Day 25 is supposed to be “My Day in Detail” and Day 26 is “My Week in Detail”…I decided to just combine the two!

A regular week day for me goes like this….

*5:30 the alarm starts going off….I usually get out of bed between 6 and 6:30.  I let Jackson out and feed him then I make breakfast and coffee.   I watch Morning Joe and possibly a DVR’d show from the night before that I didn’t get to watch.  I check email, facebook, twitter and my google reader and then I blog if needed.  I do laundry, pack my lunch, pack my gym bag, etc.  I get dressed and head out to the office.

*On mondays and wednesday I have groups so I get prepped for that, gather all my supplies, etc.  I have girls group first, then lunch (which is usually eaten at my desk while doing paperwork) and then I have boys group after lunch.  The afternoons consist of individual sessions and more paperwork.  Tuesdays and thursdays start off with supervision.  On tuesday mornings I have supervision with my clinical supervisor to discuss cases, brainstorm therapeutic interventions and basically just vent which is always needed.  Alot of times I use this to process all the crap I’ve listened to over the last week.  After that I have supervision with my administrative supervisor to discuss program issues, staff concerns, etc. This is where I beg for things like more chairs in the group room or more money for group supplies, etc.  After that I eat lunch and then start on individual sessions for the day.  On thursday afternoons I have the legendary Treatment Team meeting which starts around 2 and goes until 4-5.  It’s insanely long and tedious, but necessary.  Back when my caseload was somewhat normal, I could reserve fridays for paperwork, treatment plan updates, session notes, etc. But now that I have so many kids I am trying to scramble to make sure everyone has been seen for the week and then squeezing in paperwork if I can.  On most fridays everyone gets their paperwork done and gets to leave a little early, but since we have so many kids in our program now, I’ve been staying late on fridays which SUCKS.

*After I get my last client seen I close my blinds in my office, change into my gym clothes and head to the gym.  I usually do Step on mondays, run on tuesdays (in or out, depending on weather), off on wednesdays, back to back Step and Pump class on thursdays, and run on fridays.  Saturday and sunday I squeeze in what I can.  There are 2 great classes on sunday that I love to attend when I can make it.  Most notably BodyAttack!

*After my workout I hit up the grocery store if there are any ingredients I’m missing for the dinner I’m cooking.  When I get home I usually come in, drop my gym bag, and immediately start cooking.  I hate eating late and some nights I don’t get home til 7 (or later) so I try to get dinner done in under 30 minutes.

*After dinner we usually watch some news or whatever shows we have DVR’d, Eric helps me clean up the kitchen, and then we shower and get ready for bed.

*There usually isn’t a spare minute in a normal work day.  I find time to check twitter in between clients or on the treadmill but other than that it’s non stop until my head hits the pillow at night.  Once in bed I check twitter one more time, set the alarm and I’m out!

Now….all of this is done on quite a tight schedule.  If one little thing goes wrong or puts me off my routine, it throws me off completely.  That’s how workouts get missed, laundry piles up, etc.  I honestly don’t see how a woman can hold down a 40 hour a week job, cook a healthy (from scratch) dinner every night, clean, workout regularly, raise kids, etc AND keep a healthy relationship/marriage going all at the same time.  It’s impossible to do it all without help.  I think I do a pretty good job but I don’t have kids.   Luckily Eric offers to go to the store or do laundry when I need him to but I, honestly, prefer to do those things myself.  Not because he can’t, but because I do enjoy it.  I enjoy running a household – maybe I won’t say that when I have kids – but right now I like it.  But you’d be surprised how much goes into running a home for just a couple and a dog.  The sheer amount of laundry and cleaning is a part time job in itself.  Grocery shopping and cooking too…I’d have so much extra time if I ate junk like 3/4 of the country …but I refuse.  I cook from scratch every night.  We usually eat out on saturdays but that’s it.

I guess this post wasn’t intended to sing the praises of the working woman but jeez, when you look at all we do it does seem like alot.  And this has just been a basic detail of my schedule and routine.  I can’t even begin to describe the emotional and mental drain of my job.  The amount of ups and downs I experience in a day is unreal.  I may have a kid come in who is going through a really rough time processing their past trauma and abuse …I listen to that for an hour then I may have a kid come in who has made progress and is in a great mood and has accomplished some big goal and I have to completely switch gears.  Then I’m feeling all lighthearted and happy from that session then I may have another intense one after that.  Not to mention any fights, restraints, threats of suicide, etc that I may have to deal with during any given day.  It’s an absolute roller coaster.

So that’s a basic workday and workweek for me.  Saturdays are reserved for football (at the moment), beer, and friends.  Sundays I clean, catch up on laundry and workout.  It’s all quite exhausting.  Even when I try to do nothing, I can’t.  ha.  So sorry if all that was kinda boring to y’all 🙂