Day in the Life

An old tradition at The Mrs blog was to keep track of our day in an effort to quench a voyeuristic thirst remember where the vanished hours go. Every once in a while I revisit the theme. Hence, this post...

April 1 2014

6:20 - alarm. Hit snooze. Turn lamp on low and stare at the ceiling.

6:25 - alarm. Hit snooze. Turn lamp on medium. Stare at ceiling more. Plan day.

6:30 - alarm. Shut off. Get out of bed.

6:30 - 7am - Change. Wash face. Brush hair. Brush teeth. Get dressed. Open bedroom curtains. Pick up dirty laundry in bedroom and master bath. Strip bed—time to put the duvet away and pull out summer quilt (nights are hovering around the freezing mark and we’re sleeping too hot). Bring all laundry downstairs.

7:05 - Feed cat. Because Minette. Turn on laptop.

7:06 - Start kettle for tea. Open Bean (word processor). Start this list.

7:10 - Sort laundry. Toss summer quilt in washer to freshen. Start bleach bucket for white napkin cloths. Decide it’s the opening day for the clothesline (high of 10c/50F, with 60% chance of showers in the afternoon—good a day as any. Worst case scenario I toss it all in the dryer anyway, right?).

7:15ish - Daycare kids get dropped off. Chat with client. Feed fish. Get back to laundry.

7:30 - Empty dishwasher. Prep teapot and pour in hot water. Make kids’ school lunches. Wrap every container, packaged granola bar, utensil, and even the banana in blue painter’s tape. Scrawl “Happy April Fools” in Sharpie on the sandwich container’s tape.

8am - Call four kids for breakfast (their choice: oatmeal in various flavours, cold cereal in various flavours, toast with various jams, waffles with/without syrup, fruit, or any combination of the previous as long as they eat what they take). Referee the insanity (my boys - if you’re going to fight over one particular spot at the table NEITHER ONE OF YOU WILL SIT THERE. There’s seven spots for four kids—plenty of choice—so no arguments!).

8:15 - Open laptop. Arrange playlist for new MP3 player (yes, we’re aware we’re behind the times, shhh, you!), load MP3s. Head to laundry room and flip laundry loads. Pour tea.

8:30 - Sit down and update this list on laptop. Eat my own breakfast—a waffle (I didn’t listen well to the orders, so there was an extra. Usually I have apple cinnamon oatmeal. I dislike waffles. I dislike food waste more).

8:30-8:45 - Check bank account (mortgage out? Check. Deposit arrive? Check.). Send email reminder of upcoming holidays to clients (JordanCon—woohoo!). Head to Lego Shop online to look up the new Mixels as per R’s request (good idea for our prize bucket for his Mathathon work).

8:45 - Realize that if I’m putting stuff on the line, I’d better put stuff on the line... move winter boots to back door and take wet sheets out and hang on line. Realize it’s twisted that I’m wearing winter boots to hang laundry (it’s 2c/36F already! YAY!), and also realize that snow makes for less clearance between line and ground. Hm.

8:55 - Tell kids to tidy up Lego. (Yesterday they began watching Darkwing Duck for the first time. Today they’ve opted for no TV and all Lego time, and they’ve got a spread of bricks to show it, too.)

9am - Haul single extra pair of splash pants out of closet for R (8 y/o), and spring coat for him. L (almost 7 y/o) gets snow pants and spring coat until Auntie J’s package of the splash pants we left at her place on the weekend arrives in the mail (oops).

9:05 - Tell kidlets to pack their lunches in their backpacks and get ready to bug out.

9:07 - Help kidlets get ready (L still hasn’t put lunch in his backpack—got waylaid by snowpants. And chatting). Send everyone who’s ready outside. Put on my own coat and boots, grab purse, water bottle, and gym bag and head out. Load kids into van.

9:13 - Fire up van. Everyone’s buckled, head to school.

9:17 - 9:38 - Unload kidlets, walk them to school yard. Send them off with high fives for a good day. Meet friend (hi, Becky!) with littles, buckle them into boosters and drive Becky and her two to her house. Gab for a few minutes, then head to Mr Lannis’ company gym.

9:40 - 10:45 - Park at gym (yes, it’s stupidly close to our house), swipe in, change into runners, hit treadmill for 30 minutes. Wipe down machine. Change out of runners. Chat with a woman in the locker room who is there via mandate, working out on company time (yes, really—there’s a whole group of them who’ve been shuffled after years of driving tow motors and they’re not used to being on their feet to work so the company is paying them to get fit. Seriously. And each one feels the need to explain this to me the first time they encounter me, since I’m the only person any of them have met who’s there on a spousal membership—I’m unsure if they assume Mr Lannis doesn’t hear of such company gossip or if they assume our marriage is conversationless... but yay for special, I guess?).  Head home to shower (again: stupidly close).

