Welcome! I’m Rachelle, wife and homeschooling mama. I love Jesus, my man, my little ones, libraries, lemonade and theology. For years I’ve loved others’ DITL (day in the life) posts on social media and blogs/Substack, so I’m jumping in with my own. Consider this a chronicle of my daily life, a testimony of Christ’s faithfulness in all things big and small!
- August 25, 2026 -
5:30 AM: I awaken to the trill of my alarm this morning, a little disappointed there is not yet any sunlight peeking in through the window. Too early! The summer days are shortening.
Throughout our marriage, my husband and I have always made it a point to go to bed at the same time and for 5 years he’s worked at 5AM (arrived at work at 5AM). So we’re always abed by 9PM even if we might not turn off the light until 9:30PM because we’re watching half a show together. And a benefit to an early bedtime is an early waketime!
I go to the living room and do a Nourish Move Love free Youtube workout. Then I step into my backyard for a dose of morning sunlight (good for circadian rhthym!). Sometimes I do some short stretches outside; sometimes I open the Merlin app to identify the birdsong. This morning I just take some deep breaths!
6:30 AM: I return to the living room and pick up my current Bible study, 1, 2, and 3 John by Phylicia Masonheimer, which is a repeat. I actually did this study four years ago while pregnant with my son. It took me almost 9 months to complete then, but I’m already halfway through in less than 2 weeks. A nod to the energy dip of pregnancy and the fact that I now have two children who sleep through the night, praise be.
Why workout before the Word? I almost always do my workout before my Bible study because it gives my brain time to wake up and if I don’t have enough time before waking my children, then I know I will pick up my Bible by bedtime. But I detest afternoon workouts. Most mornings now I can fit both, which is a privilege not lost on this mama whose youngest only slept through the night starting last summer. On busy workweeks, I also might get some work done here but today I shower and do my makeup because I know today holds a post-breakfast errand, lunch with Grandma, and then I’m off to ladies night at our church!
7:30 AM: I carry my children (one at a time!) to the couch. They had been starting to stir but were lying in their beds looking at books. We start our Morning Time read-alouds:
- A Saint a Day: 365 True Stories of Faith and Heroism — As Protestants sometimes I verbally edit the day’s reading, but I personally love hearing stories of the saints of old!
- How Great is Our God: 100 Indescribable Devotions About God and Science by Louie Giglio — A dear friend recommended this resource to me and we love learning this way! This is the only consistent science-y resource I used for my oldest’s first official year of homeschool. I think there are three in the series and we are on the second one. I know it will be a treasured reread.
- Then I read a picture book from our library book bin! Our favorites are here.
8:00 AM: We make our way to the kitchen where I pull out leftover scrambled eggs from yesterday and hand them their coloring sheets from today’s “Missionary of the Day” from Tiny Theologian’s Mission Club curriculum. Although designed for churches, I’m doing it in our homeschool and loving it. Today we talk about St. Boniface chopping down Thor’s Oak tree, and the 3-year-old boy re-enacts it for us. We look up whether St. Boniface is in the Saint a Day book (above) and he is! We read that, too.
We also recite the Lord’s Prayer and Doxology. Some mornings they just listen to me; but if they repeat the Lord’s Prayer after me, they receive a single chocolate chip and I say “Scripture is sweet.” Cheesy, but may they always remember!
After we eat breakfast (they can have whatever they want as long as it is protein-centric: most days this is scrambled eggs or Greek yogurt with sprinkles — today its trail mix!) we change the calendar board (month, day, season weather, etc.) and skip discussing a card of the day from our many treasured Tiny Theologians card sets because Rosalie wants to do her Phonics lesson and I know we need to leave at 9AM. Flexibility! Yes, Rosalie gets to choose the order of her schoolwork (we’re doing only Math and Phonics at Table Time in first grade)! I don’t dictate how much of each subject she must complete because she is very self-motivated so we just go until she requests a “play break” or in this case our errand.
I have really enjoyed the Masterbooks curriculum for her Kindergarten and first grade years because its Scripture- and story-based. I like to call myself Charlotte Mason light. I purchased the digital files for her so I can reprint them for Jack when its his turn.
9:00 AM: Time to get out the door for a quick errand to go vote in a special run-off election right down the street. We discuss what a privilege it is to live in a country where we get to choose our leaders and how not everyone gets to vote — or gets a sticker, she points out, which may be the extrinsic motivation here!
