a day in HER life - Laura Wifler

Hi friends! My name is Laura Wifler. I’m the co-founder and Executive Director of Risen Motherhood, a nonprofit ministry that brings gospel-hope to moms. I’m a wife to Mike and momma to three young children, Eli (6), Colette (4), and Eden (21 months) and we live in middle of the cornfields of central Iowa.

My days start pretty early—I typically wake up around 4:30 a.m. I get dressed, but don’t do my hair or makeup. I just shuffle downstairs to grab a cup of coffee. I bring the entire coffee carafe with me into the library as I camp out for nearly three hours each morning, and I’m too lazy to go back to the kitchen for refills. I always start with Bible study. Right now I’m in Precepts at my local church, which means I’m sitting at the table, rather than the big overstuffed chair in the corner. I spread out my papers and pens and start underlining and researching.

After about 30-45 minutes, I switch to work. As the ED of R|M, I do a bit of everything. Most people know me as the co-host of the weekly Risen Motherhood podcast, but that’s only a small part of my job. This morning, I answer emails, create a new webpage for our new book releasing in September, rework and edit the content calendar, look over contracts and tax forms, and edit a few documents.

By 7:15 a.m. my kids are up and we start moving to get ready for school. I finish getting ready while my older kiddos get dressed and brush their teeth. I like to keep breakfast as easy as possible, so today we have left over biscuits. My sister-in-law, Becca, is also my neighbor and she brought them over for dinner last night. To my children’s delight, we slather them in raspberry jam and they gobble them up. Each morning we do a family devotional together during breakfast. Right now we’re working though “What Every Child Should Know About Prayer,” by Nancy Guthrie. We talk through 3-4 pages at a time and my kids love it.

From there we leave for school. My son is in kindergarten and my middle daughter is in preschool for three hours, two mornings a week. My youngest, Eden has special needs, but I have a rare day where she has no therapy, so we head out on some errands. I drop off tax documents at the account (I’m writing this in March, so I have an unusual amount of tax work—thank goodness that’s not normal!), swing through Target for a birthday present, and pick up some groceries.

Eventually, we’re back at the school to pick up Colette, then we head home for lunch. Afterward, the girls and I play for a bit together. I try to make this intentional time, so I put my phone on silent in a drawer so I’m not tempted to look at it. We read, play pretend farm animals and princesses, and chase the balls from Eden’s favorite toy, her ball popper.

(I promise they don’t normally play with bike helmets on. We recently received them as hand-me-downs, so the girls are very into them today.)

Soon, both girls go down for a nap. While I like to maximize this time as much as possible, I also try to read 20 minutes or so of a book at the very beginning of nap time. Slowing down is hard for me in every area of life, and this practice reminds me that I don’t need to move so fast. So most days, in the middle of the toys and mess, I sit and read.

 

Next, it’s back to work. But before I do, I pull some dough out of the fridge to make crusty bread for dinner tonight. It’s an easy thing to make while I work, and it gives me a few forced mental breaks as I keep it moving through the rising and baking process. When I sit back down to the computer in the library, I do all sorts of things. Today I’m working on outlining a new video project to promote the book, writing a blog post for our upcoming pledge drive in April, and outlining the next show for the podcast that my sister-in-law, Emily, and I will record in a couple weeks. Side note: A lot of people wonder if our shows are scripted. They’re not, but they are heavily outlined. We never practice before we record, but we have thought through the material ahead of time and written the main points down. Which means the show really is a conversation, just like it sounds.

Soon the girls wake up. Colette changes her outfit (she gets one outfit change a day) and I give my youngest daughter her medication. Quickly, we’re out the door to pick up my son from school. When we’re all back home again, I start soup for dinner while the three kids play together. Today Eli and Colette have rediscovered their boogie boards, so I’m enjoying a few minutes actually hearing the music I’m playing while I cook. (And no, I didn’t pose them like this.)

 

My husband gets home around 5:45 p.m. and we have dinner soon after. We typically clean up the kitchen together, then he goes upstairs to wrestle with and read to the kids. Eden goes down first around 6:30 p.m., then the bigs go down a bit after 7 p.m. I prep coffee for the morning and make lunches for Mike and Eli, then head to the couch.

Typically I do something more “personal” in the evening, and tonight it’s finally making Eden’s one year photo album, which is nearly a year overdue. When my husband comes down, we chat for a little bit about our days, swapping stories and talking schedules. Then we watch a few episodes of the Office. We’re rewatching it as we haven't seen it since our college days—which means it’s basically all brand-new to us! I forgot how funny it is! At 9:30 p.m. we head upstairs. I read a chapter of another book, we pray together, and it’s lights out for the day.

It’s a crazy life, but I love it. Everyday is different, but I’m thankful for the flexibility my job affords and the gift it is to be able to do what I love, while still be home with my children most of the day. If you’d like to follow along and see more peeks of my life, check out www.laurawifler.com, or on Instagram, @laurawifler.