I’ve been enjoying quite a few other bloggers posting these Day In The Life posts (SHU, Elisabeth, Jenny among others) so I thought I’d do one. Decided to do yesterday, and might do a weekday next week too.
5.30 am - wake up naturally, can hear O and Al are already awake snuggling on the lounge. I make coffee, and sit back in bed reading blog posts. O comes in at some point and I read him a book and chat about animals (his favourite topic!).
6.40 am - I put on comfy workout clothes, warm up a banana muffin I made a couple of days ago and eat it, get my planner and head out to my local coffee shop. I decide to walk instead of drive cos I’m part of the Cool Bloggers Walking Club.
On route.
7.10 am - Arrive at the coffee shop, order a mug of flat white, and spread out my planners on a big table (the cafe is quiet so this works). I update my planner with all my hard landscape items from my work calendar for May so I can see the whole month in detail. I also plan my Saturday.
Ready to plan.
7.50 am - walk home. The sun is out, the birds are singing, the air is fresh. Life is good. I don’t listen to anything but instead just notice my senses (a bit of mindfulness on my walk helps me start the day calm).
8.10 am - Home and E is up too, kids are making a puzzle. Al goes back to bed for a bit because he’s still a bit sick. E requests hot chocolate so I make for both kids, hang with them for a bit, then do roughly 1000 dishes that we hadn’t washed in the previous day because O and Al had been sick and I was juggling work. NO we do not currently have a dishwasher and it is TOUGH sometimes. I also put on a load of washing,
So. Many. Dishes.
9am - I decide I want a cooked breakfast, so I celebrate all dishes being clean by promptly making some dirty again. I fry up bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes and eggs. O has some of the bacon. The kids have Nutella toast and banana muffin with Nutella, because it’s a Saturday (they are not allowed Nutella on weekdays).
9.30 am - I go outside with the kids, and start pulling a few weeds which becomes cutting back overgrown bushes and finally morphs into hacking out a couple of shrubs I really dislike and block sunlight onto our back patio. O has a great time helping and playing in the dirt, E sits on a nearby chair and chats non-stop to me about SpongeBob SquarePants (her favourite show right now).
Destroyed shrub. Now I have to work out how to remove it so I can replant the garden bed.
10.30 am - Al leaves for work. We all come inside and clean off and I start to prep veggies to make chicken soup. With the boys being sick this week, and some uncooked chicken drumsticks in the fridge, this felt like a perfect option. I don’t have fresh herbs so I use dried instead, and leave out parsnips and celery. I had hoped for a chance to listen to a podcast, but E still wants to chat, so instead I play some 90s music and she sits up at the bench while I cut. It’s a slow process of course because the kids interrupt me every 37 seconds with requests. Apple juice, help find missing toy, help to use the potty etc etc.
11.50 am I get the soup on, and let the kids have some screen time, O on the TV, E on her tablet. I tidy their toy room (it’s been a few days). I move the laundry to the dryer.
That’s better!
12.15 am - The chicken is cooked, I pull it out and shred it, and discard the skin and bones. I put the chicken back and serve myself some for lunch. Yum. I offer to the kids but they want bananas and snacks instead. I text with friends and play Wordle while I eat my soup.
The finished product.
1pm - I turn off O’s TV, read him a story (Hairy Maclary) and make him lie down with me in my bedroom for quiet time. He’s not napping every day now because he’s dropping his nap, but he lies quietly there for half an hour. When it’s clear he’s not sleepy he gets back up, and I keep lying there for a bit, but also can’t sleep, so just rest.
1.45 pm - I get up, make a coffee, get my laptop and sit up in bed, working on my novel. I put some TV back on for O, and E sits next to me with her tablet, doing something creative while I write. Our cat St John also hangs out on the bed with us.
Keeping us company.
3pm - I shower and put on some nicer clothes, Al gets back from work, and we get the kids ready to go out. We head over to our friend’s birthday BBQ. It’s a lovely afternoon.
8pm- O is getting tired so I bring the kids home, Al stays for a bit longer as this is one of his close friends and everyone else is still socialising. We get ready for bed, I read to the kids (Hairy Maclary again and a page out of a beautifully illustrated book about extinct animals - E’s chiice) and we all fall asleep together by about 9. I was going to get back up to have some solo time but instead I fall asleep. Spoiler alert: Ill be awake by 4.45 the next morning!