A Day in the Life of... Jordan Harrell

Welcome back to our series A Day in the Life of!  Today we have Jordan Harrell from http://jordanharrell.com/ joining us.  

Jordan is another one of those incredible writers from Her View From Home (You really need to check that space out if you haven't already).  Jordan is a beautiful soul, which you truly can just learn from reading her writing (That's how I know).  She is one of those that when you read her stuff you will probably want to cry and laugh at the same time.  She is just that good.  

You will understand after you read her typical day.  And then? Don't forget to check out the rest of her writing at Jordan Harrell and Jordan Harrell.com

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Hi Esther’s friends! I’m Jordan, from jordanharrell.com, which makes me sound a lot more pretentious than I am (that’s just what the “experts” told me to name my website), and I’m so happy to meet you.

The truth behind this photo? Hayes was trying to escape my arms so he could go smack the photographer’s 1-year-old in the head for the 18^th time.

Before I tell you about our day, it might be helpful to know a little about me. I am a stay-at-home-mom and freelance writer from Texas (the Houston area to be exact #prayforhouston), which probably feels like worlds away from most of you. I have three kids: Charlee - 5, Hattie - 4, and Hayes - 2. My husband is a high school football coach, and if you’ve ever watched Friday Night Lights and thought there was no way that could possibly be accurate, I’m here to tell you you’re wrong. That is 100% my life. And I love it.

As we are in the throes of football season right now, my days are rather long and because of Harvey, we have only had one day of school so far this fall, so I’m not exactly sure what our days will look like once we are back into a routine. Although a description of our summer days would be riveting (7 am – 7:30 pm: Drink Coffee, Tell Kids to Go Play), I will attempt to describe what a school year day should look like.

Coloring in the playroom.

4:30 am – Husband leaves. (There’s no reason for me to put this here except to show y’all – yes, y’all – how insane Texas high school football coaches are)

6:30 - 6:56 – Push snooze on my alarm clock.

7:00 – Another coach’s wife drops off her three-year-old girl (WJ) for me to take care of.  

           Girls get ready and eat breakfast.

7:45 – Take Hayes out of his crib and put him directly into his carseat with a delicious, portable

breakfast.

Drop off Charlee at the Elementary School.

8:00 – Drop off Hattie and WJ at Preschool.

8:00 - 11:50 – Hang out with Little Man at home. Try to do a little morning devotional at some point.                        Some of his favorite activities include:

    Puzzles

    Marble Works

    Tinker Toys

    Drawing with markers

    Eating lots of snacks

    Reading books

    Jumping on the trampoline

    Taking walks around the block

9:15 – Hayes goes to time out.

10:03 – Hayes goes to time out.

10:42 – Hayes goes to time out.

11:12 – Hayes goes to time out.

12:00 – Pick up little girls from Preschool.

12:15 – Lunch all around.

12:45-2:45 – Nap time for Hayes and WJ.

                     Rest time for Hattie, which typically means she watches a movie.

                     Rest time for Momma, which typically means I write.

3:00 – Go pick up Charlee, which involves sitting in car line for 30-45 minutes.

4:15 – WJ’s Mama comes to pick her up.

One of my kids (and my) favorite afternoon activities: washing mom’s car.

4:00-5:30 – Kids play while I get other things done (and repeat “go find something to do” 183 times).

5:30 – Start making dinner. Hattie almost always wants to help me cook. Sometimes I’m in the mood for that kind of thing, other times I tell her mama needs to cook fast.

5:42 – Hayes goes to time out.

5:59 – Hayes goes to time out.

6:11 – Hayes goes to time out.

6:30 – Eat as a family. Actually just me and the girls because Daddy is still at work and Hayes is still in time out.

           Our kids’ favorite dinner table activities:

                   - The Take Away Game (One person closes their eyes, everyone else takes one                       thing off the table, person opens eyes and tries to figure out what’s missing.)

                   - Favorite/Least Favorite Part of the Day

                   - Question Game (Ask a question and everyone has to answer it)

7:00 – Girls get ready for bed, read a few bible stories.

7:30 - 8:00 – Girls get into bed and out of bed and into bed and out of bed and into bed.

8:00 – Clark comes home and reads books to Hayes, goes and lays with the girls. (and usually falls asleep with one of them)

I lay with Hayes for about ten minutes and then put him in bed.

8:00 – 10:30 – Write Stuff/Read Stuff/Watch Football on TV.

10-30-11:30 – Tell myself I need to get in bed and stop wasting my life scrolling through social media.

11:30 – 12:00 – Get in bed. Proceed to over analyze everyone and everything. Fall asleep writing a mental to-do list.

That, my friends, is my life in spreadsheet form. I’ll be thankful I wrote it out someday so that I can look back and reminisce about this sweet time at home with my kids.

And by sweet, I mean I’m not exaggerating the number of times Hayes goes to time out per day.