9:15 AM: Back home again to “play in the dirt!” I declare today a no-hose day since it’s only 80 degree and cloudy and sit in the lawn chair on the driveway to read a book (Sharing Joyfully by Gloria Furman) while they play around me with scooters and scoopers. I also sweep out the garage right before Grandma arrives. We get my 79-year-old Grandma one morning a week and so its time to play!
When she does, we all head instead to do play-doh at the kitchen table. I start the day’s load of laundry (sheets) and start chopping potatoes.
11:00 AM: I plan to make a big lunch today, not only because Grandma is here, but also because I’ll be headed out the door at dinnertime to attend our church’s ladies night and help the hospitality team. Yesterday, we baked cookies for me to bring with me, but I want to leave Devin with an easy dinner to feed the children. So I roast potatoes, make rice, and cook fajitas for lunch. Everyone gets a cookie as well!
Pro Tip: Once or twice a week I put a couple pounds of chicken thighs into my Instant Pot and select Poultry for 15 minutes then let it slow release for up to (maybe over) an hour. Almost every single day for a lazy lunch, I build a taco bowl, or in this case, fajitas. So yummy!
Rosalie unloads the dishwasher, and I tackle the breakfast dishes we left in favor of completing our schoolwork before Grandma got here. I referee several sibling squabbles and text a picture to the grandparents.
These are the days. I’m not unaware of the fact that my everyday is somebody’s Saturday. What a gift to stay home and homeschool my children.
I check to see if I already need to run the dishwasher again (yep! I often do, especially if we’ve baked this morning!) but don’t get to move the day’s load of laundry over before we hug Grandma goodbye and send her home with a leftovers plate before it’s time for …
12:00 – 2:00 PM: Rest Time! Even for Mommy. Since my babies were, well, babies, I took the old saying sleep when the baby sleeps to heart. After Rosalie’s birth, if I didn’t sleep, I at least rested or read. After maternity leave, this became my work time! I do no housework but instead focus on the remote admin work I get to do for a church planting network. (How do I keep it all straight? The Todoist app.)
2:00 PM: Jack doesn’t nap but plays semi-quietly in his room. Rosalie plays in her room while she listens to an audiobook or podcast that I’ve started for her (she has a Bluetooth speaker in her room connected to my iPad). At 2PM sharp, she bursts out of her room in excitement, because its Art Time! She’s elated to have a few minutes alone at the kitchen table to tinker with her art supplies. She plays here until her brother wakes up and we fetch him together to return to the table for a snack.
3:00 PM: A filling snack and then Rosalie starts a paint-by-number (she loves painting, as in the picture above from Saturday morning!) and Jack works on a sticker sheet. Since I haven’t moved the laundry along or fully tidied up from lunch yet, I do so here. Daddy’s not home yet because he had Physical Therapy today for his right foot, which was broken in a workplace accident the day after Mother’s Day.
During the fall and winter months, we’re usually playing outside or walking to a nearby neighborhood park in the afternoons, but during the summer we stick closer to home and air conditioning! I schedule any work meetings or other special work projects here as well but not today! When Devin does get home, I start gathering things for ladies night. Rosalie made a list for me on a post-it note stuck to the front door and I delight in her first-grade handwriting spelling out cookies, water, etc.
5:00 PM: We keep dinner simple over here! Protein and a vegetable. Today it’s merely warming leftovers from lunch or Grandma’s birthday dinner the day before.
We ask the children to each take one thankful bite in respect for the chef (ahem) but then they’re welcome to make their own meal. PB&J sandwich in our uncrustable cutter. Yogurt parfait. More scrambled eggs. Sometimes baths (well, Rosalie showers independently now) happen before or after dinner, while the other parent does kitchen clean-up. (Hack: if I’m supervising Jack’s bath, I give the bathroom a quick clean.) Then we might play a game together as a family. Or the children might build a block tower or construct a matchbox car city on the living room rug.
Today I’m getting ready to head to the church! A half hour drive in the car by myself! I choose an episode from the podcasts that I follow (M is for Mama, Money Saving Mom, Knowing Faith, and She Reads Truth) to stream through the van speakers (still a new feature for me in the Odyssey we bought this year!) and kiss and hug everyone goodbye.
9:00 PM I tiptoe into the house after the ladies’ night to find Devin asleep on the recliner. He did the dinner clean-up/baths/Bible time all by himself tonight like a champ. He even remade our bed and coached Rosalie in folding and putting away her laundry. He starts the dishwasher and it’s off to bed! Another “mundane” Tuesday to some, but I know I’m living the life I prayed for…
I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Psalm 27:13
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