Day in a Life

I thought it would be fun to record, for a whole day, what my life is like.

I will preface this by saying that there are at least two very abnormal occurrences, but, as they are negative occurrences, I'm ok with those being in here.

So here is a normal(ish) Monday around here.

6:45am     Matt wakes me up by handing me the basal thermometer (NFP life!) John crawls into bed with me and asks to "go to the green library and get Dig Dogs, Dig". He means the downtown library. I tell him maybe.

7:00          Breakfast! Matt has already made coffee and stuck a bagel in the toaster for me. I pour coffee, get cream cheese on the bagel, and sit down to eat with the kids.

7:20          Matt leaves for work on his bike. He'll go running after he gets to work so he leaves a little earlier than usual. We consult on the dinner plan before he leaves. I check through email and facebook on my phone while the kids finish eating.

7:30         Time to wash off the kids and get them changed and dressed. Therese managed to give herself a banana shampoo so she gets a thorough rinsing in the kitchen sink.

7:32         Kids actually getting dressed now. John picks out his own clothes and dresses himself. I tell him it might be a little chilly outside and suggest he wear pants instead of the shorts he has pulled out. He decides to keep the shorts, and I decide to let him live with being uncomfortable later.

7:35        I swig the last of my coffee in between getting Therese dressed and changed and getting myself dressed. I noticed we were running low on wipes when I was changing Therese. I make a note to order more later.

7:38        I change directly into clothes I can move in. Helps make sure the working out happens.

7:40        Kids are suspiciously quiet. I poke my head out to see they have gone outside - despite the family rule about no outside play until 9am. (This is an apartment building with close quarters after all.) John - the instigator and only one physically able to open the back door - gets to sit in time out while I gather up laundry. 

7:46         I strap Therese on my back in the Ergo and get ready to haul the hamper downstairs to the laundry room.

7:52         We're back upstairs after putting in the double laundry load (and waiting through John putting in the quarters). I unload the dishwasher while I have Therese on my back and away from the oh so tempting knives.

7:57         Pour my second cup of coffee and a little milk for Therese.

8:00         Therese down for morning nap. I note my dinner recipe needs to be in the crockpot for 8 hours. I set John up with a watercolor wings project I made up and head to the kitchen.

8:25          Dinner in the crockpot! I ooh and ahh over John's progress and run downstairs to switch the laundry.

8:30          John is still going strong on painting so I roll out the yoga mat and start to stretch and warm up while I say Matins and Lauds. (On all fours pilates/yoga during Matins - side lying, plank, and back during Lauds.)

8:42        John finishes his project but Therese is still not asleep. John gets to watch a PBS Kids show for the next 15-odd minutes of Therese nap time and hopefully she'll sleep a little bit.

8:50       Prayers and Pilates done. I'm just starting to feel warmed up but I don't want to push too hard, too fast this soon in the day. Mondays are when we send out the weekly young adult email newsletter so I start typing up a group email of additions and changes for the core team.

9:00       Therese sounds like she's finally asleep. I decide to give her the 15 minutes the laundry has left in the dryer to power nap.

9:25        Emails finally done and diapers.com order placed. Time to grab the laundry and wake the sleepy baby.

9:44        Laundry is folded and mostly put away. (John is still working on putting his clothes away.) I change the baby and gather library books.

9:56        Laundry fully put away, stoller packed up, and we're out the door to the library! (Mondays are a regular library day for us.)

10:01       We perfectly miss the bus. Walking downtown it is.

10:03      I realize the downtown branch doesn't open until noon on Mondays. To the trusty North branch!

10:15      We arrive! John spent the entire walk asking, "Do you see Star Wars? Where Star Wars?" over and over again. I'm very glad to be at the library.

10:38       Books acquired and checked out. Matt had texted and emailed a book request so we had to venture into the adult section stacks. I refrained from adding more books to the 4 I'm concurrently reading (even though some looked really cool). Go me!

10:55      Back home. About to send the kids out to play on the patio when I notice it still has not drained well from the weekend rains. I pull on boots, grab the broom, and attempt to unclog the drains. It doesn't do much - the joys of renting. Decide to let the kids play outside anyway and just accept that Therese will be soaked through to her diaper.

11:05       Transfer the dirty dishes from the sink to the dishwasher. Heat up some leftover spaghetti for the kid's lunch.

11:15       Well they're not just soaked, but also muddy from head to toe. Everybody back in. I get them washed, changed, and in their places at the table.

11:20        Lunch on the table. I say blessing with the kids before putting together my lunch.

I like to drink warm stock at lunch. Don't knock it til you try it.

11:40       Everyone is done eating. Therese needs to be changed again with all the spaghetti sauce she has gotten on her clothes. (This is why laundry is an everyday chore.)

11:45        Reading time on the couch.

12:03       We've blazed through 3 new library books (including a very fun one about a Yiddish speaking chicken who lives with Spanish speaking parrots in Brooklyn.) Now it's time for naps. I put the kids down, and sit down to write the young adults newsletter.

