With a little inspiration from Ali on Instagram, I went throughout my day thinking about the lens of savoring moments in my day. Sometimes it’s hard to complete this project when life feels the same day in and day out, but I love the patterns and routines. That’s what I’m trying to capture here.

7:46 am // Savoring morning routines and the feeling of not having to make new decisions each day.  I have been keeping a very basic version of a capsule wardrobe and it’s really narrowed down the time it takes me to get ready in the morning. If I shower in the morning, I always diffuse my hair for a bit so I’m not arriving to work with a wet head.

8:02 am // Not really savoring much here – ha! I walked out the front door for work and saw that my lemon grass and some flowers were dug up by a squirrel.

2:03 pm // Savoring a clean space at work and a to-do list with lots of checked boxes. Today felt good.

4:32 pm // Savoring the excitement of gettin home a early and laying out back in the sunshine.

6:04 pm // Savoring time serving my sweet friends – tonight I took them salad and a chicken and swiss bake (similar here) that was originally given to me in the family cook book my parents put together for my 21st birthday. They asked family members to complete a recipe card for me and it turned out to be one of my all-time favorite gifts. I’ve added more cards of my own over the years and it’s what I use to make my meal plans on a regular basis.

7:24 pm // Savoring this beautiful sunset by stopping in the middle of the road in front of our house. I absolutely love the size of the trees in our neighborhood and the way the sunlight peeks through as it disappears for the day.

7:44 pm // Savoring moments like this while the weather is perfect for front porch sitting. Kevin went for a run so Chloe and I greeted him here when he arrived home.

8:36 pm // Savoring time to catch up on some reading. I currently have 4 books going – Great at Work, Ruth’s Journey, Capturing Light, and The Road Back to You. This one is Great at Work and I chose to read it this evening because I had a book club that was discussing it the next morning. Over the past two years, i’ve read more books than I’ve ever been able to and I’m just soaking in every moment.

11:05 pm // Savoring this sweet girl and her routines. Kevin and I giggle every single night when she shows up in the kitchen to be let outside when he’s in there getting ready for bed.

I’ll be sharing photos like these every day this week in conjunction with Ali Edwards’ Week in the Life project. Thanks for stopping by!

7:16am // I want to remember morning sunlight and an intentional start to my day. Pillows are still all over from Chloe trying to get comfortable the night before and every time I try to put them back in place she messes them up again. It’s a never ending battle.

8:11am // I want to remember food prep, health eating and how good the two of those together make me feel. I want to remember how enamored I felt (and still feel) about our beautiful white sink and the fancy faucet. (I still can’t believe this home is ours.)

10:12am // I want to remember feeling like a five year old with my feel dangling when I sit in my chair at work. It’s hard to get pictures of my work routine, so I’m looking forward to documenting my weekend days.

3:12pm // I want to remember the significance of simple things like having a wireless mouse and two monitors for my computer. They all go a long way in making my day just a little bit easier.

5:13pm // I want to remember going to the gym, when I didn’t want to and promising myself that tomorrow would be a rest day. I’m thankful to get a free gym membership through my work that gives me access to everything I could ever want – and it’s just 2 minutes from our house.

5:50 pm // I want to remember these conversations and catching up on our day before dinner is ready. Today was the Google IO event and he had lots of things to show me. Being together at this table is so important to me. It may have dings and dents but it’s my favorite place to gather. Some of my absolute favorite memories (and inside jokes with my brother) happened around my parent’s kitchen table at dinnertime.

6:19pm // I want to remember things we’ve watched and the recent decision to add a TV to our living room. We’ve made a habit of watching “Doc” on Twitch in the evenings recently. He’s a hoot!

6:35pm // I want to remember simple dinners and breaking the expectations I put on myself to have hot meals ready at 5:30pm every evening. Tonight was salad with baked chicken.

8:55pm // I want to remember tonight’s change in plans as a welcomed sign that I should take the evening slow. Chloe and I cuddled on the couch as I read and worked on a blog post.

I’ll be sharing photos like these every day this week in conjunction with Ali Edwards’ Week in the Life project. Thanks for stopping by!

M O N D A Y     R E F L E C T I O N S:

A few thoughts on today as I went back through my photos.

1. Monday of this project always starts with such high excitement and expectations and by the end, I feel like I’m just scraping by. This time around, I’m focusing on stories first and finding photos to go with them second. We’ll see how we go.
2. Even though this is my fourth time participating in Week in the Life, it’s the only one that can be found on my blog right now. After losing all of my photos and lots of blog posts last year, I feel like I am completely starting over. I still have all of these photos in my albums, but it’s really not the same as having them here.
3. I grabbed quite a few more photos but won’t be sharing them because I wasn’t intentional about the things in the background. I’m hoping to be more aware and really slow down over the next six days.

7:44 am // Our morning routine is always the same. We live in an older home and the only bathroom on the main floor doesn’t have an outlet. Each day, I get ready in the second bedroom upstairs – which hosts my craft space and an extra twin bed – and this is how I get ready. Chloe always joins me on the bed and I just love that I caught her watching me in the mirror.

Real life is that the quilt on the bed is the one my parents bought me when I was moving away to college, and I don’t think I’ll ever get rid of it because it brings back so many sweet memories.

8:31 am // Everyday, I see this sweet face when I leave. She’ll sit and watch my car all the way to the end of the street. It’s precious and it makes me want to run back inside and give up on being an adult. Today I left later than normal and still had to stop by the gas station on my way to work. Because I live so close and since we rarely drive my car (we’ve had some issues with it lately) I only have to fill up once a month.

Real life is that I have so many variations of this exact same photo because it brings me so much joy.

8:38 am // It didn’t take me long at the gas station to realize that I had a wasps nest and wasps behind the fuel door and hanging in front of my gas cap. I drove back home and Kevin managed to get the nest sprayed without any issues. Thankfully, he saved the day on that one. Back to the gas station.

Real life is the love-hate relationship between the pollen on my car and those beautiful trees amidst a clear blue sky.

5:41 pm // After work, Kevin was meeting up with his brother, Dave, for dinner so I just threw something quick together for myself. Chloe has started doing this thing where she will only eat when we are in the kitchen or sitting down at the dinner table. This was my view of her eating tonight while I ate right alongside her. Feels like a proper family dinner.

Real life is having a hard time sticking to the meal plan for dinners I created over the weekend. I have teetered between planning out the entire month and just planning a week at a time and they are equally as overwhelming.

7:09 pm // We took a walk and she ended up taking a break mid-way through. She started doing this last year and managed to pick it back up again. I’m not sure if she recognizes that we think it’s funny but I know that she’s not tired because she did it after taking only 10 steps from our driveway the other day. Needless to say, it wasn’t a very long walk that day. Today we managed about 2.5 miles in the lovely 75 degree weather.

Real life is being so incredibly thankful for an amazing trail so close to home. It’s a huge part of the reason that we ended up choosing our house and we are both so glad. Our town has so many great trail systems that are all interconnected, so it’s great for any length of walk or bike ride.

8:17 pm // I met up with some friends at the gym after my walk which felt like a good supplement to our leisurely pace and a couple breaks.

Real life is hating arms day and loving legs. Tonight I got in some cardio, too! It’s amazing how good my body feels when I’m in the gym consistently.

11:01pm // As soon as Kevin starts getting ready for bed, Chloe will go to the back door to be let outside.

Real life is starting to worry at 11 o’clock that I won’t get 8 full hours of sleep. We just started using the white noise feature on our google home – we’re convinced it’s the best ever.

I’ll be sharing photos like these every day this week in conjunction with Ali Edwards’ Week in the Life project. Thanks for stopping by!