A Day in the Life of A.G. Dow (+ Giveaway!)

Hello and welcome to "A Day in the Life of..."©, a featured guest post exclusive to my blog that's published on Mondays and sometimes, on Thursdays. On these two days, a spotlight guest will share a normal day in their lives, giving us insight on their thoughts, projects, interests, obsessions and more. Occasionally, and if we're lucky, they'll even throw in a giveaway.

And now on with the show...

ABOUT A.G. DOW

A.G. Dow is the author of In Dreams, a short story featured in the Wicked East Press Anthology, Wicked Bag of Fantasy Tales. Being a lover of books, she is more than happy to read and review them over on the Juniper Grove Blog, run by author Jaidis Shaw.  Dow is currently working on her first full-length novel, The Shadow Man, in hopes of releasing it by year end!

A.G. Dow currently resides in central N.H. with her super supportive husband and their beautiful, wonderfully creative young daughter.

Connect with A.G. Dow

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                                   A Day in the Life: A.G. Dow

Being a stay-at-home mom with a calendar full of play-dates, family get-togethers and a mountain of errands to run, I don’t really have a structured schedule that I follow. But, I do try to follow a typical flow pattern, a way of getting through the day if you will…and that’s what I’ll be sharing with you all today!

9:30 AM- Time to rise and shine! I’ve been asleep all of two, three, maybe four hours, so I’m certainly not looking forward to getting myself up and out of my warm, cozy bed. The AC has been running on high all night and I’m beyond exhausted, making it even harder for me to resist sneaking in another hour’s worth of napping…But, I have no choice. When my four and a half year old daughter bounces out of bed, it’s then my turn to do the same! Though, for me it’s more of a rolling process.

10:30 AM- Breakfast! Yes, it actually takes us about an hour to wake up and settle into our routine. My daughter has been running at full speed since the moment her eyes opened this morning, but I have yet to de-zombify myself which only means one thing…Time for that pot of coffee! While that’s brewing, the food is served and the music has been turned on! We like to start off with some singing and dancing; it’s fun and helps set the mood for the rest of our day.

10:45AM- My daughter has taken a break and is busy munching away, trying to get through her breakfast quickly so she can go back to performing. I now have a big mug of pure happiness in hand and sit down at the computer to check in with my emails and various social sites. It takes a surprising amount of time to look through and reply back to my messages and notifications but apparently not enough, because now it’s time for some Pinterest. Such an awful site, stealing away my precious time by sucking me in with all of its magical DIY and crafting wonders, but there’s still a cup of coffee left in that pot so I may as well spend a few more minutes pinning while I finish up!

11:30AM- By now I’m doing the housewife thing, cleaning up and getting things in order. Well, kind of. I start off doing that and always have the best intentions of finishing right away, but then get distracted by one thing or another and end up with a bunch of half-done projects going on throughout the house. I suppose it doesn’t help much that as I’m going along cleaning my daughter is doing her best to destroy all evidence of me doing any such thing. I’m starting to think she’s out to get me and she just may, she’s that good. So, with some cleaning done and a little more left to do, it’s now time to get us dressed and ready to leave!

1:30PM- We’re finally ready to get out of the house! Time for a visit with friends or family, something we do very often. I love staying connected and seeing those I care about, so 80% of the time my daughter and I are busy being social butterflies. I realize this seems awful, us out and about having fun while my husband is stuck at work six days a week, but really our social time is needed and beneficial to all of us. My daughter is very outgoing and enjoys interacting with her little buddies and partaking in whatever adventure we have planned for ourselves that day. And me, well if I’m stuck here in this house for too long I go stir crazy and end up being one unhappy camper…and no one wants to deal with that.

4:30PM- It’s been a few hours so by now I’ll try to pack up and say our good-byes, then head off with my mini-me to do some grocery shopping and most likely make a trip to Michael’s or the Dollar Tree so we can pick up a few crafting supplies. I have a hard enough time staying away from those stores but when she’s with me, it’s even harder. So why fight it? Again, being creative keeps us girls happy which then keeps the hubby happy. It’s a win/win for everyone!

