So, when I learned that this month was all about “A Day in the Life” here at The Creative Mama, I had this idea to chronicle my day in snapshots. In doing so, I realized that my days were pretty boring. I tried to spice it up a bit ;-). [Larger, readable version HERE - you should be able to save and open in PS or zoom in on your browser]. Some notes:

• Yes. I do eat. Plenty. I forgot to take pictures of that. Probably because my husband makes the meals around here. And thank goodness for that or else we would all starve. No lie.
• We are currently homeschooling. And by “we,” I mean my husband is doing everything. Bless him.
• I spend more time at my computer than I care to. Working to remedy that.
• I spend more time on laundry than I care to. No clue as to how to remedy that aside from renting out clothes to my kids so they won’t go through as many outfits in a day.
• On days when I don’t have sessions at night, I usually end up staying up late to proof a session. On those days, the “start” and “finish” lines in my gameboard would probably intersect ;-).
• Evidently, I like the British spelling of the word “thornE.”
• When I went to post this today, I about fell out of my chair when I saw Stacey’s post. TOO FUNNY!!!!! I *almost* dumped this whole idea because of it, but then I thought how cool it was to see how similar our days were! And how my life used to be when I had an infant.  Made me a bit wistful…even remembering how much sleep was lost.
• BONUS QUESTION: I’ll send a $5 iTunes gift card to the first person who can tell me who I was listening to while on the treadmill that day. ;-)

My bed, unmade, as it remains all day, everyday, in my undecorated basic bedroom.

My kitchen desk, where my now-defunct laptop used to live and work.  It has been replaced by MORE piles of unfiled paperwork and mail and forms and …

My oldest son’s disgusting bathroom.  He’s eight.  And a boy.  Enough said.

My attempt at organizing the twins spring and summer clothes — ongoing for 2 weeks now.

My oldest’s unpacked lunch containers.  Note: there are 2 sets.  That’s right, one from Friday that sat at school all weekend.  Did I mention that he’s eight?  And a boy?

My other messy desk.  Although I have two client showings coming up, so that bad boy needs attention asap.

Our dining-room-as-playroom.  I wish I could say it doesn’t usually look like this.  Their Montessori teacher would be horrified.  All those play kitchen cabinets are empty.  Any guesses where all the kitchen toys are?

My kitchen table.  Covered with art supplies, mail, dishes, hairbands.  Good thing many meals we eat at the island.

We’ve lived in this house for nearly three years now, and I’m still working at making it a home, a place we are comfortable and can relax in.  But it is a constant battle against the clutter and the dishes and the paper (oh god the amount of paper in our lives, still even in this digital age!) and the DOG HAIR (I spared you the photos of the dog hair tumbleweeds).  There are moments.  Moments when it is clean.  Moments when I finish another project.  Moments when I hang a new photo I’m in love with.  Those are the ones I hold on to — and forget all the rest.  Our days are messy … but lived.

An Update:  Last month I issued a spring challenge — to myself and all of you — to spring clean our creative lives.  I committed to getting my Facebook site set up and fine-tune my workflow.  Well, my FB site is almost ready, but I want to finish my blog re-vamp and launch them together, and they are both well underway.  I also checked off some important business tasks and completed some paperwork items.  And I’m cutting myself a little slack, since I got sidelined by a massive sinus infection and a ruptured ear drum (I’m healing well now).  How about YOU?  What spring cleaning did you finish this month?

Random question. Did you ever have to write your own epitaph in high school English class or was that just the sort of fun reserved for my own little twisted teenage place in the world? I’m not sure what I wrote back then but these days I have a hunch what might be on my tombstone:

Here lies Erin Cobb

she was productive

except when she was messing stuff up

I’ve always had a knack for getting things done quickly. I think about the task at hand, divide it into digestible chunks, and then tackle it head on. Sure, sometimes it’s at the last minute but in the wise words of my husband, “if you wait till the last minute, it only takes a minute.”  Coincidentally, that would explain why I’m up at 11:46 p.m. pecking away at my keyboard on the evening before this particular article is due.

