first ones there and the last ones picked up. They both loved it there though and had great providers in each of their rooms. It obviously hasn’t hurt them either. A good daycare provider is worth triple her weight in gold!
LikeLike
Evan loves going to school and I am sure he is learning way more there than he would be home with me. That’s what I tell myself at least.
LikeLike
Okay… If your commute takes that long with rain just imagine if there was snow! lol I don’t have kids, but I find 7:30 really early for the earliest drop off, too. I would be that early, or earlier, most days!
LikeLike