Monday, April 26, 2010

mom of the month --- a day in the life of lizzie


For one day we follow a name that says it all: Lizzie Sorensen. A maven in the publicist world, a favorite to the social media, and most important a super mom - Lizzie does it all. She is the ringleader, she calls the shots - so grab a notebook - you may want to remember just how she does it.

I first "met" Lizzie on Twitter back in August and a few weeks later we became due date buddies (read about it here!) as we shared the same due date for welcoming which would be a 3rd child for both. A cyber pal bestie, Lizzie and I tweeted, emailed, and bbm'd to each other almost every day. She is my go-to-gal pal & is always there when I need her for biz advice or to talk about a prego/child complain! As of right now, I have almost 200 emails from her over time when I type in Lizzie to search my inbox. No matter what she always makes time and has a email turn around time of less then five minutes. I've always wondered how she does it so for one day I asked her to share her shoes with the world - let's walk with her as she powers through an uber busy day.

Monday April 19th, 2010

where it all takes place in "the office"

6:45am or so : nursing Iver (9weeks) in bed. Water is running, husband in shower. Elkë (2.5) and Ruby (5.5) are still asleep.


6:46 or so I hear “Mommy” from Elkë’s room. Ugh. She has a gate so I had to un-latch Iver, then un-latch gate!

I put Iver down for a moment to go get Elkë, change her pull-up, and bring her back to our room and tell her a million times to be quiet and not wake Ruby. I go back asleep nursing Iver while Elkë “bounces” herself silly in the chair in our room and husband is still in shower.

7:25 Iver and I wake up to Elkë reading us a princess book. She is naming all of the princesses from Disney and I am working on her speech with her. “CindereLLA”, Not “Cinderwylia”. She is wondering where the “Hi-Ho’s” (7 Dwarfs) are in the book. Enter husband’s hysterical comment referring to “Hi-Ho’s” as “Mommy’s High School class mates”. He isn’t that far off (however it was more like college) and luckily she doesn’t pick up on it. Our comedic timing is what keeps our marriage saucy.

7:30 Elkë and I go wake up Ruby and I put Iver down in his co-sleeper for a continued rest. Ruby is not happy to see us as it’s a school day and she is NOT a morning person. I gather clothes for her, instruct her on getting dressed; teeth brushed etc and tell her I will meet her downstairs

7:40 or so I am making breakfast, pouring coffee, sending husband off to work with last night’s leftovers and turning on my iPhone. Going through emails and twitter mentions that happened during the night (34 combined, all important). Get an offer via text from my friend in the neighborhood who also just had a baby to take Elkë this morning to play with her son. I am hesitant as that means I have to get Iver dressed and into his car seat, but he wakes up anyway so I take her up on it.

Between 8 and 8:30 my goal is to not forget to put Ruby on the bus. The girls continue to have breakfast, fight, make messes, and then Ruby is out the front door. I chase Elkë around until 9 getting her dressed to get out the door to the friends house.

9:15 I am back here and start working on a client newsletter and updating their website for the week. Purchased 2 domain names, consulted with attorney about Intellectual Property. Answering emails from other clients, and pitching product where I see opportunity until 10:15.

10:15, microwave coffee I forgot to drink at 7:40 when I poured it.

10:21 get text from friend who is watching Elkë that they are having a blast. Eating pretzels, strawberries and apples and they baked a cake. Have pangs of wish I was a SAHM regret.

10:22 I am over the regret, have mad bills to pay and need to work. That is just how it is.

10:25 I realize I still have to shower at some point. Iver is sleeping. This is my window, but first I need to create a Twitter acct for a client.

10:30 Send a VERY excited email to a great online friend and client who always listens to me. Gotta have those sorts of people in your life!

10:35 get into photoshop to design an image for client. Still haven’t showered. Luckily I have no face-face meetings today! Most of clients are nationally based and online!

10:51 get a HOLY COW I LOVE THAT email from a client in response to the photo I took of her product and web page layout for special event. (yay!)

11:01 Iver is stirring. Need to quit projects for a bit and feed him, change him, etc. babies!!

11:30 realize Iver has pooped through his outfit, onto my pajamas. I change him and get into the shower.

11:45 go get Elkë from her play date and chat with my friend for a few. They have had a great time and hopefully Elkë will come home and nap so I can get lots of work done!

12:22 Iver is wide eyed, put him in his swing. Trying to teach him independence and that I don’t need to hold him 24/7. Walk past the laundry room and ignore the clothes that need to be dried and flipped. Husband did all of our laundry yesterday. I don’t have time to even turn on the dryer for one more fluff. Go into Ruby’s room to make her bed and notice a Poem to her friend that she wrote last night “Roses are red, violets are blue, I miss Anna, Yea, I do.”. She hasn’t seen Anna since last summer when they graduated Pre-K together. Note: must schedule a playdate with Anna’s mom.

12:24 I am hungry. I can eat and work at the same time. Need to edit a document for a client for what must be the tenth time. We have left over burritos. I think the onions bother Iver, but I am going to have to take my chances as I don’t have time for making anything else and I hate wasting leftovers.

12:40 still haven’t finished lunch. Iver is fussy and husband called for his mid-day briefing of what is going on in our lives. His response to me saying Elkë went to her friends for a play date this morning was “you let her go there by herself?”. Um, she was hardly alone at any moment. He is a nutjob.

1:00 still eating my burrito but answering emails and pitching product to editors. Need to pay bills and package up samples for the TODAY show but I really need to finish this burrito. BOTH kids that are home are sleeping.

1:02 Want to check in at Twitter but it’s working like crap at least on my computer. Need to find time to scan my laptop for viruses, running slow and weird the last few days. Instead I will read a Branding Bitch Bootcamp inquiry. It’s my third of the day.