The point is, getting things done is the name of my game. But it has also been my downfall. See, in my mind every task I’m asked to do only takes about 5 minutes. So of course I agree to them. I’m a yes girl – it’s the way I roll. And then when all of those five minute tasks snowball and spiral down the mountain of my desk I end up drowning in my so-called productivity. And now that you know that about me, I’m going to share with you a few of my daily victories and failures. Here are all the ways I make the magic happen…and a few of the ways I screw things up royally.

Getting Stuff Done:

- I’m pretty dictatorial about my schedule. My morning run must be finished by 7, followed by making children’s breakfasts and lunches, cleaning the kitchen and grabbing a bite to eat of my own. Then into the shower by 8 and heading to preschool by 8:45. On the dot. Otherwise I miss The Writer’s Almanac on the way home – and then everything would go to hell in a hand basket.

- Early on in motherhood I learned to treasure the time when I had sleeping/occupied children and guard it above all else. Household chores are all done with kids awake and in tow. Never, ever will I do household chores while my children are sleeping or at school. Those hours are reserved for my own personal productivity – work, blogging, me time, etc. My philosophy has always been that it’s good for my children to see me maintaining our home and we can easily make that time quality time spent together. Besides, every five year old needs to know how to fold.

- Post-it notes are my friend. I use them daily, with purpose.

- I have a system for (almost) everything and am pretty religious about the family and I adhering to each of them. For example, when the kiddos get home from school I just say, “do your jobs” and they know exactly what that means: go in the house, put your shoes in the basket, put jackets and backpacks on the bench,  put your lunchbox on the kitchen counter and go wash your hands. Over the top? Maybe. But it works.

- This year I switched to a two calendar system. I knew it was time to start using an online calendar, since I hired an employee who needed to keep tabs on my daily schedule. Plus my husband who was tired of manually syncing our calendars every week or so. So I started using Cozi. But after a month with it I realized how much I missed being able to see my whole month at a glance. And now I keep a paper calendar and a digital calendar. Yes it’s more work but it keeps me sane.

- I clean out my email inbox every day or so (except on the weekends). The only way I know that I won’t miss anything is if I get to the bottom of the barrel. So I make it a habit to sit down and plow through my inbox every morning. It’s my digital to do list.

Messing Stuff Up: (Here’s where I confess all the ways I’m a disaster each and every day. Ready for the real fun?)

- Some days I get up for my morning run, have breakfast, check my email and then change right back into my jammies – never having done a run at all. When I first started running the only way I could drag my butt out of bed was to make an internal promise to myself that if I got up and got dressed and still didn’t feel like going, I didn’t have to. And guess what? Some days I don’t feel like going.

- Even though it’s technically my children’s jobs to fold the napkins, sometimes I don’t even want to face the battle. So I leave them in the dryer and just fish them out whenever I need them.

- Sometimes Post-It notes go terribly, terribly wrong. I may need a special edition of Hoarders to save me from myself.

- I’ve been known to rant and rave about someone not adhering to “the system”…only to find that the offending person was me. That’s a nice slice of humble pie.

- Even with two calendars I’m bound to forget things and miss events. In fact, twice I’ve completely forgotten to be home when I’ve schedule clients to come view their portraits. Talk about an awful feeling.

- And right now there are 41 emails in my inbox waiting to be answered. And the earliest one is from December 21st of last year. (Technically though it’s from my husband and shouldn’t actually be counted. Right?)

Here’s the point. Each day we have opportunities for success and failure. Productivity and problems. Some days (or in my case, today) we’re going to lose our children’s gymnastics log book and buy the wrong kind of camcorder tape at the store. (Geez Louise, who uses a camcorder anymore?!) On those days I just smile and remind myself of the mantra of one of my sweet friends, “I’ll never have to do this day over again.”

