I've got a big announcement to make today, but before I do, let me give the newbies a little background.
Last year, I did a photo shoot for Well Rounded NY with lifestyle photographer, Raquel Bianca to document my morning routine. Many reacted to the photos negatively. People thought they looked too beautiful to be a real representation of my morning. One mother even claimed they set too high of an expectation for the average working mom.
I said the beauty of the photographs surprised me as well— I was terrified to do the shoot because I thought it would expose my mornings for what they were— chaotic, disorganized and unenjoyable. But photographs stop time and show the little moments we miss— the snuggle you give at 6am when your kids invade your bed, the shoe you slip on your baby's foot with your foreheads practically touching, the smile you let escape when your daughter requests pancakes AGAIN.
I bet that if I sent the same photographer to any mother's home, she would find the beauty in their mornings too. To prove my point, I selected five mothers from around the NYC area, via reader comments— my main objective that different parts of NY were represented. Raquel and I did not see photos of the mothers, their families or their homes prior to the shoots.
Since we wanted the real deal with nothing stylized, Raquel arrived at 6am. The moms involved had no time to get their families in order even if they tried.
The goal wasn't to make their mornings look crazy or messy or comically awful. The goal was to show that even amidst the chaos and the crumbs, even when you don't pick up all the toys and you've got syrup stains on your mismatched pajamas, there is still beauty. In fact, the real moments, the ones that really represent your life and your family every day, are probably the most beautiful.
And that's how the "Monday Morning" series was born.
Ilona from Queens:
Annie from the suburbs of New Jersey:
Borami from Hoboken:
Teresa from the Upper West Side:
Jennifer from Brooklyn:
The series was tremendously popular and changed not just the perspectives of the mothers involved, but the perspective of many readers as well.
“Seeing these photos, along with yours, does make me realize that despite my own perception of the never ending chaos and the feeling that I'm doing nothing 100% well, from the outside things look pretty lovely. It also makes me remember that it's the precious little moments, so beautifully captured here, that we rush through each day, that are the ones that truly matter." – Jessica (real person, I swear)
The one complaint I got about "Monday Mornings" was that it focused only on moms from the NYC area. Readers wished more mothers from across the country were represented. I agreed. Only, I didn't have a budget to fly a photographer around the United States to snap photos. The only way I would be able to do that is if I got the series sponsored.
Well, today I am excited to announce a partnership with Allstate, an insurance company dedicated to protecting families and keeping them in good hands, who has generously agreed to help me continue the Monday Morning series and take it to other parts of the United States.
Can we all pause to let that sink in for a moment? I've known this for at least a month now and I still don't think I fully believe it.
We are looking for 12 moms in four different US cities (one city being Chicago since that's where Allstate calls home) with all different routines and backgrounds to feature their Monday Mornings on Mommy Shorts. The posts will be very similar to the five posts already featured in the program— Allstate has been clear from the beginning that they want me to maintain the authenticity of each post and not change anything I was previously doing for “Monday Mornings”. They even agreed to fly Raquel around so that I could use the same amazing photographer who made the previous posts so special.
Raquel and I could not be more excited about this partnership and I hope you all are too!
If you are a mother living in the continental United States and would like the opportunity to be featured in the Monday Morning series, please leave a brief comment below with:
a) the city/state you live in
b) the number and ages of your kids
c) any information you think might be relevant to your morning routine— what time you and/or your partner leave for work, whether your children stay at home/are in daycare/go to school/etc., if you work at home, if you have a baby on the way, if you are a single mom, if you have live-in help, if you have extended family at home, if you live in a small space, if you live in a colossal mansion, etc.
For full terms and conditions, click here.
Over the next few weeks, we will be working diligently to find the 12 featured mothers in our series. We are not looking to feature only people with extenuating circumstances— we just want a variety of relatable mornings represented.
As I mentioned, we are looking to find sets of three moms in four different cities. The only definite city is Chicago. If you want to up your chances, tell your friends nearby to enter!
A huge thank you to Allstate for making my dream come true and sponsoring Monday Mornings. It's been clear since we started working together, the series is in very good hands.
We are a family of 4 (two boys ages 2 & 4). We live in a suburb of San Antonio, TX (not far from Austin). The boys and I are “home” full time. Mondays are usually chores at home days, but other days we leave for playgroups, Bible study, or other activities by 8:30. My husband typically leaves for work before the boys get up.
You’re about to have your work cut out for you!
I’m Kristi, and I loved the original series you did. Especially the one you went back to and re-shot. I love the truth in that.
Anyway.
I live in Asheville, NC.
I have three daughters, ages 4, 2.5, and 3 months.
I’m a stay-at-home, work-at-home mom. (A SAHMWAHM. A SAHWM.)
I’m a freelance writer. My husband is a Presbyterian minister, and no one has any idea what THAT actually looks like! Mondays are our day’s off, so they’re our family’s Sundays. Tues-Thurs, my older girls go to preschool and the baby stays with me while I write. Fridays are up in the air, and Saturdays start with ballet class for our oldest.
I’m learning what works for us with the recent addition of our third daughter. These days I’m getting up first, which I thought would kill me, but actually gives me energy to be able to meet all those needs early in the day. CHEERIOS! MILK! MORE MILK! SHOW’S NOT LOUD ENOUGH! And shower, make-up, breastfeeding, etc.
Thanks for doing this series.
1. San Diego, CA
2. Two daughters, six and three years old
3. I’m a SAHM. My husband very recently returned from 16 months of geographical bachelor orders in New Hampshire, which meant he would fly home every couple of months to spend time with us. We would also FaceTime every night so the girls could see him and tell him about their day. He has been coming and going on sea duty for over three years — he deployed four days after our three year old was born. We are now finally together again and relearning to live as a family unit.
I LOVE this!!
– I live in Cumming, GA, just north of Atlanta
– I have 3 year-old boy/girl twins
– My husband works full-time and leaves around 6:30 am to beat Atlanta traffic. I work 2 days/week – I’m an independent consultant so my days and hours are pretty flexible. The days I work my children go to an in-home daycare. They wake-up sometime between 6 and 7:30 – I try to keep them in their rooms until 7 but that doesn’t always work! When they get out of bed they like to have some time to play and wake-up before getting dressed and really starting their day. Days that I work, the mornings just seem to be chaos of getting kids dressed and ready and breakfast/lunch packed up and get everyone out the door before any meltdowns! Days we’re home seem to just be chaos of crazy play and a rush to make and serve breakfast before a meltdown occurs!
We have a full and very busy house – 2 toddlers and 3 small dogs. I would love to have the beauty captured in my morning because I find myself forgetting it’s there.
Please come to Atlanta!!!
This is so exciting. I love when people appreciate the forever images of lifestyle photography. I personally LOVE mornings, they’re my favorite, especially Monday. Monday for me is a day reserved for just ME and my two kids. London is 4 and Hudson is 1. Dad usually heads into the office early and the kids are sad to see him go but enjoy the moments with him before he leaves. London insists on couch cuddles and Hudson is emphatic about helping him put on his socks and shoes.
We live in Boca Raton , FL. About a block from the beach. Depending on the weather we map out the day to fill every inch of it with whatever the kids want to do. I never make routine plans for Mondays! Mondays are for adventure. Mondays are for ice cream at breakfast. Mondays are for multiple swims in the pool. Mondays are for being awesome!
What a fantastic idea and how generous of Allstate! Love it!
We live in Elizabethtown, PA (between Harrisburg and Lancaster). Me, my husband, son (12) and daughter (10).
My husband leaves a little after 7:00 for his job doing construction inspection. Bless his heart, he tries his best to not knock over every single thing he passes from the bedroom to the front door so as not to wake us. Yes, we aren’t exactly morning people. I roll out of bed around 7:20-7:40 and make sure the kids are on track. They usually are because my 12 year-old spends his morning acting like a parent and keeping my free-spirited 10 year-old on track. She honest to goodness, could not care less. The girl does not have a care in the world, while he cares way too much. I own a bakery in our town plus blog, so depending on the day, I’m on my way to one of those jobs (meaning either the couch or the shop). We aren’t exciting, but normal is my dream!
This is so cool! I’d love to be apart of this!
1. We are right in Chicago, about a mile away from Wrigley field. We were in London a year ago and before that NYC! But we’ve now settled into our 1886 row house.
2. We have one almost two year old son.
3. My husband works full time, I part time. Our son or our new puppy wake us up between 6 and 7 every morning. We take turns cleaning up baby pee and puppy pee, all get dressed, and 75% of us get fed. I leave at 7:30 to walk( on a nice day, which to be honest, there has neen like three)to work, while my husband walks our son to day care and then bikes ( ok mostly rides the bus) to work. I thought having a puppy might prepare us for having another child soon. All I can say is I hope my son has a lot if friends!