1:05 realizing that I forgot to put on nursing pads today.

1:12 have finally finished burrito. Downloading Tweetdeck app so that I can use its photo uploader. Unfortunately Twitpic turns photos into NASTY ones and that is not nice. I tweet for work all day long and cannot take a chance.

1:16 Consulted a blogger on how to better her twitter background. Going to go tweet some stuff for clients now. Ok 1:23 done with Twitter for now. Have 2.5 hours until Ruby gets off the bus and my day turns into the witching hours. Must jam on whatever else I need to do at laptop!

1:36 ok back on twitter for a second, using trending topics to help clients expand their reach and followers! Baby is squeaking, better go pay bills really quickly before it’s time to nurse him.

1:59 while paying bills realize that I really need to do something about the self-employment cash-flow situation. Calling around to see how to work that out.

2:05 get email from friend that her Blackberry went through washing machine. Advise her on how to fix it and offer up my old one if she can’t.

2:08 Iver is up from nap. Will nurse him and watch an episode of something I have DVR’d as a “lunch break”. His not mine.

2:35 get a call from my biz partner in SaratogaMama and we go over our event details for this Thursday night. We are promoting a local Spa, Restaurant and Charity at a Spa Night Out for our Mama Members! Still nursing Iver and catching up on last week’s RHONY.

3:19 Elkë is still in her room. She has been awake from what I can hear on monitor but quietly playing for last 45 mins. Who am I to stop her?

3:20 checking on a press hit for a client. Finally pressed “refluff” on dryer so I can start my wifely/motherly duties at 3:45 when Ruby gets off the bus.

3:28 Need to invoice clients for May

3:32 Pitch to group of editors for client, laundry has a few mins and kids are still happy.

UGH forgot that I am responsible for Ruby’s class snack tomorrow at school and meant to go to store and get 20 Clementines and drop them off so she wouldn’t have to carry. Need to figure out how to make that happen still.

3:49 the bus will be here any minute- oops I hear it. off to be a mom now and work after bedtime! Dishes, laundry, backpack cleaning out and grocery store. Balance! I am EVERY woman! It’s all in me! Chakakahn!

4:15 Head out with all three kids to Aldi to get the clementines (because they are really mandarin oranges and Ruby doesn’t know the difference, but they are a fraction of the price of clementines). Don’t have a quarter for the shopping cart so start to panic, but then find one in glovebox. Phew! Iver is crying, probably needs to nurse.

4:30 Husband calls me at Aldi saying he wants to go out to dinner. I laugh, freak out on him a little and hang up. I am in sweatpants, hair pinned to side like I am three years old and there is no way that I can rally and get everyone out to eat (even if it’s bbq ribs like he wants) by 6pm.

5:00 We have powered through shopping trip and come out with chocolate donuts that I bribe the girls with as I pop Alice in Wonderland DVD into the Swaggerwagon and everyone is pretty quiet.

5:15 we are home and Ruby FREAKS OUT because the next door neighbor girls are playing outside. I cannot bring the girls outside because I know they will run right over there and I have things I need to do inside. Have a moment where I want to burst into tears. This is what the “Witching Hour” does to me. Have handful of emails from clients on different time zones, my kids are freaking, everyone is hungry, and the girls next door look like they are having so much fun out the window.

5:45 I give in and we go outside for a few minutes. Husband pulls up by 6pm where we start to get huffy with each other because the household chores haven’t been done for the day. Laundry is everywhere, dishes in sink, kids are hungry and my kabobs still need to be “shished” and grilled.

While Husband is grilling I help Ruby with her homework. We need to find 4 things in magazines that start with the letter Y. This is hard. I mean think about it..

7:30 we are eating. It’s very messy, Elkë is flicking potato chips all over the table. I give her a freeze pop in her new favorite turquoise Icy Pop Treat Cozy from my company Luna Lou. I take her photo with my iPhone and tweet it for the @FreezePopSleeve page. I am ALWAYS working, promoting, etc.

8:00 Husband takes the girls down in the basement to play drums for a bit. I nurse Iver and work from iPhone to catch up on emails and tweets. Meanwhile I am seething because I know the girls are SO tired and they will get hurt any moment because they can barely stand up let alone play drums.

8:25 they emerge from basement and goof around while we yell at them to put on pj’s. I send them upstairs with Daddy for story and I do the dishes and clean up kitchen. Then I go fix a newsletter for a client.

9:00 Husband is wondering when I am going to come watch our tv show. We DVR General Hospital and watch it at night. I bring laptop to couch to update another newsletter, edit more client photos and follow up on more emails.

9:20 I eat an obscene amount of Tiramisu that my chef client made at an event yesterday. It had to sit overnight and that was TORTURE. Half the pan is in my “pie pie tummy” as my Elkë says.

9:30 design an advertising banner for client.

10:15pm still on couch with laptop, watching our backlog of DVR’d GH as we missed a few episodes last week. Husband has Iver in his arms and is on his iPhone. We are most romantic couple of the year.

In 45 minutes or less I will be in bed. It has been a very fulfilling and busy day with lots of smiles, kisses, screaming and panic, but I just take it one minute at a time.

From being a publicist, blogger, brand manager to making HIP HELLO'S for clients, helping women owned brands get a boost with LaunchHER and selling her own creativity on Luna Lou to being a mom of 3 under 5 - Lizzie wears quite a few hats yet somehow manages it all while staying sane. Did we mention she designed our site along with CupcakeMAG & Sprinkles blogs? Yes, we love her!

For all things Lizzie, go to her site here & click away! And for a ton of laughs & updates follow her on twitter. She ROCKS our world!

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