It has been almost four years since I've done a day-in-the-life post!! I was looking back on a past one the other day, and realizing how valuable it was for me to remember those tiny details, what kid behaviors are age-appropriate, what we were doing, etc. I'm inspired to try to revive the tradition here..... so, welcome to our day Wednesday, February 24, 2021.
5:15 AM I hear M's alarm go off-- I have been half awake for a few minutes, anyway. I find on school days my mind begins to make the subconscious to-do list around 5 and I begin to wake up without an alarm.
5:30 AM My alarm goes off. I roll over and grab my phone to quickly check the weather before I get out of bed, use the bathroom, and then begin to suit up in the appropriate outdoor gear for a run. I have it down to a science-- if the temperature is above 40, it's two layers; between 30 and 40 is three layers, and below 30 is four layers. This morning it’s 35... so, three layers it is.
6:15 AM I leave the house for a run with my friend. The sidewalks are quite icy despite the temperature being above freezing so we kind of walk/run, picking our way around frozen puddles. Still, it’s nice to get outside and chat with a friend... I haven’t seen her in a while. Our usual 6.5 ish miles takes us an hour and twenty minutes since we have to walk half of it.
7:50 AM I’m coming back in the door at home. M has started work (a remote school day for him) and the girls are just finishing breakfast and doing their morning dishes chores (two girls work together to unload the clean dishwasher, and Mom and two other girls load the dirty dishes, wipe the table, and hand wash). I put on a pot of coffee and do some quick stretches while it’s brewing.
8:10 AM I’m sitting down to my breakfast... my favorite oatmeal combo that I’ve mentioned here before so many times (oatmeal topped with liberal amounts of blueberries, peanut butter, flaxseed, and honey), and a steaming cup of coffee.
The warm food and drink is great as I’m feeling super chilled now that I’m not moving.
8:30 AM The girls are mostly dressed, except for J, who is our pokey little puppy in the mornings. She is fully capable of dressing herself but likes to tell us she still “needs help” and dawdles and stalls until some family member gives in and "helps". (She really just wants a companion at all times— that’s the truth of the matter!) Looking back on my last day-in-the-life post, I realize that C was doing the same thing at her age, and now C is of course fully independent and often the first one up and dressed. So although I have my grumpy days with J about this, I’m trying not to make a huge deal over it. I remind her to get dressed before I braid L's hair for her and get her started on some Khan Academy math assignments.
8:35 AM C has started working on a Night Zookeeper project, and N is about to start her Pre-Algebra assignment on Zoom with Grandpa. I remind J to get dressed (again), remind L to complete her unfinished breakfast job, and get in the shower.
9:00 AM I'm finished showering, so I get dressed, braid my hair, finish my grooming tasks. I head out to the kitchen to complete my own breakfast job, which is to load the dirty dishes into the dishwasher. I check the meal plan to remind myself what dinner is tonight, and take some refried beans out of the freezer that I'll use to make enchiladas later.
9:15 AM I interrupt L from her own work on Night Zookeeper to tell her that we have to go outside and trace her shadow with chalk before 9:30 for a science project we're doing that day. The allure of going outside and using chalk is enough to give J the motivation she needs to finally get dressed.
9:20 AM We head outside to trace L's shadow-- she's far more fascinated with the compass on my phone than with the process of tracing her shadow. She runs around the driveway, exclaiming, "I'm facing 37 degrees west!! I'm facing 2 degrees southeast!!" After the shadow tracing, she quickly heads back inside to continue her schoolwork. J wants a chance to trace a shadow so I let her trace mine.
She labels them carefully.
9:40 AM J is so into the idea of tracing shadows that she timidly knocks on M's door and asks if he will come outside so she can trace his. Like the great Dad he is, he takes a break from work and heads outside with her to get the job done.
It's shaping up to be a really beautiful day... the warmest we have had in a while!
9:55 AM I tell L it's time to begin her viola lesson so she comes to a stopping point in her schoolwork and we begin. Before long I have a friend on my lap while I'm giving her lesson.
That's gum in her mouth... she had to have a piece since I was having one.
My little lap friend decides she wants to get her violin out and play with us, so she does, and also asks to borrow my phone to take this picture of her instrument:
We finish L's lesson by playing a song all together.
10:45 AM It's time for me to start packing our lunch, which we eat in the car on the way to dance class on Wednesdays. I put together a ham and cheese bagel sandwich for L, and bagels with cream cheese for the rest of the girls. I throw some grapes, oranges, and
date balls in the bag as well. I pack a green salad with some turkey for myself.
11:20 AM After lunch and water bottles are packed, my laptop is in my bag, and all of the tap and ballet shoes are in the girls' bag and ready to go, we head out and get in the car. C helps L trace a quick lunch-time shadow with chalk before we leave.
