A Day in the Life: Wednesday

A Day in the Life: A glimpse into what I would consider a typical day, like yesterday.

4:30- Awake to someone upstairs crying out.  Wait a few minutes to see if I have to get up and go see what the problem was (hoping that I wouldn't have to), but it stopped, so someone must have been having a bad dream and went back to sleep.

5:00- The husband gets up for work.  How he does that so effortlessly at 5:00 on the dot, two seconds after the alarm goes off baffles me.  Cue me rolling over and snuggling with the dog.  This is a period of in between sleep and awake as he gets ready for the day and the dog is up and down on and off the bed.

6:30- He leaves for work, and right after, the air conditioning comes on.  We have it set to cycle on when the house reaches 77 degrees, so the fact that it was coming on this early meant it was going to be hot.  And back to sleep.

7:30- The gentle shuffle-bumping of one small girl coming down the stairs wakes me up, and so does the sunlight as she opens the shutters in my room and hands me two books before climbing up and demanding that I read them.  So I do, and then she demands breakfast with a sweet smile, so off we go with her in the lead to find the right cereal.

8:00- Breakfast for Greta and morning chores for me: start my tea, empty the sink, check email while putting dishes away.  By 8:30 I've got a banana bread in the oven since those overripe bananas are becoming an eyesore on my counter. (recipe coming next week)

8:45- I sit down to breakfast and more carefully look at email, and open all the social media feeds.  This to me is like reading the newspaper and getting a good start for the morning.  If I have time I read some blogs and with every intention of coming back to comment, fail to leave a comment almost every time.  Check on my hair- it's going to be 90 degrees and humid, so....

9:15- Gus finally makes his appearance, though he decides to wait for the banana bread to finish baking so I've got about 20 minutes to fill.  I set off to start the laundry.

Our washing machine broke exactly two weeks ago at 9:15 at night after a day where everything had already been thrown off schedule.  Fortunately the husband is excellent with motors and wiring and machinery and he fixed it, but it took three new parts and a lot of time to figure out the problem.  So, while I did take laundry to my parents' house the week before, I have a ton to catch up on.  I set the third of six loads of laundry going, the first two having been washed and dried the night before, so they needed to be folded and put away.

9:45- Gus gets his breakfast and Greta joins in on a piece.  The beds are made, the children are dressed.  The various rashes and bug bites they have accumulated by playing outside have creams applied to them.  Within a half an hour they are in the basement, set up with a video, and I get a little break, so I decide to look at my to do list.

Mistake.  Nothing is crossed off and I've been up for two hours.  Time to get moving.  So I set off on various tasks on the to-do list, change out the laundry, and fold things and put them away.

11:30- The husband gets home from the field portion of his day, so it's time for lunch.  We all eat, the kids go upstairs to play.  I clean up, change the laundry yet again, and then head up to my office to try and get some work done.

1:00- Studio time!  I decided that I needed to focus on one new item and get a few made, photographed, and listed.  I have this pile of home decor fabric and I want to make simple totes with them, so I start off on the design.  Since this will be my first time through, I know I'll have to go slow, make measurements, see how the pieces work together, etc.  I figure I can get a bag done in about an hour.

At 1:45 I get my first interruption: "Can I have a snack?"  We all go down, get a snack, I swap out the laundry once again, and head back to it.  What comes next is a series of one mistake after another- things I should think of ahead of time but forget, which means I've used the seam ripper a lot.  By 3:30 I have one bag that looks good on the outside but not on the inside.  I've taken it apart three times, so I abandon it and have a snack, as the hangry is setting in.  I eat and vegetate in front of the computer for a bit.

4:30- I remember that I haven't gotten the mail yet, so I go out to get it and am greeted with a very stormy sky.  I check the radar and a huge red line is coming, so I run around and take in the small plants, put the small pillows on the deck furniture under the table, close the shed, etc.  We wait for the rain.

5:00-6:30- Dinner prep begins, with the help of Gus who is both hungry and interested in the radar on the computer right next to the stove.  We eat and watch the storm roll through.  By 7:15 they kids are up for their bath with their dad (hooray!) so I get another short rest on the couch, although I do have to go up and put clean sheets on Gus's bed because I forgot to do it earlier and also administer another round of creams.  I do get a chance to answer emails, check in on discussion boards, and make a treasury for one of my teams.

8:30- Shower.  Then switch the laundry for the last time and fold and put away the two previous loads.  The last of six should be dry by bedtime.

9:15- Sit down to blog, which is taking a lot longer than I thought.

10:30- Lights out.

It ended up being a really productive day with lots of things around the house getting done.  (The key to this was actually just not leaving the house.)  I'm going to try and revisit the tote bags today, and in looking at the photo of the finished bag, I might just cut it up and make a foldover clutch out of it.  We'll see.