A couple of weeks ago I was reminded how thankful I am that I've recorded bits and pieces of our journey here in this little space. One of my favorite things is to go back several years and read about our days together, the days of raising toddlers, the days of little kids. My oldest two aren't so little anymore. Our days have changed drastically as they've grown up. It's been awhile since I took the time to write about a "day in the life" so that's what I'm going to do this week. I'm going to record the days in a week. Our days are very scheduled, and each day of the week is the same week after week. So here we go with Monday.
I used to really not like Mondays. But now I love Mondays. Monday is one of my favorite days of the week. This year Mondays are very long for me, the longest day of the week. But I love what it's full of.
5:00AM - My alarm clock went off. I'm not a morning person at all, and I don't like waking up early. But at this time in my life, I have no choice. The early morning is not my best time to study or be super productive so early Monday mornings start slow.
6:00AM - Woke the kids up to come downstairs for breakfast. This morning they had eggs (the bigs like theirs fried, but Ellie prefers hers scrambled) and mini pop-tarts. I don't do a whole lot of pre-packaged foods, and I don't like pop-tarts. But the kids do so these little mini packs are a good compromise, particularly when they have eggs, too.
While the kids are eating breakfast, I pack their snacks and drinks for the morning. After they eat, they head back upstairs to get dressed and ready for school, and I wash the breakfast dishes and clean the kitchen.
6:40AM - We loaded up and headed out the door to school.
7:30AM - The kids are dropped off, and I'm waiting in spot 1 at the big box store for my grocery pick-up. I do all of my meal planning on Sunday afternoons in between church times, and I go ahead and order my groceries on-line so I can be sure to snag the earliest pick-up time.
7:50AM - I don't get meat, dairy or produce at the big box store. Besides, I prefer to pick those items out myself. After grocery pick-up I go to Whole Foods or Trader Joe's depending on what I need. This morning it was Whole Foods. They don't open until 8:00 so I had to wait a few minutes.
9:00AM - After a quick stop at the post office, I'm back at home unloading groceries and starting laundry. I wash clothes everyday except Sunday.
9:15AM - The rest of my Monday mornings are spent getting ready for BSF Leaders' Meeting on Tuesdays and writing the lecture for class on Wednesday. Phone calls, emails, texts, leaders' meeting details. I finally dove back into writing the lecture around 10:15. Sometimes I've already started it, and sometimes I haven't. I actually started writing this one last night after church.
1:00PM - I finally get up from writing and start supper. Supper on Mondays has to be quick and easy. Those kinds of meals aren't my favorite. Cooking is very therapeutic for me. And my motto is, "The more ingredients, the better!" But that isn't realistic for my Mondays, Tuesdays or Thursdays during this school year. Tonight we're having chili so I got everything together for that and dumped it into the crockpot. I also folded the loads of laundry I'd washed and dried throughout the morning.
1:45PM - I sit back down to continue working on the lecture.
2:15PM - The kids are home and storming through the door. My mother-in-law picks them up on Mondays so that gives me the entire morning to prepare for BSF. I am so very thankful for this because it's the main reason I'm not up until after midnight on Monday nights! Usually they get back a little bit earlier, but they had to do some grocery shopping for MawMaw Mac today, and they helped unload and put away her groceries. She had a stroke last week, but she is back home now and doing really well.
2:30PM - I sit down at the table with Ellie to do her school work. She had math, grammar and spelling work today. She also reads aloud to me for awhile. A bright and sunshiney day inside calls for sunglasses while reading. Of course!
3:30PM - Ellie's school work is finished so I finish a few more chores and picking up around the house.
4:00PM - Back to the kitchen to finish supper. I love cornbread. Like LOVE. IT. I could eat some kind of soup and cornbread everyday. Or just cornbread is fine, too. I decided to try a new recipe tonight so it's a green chile pepper jack cornbread to go along with the chili. One of my most favorite parts of making cornbread is melting the Crisco in the cast iron skillet in the oven before pouring the cornbread mixture in. What . . . you, too?! Just kidding. I know. I'm weird. But it's just so . . . southern. Thanks to a little salad kit from Trader Joe's (have I mentioned how much I LOVE Trader Joe's?), we're also having a tahini pepita apricot slaw.
4:45PM - My main cleaning day is Fridays, but I didn't quite finish last week. Since I had some extra time, I decided to go ahead and just get it done instead of waiting for Friday to roll around again.
5:15PM - I fixed Hannah Kate's supper so she could eat before going to dance. Seth came in with the mail. You know what makes a good Monday even better? A sweet surprise from your bestie!
5:30PM - It's time to take Hannah Kate to dance. The interstate was closed in certain locations and traffic backed up because the Vice President was visiting so we had to take the long way around. I guess we should just be thankful there's a way around even though it's long.
6:16PM - Hannah Kate went in to dance, and I settled into my office, otherwise known as the middle row of my Tahoe, to finish writing the lecture and prepare the training materials for tomorrow's Leaders' Meeting. Every Monday I bring my laptop, commentaries, Bibles, notebooks, training manuals and anything else I need and spend the three hours that Hannah Kate is in dance working.
9:20PM - It's Dolly Dingkle week at dance so that means they unveiled the theme for the upcoming recital and the costumes for each dance. Hannah Kate got to see her costumes for her jazz and first ballet dances. I went in so I could see them, too, and then we headed home.
9:45PM - Finally home. Like I said, Mondays are long. And by the time I get home, I'm feeling it. I make sure all of the dishes are washed and the kitchen clean, prepare for tomorrow's breakfast and finish laundry if I didn't get to before dance. Tonight I had a few more things to take care of for tomorrow's training so I got that done, too.
