A Day in the Life

I've been trying to write a Day in the Life post for a while, but surprise-surprise, it's interruptive to living my actual life to write down everything I do. So I decided yesterday to make some shorthand notes on scrap papers as I went about my business and convert it to a blog post later on. The times are approximate (except for when the baby wakes in the night: I really do check the clock whenever that happens) but the gist of my day is captured.

Also, I added some cheesy stock photos for fun. Consider yourself warned.

3:00 Elijah wakes up crying. He already woke at 11:00 as well. I pick him up and nurse him. (His crib is in our room.) I put him back to bed.

3:20 Despite the baby being asleep, I feel wide awake so I opt to have a shower now, rather during the morning hustle. I check my email before heading back to bed (illogically, as no one likely will have emailed me between 9 PM when I last checked and now!)

3:40 I climb back into bed.

4:10 Elijah wakes again. I swear he had been sleeping through the night a week ago! Nurse him, lay him back down.

5:30 Elijah wakes again. I just can't cope with it anymore. I bring him into bed with me. (Patrick is already up for the day.) I sleep blissfully for a little while.

7:10 Anna wakes up for the day and Isaiah is already in the hall picking out his clothes for school. The sound of them moving around wakes me. Elijah is still sleeping. I take A and I downstairs for breakfast.

7:15 Make Isaiah and Anna some toast. Patrick has swept the kitchen (which we had neglected to do the night before) and made coffee. Bless him.

7:25 I get started on the boys' lunches while drinking coffee on the go. It's Thursday and I do our big grocery trip on Saturday, so we're getting down to the wire on food options. I opt to cook a frozen pizza from the kits I bought through their school. I forget that each ingredient comes frozen (the sauce, cheese and pepperoni) so assembling it isn't as quick as I would like. I realize a little too late I've pushed it, time wise.

7:45 I go check on Noah who is finally awake and picking out his clothes for the day. Elijah wakes too. Noah gets dressed and comes downstairs whereupon I make him some toast. Elijah fusses so I nurse him then change his diaper and wash my hands.

8:10  The pizza is finally cooked but is too hot to wrap in Saran Wrap to put in their lunch bags. I opt to bring it to them later.

8:15 sign their agendas, help them find mittens and toques.

8:20 Send them off to school with their dad. Start making my breakfast (two fried eggs and a whole avocado. Yes, a whole avocado.)

8:35 Sit down to eat and drink my second cup of coffee. I open my laptop and scroll through Facebook and  check my email. I had asked two separate friends to watch Anna while I attended a meeting at the school but both email to say they aren't able to.

8:50 Get dressed and get Anna dressed. I ask her to pack a bag of toys to occupy her at the meeting since she and Elijah will have to come with me.

9:10 Clear up breakfast dishes, finish unloading the dishwasher, sweep the floor.

9:20 Get Anna and Elijah bundled up to head to the school. Jump in the car. Drive to the school. Hand over the boys' lunch bags sheepishly to the secretary ( it's not the first time I brought their lunches late.)

9:30 Meet with principal as well as the vice-principal to discuss some ideas I had.  I'm overjoyed at how enthusiastic and supportive they are. I silently thank God sincerely for the blessing of this school for our family.

9:55 Anna and Elijah both get fussy for being kept in the principal's office for almost half an hour. We wrap up and I head off down the hall to Toy Bus, a weekly preschool age playgroup that Anna loves and Elijah cheerfully tolerates. It's so convenient for us that it's hosted at the boys' school.

10:00 Toy Bus starts and the place gets packed quickly. I chat with the other moms and the lady who leads it. I play with Anna and cart Elijah around to the different stations Anna wants to go to.

11:30 Toy Bus finishes but Anna has no desire to leave the building. She stops and greets every teacher and staff member of the school that she can find. She wants to "say hi to Mary, too" -- that is, the statue of Our Lady in the hall. I let this go on for a few minutes until I notice Elijah has fallen asleep in his stroller. I tell her we need to get her brother home to go to bed (he missed his morning nap so we could go to the meeting).

11:50 Fiiiiinally leave the school with the kids. Anna start howling that she doesn't want to go home yet, and frankly, neither do I. I always get so tired by Toy Bus (I think it's the small talk with people I don't know that well) and the idea of staring down the unfolded laundry makes me want to cry. So I pull into the driveway, run into the house and bring out "lunch" for us to eat in the car: grapes, leftover pork and a bottle of water for each of us. (Please note they always serve a big snack at Toy Bus at the end, so Anna rarely eats a normal 'lunch' on Thursdays.) We drive around for a few minutes, eating our snack/lunch while Elijah sleeps in the car.

