Kelsey Smith — A Day In Her Life

A Day In Her Life with Kelsey Smith – Adaptable, Intentional, Caffeinated Days as a Working Mom of Two and Email Accessibility Consultant

On today’s episode of A Day In Her Life, Ellie sits down with Kelsey Smith, a working mom of two toddlers living just outside Denver. Kelsey works in marketing, technology, and digital communications for a large public university and also runs her freelance consulting business, The Email Edit, where she helps nonprofits, small businesses, and entrepreneurs improve email marketing with a focus on digital accessibility.

Kelsey shares what life looks like right now with two kids just 11 months apart, a household that runs on teamwork (and coffee), and a workday shaped by a two-hour time difference. From chaotic pre-dawn wakeups and daycare drop-offs to hot sauna workouts, low-effort dinners, and bedtime that suddenly takes an hour, this episode is full of the real stuff working moms are navigating.

If you are balancing remote work, little kids, a relationship, and the constant feeling that your to-do list is never done, you will feel very seen in this conversation.

In this episode, we cover:

Two toddlers 11 months apart and mornings that start before you are ready - Kelsey’s reality right now: kids up between 5 and 6 a.m., a toddler climbing into her bed overnight, and mornings that feel like chaos before coffee even happens.

Remote work across time zones - What it is like being on Mountain Time while the rest of your team is on East Coast time, and how that creates built-in protected focus time in the late afternoon.

Time blocking for technical vs creative work - Kelsey’s approach to structuring her day: technical tasks and meetings in the morning, creative strategy work later, and a consistent end-of-day plan for tomorrow.

Bedtime phases and sleep curveballs - How bedtime used to be easy and suddenly is not, what it looks like getting two toddlers down, and the looming toddler bed transition.

How to find a therapist through insurance platforms - Kelsey’s experience starting with SonderMind and moving to Alma, plus the reminder to check your 2026 benefits.

Work travel with young kids and “partner guilt” - Why she does not feel mom guilt leaving but does feel the weight on her partner, and how family flying in makes travel possible.

Friendship in a busy season - Staying connected through small touchpoints, hosting, and aiming for at least one friend meetup a month.

Date nights without babysitters - Their every-other-Friday at-home date night rotation, alternating who plans, and creative ways to connect during the day while the kids are in daycare.

The ball she is letting drop - Releasing pressure around cooking and remembering: if you only have 40% that day and you give it, you gave 100% of what you had.