And  then some days we’re going to fall asleep with the most overwhelming sense of accomplishment and pride in all that we’ve mastered in that particular day. And those are the times I resolve to soak it all in, basking in the productivity, and wistfully rejoicing that “I’ll never get to do this day over again.”

Surprisingly, I’ve gotten better at seeing, and enjoying, the moment by adding a project to my life.  Simplifying by adding, a little counter-intuitive huh?  This January I started a 365 picture-a-day project (it is my second attempt after giving up last year); it is a project that can be daunting and time-consuming.  There were obvious benefits — improving my skills, documenting my family’s daily life, the interactions with other photographers on Flickr — but I’ve been surprised to find there are more lasting effects.  I’ve gained a true appreciation for the way those little moments string themselves together to make the story of our lives.

It isn’t always easy to appreciate our day-to-day life.  Let’s face it, it’s filled with dirty dishes, dirty diapers, dirty faces, dirty laundry.  But with this project, if I’m lucky, I find a handful of moments each day where I find some beauty.  Sometimes I don’t always recognize it on that particular day, but now I have a record.  When I look back, I’m amazed.

If you’d like to see more of my 365 journey, visit my Flickr stream.  If you’re interested in starting a 365 journey of your own, there are several groups on Flickr dedicated to this project, or many people start photoblogs dedicated to documenting their experience.   If you are already on a 365 adventure, please share a link to your stream or blog, we’d love to see your moments.

Amy Bader

Amy is a bit of a jack-of-all-trades. A photography course in high school sent her to college with a journalism degree in mind, but some surprises along the way led to a career in veterinary medicine. Motherhood has brought things full circle, and now she is concentrating on her photography, finding her creative self and expressing the joys in life which she shares on her blog, Life in Eden.

I was fortunate, and my journey ended with the birth of our twins — nearly 8 weeks premature.  And so now, each spring, I use my blogging platform to raise money for the March of Dimes.  We have committed ourselves as a family to walk each year in the March for Babies.  And I am touched that the friends I have made online support our cause; women I have never met step up and donate because they know what this event means to our family.  And that is one special power of blogging.

THIS (from last year's March for Babies).

We will be marching on May 1st with participants from our town.  If you’d like to support us, visit our personal page at the March for Babies.  I’ll be sharing more about our story and pictures from the walk on my personal blog over the next 2 weeks.

Amy Bader

Amy is a bit of a jack-of-all-trades. A photography course in high school sent her to college with a journalism degree in mind, but some surprises along the way led to a career in veterinary medicine. Motherhood has brought things full circle, and now she is concentrating on her photography, finding her creative self and expressing the joys in life which she shares on her blog, Life in Eden.

I mentioned earlier in the month that our children celebrate Hanukkah in our home.  But nearly every year, we travel to be with my family and partake of the Christmas celebrations.  So naturally traveling changes the entire dynamic of the holiday.  My kids just know that Santa is smart and will bring their gifts to Mom-mom’s house (and that she has a direct line to the North Pole).  There is no big, sit-down Christmas dinner any more, but a huge gathering of adults and children with quick and easy food on Christmas Eve.  My kids don’t get to stand at the top of the stairs trembling with excitement Christmas morning, waiting for the okay to charge down and rip the paper.  Instead we have to dress and head out of the hotel, bringing along all the things young children require.

But the excitement is still there.  The squeals of delight still fill the room.  The floor is still covered with paper and toys.  There are smiles all around … and that is a holiday.

How are your children’s holidays different than yours were growing up?  Are you happy with the way you celebrate now, or are there lost traditions you’d like to re-introduce to your family’s celebrations next year?

Amy Bader

Amy is a bit of a jack-of-all-trades. A photography course in high school sent her to college with a journalism degree in mind, but some surprises along the way led to a career in veterinary medicine. Motherhood has brought things full circle, and now she is concentrating on her photography, finding her creative self and expressing the joys in life which she shares on her blog, Life in Eden.