This is awesome.
A. I live in Raleigh, NC.
B. I have two daughters. Maddie is 3.5 and Violet will be 1 in two weeks.
C. I am a NICU nursery nurse part time. I work nights, from 7 pm until 7 am, two nights a week. The mornings I get off work, my husband and I share getting the girls up. I nurse the baby, then sometimes try to sleep for an hour while he feeds them breakfast and gets them dressed. Then I’m back on when he leaves for work. My older daughter goes to preschool a few days a week. The other five mornings (when I’ve not worked the night before), my husband goes to the gym early, then we all get up and try to have breakfast together, get him off to work, and plan our day. We are typically running around to get everyone where they need to be, but we also work hard to spend quality time together to start our day. And since my older daughter tends to prefer to go by Dorothy, we are often singing and dancing to Somewhere Over the Rainbow. We live in an older home in an established neighborhood in midtown.
I look forward to this series. What a great way to honor what we all do for our families every day.
I am pretty sure our tiny little town will never make one of your four cities. But just in case:
Cedar City, Utah. I have three kiddos (8, 5 & 9 months) in a smallish home. My husband and I both work. I try to wake up at 5:30 to run, which means I more often than not wake up at 6:00 on the dot, when my too-early-rising 5YO sneaks out of bed, begging for cartoons (you would say yes too if your kids had no concept of weekend sleep-ins). I wrangle breakfasts and lunch boxes around 6:45 while my husband hits the snooze button (which is ok with me). Feed the baby at 7 while the big kids ignore my instructions for tooth brushing; and then our nanny arrives at 7:30 (the time we older four are all supposed to leave the house. My husband, who is the principal of my son’s school, leaves with 8YO in tow to drive to school/work a few minutes after that. I fight with my very opinionated 5YO over clothes and hair a little while longer before leaving for work at 7:50. Most days my 5YO comes with me to work for an hour before I drop her at preschool; on the off days, she waves me out, late but dragging my feet because I’d rather stay with her, from the garage door with loads blown kisses and tossed hugs which don’t end until the garage door touches the ground.
This is such an amazing opportunity for you and us! I can’t wait to see the results!
a) Pittsburgh, PA
b) 1 – 18 month old girl, Leonora
c) My husband, Adam, and I both work full-time outside the home. Leonora’s daycare opens at 7:30, so our mornings revolve around that and what shift I happen to work that day (ranges from 6:30 to 9:30 start). We live in an average size home that was built in 1890 in the Little Italy section of the city. We have a 2 year old English mastiff, Lola, who is as much our baby as Nora. Nora is always a joy in the morning. She usually wakes up singing the ABC’s or Old MacDonald. I feel like I’m bragging, but we are lucky with our morning routine. It is rushed but it’s smooth!
Thank you!
a) We live in Pocatello, Idaho
b) We have 5 kids, 11, 9, 9, 6, 3
c) Four of our children go to school, so we are up at 6:30 am to get ready (Dad goes to work at 4 am so he is already gone). I usually get up and get myself ready first so I can start on breakfast while the kids shower. We like to sit around the table together to eat and we read scriptures. Before the kids go to school we gather together for family prayer. If the whether is good we like to walk the kids to school. If it is not so great, we drive them! We live in a nice little home with our two dogs and a cat!
Fort Hood, Killeen, Tx.
James 2years 3 months; Madeline 13 months.
Mom is a doctor and daddy is an active duty soldier at Ft Hood and a doctor, too.
My little band of mischief makers and I live in Southbridge, MA (an hour outside of Boston). I have two daughters, my very strong-willed and skilled negotiator of a 2.5 year old and a sweet and snugly 5 month old. My husband works an hour away and leaves very early in the mornings so my routine consists of just me and the girls tripping over the goofy dog. I am a stay-at-home mother, and we live in a single-family, moderately-sized home on three acres of woods and wetlands, which are an extension of our home since we are outside so much. Despite not having to leave the house at a specific time every day, our morning routine is still a hectic, coffee-fueled, bit of chaos. I had written to you just after Harlow’s first birthday, while pregnant with my second daughter, expressing my gratitude for sharing your girls’ relationship and how it had helped me embrace the upcoming changes that having a second child was bringing. It’s still very much a work in progress, but things are coming together. I do find beauty in the small moments, but it is easy to get overwhelmed and miss the good in the mundane. I would love to capture those every day scenes that I could recreate in my sleep and see them from a fresh perspective and save them for my girls to remember that every morning may not have start with a smile, but always included love.
I live in Colorado Springs, CO with my husband, five month old daughter, three dogs, and cat. We have a modest 3 bedroom home, which is constantly under renovation since my husband is Mr. DIY! I work full time, half day from the office, and half day from home. My husband has two jobs, so he leaves very early in the morning so I do the morning routine alone…which usually means me leaving my coffee on the roof of my car, forgetting to give the baby her medicine, accidentally leaving the dogs outside, and leaving the house (and myself) looking like a hot-mess mostly every day. The crazy thing about it is, I love it that way.
So excited to see this series!
I am so happy that you are taking this wonderful idea on the road! I found the original series so incredibly moving.
a) Santa Barbara, CA
b) Together, my husband and I have a large blended family, and we both work full time. I have a 14 month old son, 3 stepdaughters, 15, 12 and 10, and a large goofy dog.
c) This year, all three girls are in different schools with different starting times (high school, junior high and elementary), and my son goes to daycare. Depending on the day of the week and general circumstances, our mornings can range from hectic and chaotic to relatively calm and organized. The only constant is coffee! My husband leaves around 7:45 with the girls, and I finish getting my son’s daycare bag together and myself ready and am out the door by 8:30.
Congrats. Those are lovely photos.
1) Charlotte, NC
2) One boy (almost 4), one girl (1)
3) My husband and I both work full time. We currently live in a craftsman style home a mile from Charlotte’s city center. We both commute in opposite directions to work, so living a “southern city life” enables us to split the difference in our commutes. He has a super cool job working for a NASCAR race team. I work in a middle and elementary school as a psychologist. He travels 36 out of 52 weekends a year, which means Monday mornings are a combination of a sleep-deprived husband home from a red-eye, a tired mommy gearing up for a crazy work week, and two kiddos who are extremely excited to hop into bed with their dad. We have a “divide and conquer” outlook on our mornings. Constant kid-swapping and task-trading is how the kids and I get out of the house by 7 for work/daycare… and leave my husband to get ready for work and clean up the hurricane trail we have left -because, oh yeah, our house is on the market!
a) Napa, CA
b) one 19 month old
c) My husband leaves early morning so I am on my own! Luckily I have my mother (aka Nanny) come pick up my daughter so I don’t have to drop her off. Usually I can get up and at least get showered, but I am not a morning person! A typical day is me up and showered and teeth brushed before my daughter wakes up. Then it’s an attempt to finish getting ready for work once she wakes up and wants to play with the dog. We share a morning snack, do the diaper changing Olympics (not a real sport you say?! Beg to differ!), and run 50 different directions while I check in on work stuff (full time job and a person side business!) before Grandma comes and swoops her away and I get appox. 5 minutes to myself to get dressed and out the door!
1. Philadelphia, PA
2. 2 children: Our son Julian will be 4 in June & daughter Teagan is 8 months
3. My husband and I both work, so our mornings are a bit chaotic to say the least 🙂 Julian usually wakes up the house around 6am (Teagan is a sleepy head – ha!) and we snuggle for a few minutes before heading downstairs for the usual duties – juice, coffee, Julian’s morning show, packing lunches, negotiating to get dressed, catching a newly crawling little girl & having breakfast. My husband & I rotate duties of walking the kids to & from ‘school’ – We are lucky enough to be able to walk both kids to preschool/ daycare and then continue on to our walks to work. I usually handle the morning walk & my ritual involves ANOTHER cup of coffee for my walk after I drop off the kids before arriving at the office to be able to embrace the few precious minutes of peace that I have to myself each day.
1) Seattle, WA
2) one child – 18 months old daughter
3) My husband and i both work full time. I go to the office and he works from home. My daughter goes to daycare Monday through Friday. My daughter is a picky eater and I go to work late partly because of it. We’ve got a high-energy lab who makes breakfast more “fun”. In addition to being a picky eater, my daughter enjoys throwing food on the floor for our dog. We sometimes try to separate them…but my dog is too smart and sometimes, my daughter will be hollering for the dog to come while eating…
a) Chicago, IL
b) Two kids 3.5 boy and 3 month old girl.
c) I just got off maternity leave I have yet to establish a routine but I try to get up before the kids (6 am) to get makeup on and dressed. So I would look put together in the morning. Then head to our room to see who is up. The kids sleep in my bed. I try to get the boy ready and well the girl can’t stall yet. I spend time negotiating if my son will eat at home and head out by 7:15.
