10/22/2013

A day in my life.

Mel at Adventuroo does an amazing series every year where she documents her life for an entire week, then blogs about it.  She invites other bloggers to join her, even if it's just for a day or a portion of a day.  It's a fabulous way to get a snapshot of what a day or week in someone's life looks like.  A couple years ago, I gave everyone a 15 minute snippet from my day, then decided to take mercy on everyone and stop.  This year I decided to play along for real.  I don't think I'll blog about the entire week, but I wanted to try at least one day, so I started with Monday.  Here's what my day looked like yesterday, from start to finish.





I roll out of bed 19 minutes before the alarm goes off and get dressed.  My alarm only goes off a couple times a year; I'm an early riser by nature.



After getting dressed, the first thing on the agenda is coffee! Then I do a little prep work for the boys' breakfast.



Whatever time I can carve out before the boys get up in the morning is usually my only blog reading/writing time for the day, except on Monday (more on that in a minute) and this morning I checked my Color Run post that I had scheduled to go up, plus caught up on most of my favorite blogs through Bloglovin'.



This one always wakes up happy as a clam.  I let him lay on the couch for a while watching cartoons while I get big brother up and going for the day.



"Zack, you need to hurry up and eat your breakfast.  Zack, hurry up and eat.  Zack, it's after 7, you need to eat.  OH FOR THE LOVE EAT YOUR BREAKFAST NOW!"



Finally ready for school and we are sitting in the car at the bus stop.  This is the first morning this year it's been cold enough to drive.



My bus stop view.  I love where I live and I will never get tired of looking at this tree.




R is off to work, Cooper is occupied with some Legos and action figures, so I hop on the treadmill for a quick (oops, I mean slow) 3.4 miles.



Shower over.  Hair looks amazing all wrapped up in my turbie thing.  (P.S. I'm really bad at bathroom selfies.  Obviously.)



First stop of the day is the public library.  Cooper has a Kindergarten prep class on Monday.  I get to drop him off in the classroom and have some time to myself in the library.  This has become one of our favorite times of the week.  He gets to learn stuff and play with other kids, and I get a little more time to write.  This week I worked on a blog post about marriage (HA HA!  Yes, I know!) that will go up on Thursday. 



Class is over, but he never wants to leave.  



Next stop is the grocery store. I usually shop for the week on Monday, right after Cooper's class.  There is a little Kroger near the library and it has become my favorite place to shop.  It was a quick trip this week.  I only needed bread, milk, fruit, some breakfast stuff, and beer.  Hey, beer's a staple.



Oh, and I gave in and bought a KitKat in the checkout line, which we split on the way home.  Obviously.



I will never understand why groceries do not put themselves away.  Also, I am OBSESSED with that Orange Shandy. 



Groceries are put away and Cooper is eating lunch, although he's not terribly hungry, due to the Kit Kat situation from earlier.  I eat my lunch standing up in the kitchen because...



I decided to bake some muffins, complete with Great Pumpkin muffin liners.  They're from a mix - banana chocolate chip for Zack and strawberry for Cooper.



Laundry time.  Typically, I do a load a day, about 5-6 days a week.  That way it doesn't pile up too much.  Zachary usually does his own laundry on Saturday (it's one of his allowance-earning chores), but we were gone all day this past Saturday, so I'm helping him catch up.  Also, that Thor hammer is one of the strangest things I've found in the laundry (this month).



Next, Cooper and I work on the dreaded task of switching summer clothes for winter, getting rid of things that no longer fit him, and going through the bins of Zachary's old things that I have put away.  The good news is, Cooper won't need any new winter clothes because I have plenty of Zacks' old things for him.  The bad news?



We have too much stuff.  A trip to Goodwill in definitely going to be in order for today.




We have just enough time for some stories and cuddles on the couch before it's time for...




Zachary to get home from school.  Today he is over the moon excited because he earned his AR reading necklace.  His school just started the AR program last week, and they are using a bead system for rewards for completing books.  This is right up his alley, and he sees it as one big competition.   Hmmm...  Wonder where he gets that?




Ready to head out again, this time to Zachary's Tae Kwon Do class.  Yes, that is my messy garage in the background.



But first, we drive right past the Goodwill, so I drop off five (FIVE!!!) bags of things there.  I love getting rid of things.  It's kind of like a sickness. 



Cooper and I sit and watch Zack's class - he's come SO, SO far.  




Then it's time to head home and start the evening rush.



The boys eat dinner, then



Zachary does his homework (he has to earn those AR beads!!!)




