Someone responded to my reader survey and asked me to do a "day in the life" post, so I'm here today to do just that! My life lately has felt really strange, and while I've been finding my bearings more and more each week, I've found myself over the past few months thinking that it may be time for a change. I might start doing some contract work, or I could once again see myself in a full-time position here in Charlotte--I'm still not sure.

These past two-plus years of blogging for a living have been really amazing, and the flexibility it has provided me in moving from Virginia to Minnesota to North Carolina has been incredible. I was able to plan our wedding with very little stress, I made really long trips back to Virginia whenever I wanted, when Rob traveled for work I could go with him. All of these things seemed like great perks, but it wasn't until my mom had surgery this September that I felt truly grateful to have an unconventional and flexible job--I was able to pick up and leave for two weeks and not really do any blogging while I was taking care of her. I can't say all of that was without consequences--I've seen a drop in my traffic and I haven't been working with sponsors as regularly as I was before this fall, but I would do it all again, exactly the same way.

So things may or may not be changing in the not-so-distant future, but for now, here's what an average day in my life looks like:

7-8 AM My alarm goes off. I try not to check my email or scroll through Instagram before my feet have hit the ground, but I always immediately do both anyway. I let Ender out of his crate and he jumps in bed with us for a few minutes before I take him outside. I make coffee and sometimes Rob and I will either take Ender for a walk or leave him home and go for a run before work, but sometimes we just take it slow and eat breakfast (almost always scrambled eggs) instead.

9-11 AM Hopefully we're out the door. We have one car, so I take Rob to work on my way to barre. After I work out, I usually head home (especially if I have a deadline or haven't published a new post that day yet), but sometimes I'll run errands while I'm out. Every now and then I'll meet a friend for coffee or lunch, or I'll go work at a coffee shop, but in general I get more done when I'm home (also, embarrassingly enough, I miss Ender whenever I'm gone too long).

12-3 PM My afternoon consists of writing posts, responding to emails, eating, hanging out with Ender, and dog-sitting a pup that lives down the hall from us (I usually just take him out a couple times, but a few times a week I bring him over and he and Ender play in the living room for a few hours). Every week I try to post a new recipe, so some afternoons I'll cook and take photos for the blog. I used to plan out my posts well in advance but lately I've been kind of winging it and just going day by day, which is probably why I've been feeling a little overwhelmed lately--I do so much better when I plan ahead.

4-5 PM I try to finish up whatever I'm working on and clean up the dishes I've most certainly left in the sink all day. If there's laundry hanging around I'll try to fold that, and if I'm already starving I'll start working on dinner so we can eat as soon as Rob gets home. About once a month I meet up with a photographer to shoot a few What I Wore posts, so I'll gather clothes for those shoots and meet her somewhere in my neighborhood.

6-7 PM Rob and I eat dinner, catch up, watch some TV, and try to go for a run if we didn't already go in the morning. Sometimes we'll take Ender for a walk if I didn't take him after barre, which I usually do. We clean the kitchen and do laundry and watch more shows on Netflix. A few times a week there's a workout class in our building, so sometimes on Mondays I'll go with a friend.

8-11 PM If I haven't finished my blog stuff, I'll head to the computer to work a bit. Usually I just finish up whatever post I'm sharing the next day, or I'll spend some time editing photos or sorting out my editorial calendar. I'm always ready for bed around 9:30 but I never actually go to bed until at least 11. Time can really fly when you're sitting in front of your computer!

And that's that! It's not always a super exciting life, but it's mine and I'm pretty fond of it. I think my laid-back schedule has gotten the best of me over the past six months or so, and I'm looking forward to finding the time to do more things with my day. I know that not everyone loves sponsored content, but I'm always happiest when I'm either busy and working on creative projects for brands, or sharing personal posts; so I'm hoping to get into more of both very soon. Speaking of the latter, I wanted to thank you all for your kind and thoughtful comments and emails on my most recent post about being BRCA2-positive. I keep doing what I'm doing because of this community. So thank you for being there.