We live in Warren, MI (20ish minutes north of Detroit)
3 1/2 kids; 5, 3 1/2, 16 months & due in November with #4
We have a 900 sq foot cookie cutter house like all of the ones in our neighborhood except we have many people in our dinky home. And two pups. So our Mondays go like this, my husband gets ready for work with the elder goons staring at him or begging for food or having loud conversations on the toilet. We eat something then get ready to take my oldest to preschool. Eventually the baby wakes up and runs laps around the house leaving crumbs in her wake. Then I throw on some sweats of some sort (to hide this growing gut) about 3 minutes before we leave the house. If I’m lucky I have my coffee in my hand and maybe my teeth brushed before I herd the children to the minivan. Unlikely but it’s a great day if it happens. I’m a stay at home mom to these goons with a jewelry making side business and teach sassy dancers to flip at a local dance studio 2 days a week.
In conclusion, I’m living the dream?
We live just outside Charlotte, NC. My husband and I have 2 girls, ages 7 months and 3 years. We both work full-time outside the house and the girls go to different daycares so we usually each take one.
I’m a 29 year old mom to one 7 month old little boy. We live in Buffalo Grove, a suburb 45 minutes north of Chicago. My hubby leaves for work around 7:00 and I stay home with our son. We live in a 2 story colonial on a cul de sac. I love all the photos!
a) Northfield, NJ
b) 2 kids – ages 3 and 3 months, and one smelly dog named noodle
c) I stay home with the kids and my husband works part time from home and part time on-location. My oldest likes to sneak into our bed in the middle of the night and I am nursing my son, so all four of us wake up in the bed together. Mornings are typically pretty lazy, especially if hubby is working from home that day, but they start very early. We get out of bed whenever I can keep my eyes open for 5 minutes straight and I head right for the coffee pot. I make a homemade breakfast (usually waffles and/or scrambled eggs) and then the kids play while I attempt to get dressed/brush my teeth 😉 After that I get the kiddos get out of their PJs and we set off on some type of adventure, whether it’s a play date, the library, the park, etc.
We also just bought our house in November, 2 months before I had my son, so there are still lots of little projects going on all at once. We live in a 3 bed/1 bath rancher with an attached MIL suite that we rent to my husband’s foster brother. The house is in a suburban area one block from a bike path which we ride on regularly! We also live about 5-10 minutes from the beach.
A) Lewiston, Idaho (Idaho! We grow potatoes :))
B) 2 girls Madison 3 and Logan 14 months
C) My husband works 4 10’s so is usually gone for work by 6 am, I am a barista at a local coffee shop and work 4 days a week mostly on weekends and stay home a few days during the week. So during the week I am the one who gets up with the girls, usually Logan wakes first, but Madison follows close behind, always yelling for daddy to get her up and then dissapointed when she sees me. Dads are the best! If I am not working that day we usually run and get coffee and then come home for breakfast, coffee first always! Followed by playing, house chores and doing whatever things need to get done! Would love to have an opportunity to do this!
My husband and I live in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, Ca. Currently my husband and I both work full time. I work as a social worker and do freelance work in between. We are trying to make some adjustments as my return to work has resulted in many late nights and more time away from my family than it did prior to me having our littlest. This will either be part time work coupled with more freelance writing (hopefully!) or another full time job that works better for my family. As a result mornings, although sometimes crazy, have become the most important part of my day — it’s my chance to set the tone for the day, so I make more of an effort not to let Mondays get the best of me 🙂 and our mornings are far from perfect but they’re ours. I’m the mom to a big and little – a 9 year old and a 20 month old. My oldest is in school and youngest in daycare (you can see photos of my family on IG @hismrshermr).
Rarely are we given the opportunity to capture the true everyday moments that occur alongside our spouses and/or children. This is a beautiful opportunity to create a perfectly imperfect memory that will warm my heart for years to come and hopefully do the same for my girls when they grow up and find themselves in the midst of
motherhood on a Monday.
If you have any questions please let me know. Would love to represent for the West Coast 🙂 and congratulations!
1.) we live in Delaware, Ohio, which is right outside of Columbus, Ohio
2.) I have three beautiful girls, Natalie, 9, Emelia, 7, and Jocelyn, 21 months
3.) I’m a SAHM/WAHM and fulltime photographer. I’m typing this through tears in my eyes. We live in a small townhome that we outgrew three years ago. I pride myself on lifestyle photography, but have lost all interest and creativity in capturing my own children in their daily life in this horribly small, well-loved in home. On top of this, due to a recent hip injury, I can no longer run, which was my stress release-I hate the way I look and cannot capture any photos of myself with my own girls without tearing up at how much weight I’ve gained. I can’t tell you how much, from one photographer mom to another, this would mean. Our routine includes waking up at 7:30 am for school, preparing breakfast and talking with our girls about their upcoming day at school. Daddy walks them to school when he doesn’t work. I then spend a couple hours playing with a spirited toddler while editing photos. She often crawls in my lap and helps me edit, at some point. Books, songs, then lunch, followed by a nap for Josie, where I then attempt more editing. School ends and my older girls come in like tornadoes-snack time and homework, followed by giggles and fun with baby sister when she gets up. It’s a very mundane routine but I’m blessed to finally be at home with my girls pursuing my dream.
Where: Alexandria, VA (right outside of DC)
Who: Me, husband, 5 month old daughter, and 2 dogs
What: Our routine differs depending on whether my husband is traveling (which happens about one week each month). When he is home, I get up with the baby around 5:45 when she wakes, change, feed, and dress her, get bottles, etc. ready for daycare, and let the dogs out and feed them. She and Dad are out the door by about 6:30 usually (he does daycare drop off). Once they’re gone, I shower, pump, get dressed, walk the dogs, and head out the door for work.
When my husband is traveling, the mornings are a whole lot less structured. We’re still up early, but things go much more slowly. If the weather is cooperating, I’ll put the little one in her carrier and she’ll walk the dogs with me. Then I normally shower/get ready while she’s taking her early morning nap. On those days, we don’t get out of the house until closer to 8:30-9.
a) Rosamond, CA (1.5 hr outside of LA)
b) Everett, 14 lbs.
c) My husband is attending a year-long school for work. He flies a couple mornings each week for school and leaves around 5:00 am those days. The days he doesn’t fly, he is there in the morning to help. I work 30 minutes from home. I take my son to an in-home daycare one mile from my work (so I was able to breastfeed during my lunch hour when he was a baby). I would love photos of this time as we will move frequently due to my husband’s job and I want to remember our years living in the southern California desert.
a) Overland Park, KS (suburb of Kansas City)
b) 1 Daughter, Age 16 months
c) Our mornings change depending on the week, and the house is NEVER clean. My partner, Andrea is an overnight pharmacist, working 7 nights on, 7 off. She comes home around 7:30am, while Aven(our daughter) and I have been up for about an hour. The 3 of us spend about an hour together, then Andrea heads to bed. I’m a real estate agent and a certified athletic trainer. During the week I do real estate, attempting to work from home with Aven running around with our 3 dogs. She’ll also travel with me to properties, which is not always ideal.
Our day care is limited for Aven. We have an amazing dental school student that will come to our home 3-4 times a month. Getting a little relief for a 1/2 day is wonderful!
We live in a subdivision in Overland Park, in a modest house. We hope that you come visit!!
We live in Wakefield, MA (suburb of Boston). I have one child, Lucie, age 17 months (born one week after Harlow!). I work full-time as an attorney and my husband works full-time as a Technical Lead, both in Boston. My husband generally leaves around 7 am so he can work 8-4 and do pick-up. I do drop-off each morning (so yes – I get the tears, he gets the happy hero’s welcome, not fair!) at either daycare on Mondays & Tuesdays or my MIL on Wednesdays-Fridays. If everything is on schedule, we are out the door ourselves by 7:15/7:30 am.
My daughter is awesome about going to bed and is usually asleep by 7pm, which, YAY! BUT…that means if I work even the slightest bit late or have after-work plans, I don’t get to see her (well, awake anyway). So, I really try to make the most of our mornings together, since it may be the only time I get to spend with her during the week.
I absolutely LOVED this series and can’t wait to see how it turns out this time!!