12:25 We go to the grocery store. Anna chats with her favourite grocery tire staff and I buy some ingredients for dinner. (I had initially planned to make soup for dinner but I remembered it was the anniversary of Anna's baptism and so a more celebratory dinner is in order.)

1:50 We arrive home with our groceries. I put the food away. Anna plays with her Calico Critters. Elijah sits in his high chair and watches me move around the kitchen while playing with a tea towel. Patrick comes downstairs and asks me about my day thus far, about my meeting, and makes himself a cup of tea.

2:20 I clear off the table, tidy up toys with Anna. I open my laptop and check my Facebook again.

2:35 I bundle up the babies to go pick up the boys.

2:40 Arrive to get the boys. Isaiah's ECE greets us and Anna shows him her new coat. I pile the kids back into the car and check their agendas before leaving the parking lot.

2:45 I get the kids a snack ready and we talk about their day. They're interested to hear I met with their principal and vice-principal today so I tell them about that. They play with their little sister for a bit as they decompress.

3:30 Noah practices his spelling words with me while the younger children play in the living room.

4:00 I dash up to get Patrick to help me put the now-very fussy baby in the Ergo (I don't like putting a baby in the back-carry position by myself). I suggest while I have a minute with Patrick that we watch "The Crown" together on Netflix tonight. I head back downstairs and Elijah almost instantly falls asleep, and then I start getting supper going: it's taco night. I chose this meal because it produces the most grateful response from my children, and some nights I make frugality a priority, other nights, pleasing the crowd is the first order of business.

4:30 I give the kids permission to turn on Netflix. I fire up a podcast for myself as I move about the kitchen: chopping, mixing taco spice, browning ground beef.

4:55 Isaiah asks if he can set the table for me. Yes, yes, my dear, always. Noah requests the phone to listen to an audio book until dinner is served. Patrick comes downstairs and plays with Elijah.

5:10 I call everyone to the table. Patrick assembles the kids' tacos while I nurse the baby. We chat about our day and then play a rousing game of "twenty questions" while eating. Various kids interrupt each other, scream for no reason or pester one another. Various kids are sent to the corner for a minute or two. Mostly it's a very pleasant meal, but no dinner goes without at least some of these antics.

5:35 Patrick gets the kids to tidy the living room while I straighten up the kitchen. They request I play the Rankin family on youtube while cleaning up, so I do.

6:10 We sit down for the family Rosary. The kids each state an intention to pray for and after that look at books on the couch during the first decade. For the rest, they leave the couch to play quietly in the living room while Patrick and I pray the rest of the Rosary. (I have a conviction that children need to see the example of prayer from their parents, more than to be expected to do it themselves.)

6:25 Patrick reads Anna her bedtime stories. I get Elijah changed into a new diaper and new jammies.

6:40 Patrick gets Anna into her jammies and she says goodnight to everyone she gets taken up to bed by Patrick. I cart Elijah up to bed.

7:00 I come back downstairs and the boys pick out their bedtime stories and bedtime snacks. I put on the kettle and I read to them by the wood stove: "Little Bear" and Mossflower. We get into a long and amusing debate about how old is Little Bear, anyway? He's old enough to cook in front of an open fire, but still young enough to take a nap after lunch; it doesn't make sense. The conversation leads Noah to choke on his juice because he's laughing too hard.

7:40 I take the boys upstairs to brush their teeth, I put fresh sheets on their beds while they get into their jammies, I tuck them in, say their night time blessing, and put on an audio book for them.

8:05 I throw a load of laundry into the dyer, put a new load into the washer. I head downstairs and say my prayers for a special intention.

8:20 I go and check email, reply to emails and check Facebook. Patrick comes downstairs and we turn on "The Crown."

9:04 He gently taps me and says "you're falling asleep. You should go to bed." So with that, I trudge off to bed.

And that... was my day.

When I read through it, I realize it's not a very "showy" list. I really didn't get a lot accomplished. I see that I spent a goodly amount of time with each of my children, and even spent some one-on-one time with Patrick (that is, until I fell asleep.), so that's something. Also, I think if I were to read this when I had one child, I would be impressed at how busy I was. Actually, I would have been exhausted thinking of maintaining this. Thankfully, I don't go to playgroups or meetings at the school every day. But everything else is pretty representative of my daily life.