Wednesday, February 1, 2012

A day in the life ... {Tuesday}

When I asked for suggestions about what readers would like to read about on this blog, Tiff said she was interested in what I do with the kids. I thought it might be helpful to write out a day in our life.
That became a tricky and daunting proposition because our days are so different but our weeks follow a general pattern. So I just started one morning (this morning) and will blog another day in our week at some later point.

So here's a typical Tuesday (or at least January 31, 2012)

7:18am Farm Girl yells for Daddy

7:20 Farm Girl demands oatmeal (all loud voices)

7:45 Ark Boy finds me in bed and wants to snuggle but returns to his bed after finding I'm using both pillows - one as usual and one over my head in an attempt to block out light and sound after two rough nights in a row

7:55 Ren Man starts reading to Farm Girl and Ark Boy finds his way to the reading spot too, I take dogs out and feed them (we realize after that Farm Girl randomly folded a corner on the book, Socks, and insisted that was where the Ren Man should start reading, then the children have no idea what's going on in the book - this might be an indication that I do not generally use bookmarks)

 

8:10 Farm Girl and Ren Man get ready and leave for Del's school (four mornings a week, 20 minutes away, for another 5 weeks). While there Ren Man will go to a bakery and do some reading for his dissertation

 

8:15 I'm in bed snuggling with Ark Boy with the whole morning stretched out before us.

 

8:53 still in bed, decide to watch a documentary about Pompeii

8:57 netflix not working. very disappointing

9:31 oh my! It's already 9:31 ... have spent all this time checking facebook, emailing, trying to figure out the netflix issue (can't figure it out) Ark Boy is begging to play a game on the computer and I should shower ...

9:39 discover IXL and start working with some of those

9:45 run out of free time on IXL and Ark Boy is asking that we google search "be guys fun game" as in he wants to play a fun game where he can be a character

9:47 Ark Boy starts on Fun Brain and I pull myself out of bed to take a shower

 

10:10 exit shower (I love the shower) and start laundry

10:15 think maybe we should have some breakfast

10:16 decide to work on blog and other internet stuff while Ark Boy is occupied with games

10:21 rinse sprouts we're growing for our hens

11:00 feeling in a groove - getting work done, having time for "myself" relatively speaking

11:30 lap top Ark Boy was using spontaneously shuts down. Explain that I think this means the computer is too tired and maybe he should get dressed, he thinks he might be ready for breakfast

11:37 eggs, jam, and bacon sandwich decided on for breakfast ... will work on convincing him this is brunch

11:45 bacon cooking, Ark Boy playing with legos

11:58 "breakfast" still cooking, Ren Man and Farm Girl arrive home

12:14 breakfast gone, Farm Girl ate a banana, Ren Man packing up to go to his parents to get some reading done

12:15 start another set of sprouts for the chickens

12:18 "Is it lunch time?!!?" - Ark Boy excited. After brief discussion, he decides to save his orange for later

12:37 Ren Man still here, decides to play one game of Heroica with Farm Girl and Ark Boy

1:13 Ren Man drains oats and finally puts his coat on to leave

1:22 start putting winter gear on kids - it's the first time this winter they've been out in the snow and they are excited (there hasn't really been that much snow this year yet), tell kids not to open door until I have my gear on so I can take the dogs out at the same time

1:23 Ark Boy opens door, Eden slips through, I scream Ark Boy's name

1:24 Call Ren Man and ask him to come back and help look for Eden

1:25 children outside enjoying snow, I'm feeling angry at Ark Boy, go track Eden up and down a hill through brambles with a dead trail and no dog in the end

11:35 decide Eden needs to find her own way back, I'm tired of running after her, among other things.