I LOVE this! Pick me, pick me! I live is Schertz, TX a suburb of San Antonio, TX. I have 2 boys, 2yrs old and 4 mos. They are 21 months apart, so I definitely feel like I have 2 babies rather than a baby and a child. I’m a stay at home mom and do a couple of direct sales businesses, but am also a licensed interior designer (which doesn’t reflect so by the looks of my home!) My husband works night shift as a police officer. Our home is a two story house, about 2400 sqft. A typical morning for us is waking up when the 2 yr old wakes. I still have the baby in my room so I get him, change diapers and we all go down stairs to get breakfast. (diaper changes w/ the 2 yr old is like wrestling an alligator). My husband gets home around 6:45 or 7 so usually he will come home while we are eating breakfast. Welcoming daddy home is always fun if we are awake when he gets in. Then, we stay down stairs for the day while daddy sleeps. Our ‘schedule’ is usually pretty relaxed, but it’s the juggling between the needs of the babies while I’m still trying to wake and get the coffee and make breakfast that makes it crazy. We also have 2 dogs in our family which adds to the mess. Dog hair piles, legos, and cars are often found throughout our floors!
We live in Manhattan, KS, in a small house (728 sq. ft.)
We have one child currently 14 months old, and are choosing to have an only child. I am still breastfeeding, and have a sometimes interesting schedule. I am always responsible for our mornings. My husband leaves for work before I wake up Colin for the day if I wake him up. He generally wakes up between 7:30-8 and our dog and I get up when Colin wakes up. Unless I have recently accepted a contract working on a military instillation in which case I work 7 days a week, and I wake Colin up at 6a to nurse him and then put him back to bed to go to sleep and he wakes up to the nanny.
Mondays are always a little more stressful for me, because I travel on the weekends for a total commute of 4 hours to and from work. I work out of town in a behavioral health hospital 12 hour shifts and stay home Monday through Friday, and my husband plays “single dad” on the weekends while I am gone.
Everyone I talk to always tells me how “plush” I have it, and I feel very lucky, I’m still able to stay in my career, and also stay at home with my son. We would love for you to come and visit our college town!
a) Chicago, IL
b) 4 kids – 6 year old girl, 4 year old boy, 2 year old girl, 6 month old boy
c) I’m a stay at home mom but my oldest is in school. We normally leave at 7:30 to walk 1/2 mile to school and then I homeschool the younger kids for preschool. My husband recently started his own company and also works from home (which honestly has added a bit more chaos to our mornings).
a) Wakefield, MA (10 miles north of Boston)
b) 2 boys (4 1/2 and 3 months old)
c) we are actually in the process of figuring out our morning routine with the arrival of the new baby in February! Both my husband and I work and we are going to have to figure out a whole new routine. my oldest is in preschool (and at a summer program there once the school year is over) and my little one will be starting at an in home daycare on Monday when I go back to work (!!). I work in downtown Boston and rely on public transportation (commuter train) to get to work. My husband and I decided that I would leave the house earlier to get to work so that I can leave early to pick up the kids. He will leave with both boys and drive them to their respective providers about a half hour after I do. I would say he’s got the hardest job in getting everyone out the door on time and with all the correct/necessary items they need for their day (lunch boxes, show and tell items, change of clothes, etc.) I would say about a good 40 min of our morning is spent dressing my 4 year old, who is usually incredibly opinionated and indecisive about what he wears. he also gets very distracted, so the first 30 min is spent reminding him to put clothes on.
A) I live in Columbus, OH
B) Three kids – Sadie, 5, Colin, 2, Elise, 7.5 months
c) We just moved to Columbus, three hours away from our home. I am starting a new job on May 5 and not sure what the morning routine will be. The move was precipitated by me losing both of my parents, my job and having a baby in the ten months from January 2013 to October 2013. We came to Columbus for a fresh start.
In the 12 days we have lived here, I landed an awesome job doing media and public relations and my husband is finishing his semester at school. He will be home with the kids this summer while I begin my new career.
We are currently renting a 1,200 square foot townhouse – much smaller than our large home we left. It’s messy and there are boxes everywhere, but that is just the way it has to be for awhile unfortunately.
Thanks for the consideration.
DC would be a great place to come to!
A) We live in Rockville, MD (15 minutes outside of Washington, DC)
B) My son is a Thomas loving superhero 🙂 who is 2.5 y/o (3 in August), and I am due with my second son in July. My 18 y/o also lives with us and is in his last year of High School. He is usually gone before we start our morning routine though.
C) My husband and I tag team the morning (with my husband getting him dressed and feeding him breakfast and I pack his lunch / and other misc. items). We do not have any help (in the mornings or otherwise). My son attends Montessori school, and my husband works for the government. I work in corporate America, but typically work from home unless I have to travel to a customer meeting.
We would love to be profiled and are excited about the potential opportunity! Even if we do not get picked, I can’t wait to read about all of the new families that you profile!
1. Cibolo, Texas (right outside of San Antonio)
2. 4 kids (11,10,8, 1.5) and 1 due in June. Hooray.
3. I wake up with the bigs and get them ready for school, my hero of a husband takes them, and then I spend the day with my little until pickup. My parents live across the street (think “Everyone loves Raymond” except they are from Europe). I am a stay at home mother, truly living out the desires of my heart. I met my husband while performing with Ringling Bros. Circus and try to keep a little flair in all that we do. I’m 41, and everyone wonders if these later babies are an “oops” or “are we done yet!?!”… I delight in it, when I’m not feigning offense. I love Jesus, my husband, my kids, in that order. We try to be great neighbors and friends. I think I won’t mind looking 10 lbs heavier for the camera- I’ll blame it on the pregnancy. Pick me- Or at least, pick San Antonio! This is a great city- I’ll have the tortillas and fresh salsa ready!!
Omg!!! We have the same first name!! It’s so weird to see it spelled the same! 🙂
I just love this!
A. Our little family lives in Redlands, CA. It’s a beautiful city full of Orange groves and old Victorian houses. We don’t live in one, but we do love our 2 story, 5 bedroom home.
B. I have three children at home: 2 year old boy, 10 year old girl, & 12 year old daughter. Sometimes the older two are with their father in AZ.
C. My husband has to leave before us, so my son and I cuddle in bed and watch Mickey mouse until it’s time for him to leave. We leave 45 minutes later. Getting ready consists of spending time in our room getting ready, and in my son’s room getting ready. The girls get themselves ready and I do their hair. Then it’s off to wherever they need to go (daycare, etc) and I’m off to work.
a. We live in Chicago, IL – we are in the Humboldt Park neighborhood
b Two kids: Henry, age 5, and Helen, age 11 months
c. We live in an old, vintagey three-flat house that we partially rent out as an airbnb vacation rental. I am also an almost full-time yoga teacher, and my husband works as a waiter and real estate agent. We have a lot of schedules to juggle, and every day is a little different. Some mornings, I have to sneak out of bed (Helen sleeps with us in our bed most nights) to see a yoga client at 5 am, then I return to help get Henry to school, and start in on any laundry and cleaning that needs to happen for our next round of airbnb guests. Other mornings are a little more relaxed, and we all wake up at 6:45 to get Henry ready for school. We generally walk or bike just over a mile to Henry’s school.
While there are many fun moments to our mornings, I tend to feel like I’m always hurrying Henry along, and my attention is split between Henry and Helen’s needs, not in a good way. It’s nice to have Mike, my husband, around to help in the mornings, but the pace is usually pretty hectic, and the day-to-day variation in our morning schedules usually means we hit the ground running.
Raquel is such a gifted photographer, and I happen to have known her since she was a little girl, since her older sister was my best friend in junior high and high school! 🙂
a) Columbus, Ohio
b) 2 kids – a 3 1/2 year old boy and a 4 1/2 month old baby boy
c) my husband and I both work full time – he a teacher and I a 7:30 – 4:30 “desk job”. On MWF he and both kids are out of the house by 6:30 am (alarm goes off at 5:15)and I am gone by 7:15am. on T/TH he is out with the baby by 6:30 and I take the older boy to preschool by 7am. In the summer my husband will be home with the baby full time and the older boy on MWF – still going to T/TH preschool – and somehow it all works 🙂
Hello!
I’m Michelle and I live in Redwood City, CA (SF Bay Area/Silicon Valley)
I have 2 kids, 6 year old daughter and 19 month old son.
I work part time and just started studying for the MCAT to apply to med school this year. My husband travels a lot so there are many days where I’m getting both kids ready for the day on my own. My daughter is in kindergarten and my son is in daycare while my husband and I work.
We live in a tiny 2 bedroom house with 2 dogs and a cat. Most of the time I feel like I’m being buried alive (maybe you should do an organization contest at some point to? haha!)
