A Day in the Life of My Girlish Whims: Work from Home, No Kids Edition

 I've always enjoyed reading "A Day in the Life Posts" by other bloggers because I think they are a fun peak into someone else's life and schedule.  I've never posted one myself though because honestly, I think my routine and schedule most days is pretty mundane and boring and not very blog post worthy.  I still feel the same way, but with two babies coming next year I know my day to day schedule is going to change a LOT so I thought it would be fun to document what a normal day looks like these days so next year when I'm trying to keep two 9/10 month old babies alive daily I can see how vastly different my days have changed.


So...without further ado...my very un-blog worthy daily routing working from home married with no kids from Monday October 25!


Sunday night my hubby and I went to bed pretty early (we are not night owls these days at all!) and I hardly ever set an alarm anymore since I know my body/bladder/husband/cat will wake me up well before I need to be ready for work.  This morning it was the smallest member of the family, Nala, who nudged me awake a little after 6:30am (always looking for her breakfast) so I slowly got up, went downstairs to feed her and grab some coffee.


When I was working in my office in person pre-covid times my regular hours were 8:30AM-5PM.  I take a little flexibility with my schedule at times working from home though - sometimes I like to login a little early to get some quotes done I really need to get to before the regular working hours kick in when my phone starts ringing and emails come in that need to be responded to from clients. If I wake up and am not starving immediately in the morning (the morning hunger was REAL during my first trimester of being pregnant but it has evened out a bit in my second trimester) I'll often login early and do about an hour worth of work while drinking my coffee before breaking to make breakfast from about 8-8:30AM.

I cook the same thing for breakfast almost every day during the week.  I sauté a big handful of shredded Brussels sprouts in a pan until soft, add in a bunch of spinach and let it wilt, then add in about a cup of egg whites and cook/scramble it all together until cooked and top it with low fat American cheese.  I'll also have greek yogurt with some frozen fruit and a handful of high protein cereal on top.  I love this breakfast for having something salty and sweet first thing, plus it's a good way to get some veggies in the morning and lots of protein as well.  I always read during my meals - currently I'm reading the latest book from Liane Moriarty (undecided on this one so far) that I got from my Book of the Month Subscription. 

After breakfast I head back upstairs to my craft room/office and get back to work.  I take full advantage of the work-from-home benefits of having no dress code.  I do pretty much all of my work over the phone and email and only very rarely have meetings that I have to turn a camera on for so it's pretty much comfy PJs, glasses, and mismatched slipper socks for my morning shift. 


Around 10AM I typically decide it's finally time to put myself together a bit so I'll wash my face, brush my teeth, put my contacts in and put on some exercise clothes.  I hardly ever wear rear clothes these days or put makeup on...if I'm feeling motivated I might pencil in some eyebrows, lol, but I keep things pretty basic when I'm not going out much.  Side note: check out that almost 24 week baby bump! Things are starting to look real!

Since I logged in early, after getting ready I'll typically take a little break to go for a walk.  We've lived in our new home together for just over a year now and one of my favorite parts about where we live is that we live in a neighborhood with a cut-de-sac and a nice little walking loop.  I love being able to just walk out my front door and go for two laps around the neighborhood while I get some steps in and catch up on social media.  Even though I'm pretty active on instagram I definitely set some boundaries so it doesn't take over my day.  If I open the app first thing in the morning I know I will get sucked into scrolling so I typically avoid opening the app until I break for these walks and will catch up on my feed and respond to comments and DMs. I don't go super fast or super far but since I sit basically all day long for my job I try to make a point to get out and make a few laps once or twice a day to get some movement in!

I used to be able to make it from breakfast until lunch without any snack in between but since getting pregnant these babies just love carbs and keeping me hungry so sometime around 10:30 after my walk I typically get a little hungry again and will have a snack of a 100 calorie English muffin with some greek yogurt cream cheese on top.

I work through the rest of the morning and then break again at about 12:30 for lunch.  I recently started dog walking for a family in my neighborhood during the weekdays which is a nice way to make a few extra bucks each week and make sure I get up and move my body and get some extra steps in! Little Ginger is a good little walking buddy and I will pop over to walk her around the neighborhood once before coming back home to eat lunch.


 For lunches during the week I order meal prep from Clean Eats Meal Prep so I always have healthy options on hand to just quick pop in the microwave for 2 minutes to heat up and then they are ready to eat! The meals are delivered fresh each week and they have a lot of different options to picks from for breakfasts, lunches or dinners.  Today I had their Chipotle Apricot Glazed Chicken which came with a chicken breast, sweet potato wedges and asparagus.


After lunch it was back up to my "office" to work for the afternoon.  I work in insurance as a Senior Personal Lines Sales Advisor for a large brokerage in the area.  I've been at my job for over seven years now and when the COVID Pandemic started in March of 2020 I was able to transition to working fully remote from home and it has been the BEST thing ever! I no longer have to commute 45-55 minutes each way to the office and waste time doing my hair/makeup/getting professionally dressed each day.  I also have so many less distractions working from home! My husband works from home as well but he has an office in our finished basement and my office set up is on the second story so we really each have our own space to get our work done.

