Rays of Sunshine - Meet Jennica

Today our Ray of Sunshine is our friend and talented photographer Jennica. As you'll hear from her blog post she is a newlywed, volunteer, photographer ~ working on getting fit and hoping to start a family in the next few years. Thanks Jennica for letting us glimpse your day.

A Day in the Life…the Jennica edition.

 Sometimes I look at other women’s “day in the life” type posts on various blogs, and I am amazed at the amount of productivity they fit into 24 hours. I am a newlywed. I was married last November and graduated from college last May, and have spent the last 3 months trying to make myself be productive with my days. (Side Note: I am blessed with a husband who appreciates my passion and desire to be a stay-at-home wife, and eventually, mother.  We make sacrifices in order for our family to be one-income, but it’s always been important to me to be a stay-at-home mother, and I don’t see the need to start a career for a year when I will be staying home in the end.) Coming out of 17ish years of schooling, having the entire day to do whatever I’d like was beyond exciting. I spent the first month doing absolutely nothing, and I feel like sometimes that is warranted. In the two months since, I have made my schedule a little more effective, and that’s what I will share with you today. An average day in the life of Jennica Bridgman, photographer, foodie, wannabe crafter, and wife.

7:30- I wake up at this time each morning, which is miraculous. I have been known to sleep until noon, so my first step in making my life more productive was to actually wake up and have a few extra hours in my day. I spend a quick 30 minutes waking up, and honestly, it takes me that long. I’ve never been much of a morning person.

8:00- Every weekday morning, my best friend Deborah comes over to work out. Again, if you’d known me 3 months ago, your jaw would be on the floor. This girl does NOT exercise. Or sweat. Period. I had known I was overweight for years, but it had never been enough of knowledge to actually make me dedicate to ritualistic exercise. I HATED exercise with every fiber of my being, and I thought the people who talked about “endorphins” giving you energy were simply full of it. From the time I met my husband (Summer of 2010), to when I graduated (May 2012), I had gained a minimum of 40 pounds. That knowledge was astonishing to me. How could that happen? My lifestyle hadn’t changed that much. But it was true. I had crossed the dreaded “200lb” mark by 20lbs. Not okay. Not healthy. What finally tipped my mindset was acknowledging that I didn’t want to be skinny for myself, I wanted to be healthy for my future children. In the less than 2 months that we have been eating healthy and working out, I have lost 18lbs. My darling husband joined me in my journey (though he barely needed it), and he is right there with me, and feeling great.

9:00- As soon as Deborah leaves, I put on a load of laundry and unload and load the dishwasher. Every morning I sit down and catch up on certain blogs that I follow.  These range from Christian themes, craftiness/DIY, food and recipes, photography, and missionary blogs. There are a great many of these, so it usually takes me a leisurely hour. My two kittens, Mosby and Bruce, who I treat very much like my “babies”, typically join me for this. Their favorite place to sleep is right on top of the laptop keyboard that I am trying to use.

10:00- At this time I make myself a smoothie and quickly get presentable and head to The City of Hope Outreach (CoHO). www.cityhopeoutreach.com. I have volunteered and been on staff with this wonderful organization for going on 3 years now. They work with the under resourced here in Conway in a community called Oakwood. I worked with their summer reading and lunch initiative for all of June and July, and now that that is over, I am a general assistant for Deborah and the director of the organization, Phillip. Lately, we’ve been working hard on a conference that is taking place tomorrow. My specialty is making fliers, documents, signs, and anything “graphic design”, in addition to being their staff photographer.

 

4:00- I am usually home multiple hours before this, but today Deborah and I worked longer than usual and then hit up Sonic for happy-hour and then visited some sweet puppies at the pound. On an average day, this time varies from day to day. Sometimes I am prepping for dinner, sometimes I have a few hours to pick up a book and read, sometimes I clean and organize my ever-messy home.
This particular day, after I put up the laundry, I am working on things for my photography business. www.jennicagayle.wix.com/jbphotography . I have contracts to write up and prepare for a session the next night. Photography has always been a passion of mine, but the business aspect is very new to me, and can be challenging. There is so much information to keep track of, but for now my system seems to be working. I have been blessed by interest in my business and service, so I spend this time responding to emails as well. This all happens, of course, with two kittens in my lap. Typically I would be preparing for dinner, but it’s my brother-in-law’s birthday and we’ve going out!

 

5:00- My dear husband arrives home, and we chat about our days for a few minutes before we head out the door.

5:30- Dinner at our FAVORITE restaurant, Fuji’s Japanese Steakhouse. This is definitely an “off night” for our diet, but we’re not sad about that! The delicious hibachi shrimp and fried rice is more than worth the extra workouts that will be required later. We laugh and chat with my husband’s sister and her husband. We are very close with them. They were married 3 weeks after us, so we’ve gone through so many of the same things in the past year and their friendship is a blessing.

 

 

 8:00- We arrive home, full of food and love for our wonderful family. We get ready for bed, and sit down to watch our nightly “show”, Good Mythical Morning. This is a 10 minute YouTube video/morning show. It’s two very humorous men who talk about random things. My husband and I are always laughing, and it’s a great way to wind down from the day. This is also when we do our Bible study.

9:30-Bed. My husband works early, so we go to bed early. It always takes me a while to fall asleep, but if I’m going to be getting up at 7:30, I have to be going to bed early! I am enjoying the full nights of sleep while I can before we decide to start our family.

So that is a typical day in my life. I am very long winded, and go on a lot of tangents, but I hope you’ve gotten something out of it. :)

Jennica