My husband and I try to be up at 6:30 (really 6:45, wake the kids up at 7 and have to be out the door so my daughter can be at school on time by 7:50. My husband takes my son to daycare when he is in town but he usually leaves around the same time as me.
A) Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA (Central Coast north of Santa Barbara)
B) One Son – currently 16 months old
C) My husband is enlisted in the United State Air Force, and I work about 40 minutes north of home. Mornings are not our favorite time of the day (insert hectic). We live in base housing (insert small) and don’t really have a set schedule – some times my husband gets the boy up and sometimes I do,(depending on who hit the snooze button the most) but there is always a snack and I drive and drop our little at daycare every morning. Having our son completely changed our world (obviously) but oh man, what a learning curve, especially without close family or friends. I would be honored to represent working mil-spouse moms, but I would also be terrified (truth). Regardless I too was completely touched by these photos, what a beautiful project.
This is so much fun!!
1.) We live in Charles City, VA which is about 30 minutes east of Richmond. Very rural, not a stoplight or a grocery store to be found in our county!
2.) One baby girl who is 10 weeks old
3.) My husband and I work together for the same company so we commute together. Our morning starts around 5:30am. My horses live at our house so I have to get out there to feed them, and I try to get myself ready for work before I get the baby up. We try to get out of the house by 7 am so we can get her to daycare on our way to work and not be late. We also have 2 dogs and a cat that demand a lot of attention in the mornings! I am still trying to adjust to my new role as “mom” 🙂
What a great idea!
a) I live in Ennis, Montana (a small town of about 1000 people)
b) I have two daughters, 2 and 3 1/2 year olds.
c) I am a stay at home mom and my husband leaves for work at 5:15 am. Usually the kids and I get up around 7, but it can be as early as 5:15 with my husband or 8:30 (on the really lucky days). We live in a log home with our two dogs on a 2 acre plot of land.
Fantastic amazing photos!!! I look forward to many more. Our house is in Landenberg, Pennsylvania. I work about a 1/2 hour away in Wilmington, Delaware. We have a 13-year-old daughter in 7th grade who gets on the bus around 6:45 AM and twin almost 5-year-old boys who go to preschool around 8AM. They’ll be in Kindergarten in the fall!
a) New Market, Maryland
b) Three Dudes, 6, 9, 12
c) All three dudes go to school every morning. Unless it’s summer and then we have swim team and the butt crack of dawn, followed by a visit to the lake (we live on one). My youngest son has OCD so getting ready in the morning (and going to bed, and brushing our teeth, and eating dinner, and living life) involve a series of rituals, and lots of questions, and the inability to change the order of anything basically ever. I work from home as a (you know this! Formerly parenting BY dummies) blogger, and a photographer.
So happy to hear there will be more to this series!
1) Chicago – Lakeview Neighborhood
2) Two kids. A daughter, Annelise who is 13 months old & one furry daughter, Gertie who is 4yrs old.
3) We live in a 2000sq ft condo in a 3 flat building. I’m a stay at home mom and my husband travels 2-3 days a week for work. Our mornings start around 6am. When my husband is home, he will get our daughter when she wakes up, while I take the dog out. They snuggle until I return. I get Annelise’s breakfast ready and feed her. While she is confined in her high chair, I prepare our breakfast, make coffee, empty the dishwasher and pack my husband’s lunch. My husband and I try to eat breakfast together. After he leaves, I clean up and get ready for the day.
My name is Sandi,
Our family recently relocated from Oregon to Sunny Arizona! We are just outside of Phoenix in Glendale, but my FB status says I’m in Weedville LOL I only write that because every time I look at a map, I try to find it and it’s nowhere to be found! Ha! Anyway, we have been in Arizona now for six weeks! Loving it so far, but we do hear that the summers can be a bit over the top!
My husband and I both work from home AND home school our two daughters, Mia age 11 and Jada age 8. As you can imagine, our schedule changes day to day. As if that wasn’t enough, We have 2 Guinea pigs, 2 dogs (chihuahua’s) and a cat that is bigger than all of the above put together ha!
We don’t consider our family weird, We call this “Living outside the box”
Whether or not you choose us for “Monday Mornings” we want to wish you the very best on this series! There are so many different life styles out there and I don’t believe there is a “perfect” one, just the one we choose. So, Choose wisely, it’s the only life we get…
Here’s to Monday’s!
In our family we both work full time and our son goes to daycare.
-I am in corporate retail.
-We have a one year old son who is super fun
– our day starts at 6am and we are out the door at 7
-we try to spend a few minutes of family snuggle time together in the morning before the craziness begins.
A. Arlington,tx
B. 2 kids son 5 daughter 4
C. As of current, both my kids are still home. My son will start school in the fall. My husband works second shift and I work from home, so we are all home in the morning . Although my husband is usually trying to still sleep. We live in a very annoyingly small apartment because we just recently moved from SC and are stuck here until we find a home.
I absolutely love this idea and really enjoyed seeing your pictures!
My husband and I live in Pewaukee, WI (suburb of Milwaukee, WI and only an hour and a half north of Chicago) with our two very energetic (wild) boys, who are just about to turn 5 and 3 (May and June birthdays). We live in a 3 bedroom ranch home in a pretty quiet, newer subdivision that has a beautiful view of the surrounding Milwaukee area, especially in summer. I work full-time and my husband is a stay at home dad. Our typical morning starts around 6 (although I regularly attempt to wake up earlier to work out but as both boys still wake up and need me throughout the night I end up often ignoring the workout alarm to get a little more sleep). If I can get showered before one of the boys wakes up the morning will go smoother…but often my 2 year old (soon to be 3) is up before I can get in the shower. My strategy is get the boys breakfast as fast as possible and turn on a cartoon while I get ready, but I’m back and forth between the bathroom and family room multiple times for any number of ridiculous reasons, but mostly to break up fights between the boys. It all feels very chaotic, especially since my husband typically stays in bed until I am finished getting ready and leaving for work, which is between 7:30 – 8:00. After he gets up, he gets our 4 (almost 5) year old ready for school (4k, half days every weekday) and on the bus a little after 8:00. I would love to see what our chaotic morning actually looks like from the outside!
We live in Fayetteville, AR (NW AR area), and we have one son (for now!) who is 18 months. We both work outside the home full time. We get up at 5:45 or 6am when my son wakes us up. I get him out of bed and nurse him (yes, still that) while my husband gets ready. Then he watches him while I get ready. We both pack our lunches while J eats breakfast. He’s out the door by 6:45, and then J and I play and do chores, until our nanny comes at 8. I leave by 8:15. This staggered schedule works for us because my husband gets home earlier (4:45 most days and 3 on Fridays) while I get home at 6. This allows J to have more time with one or the other of us and keeping our nanny hours to about 42 a week. We live in a neighborhood, but it’s on the edge of town, giving a little bit of country flavor (sometimes we can hear the cows in the morning).
I live about 45 mins/an hour south of Chicago. I have one daughter, who is 10.5 months, and 4 dogs! My husband and I both work so my mom has been staying with us and watching the baby. I leave for work a little before 7 and my husband a little bit after me. My father passed away 2 months before our daughter was born so this past year has been hard but Molly has been the bright spot we needed.
a) Oakdale, MN (near suburb of St. Paul)
b) 1 son, 2 years old (just shy of 3) and a baby on the way (September due date).
c) Typical routine: We wake around 7:30 and on any given morning our son may or may not be in the bed with us. I help him get dressed and eat breakfast. We often make smoothies for breakfast and he likes to help.
Both my husband and I leave for work around 9am. He takes our son to preschool or daycare depending on the day. Our house is a modest 50’s rambler in a suburb.
This is awesome! I live in Wilmette, IL (so, very close to Chicago!). I have a son and a daughter, who will be 8 months old on Saturday. Our morning routine is pretty interesting, since both hubby and I wrangle a baby, and our dog joins in the cuddles. Our mornings start somewhere between 6 and 6:30, usually, and hubby and I attempt to get out the door between 9:30 and 10 (our work schedules are flexible right now), depending on when our Lucy (there’s no good title for who/what she is) arrives.
Yay! So glad this series will live on in good hands 😉
Please come to Belmont, CA! (San Francisco bay area)
We have two girls (11 months and 3 years). My husband and I both work full time. The girls go to different daycares. I wake up with the girls and entertain the older one while nursing/diapering the baby. Then, my husband gets the older one ready while I finish getting the baby ready for daycare. My husband drives the older one to daycare because it’s near his work, and I drive the little one to her daycare because it’s by my work. And then we do it all over again the next day 🙂
a) San Ramon, CA
b) 1 16 month old son
c) We live in a two bedroom condo. I wake up first and get my son when he wakes up around 6-6:30, nurse and read books in bed for a bit. Husband then helps get him ready for daycare, feed him breakfast, feed the dogs breakfast (we have a scottie and a westie) while I finish getting ready, and then I take him (via car) to daycare on my way to work (I commute into San Jose).