And meanwhile I'm in the kitchen prepping dinner for R and me to eat later.  R works until 8 most nights, so the boys eat separately, then I eat with R when he gets home.  It's an imperfect system, and we all look forward to the rare days we all get to sit down and eat together.  On the menu for tonight?  A variation of my shredded beef enchiladas



The boys are playing together for a minute, so I sneak off to the basement, where my sewing room is.  I'm helping a friend with her granddaughter's Bride of Frankenstein costume for Halloween.  I wish I had taken before pics...   Anyway, she's going to look awesome.




Bath and early(ish) bed time for Cooper tonight.  He's at a place where he really NEEDS a nap, but he usually doesn't take one, so by 7:30 or so it's super grump time here.  



I let Zachary play outside with the neighbor kids until pretty late tonight.  This isn't typical for a school night, but it's supposed to get really cold this week, so I'm afraid this will be his last chance to play outside for a while.




Both the kids are in bed and R is home from work.  He usually gets home in time to tuck them in.  That means Mama gets to drink dinner...  Oops, I mean 



eat dinner.  Yum.



R washes the pots and pans because a) I hate to and b) he's better at it.  I operate under the assumption that if if didn't come off when I tried to wipe it off, it probably won't come off on my food the next time I use it.  Anyway...  




Time to put my pjs on, get in bed and catch up on some DVR'd tv.  I predict I won't make it through one show tonight before falling asleep.  




Plus, I have to get some sleep, because tomorrow, I get to get up and do it all over again!



So there you have it - my entire yesterday!  That was fun (and harder than I thought it would be!)  I think I'm going to try to do at least one more day later in the week.  Thanks again to Mel at Adventuroo for the fabulous idea and link up!


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14 comments:

  1. I'm visiting from Mel's blog. Wow -- busy day. Great job mama. And I agree...beer is totally a staple.

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    1. Thanks for dropping by! People always talk about stocking up on bread and milk before bad weather hits, but I'm more about beer and chips myself ;)

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  2. Love the bathroom selfie! It's better than the one I took of myself yesterday (which didn't make it into my post!)
    I caught a snail in the nick of time the other day as I was about to run the washing machine - eugh! Hope you're having a great Tuesday :-)

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    1. Oh no! A snail? I've never had anything alive make it into the wash... yet. Thanks for stopping by.

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  3. This is so much fun. It had to be a tremendous amount of work, but I absolutely enjoyed the read. And now I need Kit-Kat bar.

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    1. It was a lot of work, but so, so fun! Thanks for stopping by. And by the way, I ALWAYS need a Kit Kat bar ;)

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  4. That coffee cup is TOO cute!
    I like your selfie!!

    Also: Can you be my mom? You sound awesome :D
    (and that was meant in a total non-stalker way, just an attempt at being funny :D)

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    1. Thanks! I've had that coffee cup for as long as I can remember. It's all chipped up but my coffee just doesn't taste as good out of anything else. Also, come on over! There are days when I doubt I'd even notice an extra person running around here ;) Thanks for stopping by!

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  5. What a fun peek into your day! I'm going to try that soon. :)

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    1. Thanks! It was lots of fun, and lots of work. I think I'm planning to do one more day later in the week. Maybe next year I'll play along for the entire week. It's a great record of what our lives are really like now.

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  6. I love the bright colors in your kitchen and your pictures. I'm more of a do-a-weeks-worth-of-laundry-in-one-day-and-avoid-it-for-a-week type of person. It works for me. Oh! And I totally want to know how the clothes multiplies so much! I think I'm going to just clean out a few things and next thing I know I have multiple bags of kid clothes to thrift. Where does it come from!?!

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    1. Thanks! I'm in love with my kitchen too! Bright colors make me feel happy. I've tried the "all the laundry at once" thing but by the end of the day I'm so grumpy and I'm just shoving things into drawers and closets to be rid of it. I always say I never buy my kids (especially my younger son) many clothes, but somehow their closets are always overflowing. Thanks for stopping by!

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  7. Wow! You really pack a lot into a day! I always think my days look like this:

    Wake up.
    Stare at the computer.
    Go to bed.

    But I know that's not really true.

    Maybe I should do the same thing to make me feel better about myself!

    Great job!

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    1. It was really eye opening. I only blogged about one day, but I photographed three separate days and when I went back and looked at everything I'd done, it made me feel really pretty good. I guess I'm more productive than I thought. Now I just need to figure out how to have more time to write, and I'll be all set.

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