Around 3/3:30 I'll typically run downstairs to grab a snack and a Coke Zero (today I had a banana topped with some locally roasted peanut butter and an apple from our recent apple picking excursion this fall!) but besides that the afternoon is filled with just regular work.  I sell all types of personal insurance (home, atuo, renters, etc.) and work as an independent agent meaning I represent about 10 different insurance carriers that I can sell policies for.  I have sales goals each month I need to met for bringing in new business (which I have always far exceeded each month since working from home!) but I also have a large book of business of current clients that I'm available for during the day to help with billing questions, car changes, general policy servicing, and also remarketing (shopping policies with a new carrier for existing clients to try and find a better rate).  Some days/weeks are busier than others but normally I keep very busy and always have something I can be working on.  I have various referral sources from within the larger company I work for (mostly mortgage brokers and bank tellers) and also get referrals from current clients and my own sphere. 


Today I worked until 5:15 and then made myself step away from my laptop to get ready and head to the gym! My husband and I belong to Lifetime Fitness and go to their King of Prussia location. It's about a 20 minute drive from our house so I also have a workout area set up in my basement with a treadmill, Bowflex, weight bench, and dumbbells but I like to get to the actual gym at least 3-4 times a week and almost always go on Monday to set the tone for the week.  Working out at home is convenient but working out in a gym environment is much more motivating when there are others sweating right there along with you!


My regular gym routine starts with warming up on the stair master for cardio: I'll typically do about 20-30 minutes as I scroll and catch up on social media on my phone, and then for the rest of the time I'll do weight based circuits.  I've been using the Alexia Clark workout program for 2-3 years now and really enjoy it for giving me a basic plan to follow for my workouts.  It's $30 a month (if you want to try it you can get $5 off every month with my referral link!) and you get 5 new workouts each week that have gym options or home workout options.  There is an app on your phone I keep up during my workout that includes a video to demonstrate each move and outlines the different circuits.  The workouts include one upper body day, one lower body day, two full body days, and one challenge each week.  A lot of the moves/lifts get repeated but no two workout are ever the same so it doesn't get old! I like not having to spend much time planning my workout out before the gym - I can just open the app, scroll through to get a general overview, and then jump right in to do as many circuits as I have time/motivation for.


I typically workout for at least an hour around 6 days a week.  I am starting to slow down a bit being six months pregnant so I'm modifying my workouts accordingly. On this particular night I definitely started lacking motivation halfway through - lol - so I kept it on the lighter side but pushed through to get my hour done then headed back home. 


After a quick shower it was pack in to PJs and my hubby's oversized shirt.  When I say I don't wear real clothes a lot I mean it!  If I don't have any plans during the week I essentially live in workout clothes and PJs and I am a-ok with that ;)


By the time I'm home and showered from the gym it's normally around 7:30/7:45PM so I'm not in the mood to do any fancy cooking or elaborate dinners.  I typically have some veggie options already prepared in the fridge and some quick protein options as well.  Tonight I had butternut squash and Brussels sprouts that I had roasted over the weekend and some pre-cooked chicken sausage from Trader Joes.  I threw it all in a skillet to heat it up with a little cheese and called it dinner :)


And yes - I was raised in a family that read books at the dinner table instead of chatting so I still love to read during my meals, including dinner. I typically try and make pretty healthy food choices during the day but I definitely have a sweet tooth and have to end every day with some kind of small dessert. Over the weekend I had friends over for dinner - the momma just had a second baby so I wanted too cook a nice meal for them that they didn't have to worry about prepping or cleaning for! I also made a big dish of apple crisp for dessert and had some leftovers sitting in the fridge still (definitely not something you will normally find in my fridge!!) so I had a small serving as my night cap for the day!


By the time I'm done eating and cleaning up it's normally around 8:15PM and it feels too late and I'm too tired to start any major projects.  I'm still working on getting things set-up and organized in the baby nursery so some nights I will organize some things in there, some nights I will go up to bed pretty early, on this particular night I decided to sit at my beading desk for about half hour and work on some stretchy bracelets while watching some Modern Love on Amazon.  My beading desk is on the other side of the room as my "work" desk in our spare bedroom upstairs so this is a total "ME" craft room/office.  My beading desk always looks like creative chaos but it's still a super peaceful spot for me to unwind and get a little creative at whenever I get some free time!


Finally at about 9PM I'll head to the bedroom to start my nighttime skincare routine (I use the fré skincare 123 set every night) and then will read a bit more before bed.  I'm mostly a fiction reader but have been reading some pregnancy and baby related books in preparation for our twins arrival next year and my hubby has been reading some to.  We read together for maybe another half hour then it's typically lights out by around 9:30 and a wrap on the day!


The next morning - I get up and do it all over again! There will be some major changes to my work life next year (I'll share more about my plans in another post) and two little ones to care of.  I've enjoyed this season of life but really am so excited for the changes to come and can't wait to share my next day-in-the-life which will likely look a little more chaotic :)

No comments