I may be too late to this…I somehow missed this post!
I live in Asheville NC, beautiful WNC mountains.
My husband and I have a 2 yr old.
We are both full time (40+ hr./ week) working parents (uuggh) and our daughter is in a care giver’s private home day care with about 7 other kiddos.
My husband leaves for work any time between 6 am and 8 am depending on his day. He usually does the morning daycare run 3-4 days a week which allows me to leave at about 8 am for my job downtown. We get up around 6- 6:30 on a normal day. Our girl is not a morning person so she spends the first part of her day after waking up in her crib in our bed until she is ready to face the world. Helps her ease into her day as we get ready.
This looks amazing and like so much fun! Morning is my favorite time of day! We live in the suburbs of Chicago. My husband and I have three kids ages 6, 5, and 3. My oldest takes the bus to school, and my middle guy attends preschool at the school district where my husband it. I stay home with my youngest. Our day usually begins about 6:30 a.m. 🙂 Good luck on your travels!
What a great idea! I hope I am not too late for this – I flagged it for later and then forgot to comment! I am a mama to two children (3 if you count my dirst born – a dog child, Layla, ha!). Lillian (Lilly) is 2 and Craft is 3 mos. I am currently still on maternity leave but will be returning to work on June 2, so I know our mornings will look much different then than they do now. Currently, Craft wakes up between 6-7am to nurse and goes back to sleep for 1-2 hours. Lilly gets up sometime around 8. We have a nanny that will be keeping our child plus one more (Kinsley, 1 year one neighbor whom we have a nanny share with that doesn’t end until August). My 19-year old sister will also be living with us for the summer to help out with the kids. My husband and I both leave for work between 8:30 and 9:00 am, and getting out the door is typically a ljte chaotic between getting ready for work, eating breakfast together, packing lunches, etc. I think this is such a great idea and can’t wait to see the end result!
A) chevy chase, md
B) a three year old girl and identical twin girls who will be one at the end of May
C) I work at home on Wednesdays and Thursdays, but am otherwise with my girls. My oldest goes to nursery school from 9-1, but our day starts at 6! We have an au pair who is wonderful and makes my life manageable. My husband is an attorney who works A LOT.
this would be a dream come true. I know these days are precious, but right now, they just seem insane. I’d love to see it through someone else’s eyes and be able to look back and (ahem) brag to my girls about what I did for them once they are moms!
I’m so excited about this!!
I would like to ask (okay beg) to be considered. I have a unique situation that I would love to have captured on film. Every morning I drop my little girl (5) off at my mom’s house prior to going to work. It is my mom, who has done this since she was born, that gets my daughter ready in the morning and off to school. I always refer to them as partners in crime. It would make my heart melt to capture both my mom and my daughter going through their morning routine. It would capture a moment in time that my little girl could always have. We live in the Fort Worth, Texas, area. Both my husband and I work and it has been my mom that has done so much for us. Also, to quote my child whenever she wants something, “Pretty please. I’ll be your best friend.”
a) Bel Air, MD (suburb north of Baltimore)
b) Two girls: 9 & 5
c) My husband commutes to Baltimore and leaves by 6:15 am before the rest of us are up. That leaves me to orchestrate getting the girls dressed and fed (9 year old dresses herself with A LOT of reminding, and the 5 year old lets me dress her…otherwise she would wear her Hello Kitty footed pjs everyday :-), as well as making sure our two dogs have pooped and peed. Coffee and shower for me are sometimes optional, (and I often put my makeup on at work. I work full time in the town where we live.) then it is off to drop them at school and me to work.
a) Purcellville, Virginia (DC suburbs)
b) two children – girl (age 4), boy (age 2), and a third boy due in August
c) I run a small daycare out of my home. In addition to my two, I watch two infants (currently 10 and 12 months) and a 3 y/o. They start arriving between 7-8:30 each weekday morning. I also have two yappy dogs they go crazy every time someone comes to the door. My home daycare is only operational during the school year (so through June 20th before summer break). My husband takes my daughter to preschool two mornings/week but on the other days tries to be out the door before the chaos begins.
Hi! a) Sara from St. Louis, MO here. b) I have a little boy that will turn two in a couple weeks and am pregnant with a daughter, due mid-July. c) Our day always begins with our son yelling “Wake up, mama! All Aboard!” from his room, which has to be the best alarm in the whole world. My husband and I are both full-time working lawyers and we have a nanny that arrives at 8:00 a.m. We have a 5 bedroom house in the suburbs at the end of a cul de sac on a quiet street filled with a million wild children. Our morning routine involves lots of snuggling in our bed, feeding all our pets (2 dogs, 1 cat, lots of horny fish), giant cups of coffee, choo choo trains, pancakes and inevitable morning meltdowns over ridiculous crap like not letting the toddler put syrup in his hair.
Wow, I love that you’re continuing this series. It definitely touched me.
a)Liberty, SC which is very near Greenville
b)7 year old son in 1st grade at public school, 4 year old son in preschool at private school, 2(almost 3!) year old daughter who stays at home with me all the time
c)I’m a stay at home mom, though I try to volunteer at my son’s school when I can, my husband works ridiculous hours at the local nuclear power plant. I wake up at 6 or so and start the process of getting everyone ready. Usually my husband is not involved because of his work schedule. We live in a single family home in a small neighborhood. I don’t think our mornings are chaotic, but I do think they are grumpy and involve too much television. There could definitely be more love and quality moments involved!
Thanks!
a) Lexington, KY (pretty close to the other entrant from Louisville…)
b) 2 boys: Brody, 5 and Rafe, 19 months. (Future prom dates for Mazzy and Harlow, perhaps?)
c) We do everything with a dose of humor and a side of procrastination in this family. I’m a teacher who needs to be on the other side of town at 8am sharp, married to a salesman who can start his day whenever he darn well pleases. Guess how that works out in the mornings? I get up at 5:30 (or 5:39, or 5:48…) and shower and get ready before the kids wake up. This also means coffee and Facebook time until I can function. I wake my 5 year old and try to convince him to go to the bathroom and brush teeth before putting on a school uniform. I then wake Rafe, convince him that clothes are not evil while simultaneously letting hims watch Elmo on my phone, and by then the shouting has woken my husband. He feeds them breakfast and yields to their demanding needs (“I want Wild Kratts! No, not THAT waffle! More miiiiiilk!”) while I finish getting ready. Somewhere in there is packing lunches, feeding the cat, writing the sitter a check, locating shoes, picking ONE of eleventy billion stuffed animals to take to school, wiping smooshed banana and syrup off my work clothes and locating my keys. Joe takes Brody to preschool while I take Rafe to daycare. We have to play man to man defense with these two. It’s our only hope for survival!
I LOVED the photos in this series and can’t wait to see what mornings look like around the world 🙂
Ahh, I love this.
a) Milwaukee, WI
b)1 kid – Becca 22 months
c) Our schedule changes. My husband works construction, so in the winter he is home with our daughter. When he is working, his schedule is all over the place. So, I’m on my own for mornings a lot. My mom provides child care 3 days a week, so my daughter gets to eat breakfast there. I do think that is one of the coolest things – we live only a couple miles away, but my daughter gets to enjoy the “multi generation” type family. I can’t image not having that.
We live in Clovis, NM. Get out your map cause no one actually knows where that is. We’re stationed there because my husband is active duty Air Force. He leaves before we wake up (bless my child for being a late riser). He kisses me goodbye in my sleep, tells me he loves me, and usually gets a grunt mumble thing in reply.
We have one child between us, an almost 3 yo girl, and in the summer we also have my 12 yo step-daughter. We are also hoping to get pregnant this summer.
We live on Cannon Air Force Base in a 1200 sqft 3 bed house. If we get pregnant, we qualify for a 4 bed house. Score! Having kids to get a bigger house is how we roll 😉
I am a SAHM. At our last station I was pretty much a single mom. My husband was gone 80% of the year, either with deployments or training. We are enjoying and getting used to having him around!
This is our third station in our 10 years in the military. It is the smallest, most remote little town we’ve ever lived in. The climate and area is so totally different than anything I’ve ever been exposed to. It is also my absolute favorite station. The people and the community are incredible. I’ve never felt so happy and so at home so quickly.
Now I’m going to go harass my friends til they enter. Cause what are the odds of four people from Clovis randomly entering?