11:40 Ren Man arrives - he drove to Eden's usual spots but didn't see her, he starts following her trail where I let off

11:49 kids are done playing outside, Ren Man hasn't found Eden, we decide she'll come back or someone will call (she has a tag with our number on it), Ren Man goes back to his parents to read

11:59 Ren Man decided to go look for Eden one more time, drops traveling dog off before finally going to his parents

2:10 more laundry, kids playing in the toy room

2:12 Farm Girl says: "some of my friends have clean bedrooms. they pick up after they play so it's not messy" Hmmm. what a concept.

2:21 Eden barking like crazy, Farm Girl asking for time on the computer (which usually leads to my resentment - I have plenty to do on the computer without needing to share it with a 3 year old)

2:23 discover that UPS has left a package

2:33 package opened (canvas of Ark Boy that we've sadly decided not to hang until we move) and kids are watching Sesame Street videos on laptop

2:47 keep working on photography related stuff

2:55 remember that I emailed playgroup friends about ideas around my relationship with Farm Girl - go to check responses, feel much better

3:24 feeling hungry, go bring water/food to chickens and collect eggs

 

 

 

 

 

3:46 40 eggs, start them soaking. Realize most of day has been spent on computer - but it's productive and I haven't had a day like this in eons. Exit guilt. No seriously, go away guilt.

4:48 kids are filling in the numbers for February's calendar

5:02 Ren Man returns

5:19 Ren Man folds laundry and Farm Girl finishes an orange

5:42 Ren Man cooking dinner, kids playing in our bedroom

6:04 eating dinner - Ren Man calls it "drop egg soup" because he poached eggs in the soup - it's yum, and warm.

 

6:18 dinner is done

6:39 we're playing some game that involves various toy animals, dogs are laying out on either side of me, Ren Man is in the bedroom

7:19 kids playing in our bedroom with Ren Man - they are wrestling and pretending to be doggies

seven-three-zero announced by Farm Girl, Ren Man says it's time to get ready for bed

7:37 poured irish cream, rinsed sprouts, no one has brushed their teeth yet

8:17 after teeth brushing, pj's, and reading the kids are now having "looking time"

8:25 Farm Girl up to go potty

8:40 start dishes

9:24 okay seriously, stop procrastinating, start washing dishes

9:40 dishes done, taking dogs out and then climbing into bed




Whew! I don't know when I'll be up for another Day in the Life. I found myself glued to the computer - I think to detail every coming and going of our day. I did get SO MUCH computer based work done but also feel so blah from staring at a screen all day. Oh, and Netflix STILL isn't working. Grrr. Ren Man took the time (unlike me) to uninstall and reinstall the netflix program.
Tomorrow we're slated for our first dentist appointment. The kids are SUPER excited!


4 comments:

tom tiff mason and norah said...

wow- what a thorough day-diary. i think it's totally interesting to record an entire day. i'm completely doing this soon. and i'm glad that i'm not the only one whose day goes wake up- chaos, chaos, chaos, go to sleep. :)

LPPICK said...

Loved your blog-A Day in the Life! I know you lead a busy one. By the way my Amazon order for The Unlikely Lavender Queen arrived yesterday. I'm loving it.

Andria said...

Drop egg soup recipe please...

and thank you

Sarah said...

Tiff - THAT'S what I should have written: "wake up, chaos, chaos, chaos, go to sleep!" Haha, that's perfect.

LPPICK - Yay! I'm so glad you're liking Unlikely Lavender Queen. I really wanted to do a write up about it because I thought it was interesting that even with the author's tendency to claim she was independent and resented life decisions dictated only by her husband she made decisions on his whims over and over (moving to the south and essentially giving up her career, starting the lavender farm, giving up the lavender farm, etc) But don't we all do that, to an extent. Do men? I don't know. Just curious.

Andria - Drop Egg Soup Recipe (note: Ren Man flies by the seat of his pants when it comes to cooking)

Make Miso Soup with cabbage
Scoop out cabbage
break eggs one at a time in a ramekin
gently dumped each egg into simmering broth
Let eggs poach for 3 or 4 minutes
put cabbage into each serving bowl, add egg on top, ladle broth over everything.