10:50 - 11:30 - Arrive home. Pull load of jeans from washer. Add new load. Hang jeans load on line (not holding my breath that they won’t need to be dryer tumbled later). Slip on ice (maybe there’s another reason other than COLD that people don’t hang laundry in April—but it’s 4c/39F, whee!). Change fish filter, and actually empty filter of sludge (instead of just switching cartridges). Find many scales (ew). Head upstairs and shower. Partially blow dry hair. Examine skin (a breakout NOW?! I fly out for JordanCon in ten days!). Open curtains and blinds in boys’ rooms, return to main floor.

11:30 - Remember I haven’t planned anything for dinner. Pull out slowcooker. Grab loaf of crusty bread and leftover turkey bits from freezer. Take bread from bag and wrap in tea towel to thaw on counter. Toss brick of turkey bits into slowcooker. Chop carrots and onion, add. Pour in 4c of water, a couple packets of chicken boullion, and two bay leaves. Tidy kitchen. Load dishwasher.

11:45 - noon - Start lower oven’s self-cleaning cycle (it was smoking yesterday when making dinner). Make salad for lunch (iceberg lettuce, baby spinach, shredded cheese, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, balsamic dressing, and leftover chicken fingers warmed in microwave). Pour tea. Set oven timer for 45 minutes (lunch break).

Noon - 1pm - Dick around on the internet while eating salad (including updating this list). Read this post by Mogatos in regards to her prophylactic mastectomy journey (poor girl’s had a rough go, but she’s still in the game. She’s got a fabulous blog about her trials, and one of the many reasons I find her take interesting is that she’s coming at it from an American standpoint—having to traverse the gamut of insurance companies to have her girls replaced thanks to her BRCA mutation. She’s even got a breakdown of cost that blows my government-healthcare-covered mind).

1pm - Flip laundry. Resign myself to only having 3 loads on the triple lines (considering the weather, I figure we’re good). Make more tea. Turn on radio. Putter and tidy kitchen. Open windows to help oven-cleaning fumes dissipate (it’s 5c/41F!). Water plants on top of cupboard (missed them the other day and then needed to wait for the water to have the chemicals evaporate off before using).

1:15 - 1:36 - Decide to clean out fridge. Get water ready. Tidy kitchen sink to make space to wash bins.

1:36 - Dance to Inner Ninja (heh).

1:40 - Scrub kitchen sink. Because ew.

1:40 - 3pm - Clean out fridge, then scrub sink again. Because ew.

3pm - Sit down for a snack. Go online before getting ready to get kidlets (4) from school.

3:12 - Rest time’s over. Oven timer went off (I set it to make sure I keep track of time). Time to get ready to get kids from school. Change into jeans and head out.

3:17 - 4:20 - Run into neighbour while walking to Becky’s. Chat. Meet Becky, walk to school. Wait for kids to get out, walk home. Check mail, walk home to find Mr Lannis is home.

4:20 - 5:40 - Take laundry off the line, toss in dryer to warm up. Change from jeans back into yoga pants. Wipe kitchen table. Unpack boys’ lunches. Add rice and can of corn to slowcooker and turn on high. Fold laundry. Go over a page of math with R (subtraction with regrouping). Have boys put their folded laundry away. Watch fish tank for a few minutes, looking for three cherry shrimp—a twisted version of Where’s Waldo. Go Google Cherry Shrimp, discover they’re big hiders (cool cool). Wash hands. Dish out six bowls of turkey stew to cool. Set timer for 5 minutes and cut bread for dinner.

5:40 - Timer goes off. Have kids all wash hands and sit down for dinner. Eat.

6pm - Have kids clear table and tidy toy area.

6:15 - Daycare kids are picked up. Chat with client.

6:30 - 7:45 - Go online. Check Facebook. Update this list. Go over R’s spelling words (14/15 on the first go!). Watch YouTube videos with the family. Help Mr Lannis tidy kitchen. Start grocery list. Chat with Mr Lannis.

7:45 - 8:15 - Head upstairs with clean bedding and laundry. Make bed. Put summer quilt on. Put laundry away. Wash face. Say goodnight to boys (Mr Lannis is overseeing the bedtime routine). Go back downstairs to find another basket of folded laundry. Decide it won’t bite anyone if left in the living room until tomorrow. Go online and dick around on the internet until Mr Lannis comes back downstairs.

8:15 - 9:10 - Chat with Mr Lannis while he readies his bednight snack. Watch an episode of The Following. Lock doors, turn off lights. Go upstairs.

9:10 - 9:30 - Brush teeth, change into PJs. Check to ensure alarm is set for tomorrow. Read two chapters of Maggie Stievfater’s The Dream Thieves.

9:30 - Lights out.