Pick me, pick me! 😉
I’m in Southeastern Illinois – about a 2 hour drive from O’Fallon (So rural that we measure distance in time) and also have a 2 year old!
You’ll love CoMo! It’s a neat town.
a) GARDNER, KANSAS 🙂
b) 4 little hellions 🙂 12, 10, 5(<--this one is like 10-in-1) and 3 and a hamster named Chuckles, yes makes me chuckle every time I tell someone. c) My bf/fiance and I live together in a small townhouse in beautiful Gardner, KS. Bf/Fiance leaves @ 6:50am I try my best to roll out of bed when Bf/Fiance wakes up so I can get Natalie (5) and Luke (3) to Miss Tiff's daycare by 7:30, I make it between 7:32 and 9:00am give or take another hour. My two older girls Carolina (12) and Marissa (10) get up between 6:00 am and 7:15am to get to the bus stop by 7:30am. In the mornings they get cereal with milk or just cereal in a bag. They do have breakfast at Miss Tiff's or school. Sometimes when I wake up before them I can make them scrambled eggs. I turn on my Keurig to make a cup of coffee, sometimes I get to it...most of the time I don't. I go to school fulltime, internship part time, and hostess at Red Lobster part time. My classes this quarter start at 1pm. I feel like every day is Monday. I don't really have a routine sorry. Just where the wind blows us...but we do travel together, sometimes in a tiny Kia Soul lol 🙂 legally.
I love your posts and fantastic photography skills, Ilana! If you come to Minneapolis, our family would love to be considered.
Where: Bloomington, MN (suburb of Mpls)
Who: Hubby and I, 7 year-old son and 4-year old daughter, plus a crazy dog
We are a two-income family with both my husband and I working away from home. We get our two littles to daycare where my son catches the bus to school.
Whirlwind of a son is 4 years old, daughter is 7. We live 30 minutes south of Denver. I work from home and hubby starts a new job 5/19, so our mornings are about to get crazy. Add to getting a brand new hip 1/6, and this winter / spring, has been one that we want to forget. Although we end school before Memorial Day, I bet it would be better to do this series when the kids are in school! Can’t wait to see more mornings that will help me think my mornings aren’t as crazy.
Jean…
a) Falls Church, VA (just outside of Washington, DC)
b) 1 son, age 2 (almost 3!)
c) My spouse and I leave for work around 8am, dropping off our son at daycare and then commuting to the city together. We live in a mid size home that is increasingly cluttered with toys 😉 We always try to get some play time in before heading out for our hectic days.
Thanks for doing this, love your blog!!!!
I live in Bloomington, IN
I have 1 son, 13 months old
My Fiance is a police officer who gets home from work at 7am. He then wakes me and my son. We have family snuggle time before I get ready for work. 3 days a week, I take my son to Daycare, the other 2, he stays home with Daddy. Our mornings are some of the only moments we have as a family to catch up and just snuggle in bed for a few minutes before we go on with our day.
A. Clovis, New Mexico
B. Two children, a little boy, age 2 and a little girl, only 2 weeks old!
C. We just moved to NM from our home state of Alaska. We miss it so much. We’re a military family. Our day starts about 7:30 or whenever my son comes walking into my bedroom! If the cameras came at 6:00 they’d capture photos of us all sleeping:) I’m still getting used to having two children but it’s getting easier everyday. My husband is gone for PT before we get up but he comes home to shower so we get to see him for about ten minutes each morning. I make my son breakfast (that he doesn’t eat) and then nurse my daughter. Ever since my girl was born I’ve barely left the house so out mornings are slow but simple and sweet.
Neat!
Where: Clovis, NM
Who: 6 year old son and 2 year old daughter
Our routine: I am a stay at home mom. We wake up weekdays at 6:30 to get my son ready for kindergarten. My daughter and I then come home, have breakfast, and catch up on Paw Patrol 🙂 My daughter then takes a nap, and depending on what we have going on that day we head out to run errands. My husband is away at school for the military. He comes home on Friday morning and then leaves on Sunday morning to return back to school.
Congratulations on the partnership with Allstate! Here’s a little bit about us:
a) We live in Melbourne, FL – a friendly beach town on the Space Coast.
b) I’m a stay-at-home mom to two girls, ages 2 and 3.
c) During the week, I like to set my alarm for 5:30AM in the hopes of starting the day off with an uninterrupted workout and a quiet cup of coffee… The latter has never happened, though, as mommy radar usually picks up my signal around 6:30AM! I hastily finish my workout because I hit the snooze three times earlier, feed our dog and cat, we wake up Daddy for work (unless he’s out of town, which is often), eat breakfast (always hectic!), and then head out the door for a stroll around the neighborhood with our dog before the temperature hikes up. Around 10AM, we’re leaving the house with our picnic lunches to meetup with friends at the park, library, zoo, or play area at the mall if it’s raining. Lately we’ve been finding ourselves at the beach to start the week off right because, well, nobody likes Mondays – even stay-at-home moms!
A) Just outside of Cincinnati in Maineville, Ohio
b) Two girls ages 3 and 11 months
c) I’m a stay at home mom who is originally from the Detroit area. My 3 year old goes to preschool every Monday at our church. I’m part of an awesome mom’s group that I met at our library. They all have kids the same ages as mine and have helped me tremendously as I don’t live near family. I’m encouraging them to enter also! My husband works for a condtruction company and is usually out the door around 5:15 a.m.
We live in Northern VA, about 25 miles outside of DC. Family of five: mom, dad, 4.5 year old boy/girl twins, 2.5 year old boy. We have a routine that is about to get all shaken up when our soon to be 5 year old twins head off to kindergarten this fall. Currently I work three days a week (Monday, Tuesday, Friday) and my husband works full time splitting between the office and home. We are always a mad rush on the mornings I work, making lunches, getting dressed, eating breakfast, trying to get put the door. I can’t imagine how we will ever be on time for kindergarten!! When I’m home on Thursday and Friday, things are much calmer (and cleaner!)
A. Chicago, Illinois
B. Three girls 7, (first grade) 3.5 (preschool) and 1.
C. My husband is a teacher and leaves for work as we are all waking up. I then get all three girls ready and out the door with our double red stroller to take my oldest to her neighborhood school across the street. We meet up with friends and their children and walk three blocks to preschool (which ends at Memorial Day). Then a walk home to our home. Mornings can be hectic and crazy and usually unpredictable but there are always some great moments too.
Hi!
I am a mom of one lovely little bat, M, who is almost 1. Other relevant stats:
City: Seattle, WA (just moved here from NYC, actually!)
Work: full time outside the home
Commute: I take her downtown to daycare with me everyday on the bus in my Ergo. Rain or shine (usually rain), we leave the house at 7:24, catch the 7:29 bus, and arrive at daycare at 8:10. I then walk to my office, work for 8+ hours, and do it all again in reverse at the end of the day. I am the only commuter with a child on the bus every morning. My husband is either working from home or traveling out of state, and while he helps out a lot when he is in town, when he is away it’s all me.
Other: as with most moms, I’m the first one in the house to wake up (usually 5:30am) and the last to go to bed.
As hard as it can be, I love the extra 2 hours commuting I get with her every day.
I live in Harbor City which is in Southeastern Los Angeles, we have a 21 month old and a 4 1/2 year old, both go to preschool and we leave around 8:20 Am to get them there by 8:45/9. W live in a small house. We both work fulltime from our home, my husband for IBM, I work for Cisco but I AM currently on disability bc I AM going through chemotherapy for breast cancer. We would love to chronicle our crazy morning routine. 🙂 thanks for the oppty.
I would SO love to be a part of this!
I live in Columbia, SC and my husband Darnell and I have one 13 month old daughter named Ryan. We live with my parents in a 3 bedroom house in what we call the “country” (very rural area). My husband and I both work so Ryan goes to daycare. My mom’s a teacher so some days in the summer Ry gets to stay at home with her. We wake up around 6 and are usually out the door by 7:20. We all ride to daycare & work together. When my mom is working sometimes she gets to see Ry before leaving but not always. My Dad makes it his business to see her every morning before we leave. Darnell does most of the bag prepping, dressing, hair, etc. for Ry in the mornings because…well…I guess because it takes him 2 seconds to get dressed and it takes me almost an hour. We’d love the opportunity to be photographed for Monday Mornings!
Thanks for considering us 😉
-Darnell, Zakiya and Ryan
So happy to hear you are doing more of these!
A) my husband and I live in Herndon, VA, a suburb of Washington, DC.