12:10        Yea Katie already wrote most of it! Just need to add in some more prayer intentions and do some formatting. Team work!

12:15        There are plenty of emails to attend to. Decide to power through some of those since I can still hear Therese talking to herself.

12:35        There is a kid door opening. This is not good. Time to do a nap reset! John is moved to my bed, Therese gets changed and put back down. Normally this is not necessary until 1pm, if at all. 

12:47        Nap reset in progress. Let's see if it takes. I only enforce nap/quiet time until about 2:30. I don't really care if they sleep, they just can't mess with each other (or me) for a while. It's how we stay sane in the land of littles.

1:10         John tries to escape nap again. He's put back in bed with some solid threats about the loss of park time if he can't stay in bed.

1:15         John's escape woke up Therese. She doesn't sound mad yet, so I wait to see if she'll put herself back to sleep.

1:25         John comes out again. No park this afternoon now.

2:00         Therese still hasn't gone to sleep. I rock her and give her more milk before laying her back down. Last chance baby! At least no peeps from John.

2:20         Hallelujah, they sleep!

2:25         Start some theraband exercises to get my feet ready to dance later. Because I have ballet class and rehearsal on Mondays, I don't do barre on my own those days. I gchat with some girlfriends at the same time. 

3:20         I really didn't expect napping to happen this well. More email and social media time. Sounds like some more fun dance plans are in the works!

3:23        Aannndddd....John is up.

3:30        Chips and salsa time! John and I settle in to watch The Land Before Time while we wait for Therese to wake up. 

4:00        Time to get going on the afternoon chores. I go wake the baby. She's less than thrilled. 

I notice we're on our last 4 clean diapers, and diaper day is not until Wednesday. I make a note to email the diaper service. At least we still have some disposables leftover from Christmas travel.

4:30        The link to the Mercy Project just came through! Quick post to the young adult facebook group, then back to tidying up. 

4:43         Matt is home early! Time to take the chicken out of the crockpot and crisp up the skin and veggies under the broiler.

4:50        Drumsticks and wings with the veggies are in the oven. I remove the bones and other good stock bits and put them back in the crockpot to make stock later.

5:00         Dinner is just about ready. Matt threw in some of the leftover challah in the oven to heat up.

5:40         Dinner is done, and Matt and I start cleaning up. The kitchen is really too small for two people to work at the same time. I let Matt finish packing up leftovers and scraping dishes while I say Vespers in our room.

5:46        Vespers done. Back to the kitchen to get the stock going.

5:54        Stock is set up to slow cook in the crockpot for the next 11 hours. Time to get my hair up in a ballet bun.

6:08        Bun in, dance bag is packed, and I'm out the door after saying goodbye to the husband.

6:11        After some technical issues with nextbus, I can see my bus is coming in about 5 minutes. I snag some reading time.

6:14       Or the other line comes mysteriously faster. I hop on and head downtown. Maybe I'll catch a less crowded bus for the transfer.

6:25       Pretty sure this bus got here at the same time as the other line. Oh well.

6:27       Bus here! But very crowded. At least I get a seat. That does not always happen.

6:40       Arrived with plenty of time. Time to get coffee across the street from the theater and get a little recharge time. A little time with coffee and a book goes a long way.

7:00       Break is over - time to head over to the studio and get changed.

7:02       Notice on the bulletin board says early registration discount for the summer workshops ends Friday. Eep. Better get moving on that.

7:10       My partner is already in the dressing room so we go over the rehearsal schedule and workshop the costumes that just came in while we get changed. Yea multitasking!

7:15      Dressed and ready. The previous class is still going - working on their piece for the student showcase.

7:17      My instructor was walking by so I snag her to run the costume skirts by her. So far so good! It's imperative that we finish choreographing today. I mentally prepare for a late night.

7:20      Feeling sufficiently nervous about doing good work tonight. I start warming up my feet and ankles on the bench.

7:31      Other class finally wraps up. We set up barres.

7:35       Class starts.

9:10      Class over. Quick break before rehearsal.

9:15       Rehearsal

10:20     We finish the choreography and call it a night. Change super fast back into street clothes.

10:25     At the bus stop.

10:30      On the bus. It feels so good to sit down!

10:38      I watch the next bus I needed to catch pass me before I could get to the stop. Walking home the rest of the way.

10:58      Home! Now I'm really tired. I say hi to the husband and take my hair down. I get really protein needy on long dance days so I make myself a snack of salami and crackers. Lots of water.

11:07      I realize that I probably left my warm up shrug on the barre in the studio. Send a quick email to my instructor about it. Fingers crossed it gets saved!

11:17      Shower time!

11:39      All set for bed. Night prayer than a little time with my book.

12:05am   Night all!

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We'll see how many people stuck it out to the bottom here.

This was a pretty normal Monday, aside from the terrible naptime and running out of diapers. That's not normal - I swear.