And now it's 10:54PM . . . Not bad. Crawling into bed before 11PM on a Monday is rare for me.
I used to really not like Mondays. But now I love Mondays. Monday is one of my favorite days of the week. This year Mondays are very long for me, the longest day of the week. But I love what it's full of.
5:00AM - My alarm clock went off. I'm not a morning person at all, and I don't like waking up early. But at this time in my life, I have no choice. The early morning is not my best time to study or be super productive so early Monday mornings start slow.
6:00AM - Woke the kids up to come downstairs for breakfast. This morning they had eggs (the bigs like theirs fried, but Ellie prefers hers scrambled) and mini pop-tarts. I don't do a whole lot of pre-packaged foods, and I don't like pop-tarts. But the kids do so these little mini packs are a good compromise, particularly when they have eggs, too.
While the kids are eating breakfast, I pack their snacks and drinks for the morning. After they eat, they head back upstairs to get dressed and ready for school, and I wash the breakfast dishes and clean the kitchen.
6:40AM - We loaded up and headed out the door to school.
7:30AM - The kids are dropped off, and I'm waiting in spot 1 at the big box store for my grocery pick-up. I do all of my meal planning on Sunday afternoons in between church times, and I go ahead and order my groceries on-line so I can be sure to snag the earliest pick-up time.
7:50AM - I don't get meat, dairy or produce at the big box store. Besides, I prefer to pick those items out myself. After grocery pick-up I go to Whole Foods or Trader Joe's depending on what I need. This morning it was Whole Foods. They don't open until 8:00 so I had to wait a few minutes.
9:00AM - After a quick stop at the post office, I'm back at home unloading groceries and starting laundry. I wash clothes everyday except Sunday.
9:15AM - The rest of my Monday mornings are spent getting ready for BSF Leaders' Meeting on Tuesdays and writing the lecture for class on Wednesday. Phone calls, emails, texts, leaders' meeting details. I finally dove back into writing the lecture around 10:15. Sometimes I've already started it, and sometimes I haven't. I actually started writing this one last night after church.
1:00PM - I finally get up from writing and start supper. Supper on Mondays has to be quick and easy. Those kinds of meals aren't my favorite. Cooking is very therapeutic for me. And my motto is, "The more ingredients, the better!" But that isn't realistic for my Mondays, Tuesdays or Thursdays during this school year. Tonight we're having chili so I got everything together for that and dumped it into the crockpot. I also folded the loads of laundry I'd washed and dried throughout the morning.
1:45PM - I sit back down to continue working on the lecture.
2:15PM - The kids are home and storming through the door. My mother-in-law picks them up on Mondays so that gives me the entire morning to prepare for BSF. I am so very thankful for this because it's the main reason I'm not up until after midnight on Monday nights! Usually they get back a little bit earlier, but they had to do some grocery shopping for MawMaw Mac today, and they helped unload and put away her groceries. She had a stroke last week, but she is back home now and doing really well.
2:30PM - I sit down at the table with Ellie to do her school work. She had math, grammar and spelling work today. She also reads aloud to me for awhile. A bright and sunshiney day inside calls for sunglasses while reading. Of course!
3:30PM - Ellie's school work is finished so I finish a few more chores and picking up around the house.
4:00PM - Back to the kitchen to finish supper. I love cornbread. Like LOVE. IT. I could eat some kind of soup and cornbread everyday. Or just cornbread is fine, too. I decided to try a new recipe tonight so it's a green chile pepper jack cornbread to go along with the chili. One of my most favorite parts of making cornbread is melting the Crisco in the cast iron skillet in the oven before pouring the cornbread mixture in. What . . . you, too?! Just kidding. I know. I'm weird. But it's just so . . . southern. Thanks to a little salad kit from Trader Joe's (have I mentioned how much I LOVE Trader Joe's?), we're also having a tahini pepita apricot slaw.
4:45PM - My main cleaning day is Fridays, but I didn't quite finish last week. Since I had some extra time, I decided to go ahead and just get it done instead of waiting for Friday to roll around again.
5:15PM - I fixed Hannah Kate's supper so she could eat before going to dance. Seth came in with the mail. You know what makes a good Monday even better? A sweet surprise from your bestie!
5:30PM - It's time to take Hannah Kate to dance. The interstate was closed in certain locations and traffic backed up because the Vice President was visiting so we had to take the long way around. I guess we should just be thankful there's a way around even though it's long.
6:16PM - Hannah Kate went in to dance, and I settled into my office, otherwise known as the middle row of my Tahoe, to finish writing the lecture and prepare the training materials for tomorrow's Leaders' Meeting. Every Monday I bring my laptop, commentaries, Bibles, notebooks, training manuals and anything else I need and spend the three hours that Hannah Kate is in dance working.
9:20PM - It's Dolly Dingkle week at dance so that means they unveiled the theme for the upcoming recital and the costumes for each dance. Hannah Kate got to see her costumes for her jazz and first ballet dances. I went in so I could see them, too, and then we headed home.
9:45PM - Finally home. Like I said, Mondays are long. And by the time I get home, I'm feeling it. I make sure all of the dishes are washed and the kitchen clean, prepare for tomorrow's breakfast and finish laundry if I didn't get to before dance. Tonight I had a few more things to take care of for tomorrow's training so I got that done, too.
And now it's 10:54PM . . . Not bad. Crawling into bed before 11PM on a Monday is rare for me.