5:30PM- And we’re back! Grocery shopping always takes far longer than I’d like it to but we got what we needed and we’re done with for the day! Of course, just like every other time that I run errands I come home only to realize that I had forgotten a few things that were on my list and will have to go back tomorrow. Oh joy. Now it’s time to finish cleaning up, or at least get things out of the way so my husband can walk through the door without stepping on any of my daughter’s fabulous toys…You know, all 967 of them, sprawled across every floor and doorway in this place.

6:05- The hubby is home! I’m pretty sure this is my daughter’s favorite part of the day and I’m guessing my husband’s too! It’s time to relax and hang out as a family, catch up on how each other’s day went and settle down with some grub that someone else has most likely prepared. I can cook and I used to all the time, but we hardly ever eat the same things so it has become easier to order out on most nights. I know, I’m ashamed…I’ll start cooking homemade meals again real soon, swear. After we fill ourselves up, my husband crashes on the couch for a bit, resting up after a very long day and I head over to the computer to check Facebook and such, yet again. There are messages to respond to, people to chat with, and mindless things to waste time looking at…that sort of thing. My daughter is in her playroom keeping busy, giving me plenty of false hope that I might actually be able to get some work done. There are books I need to finish reading and a review that’s waiting to be completed, oh and my writing. I could always open that up and add a page or two. I could, but I won’t be. She’s excellent at picking up the scent of productivity and will come running out of her room, making as much noise as possible until I stop what I’m doing and turn myself over to her. I should know better, happens every time.

8:00PM- Us girls have been passing the time with a couple buckets of crayons and a large stack of coloring books. It has taken me almost an hour to complete just one of my pictures while she has gone through the entire book, making sure to rip out every page and hang them all on the fridge.  Now that she’s run out of room for her multitude of masterpieces, it’s time to move on to something else. Writing! Not my writing, but hers and I’m more than ok with that. She’s all about learning and right now her big thing is learning to write, to spell out words and put them together in cute little sentences. She may not be able to read, aside from the few words she has memorized, but she really is doing a great job with her writing. When she’s done and if it’s early enough, we’ll try to get in another project before bedtime. If not, I’ll set her up with a movie or show to watch, usually something on Sprout (I love that channel for little ones!) and try to get her to wind down for the night.

10:00PM- My husband has been up long enough and is ready to get to bed! Next up, our daughter! Now that is guaranteed to be easier said than done because just like me, she will try anything to keep from going to sleep! An hour later, after many, many trips to the bathroom and all kinds blanket issues, she has finally drifted off to dreamland. Yes!! I can now stay up as late *yawn* as I need to in order to get things done.

12:00AM- At last, it’s “ME” time! The house is a tad too quiet for my liking so I usually put on the TV for some background noise. If I’m looking to veg then I’ll put on one of my shows and zone out while dubbing around online. Sometimes I’m in the mood to craft, so I’ll do that while the rest of the house sleeps and I’m free to do my thing. But mostly it means that I now have time to sit down and write!  I’ll turn on Soundscapes, a channel of pretty cool, very “new-age-y” music that helps to keep my mind focused and the ideas flowing. I know I’m supposed to be writing, and I am, but I do end up checking in on Facebook every so often to chat with a close author friend of mine who also happens to be a fellow night owl. Most will see that as a distraction but really it’s not. Helps to break things up a bit and super helpful when I need to bounce a few ideas around, to see what will and won’t work in my storyline.

And that’s pretty much how I spend my nights. I try to write whenever I can and on the nights when my head and heart just aren’t into it, I pick up one of the three books I’m currently reading and dive in! The hours pass by quickly and before I know it my husband is awake and getting ready for another crazy day at work.  I lost count of how many times I have told myself I would get to bed earlier, and yet here am again well after 5:00am and still wide awake! May as well stay up a little later and finish what I’m doing…I can always start on that new, normal schedule I’ve been hearing about, tomorrow.

Thank you, A.G., for sharing your day with us and thank you, readers for taking the time to stop by. I hope that you've enjoyed today's 

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