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A Day in the Life – food blogger edition

A DAY IN THE LIFE food blogger

Join me and 5 other of my very favorite food blogs and get inside access to our fabulously exciting lives. Or maybe just see my messy room and bed head. You be the judge.

A Day in the Life

Good morning! It is a little after 7am. I got to sleep in today! Yay! How’s my hair? Super awesome? I think so. Let’s get real. This might be one of the most embarrassing pictures I’ve ever put out there. For your viewing pleasure.

First things first, COFFEE. Wake up some of the sleepy heads.

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Now its time to wake up the other kids. Not an easy task! If I don’t stay in their room until they are actually standing they will just roll over and go back to sleep. Amelia has her daily applesauce breakfast, and Caleb waits for his waffles.

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First thing I see this morning? This lovely comment.


I’m sorry your baby had a health issue, but it’s absolutely shocking and disgusting to come to your site from Pinterest for the fajita recipe and the first thing you see is an infant with a horrible medical condition. I am not unfeeling and not unkind. I was just expecting a recipe, not graphic photos of a child’s rash. I just don’t think this is the proper forum for pediatric medical issues, and I’ve lost my appetite and will not make your recipe. I’m sure this will not be published because it’s not 100% positive and glowing, but maybe you can just take it as a “word to the wise.”


First of all…just no. I love doing what I do, and I’m not setting out to offend anyone purposely, but for real? If my real life offends you, or a photo of some reddened skin is that crazy to you, we are definitely not a good fit for each other. Lucky for her there are about a million other food bloggers out there that should be right up her alley for snarky late-night email sending. Normally I would be ultra polite and apologetic, but this morning I had not had any coffee yet, and you know what? Ultimately this is my space, and I’ll decide what is “proper” here and what isn’t. Period.

My coffee is finally done, and its 7:30. Time to sit down at the computer and get some work done. I check email, facebook, edit some photos, and direct traffic from my “office” in the corner of our living room.

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We’re finally all ready and loaded up for school! When we are really on the ball we would catch the bus, but today we didn’t quite make it. All the way to school we go. It has been a relatively smooth morning. Most mornings there is usually one kid melting down over a missing sock, another who somehow escaped detection and is still in pajamas 10 minutes before we are supposed to be out the door, another who can’t find their backpack, didn’t do their homework, and spilled/ripped/lost that VERY important paper that they just HAVE to have. This morning was pretty good. No tears. No yelling. Everyone out the door with teeth brushed, shoes and socks on, backpacks are with them AND have snacks in them. I’m calling that a win!

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Back from dropping off 3/4 of the schoolios, its time to get a little housework done. Hi chickens! We are up to 6 now, and are consistently getting four eggs a day. Can’t wait until our two little ones start laying. If they are hens. That’s yet to be determined. We think the little one pictured in the upper right *might* be a rooster. We are hoping, anyway. I want to do some hatching in the spring!

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I ended up having time to clean the living room, and start the dishwasher. That’s it. I vacuumed out enough food out of the couch cushions to feed a small country. How does that even happen? My kids had better know that I love them because I am willing to dig down into no-man’s-land of the couch cushions and fish out lego guys and their other small but previous items. *gag* I will spare you the photo of that.

The living room is the ONLY clean room in my house right now. I am so far behind on housework, I might not catch up until Thanksgiving. If I’m lucky. I’m seriously considering saving some  funds and paying someone to come in for a whole entire Saturday and just clean. Or maybe just getting an off-site sitter so my lovely husband and I can tackle it.

Breakfast time for the tiny one, and the movie time for the kids. Kids plural today because my middle child is sick. Again. It is only our 2nd cold of the year. In October. The great thing about having a million kids is that you can usually count on at least one of them to be sick all.winter.long. Poor little guy though. He has mild asthma that only shows its face when he has a respiratory virus, so they hit him harder than others. Yay for cold and flu season! Don’t even get me started on the latest virus scares going around. I can’t even watch the news right now. Nope.

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Its 10am! Work time! Time seriously flies when I’m working. I LOVE it. Its about 11am now, which means it is nap time and lunch time for the rest of us. (If you don’t know about CoSchedule yet, and you run a WordPress self-hosted blog, please get in touch, or just visit the site for details!)

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The rest of the afternoon flew by answering emails and reading up on some help documents I’m working on. More coffee and the most EXCITING mail call I’ve had in a long time! Then it is time to call it quits on work for the day, and go get the “brudders” off the bus.

Today was amazingly nice out, so the boys played outside for quite a while and then came in and tackled homework while I started dinner.

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Dinner tonight was tacos! If you are counting, you will see we have an extra boy in that picture. Its a rare night when there isn’t a neighbor kid or two around. I love our neighborhood. So many boys to hang out and play with!