B) we have a 19 month old son
C) I’m a working mom and our son goes to daycare. My husband is a true partner, and morning baby duty is split between the two of us. My husband feeds and dresses our son and I get him ready for daycare and drop him off. My favorite part of our morning is when we sing on the way to daycare. My least favorite part is when I have to leave him there. Not a day goes by they I don’t leave with a lump in my throat or tears in my eyes. But I love my job, and I love that my son will grow up with an example of a successful female executive.
Our house is never as clean as I would like, and I’ll admit to skipping bath time once or twice (ok three times) a week when I would rather play or snuggle with my son. I have really loved the perspective that your Monday Mornings series gives me, and I would love to participate if you think our life would give others that same experience.
I absolutely loved this project! We live in Lake Stevens, Wa. It’s about 30 mins north of Seattle. My girls are 9 & 6. My oldest goes back and forth between her father and us while my youngest lives with us all the time. Because if this, the girls go to different schools, in different districts, and it makes for some real interesting mornings! I am lucky enough to be a stay at home mom while my husband works hard as a Union PileDriver. He usually goes to work before we are awake, but he just got a new job & will be working 2pm to 10pm. That is sure to change up our mornings quite a bit I the next few weeks!
We also have a Boxer Dog (and a cat) so morning walks are a must around here. I’m just thankful that we live in such a beautiful, green area! It makes our walks so wonderful! Thank you for concise ring us & I look forward to seeing all the different families pictures!
Sinking Spring, PA – 2 children, Shira 3.5, Uriah 1.5. We leave the house by 7am to take the kids to daycare for a full day. Husband helps me drop off since the kids are on opposite sides of the school. We also have Jackson, our pup, who also requires attention in the morning.
I feel like we are always in a rush with having to get 4 people out the door, and 1 dog walked all within an hour!
We live in a bigger house in suburbia.
Oh I would love this so much.
We live in Chelsea, MA, suburb of Boston.
We have just 1 child- a 6 month old daughter named Autumn.W
My fiance (together 9+ yrs) and I work in Boston in large architecture firms. We get up early go get Autumn up & ready to get to daycare while we juggle getting ready ourselves, get out Boston Terrier out, and me pump 2x (ideally) before we run to drop Autumn off at Daycare before we take public transportation into the city. Depending on how the night goes (how well she sleeps) my day might start as early as 4.30, and as late at 6.00 the swing in time is good/bad… more sleep or rush, rush, rush!
Nicole @ I am a Honeybee
nic010205@gmail.com
1. Melissa, tx outside Dallas
2. Two children Heike 2 on May 17th, Hans born March 19th
3. I am married and stay at home. Heike is normally up by 7am. Hans is still figuring that part out. my husband leaves by 830am. In the morning I attempt diapers, breakfast and dressing! Sometimes we stay home, sometimes a class, some times we go for a walk, depends on the day. Our neighborhood is like Mayberry., kids are normally playing on the street all day. we also have two dogs!
I think your readers would enjoy seeing the juggle of two young ones. I know I was VERY curious on how to make two kids work…still am!
I’m writing with hopes to persuade you to come to London (UK) and feature American parents here! There are so many of us American parents here that find your posts hilarious and your Monday Morning series so inspirational. When I shared your MM features with moms here, we all nodded our heads in unison on how important it is to keep mental snapshots of our crazy mornings. Every morning is different. Every morning finds a new meaning to chaos, and more often than not, they are frustrating. So it was lovely to see Raquel catch the beauty in your Monday morning shoots. It’s important to be reminded to appreciate mental snapshots of the ‘beautiful’ moments every morning because otherwise, all we take away is how stressful they are. Here are our details if you do come across the pond.
We live in a Victorian flat that is very typical of London.
We have one son, our 9 month year old, Julien , and he is the CEO of this household.
Our morning starts at 6:00am every morning without fail. The routine is broken only when it starts at 5:30am instead of 6am (darn daylight savings in UK). My husband and I play ‘Who is a deeper sleeper’ game every morning because the unspoken rule is ‘who hears him, changes him.’ The morning is non-stop after that. Changing Julien is always the alarm clock for the second parent who gets to lie in an extra 5 mins. Julien loves to be free without clothes and recently, has been determined to wiggle and crawl his way to the mirror before he is dressed. Screaming ensues if he is not successful. Therefore, we’ve learned to change his diaper and dress him on his tummy, while he is standing, upside down, you name it. My husband tidies up the house and puts away the toys every single night but by 6:45am, sadly, it looks like Christmas morning post-unwrapping-party all over again. He just started nursery so we try to maximize our mornings with him by having breakfast with him. I give him his milk and then who ever is more efficient that morning gets to feed Julien his breakfast while the other plays catch up on getting ready, packing the nursery bag, and is on call for saving our walls and floor from flung food as Julien is learning finger foods. Sometimes if we’re lucky, all 3 of us get to sit down for those 10 minutes together.
so glad to hear about the continuation of this series! I’ve loved the photographs.
a) Seattle, WA
b) 2 boys. one just turned 6 and the other- 10 months old.
c) I work full time outside of the home and my husband works part time from home. in the morning we all get ready at the same time, getting up around 6am and leaving the house around 7:30. my husband (the taxi) drops us all off at our destinations, including the infant who is in part time childcare outside the house. our house is tiny- a 2 bedroom 750 square foot house. but hey, it makes getting ready in the morning easy because you can see/ hear each-other from almost anywhere.
one comment I had about the Monday morning series is that all the moms looked like they were already ready before the photography started! I’m still in a t shirt/ yoga pants/ wet hair in a towel until about 15 minutes before we walk out the door. I wonder if anyone would be brave enough to be photographed ‘getting ready’
(the internet seems to be eating my comment so I am trying again- hopefully i don’t post twice !)
not sure if this contest is over….thought I submitted my comment, but must not have gone through :)It’s a great idea! We live in Madison, WI.–home of the Badgers and about 2.5 hours away from Chicago. We have a 3 year old girl and 6 month old boy. We live in an average house in an older neighborhood. My husband and I both work outside of the home and our children go to in-home daycare. it would be a wonderful opportunity to see some beauty in the rush that is our mornings!
a. Chicago, IL
b. 16 month old / just one babe for now
c. Both working parents, we also have a crazy dog that likes to play follow the leader and steal all the breakfast. Our mornings border on chaotic – some days the scales tip towards crazy and other days I remember to brush my hair. We are up anywhere from 5:30 – 7 am depending on when our son gets up for the day, and then its breakfast, chasing, clothing wrestling, etc. We try to leave to drop him off at daycare by 8 – so its really 8:15 before we are out the door. Overall it would be interesting to see that our mornings really aren’t that stressful, and gain some perspective that there is beauty in the chaos.
I would love this!
Where: Phoenix, AZ
Who: My daughter age 4, My husband, two dogs and a cat.
The deal: I get up around 5:30 feed the animals and get ready. (If it’s summer I probably swim in our pool before getting a shower). My husband does his own thing to get out the door if he’s not traveling for work. Somewhere in there my daughter wakes up. I like to go into her bedroom and snuggle her and watch her sleeping face if she’s still not up by 6:30. We do the usual routine with picking out clothes and getting ready and and having to pet (and talk to) every animal before leaving. I work at PetSmart headquarters only 4 miles from the house, and my daughter goes to Pre-K there. We get to the campus around 7:20, she likes to watch the dogs in the dog park before going in. Then I usually take time to do her hair and read her a book before all her friends get there in the classroom. Then I walk up to my desk around 7:45. We live in an average house (1800 sqft) that is always in many stages of DYI re-decoration. (I’m a graphic designer, I like color. My husband is a midwest man who likes dark woods and antlers so you can imagine how hard it is to merge those styles.)
This would be so fun, I’d love it if we’re picked!
Hi I live in good old Sin City Las Vegas ,Nv, but really we live in typical Nevada suburbia with the strip and gambling about ten minutes away, my husband and I just finished up adopting our son in November,going from super selfish people to being parents in a 8 hour time period when my nephew was brought to us by CPS. So happy our lives have changed for the better.No longer though do i get to roll out of bed and run to work, morning routine has taken on a whole new meaning for me as my husband leaves the house at 5 AM, leaving me with the boy by myself everyday out of the week.
I live in Castle Pines, CO, about a half hour south of Denver. I have three kids, 6, 4 and 1.5. All go to school/daycare. I work from home from 6-2. The kids wake up at 6:30. From 6:30-8:30 I work amid chaos, then I drive them to school. Then I work in quiet. Then I pick them up. We just moved here from NYC and I have so. much. space. I can’t even deal. I lose the kids sometimes. My husband is in charge of 6:30-7:30am (or so), although that means frequent interruptions for me. He does make me a smoothie and coffee every morning, though.