11:45 AM We arrive at dance class and the older three girls go in for their ballet class. I make a mobile order through my Starbucks app and J and I head there to pick it up. Then we drive back and park in the parking lot of the dance studio. J insists on having "just one sip" of my coffee, as usual. She LOVES coffee and has been
stealing sips of mine ever since she was a baby.
Our ritual on Wednesdays is that she climbs up to the front seat while we're parked and waiting for her sisters to finish class.
12:15 PM Our other Wednesday tradition is that J does a FaceTime with someone while Mama is eating lunch. Usually it's Grandma and Grandpa but today she decides to call her Aunt Beth and wish her a happy birthday. So she chit chats with Aunt Beth while I scarf down my salad.
12:25 PM I quickly do J's hair in pigtails and then we head in to the dance studio for the tap class that all four girls do together.
As we walk in she says "I'm looking at the aquarium in my water bottle, Mom."
12:30 PM We arrive in the dance room to a surprise... recital costumes have arrived!!
J got to try her ballet costume on, too (she does a Monday class on Zoom with other girls her age).
After the costumes have been revealed I head back out to the car as the girls change out of their costumes and start their tap class.
12:40 PM Blogging time! I publish last Wednesday's post and begin work on this one, sipping my coffee while I work and enjoying my few moments of silence.
1:15 PM Class is over, so I head in to gather up the girls and their various costumes. We pile back into the car and head home.
1:45 PM We arrive home, unpack all of our lunch bags and have just enough time to use the bathroom and change out of dance clothes, then it's...
2:05 PM ...off to the dentist for cleanings for all four girls.
2:20 PM We arrive at the dentist and follow the COVID protocols, calling from the car before we go in. We have to wait a few minutes in the car for the waiting room to clear out, then they give us permission to enter. They take our temperatures and the girls all go in at the same time while I wait in the waiting room.
3:15 PM Everyone is finished with their cleanings and have gotten their balloons (all patients at our pediatric dentist get a balloon every visit!) except for N, who politely declines (too old for such things these days).
3:30 PM On the way home, because all four girls have been instructed to be better about flossing, we stop at Ocean State Job Lot to pick up more flossers, as well as a couple of other things we're out of.
3:45 PM We are home. I give N and C a few final instructions on their last school assignments of the day, ask L to do a final shadow tracing and then take measurements of the various shadow lengths, then start making dinner. We're having enchiladas-- a little helper comes in to lend assistance.
I get interrupted more than a few times by questions from the girls doing school assignments, and my helper's "help" also slows me down a little, so dinner takes a bit longer to come together than I had hoped. M, having finished work, swoops in to help C finish her science assignment.
5:45 PM Dinner is about to be ready so I tell the girls to clean up the living room and clear the table of their school books.
5:55 PM Dinner is ready, but the girls want to show Dad their recital costumes, so they do a quick try-on and do their dance for him. I'm weak with hunger so I grab my enchilada to eat while they're dancing. When they finish they change out of their costumes and come join me. We finish eating together.
6:30 PM We finish eating and begin the dinner chores. M and I are on the chore chart for loading the dishwasher and hand wash, so the girls just have to clear their spots and then they watch a short show on TV while we clean up.
7:00 PM PJ time for all! I read a few short books to J (the big girls are all engrossed in their own chapter books right now... Little Women for N, the Wings of Fire series for L, and Land of Stories for C). I put some medicine on a little wart that has been bothering J's foot, and then set up my Google Meet links for all my lessons the next day while J joins the other girls in reading to herself for a while.
8:00 PM Lights out for C, J, and L. N reads in the living room for a while since she has a later bedtime.
8:15 PM I fix myself a snack and pour a little cocktail... it's already been a very busy week and M and I have decided we will have a relaxing time together tonight!
8:45 PM M and I start an episode of Poldark (he finally agreed to watch it with me!!!! hooray!!!!) and enjoy our drinks and snacks.
9:00 PM We kiss N goodnight and she heads into bed.
10:00 PM M and I have finished our episode and get ready for bed. I check a few things on my phone before turning out my light around 10:30!
THE END :)
If you would like to catch up on past editions of ADIOCL, here ya go:
Volume X: N is 8.5, L is 7, C is 5, J is 21 months
Volume IX: N is 8, L is 6.5, C is 4.5, and J is 14 months old
Volume VIII: N is 7.5, L is 6, C is 4, and J is 9 months old
Volume VI: N is 6.5, L is 4.5, C is 3, and J is in utero
Volume V: N is 6, L is 4, C is 2.5
Volume IV: N is 5.5, L is 3.5, and C is 2
Volume III: N is 5, L is 3, and C is 21 months
Volume II: N is 4.5, L is 2.5, and C is 14 months
Volume I: N is 4, L is 2, and C is 9 months
Comments
Post a Comment