You see that picture in the bottom right? That’s a taco. With ketchup. Yup. A ketchuppy taco for one of our favorite neighbor kids. It is a good thing we like him! Kids are so awesome.

On a side note…I ALWAYS think that tacos are going to be SOOOOOO easy and quick and just the PERFECT throw-together weeknight deal. NOPE. I forget every time. I end up spending 30 minutes making custom tacos for a million kids, and by the time I make mine everything is cold. Then I’m left with an EPIC mess from the prep and the toppings and arrrrrgggggghhhhhhh. I’m sticking with Taco Soup, or Enchilada Casserole from now on. (A Taco Soup recipe is in the works for you all, adapted for the slow cooker!)

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After dinner I hopped back on the computer to start writing this very post, and take care of some more photo editing and social media scheduling and general blogging work. I created the graphic you saw at the beginning of this post, made all of the collages that are included, and wrote the whole narrative. Typically I would try and shoot a project like this well in advance of the date I was posting it, but…well…I’m horribly disorganized at the moment.

For me personally, the state of my house is a pretty good indication of the state of my head, and right now they are both a mess. I’m looking forward to the end of this week when I have three days off. I’m going to use it for cleaning and organizing and writing writing writing.

When things are in order, I can relax. When the whole house is a wreck that’s pretty difficult. I try and justify it and make excuses about how busy I’ve been (true) and how messy the kids are (doubly true), but it doesn’t change the fact that it *could* be a lot better. Maybe that’s the mom guilt kicking in, or maybe its just the way it is. Either way, things need to Change in the housekeeping department around here, and now.

A Day in the Life

The rest of the house is asleep, and I have a few more things to tackle before I join them. I hope you enjoyed, or were at least not bored to tears by this little glimpse into my world. If you made it this far..

High Five

Make sure you click through and visit the rest of the bloggers giving you a glimpse into their world… 

The Baker Mama

Diary of a Recipe Collector

House of Yumm

Sugar Dish Me

The Weary Chef

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Nicole Johnson

Nicole Johnson, a self-taught expert in grilling and outdoor cooking, launched Or Whatever You Do in 2010. Her blog, renowned for its comprehensive and creative outdoor cooking recipes, has garnered a vast audience of millions. Nicole's hands-on experience and passion for grilling shine through her work. Her husband, Jeremiah Johnson, also plays a pivotal role in recipe development, adding his culinary flair to the mix. Together, they form a dynamic duo, offering a rich and varied outdoor cooking experience to their followers.

Ashley @ Wishes and Dishes

Wednesday 8th of October 2014

p.s. Sorry about that nasty comment :( Been there....

Nicole

Wednesday 8th of October 2014

Yeah...unfortunately I think it comes with the territory a bit, doesn't it? I haven't had many, and usually I don't care, but they usually don't catch me pre-coffee AND call my baby disgusting. lol It was the combination that ticked me off...momentarily! ;)

Ashley @ Wishes and Dishes

Wednesday 8th of October 2014

I loved seeing a glimpse into your day!!

Nicole

Wednesday 8th of October 2014

Thanks, Ashley!

Maegan @thebakermama

Tuesday 7th of October 2014

Loved this, Nicole! I hear ya on the housework frustrations. Our house is so unorganized right now that I've pretty much just given up. I keep dreaming some little fairy's going to come in in the middle of the night and I'm going to wake up to this super clean and organized house. Ha! Wishful dreaming , right? So jealous that y'all have chickens. I'm sure they're extra work, but how awesome that you have fresh eggs all the time. What a beautiful family you have! Loved following your day!

Nicole

Wednesday 8th of October 2014

The chickens are actually very little work, overall. I just collect eggs, and feed and water them. Once in a while the kids have to chase them out of the neighbors yard. Naughty chickens! Lately they've taken to hanging out right by the house though, and even on my front porch, and leaving me "presents" to clean up. That's not the greatest thing, but the fresh eggs are totally worth it!

Katie

Tuesday 7th of October 2014

Man oh man, I applaud you! That is a lot of kids to keep track of on top of doing so many other things! I think its pretty cool that you are able to work for CoSchedule (which I just got and love!) from home!

Nicole

Friday 10th of October 2014

Thanks, Katie! It is a ton of kids to keep track of. Five is a LOT. :) Keeps me out of trouble though. So glad you are loving CoSchedule! Let me know if you have any questions. It is like the BEST job ever.

Andi @ The Weary Chef

Tuesday 7th of October 2014

That is a dang lot of boys, Nicole! Do not even stress about your house! You are taking care of a lot better things than cleaning. There's the saying like, "A good mom has happy kids and a messy house" or something like that, and it's true! You are doing a great job, my friend! xo

Nicole

Friday 10th of October 2014

Thanks, Andi! I appreciate it. That quote is my mantra. ;) It is how I sleep at night. That, and audio books. :)