Monday

My friend Erin did a little exercise on her blog where she chronicled her life for seven days. I don’t think I have that stamina, but I loved reading them. It reminded me too of this series about juggling life and motherhood that A Cup of Jo did a while ago. It’s just so interesting to see how people spend their days, isn’t it? (Or am I weird?).

Anyway, here’s what Monday looked like a couple of weeks ago:

6:30 a.m. Hear Bart get up to go running. Promptly go back to sleep.

7:40 a.m. Wake up to hear Bart home and Ella running in to see me. She immediately wants breakfast, but Bart distracts her for five minutes by asking her to do push-ups with him (it is SO cute to watch her try to do them) so I can check my email and glance at Google Reader on my phone.

7:45 – 8:15 a.m. Ella and I read a few books on the couch while Bart finishes his push-ups and sit-ups, then I feed Ella two bowls of yogurt, a clementine (which she insists on peeling herself), and half a banana muffin.

8:30 – 9:00 a.m. I get dressed in my running clothes, take Ella outside to strap her into the running stroller, go about fifty feet and realize that one of the tires is completely flat. Bart filled them up for me the night before, but this tire is missing its cover where you pump it up (what is that thing called?) and after spending ten minutes trying to pump it up, I give up, and Ella and I go back upstairs. I try not to be really annoyed.

9:00 – 9:15 a.m. Ella and I sort the laundry, strip the bed, and start the first load of wash. I cross my fingers that the mysterious stain on Bart’s dress shirt sleeve comes out (spoiler: it does).

9:15 – 9:45 a.m. Inspired by Bringing Up Bebe and its focus on independent children, I inform Ella that I will be taking a shower and her job is to play in her room with her toys. To my astonishment, she does, popping back into the bathroom a few times to have me wipe her nose, but overall, she entertains herself while I shower, dress, and put on my makeup.

9:45 – 10:45 a.m. We keep the laundry going, I import A Good American onto my computer, and we play two games of Memory and one game of Bingo.

10:45 a.m. – 12:20 p.m. Ella goes down for a nap, and I dash around like a crazy person, finishing up my hair which is finally dry, cleaning up the house a little, putting some chickpeas on the stove to cook, reading my scriptures, checking my email and Pinterest, putting away the first load of laundry and remaking our bed while listening to Wildwood Chronicles, and reading a few more pages of Bringing Up Bebe.

12:20 – 1:30 p.m. Bart comes home for lunch and Ella wakes up minutes later. I make this chickpea salad for lunch, and then we have some apples and peanut butter to finish it off. Bart does the dishes, I get Ella dressed, and we head outside so that Bart can try again to pump up the tire (I steal the little air cap from my bike). We go for a 20 minute walk since it is beautiful outside and Ella is entranced by the stray cat we see sitting under a tree.

1:30 – 2:30 p.m. I pack up my purse and print off a few coupons and Ella and I head to Target. I stop to get the mail on our way out, only to remember it’s President’s Day. No mail. We pick up diapers, two bags of candy bars (they are on Valentine’s Day clearance and I have a large coupon), and some new hairclips for Ella. She can’t wait until we pay for them to have me put one in her hair, but when we check out, she insists on pulling it out of her hair and handing it to the cashier. We put our purchases in the trunk and walk to Michaels, where I look at some cellophane, but decide it’s too expensive. We head home.

2:30 – 3:15 p.m. The moment we get in the house, Ella starts begging for a piece of candy. How she knows it’s candy, I have no idea, since the boxes don’t have pictures of candy. But she knows. We put away the diapers and then I let her pick one candy (she picks a mini-Twix). We sit down at her little table in her room to eat it, but when I unwrap it, she realizes she NEEDS a plate and runs to the kitchen to retrieve one. Once she’s settled she eats it carefully in five bites, asking occasionally for me to wipe off her hands and face. Afterward, I’m ready for MY snack, so we go into the kitchen and pop some popcorn. I burn the first batch a bit, but we still eat it. When it’s gone, Ella asks for “Mo, mo” and I make a second, much better batch, which we also finish. I load up a few dishes, and then Ella starts asking for “Nigh-nigh.” Two short books and a sip of cocoa later, and she’s in bed.

3:15 – 4:00 p.m. Ella never appears to fall asleep; I hear her mumbling occasionally in there, but she never cries. I put away another load of laundry, start the dishwasher, and read some blogs. I transfer A Good American to my phone and then go get Ella out of bed. 

4:00 – 4:15 p.m. Ella and I read a Curious George Puzzle book about 4 times (she loves it and I like the concept, but the pieces are hard to get in and out without adult help). I’m surprised to see she can correctly identify several shapes.

4:15 – 5:05 p.m. I change into my running clothes again and we go outside. This time, mercifully, the tire is still full. I run two miles, listening to A Good American, while Ella watches the cars passing and occasionally exclaims over a bird. By the time we get home, she is anxious to get out of the stroller. We go upstairs and I do a few situps, etc (Ella hilariously copying me), and I get dressed back in my regular clothing.

5:05 – 6:05 p.m. Ella and I go for a little walk to a nearby park with two of my friends from the apartments and their little boys (both much younger than Ella). All three babies swing on the swings for quite a long time and then we make our slow way back (slow because of Ella who insists on walking nearly the whole way). By the time we get home, she is getting quite grumpy. We talk about Downton Abbey and Bringing Up Bebe and places we want to eat in Austin.

6:05 – 7:05 p.m. I heat up some leftover chicken pot pie and Ella and I have dinner. Afterward, we read The Busy Tree three times straight through. I convince her to come help me put away her clean clothes and she looks at some books while I do so. We read The Busy Tree twice more and then unload the dishwasher. Jammies for Ella, scriptures, prayer, a last few glugs of cocoa and then toothbrushing. We snuggle in her chair and read, you guessed it, The Busy Tree one more time, plus Counting Kisses, then one song and into bed.

7:05 – 10:00 p.m. I immediately switch my contacts for glasses, and then start making some roasted tomato and pesto soup for tomorrow’s lunch (the tomatoes I bought last week are starting to be dangerously soft and I don’t want them going to waste). In between steps, I plow through my email, download a new audiobook, make a phone call, put away a stray towel that had stayed in the dryer, and catch up on blogs, Twitter and Pinterest. When I’m cooking, I listen to A Good American. When the soup is finished, I put it away in the fridge and do the dishes. I work on this post and a couple of others.

10:00 – 11:00 p.m. I get ready for bed and read for a bit until Bart gets home (yes, this is a really late night for him, courtesy of busy season), and we talk a little while he gets ready for bed.

11:00 p.m. Goodnight.

(P.S. If you’ve done a day in the life post, share the link – I’d love to read about YOUR regular life).