If any of you have more questions you'd like me to respond to with a blog post, let me know! I love hearing from you guys.

Photo by Sarah Gatrell for Freckled Italian.

I'm a bit of an sentimental hoarder and if you've sent me a card or a letter at some point over the last ten years, I have it in a box with every other note I've received. 

I volunteered at a religious Pregnancy Support Center for a few months in college. It was there that I realized that I'm pro-choice, and not really that religious.

I don't usually set new year's resolutions but I already have a few for 2016. One of them is to start speaking Spanish again.

I used to speak Spanish pretty well.

I also used to play the piano, pretty well. I quit that, too.

I am incredibly emotional and have a great deal of empathy. It's one of the qualities I like most about myself, even if it means I can oftentimes be found crying over new stories and tweets about people I have never met.

I seriously stress myself out about doing things that are outside my comfort zone, but once I stretch and do them, I never regret it. I'd like to do a few things that scare me more often.

What are some things most people don't know about you?

Photo by Sarah Gatrell.

What's the most interesting thing you've ever done? 

I must not be a very exciting person, because this one took a lot of thinking. When I was in high school, I took an awesome trip to England, France, and Italy, and my favorite part was the day or two we spent on the island of Capri. My friends and I wandered off to the beach and ended up jumping off some rocks into the sea, which at the time seemed incredibly exotic, sexy, dangerous, and excting. (I still kind of think it was.)

I actually wrote about it once in college:

“We stopped to have lunch and I felt like I was in heaven, looking down at the rocky beaches and bright turquoise water from narrow streets that wound through the town high above the sea. Sunlight spilled onto the beaches and streets in luscious rays. I ate the biggest peach I’ve ever seen in my life.

We walked past the shore and followed a trail of rocks that grew larger and larger and more and more into the ocean until we were basically standing on a miniature island made of warm gray rock, surrounded by nothing but deep, deep water and you could see all the way to the bottom. Everyoneee started jumping in. It was the most inviting display I’ve ever witnessed.

I’ve always been afraid of open water, but this seemed too good of an experience to pass up. Swimming in the dazzling, exotic waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea? People don’t get a chance to do that very often.

I stood with my arms crossed at the edge of the rock and made excuses. “I don’t have a change of clothes,” and “yeah, but what the hell is that thing?” Enormous dark boulders situated at the bottom of the sea turned into sharks and sea monsters that couldn’t wait to pull me under and never let me go...

My knees bent without permission from my brain as I thought about the leap. A wave of dread whipped through my body. The way the sunlight shone through the clear water made it look like thousands of diamonds were twirling to the bottom.

I took a deep breath and jumped.”

As a full-time blogger who works at home, what is your time management like?

What a question! Like everyone else, I want to be as productive and time-efficient as possible, but a lot of days I struggle to actually make it happen. Ironically, adding a few extra things to my life (Ender and a daily barre practice) has made me into a much better user of time.

I've always been a morning person but I used to have much more of a slow start to my day. Now I write a to-do list every night for the next day, and as soon as I wake up and take the dog out, I sit down at my computer and try to check off as many little things as possible. My day always looks a little different, but generally I'm up at 7, working by 8, heading to barre at 9:30, then back home to work from 11-5ish, with some breaks in between for walking or playing with Ender.

I think working from home (and for yourself) is a lot more effective when you try to keep normal business hours, but it's easy to get caught up in the flexibility of all of it, and there are definitely a few days a week where I don't get much done in the afternoon and find myself at the computer well after 11PM.

Have you ever had surgery or broken a bone? 

Other than my wisdome teeth, no--I've been really lucky and haven't had any surgeries. I broke my right leg when I was in fourth grade, and ended up with a stress fracture in the same spot eight years later (I don't think they were related, just a strange coincidence).

What's something most people don't know about you?

How about three? I totally believe in mediums, I don't know how to use a camera unless it's in automatic, and although space exploration fascinates me, it is among my greatest fears.

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Your turn! I want to know your answers, too. If you want to play along, leave a comment; and if you have a question you'd like me to include next time, let me know!