I previously wrote a DITL post featuring a day that I go to work. But, since I work part-time I thought I would share what a Tuesday or Thursday look like since I don’t go in to teach preschool on those days.

7am (or so) – Mr. Piñata and I don’t set our alarms on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so Little Piñata is what wakes us up these mornings. Thankfully, even if he wakes up around 6:30am, he will usually play quietly in his crib until we get him. But, when he starts talking or even crying loudly we’ll both wake up and know it’s time to start the day. Mr. Piñata gets ready while I tend to get Little P out of his crib and bring him into bed with me. I like this to be quiet snuggle time, but that’s rarely the case. It’s usually me trying to have a sweet snuggle time while Little P is trying to jump on the bed and/or have a tickle fight.

7:30am – By this time I’ve hopefully gotten out of bed and started Little Piñata’s breakfast. While his oatmeal is cooking I change him and get him dressed for the day.

7:40am – Breakfast time for Little P – He usually has oatmeal and fruit. Does anyone else find it difficult to make yourself breakfast? I just don’t care much for cereal or oatmeal to start my day, and I rarely put forth the effort to make something more substantial, like eggs or bacon. So, usually I eat a piece of leftover fruit from Little P’s breakfast and grab a handful or two of nuts.

8am – While Little Piñata has Independent Play time in his room (with a gate on the door) I get ready for the day. Ideally this would mean getting in my work out clothes for a run outside, but since this has been the dreariest winter in my memory, that hasn’t happened in quite some time. Usually, I just wash my face, get dressed and put my hair in a ponytail so that I’ll be dressed for our errands.

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8:30am – Little Piñata and I take some time to play together. I’d like to say that I plan fun activities for this time together, but it’s usually more like reading books, playing with his baby or having a dance party. And of course, a whole lot of time is spent on cleaning up when we’re done.


Getting out the Dr’s kit

9/9:30am- Most Tuesdays and Thursdays I have errands to run. Whether it’s shopping for supplies for my classroom, buying groceries or making a Target run, the mornings are usually quite busy doing the things I can’t get done on the days I work. Thank goodness for squeeze pouches, as Little P’s morning snack is almost always on the go. But, once the weather is nice again and as I have fewer errands to run for school, I hope to take a walk or run with Little P in the stroller on these days. Or take a quick trip to the park. We did that last week and it was so wonderful!

11:15am- We have to get back around this time to get Little Piñata his lunch. If I did a good job cleaning the kitchen in the morning I like to eat lunch with him. If not I tend to be cleaning up from breakfast while he eats his lunch. If it’s not leftovers from dinner the day before it’s almost always a fruit cup, a cheese stick and either a bean/cheese quesadilla or an almond butter and jelly sandwich.


This little guy loves his cheese sticks!

11:45am- When Little P is done with lunch we brush his teeth, change his diaper and go right down for a nap. I’m very lucky that he doesn’t need a big transition here and usually falls asleep pretty quickly. This kid loves his sleep!

12:00pm- 3/3:30pm- I know, I know. I’m crazy lucky that my toddler sleeps for 3-3.5 hours for his nap! I would think that this would allow me to do a million things each day (including relax), but somehow I never get nearly as much done as I hope to. I always spend the time catching up on emails, lesson planning, cleaning up the house, doing laundry, etc. and the time just flies by. I often eat lunch in this time frame and try to be sure I have a plan for dinner and start to thaw the meat. I often shower in this block of time as well. On a really good day I would get a DVD workout done too, but I regret to say it’s been a few weeks since I’ve fit that into the schedule

3:30pm (or so)- Little P wakes up from his nap and we have some play time. If it’s warm enough we often play in our driveway or in the backyard since it doesn’t require driving anywhere. He may also be hungry so he might get a little snack.


Playing with his basketball in the backyard

4:15/4:30pm- This is about the time I start dinner, so Little P plays in the living room while I start cooking. I check in on him every couple of minutes, so cooking takes a lot longer than I would like, but I’m glad he’s finally at an age where he can play by himself for about 20 minutes in the living room without me worrying too much about him. I’d like to start getting him involved in meal prep with me, but we don’t really have a safe way to do that yet. The first step would be to get a safer stool for him to use.

4:45pm- Mr. Piñata arrives home so we can swap jobs. I like to have dinner done by this time so that Little Piñata can have the same thing that we are eating, but if I’m running behind we will find a random dinner for him and Mr. P and I will eat after Little Piñata goes to bed. On Thursdays I leave the house by 4:50pm to work at a local tutoring center with 2 different students, so Mr. Piñata is in charge of dinner and bedtime these nights.

5pm-7pm- These are the hours I am usually tutoring. Although sometimes a student cancels and I’m only there for one hour instead. Of course, this means I don’t get paid when a student cancels, but it’s nice to have the extra hour at home.

7pm- Little Piñata’s bedtime is 7pm on days he has a good nap, so he’s in bed before I get home. When I get home I eat dinner and then help Mr. Piñata clean up from supper. After this we do some work around the house and/or for our jobs then try to hang out together a bit. There are quite a few shows on Netflix that we love right now.

11pm- Mr. Piñata and I would ideally like to go to bed by 10pm, but recently it has been more like 11. I’m sure I’m not the only one with the bad habit of staying up too late! We’ve been considering moving to a new neighborhood in another part of town and I tend to stay up too late looking for houses on Zillow.

I definitely cherish these two days a week at home with Little Piñata so much! I’m very grateful I’ve been able to work more part-time this year as I know it’s not always a possibility for people and it has been a blessing for our family. Even though we spend a lot of these days at the grocery store or running other errands it’s still fun time for us to be together and I’m grateful for it!

Does anyone else work part-time outside the home? Are your days “off” also pretty busy with errands and activities?