I wanted to try to document a sampling of my entire year this year, so for February, I documented a Monday! Of course I forgot I was documenting it when I first woke up, so it took me a minute to get into the swing of things, but I figured it out.
Date: Monday, February 3, 2020
Ryan: 40 years old. Bekah: 41 years old. Braeya: 13 years old.
Weather: High of 57 - Partly Sunny. Feels like a taste of March or April.
Midnight - 6:00 a.m.
* I sleep really well - too well, actually. I have vivid dreams that are so weird, which has become the norm for me. I ignore my alarm way too long and finally get up - several minutes after I should. Ryan isn't feeling well (came down with a sore throat on Sunday) so even though he's totally a morning person, he says he's going to sleep a little longer, and I let him rest. I get some ice water, but the coffee hasn't run yet, so no caffeine for me. I settle on the couch to journal, read my Bible, pray, and check the blog, and Braeya curls up next to me. Today I'm finishing Psalm 18. It's a longer one, so I've been slowly moving through it over the last three days.
6:00 a.m. - noon.
* Ryan gets up at last, and Braeya abandons me in favor of him. He starts the coffee, and I listen to it drip while I finish journaling and praying. While he showers, I scurry around to pack my lunch. Most of the work is done already, because after lunch on Sunday, we packed the fajita leftovers into individual servings for today. I add a Clif bar for an afternoon snack, two energy balls for dessert, and a serving of yogurt with honey and granola for breakfast. There won't be time to eat breakfast at home this morning since I hit snooze so many times. I remember to add silverware to my lunch bag - something I am known to forget, fill up my water tumbler, and zip everything into place before putting the lunch bag by the door.
* Ryan makes the bed and carts all his stuff to the guest bathroom to get ready. (That double sink we didn't get when we purchased this house has finally reared its ugly head now that we get ready at the same time.) I pull some ground turkey out of the freezer to thaw throughout the morning and toss a load of clothes into the washer. Then it's time for me to get ready, which requires figuring out what I want to wear - and praying that third day hair won't backfire on me. I land on a hand-me-down shirt my sister gave me for my new working-world days and a pair of jeans. (Three cheers for a job where I can wear jeans since I own exactly three pair of pants right now - jeans, black, and khaki.) I assemble myself while jamming to the Gaithers, as I sense a bit of a grumpy mood coming on and I want to squelch it. While I finish getting ready, Ryan takes some medicine and sits down to read his Bible and pray. Then it's time to pack my work bag with all the things I'll need for the day (day planner, laptop, etc.) and suit up in shoes and a coat!
* We load into the car with both our armloads of work luggage (not kidding) and coffee (really not kidding) and head out to work. I drop off Ryan and continue to my work. We have a STUNNING sunrise - the first one for several days - or has it been weeks, now? I appreciate it all the way to work while I sing duets with David Phelps and look in all the usual hiding spots for deer sightings. Sigh. None today. I get to work and gear up for a busy Monday morning!
* In my current job, Monday mornings mean checking voicemails that have come in over the weekend, updating the phone message for the on-call pastor for the week, updating the prayer request sheet for the pastoral staff, clearing out my email and responding to messages that came in over the weekend, and running a variety of errands around the church to clean up forms, bulletins, and messages left around the church. The morning is extra crazy busy with people stopping in the office. Today brings people wanting to rent the facility for events, scrambling to prepare for a funeral later in the week, and going over details for a HUGE upcoming event. I put a few things in the mail, sort through my gaggle of post-it note reminders, and work on a project for our visitation coordinator. Somewhere around 10:00, after writing a prayer request for someone with "lunch cancer," I realize I might be in need of that breakfast after all. I pull out the yogurt, add the granola, and eat in between phone calls and visitors. I wrestle with the printer and ALMOST successfully clear all the jam areas by myself.
* Ryan sends texts between patients as he's able. He says he's feeling about the same as he was in the morning but promises he will be fine by the end of the day. (I'm not sure how a person can know that, but he insists.) I check in now and then to let him know I'm doing well.
Noon-6:00 pm.
* Lunchtime arrives, which means it's time for a BATHROOM BREAK!!! I also run a few errands around the church, since I can be away from my desk for a few minutes. I warm up my leftovers and scarf down lunch while I wait to hear from Ryan. He texts when he gets home for his lunch and I call to talk to him. We miss seeing each other at lunch, but it helps to be able to talk on the phone. While I talk to him, I walk laps around the church so I can help my step quota for the day. (Sitting behind a desk all day wreaks havoc on step counts.)
* When lunch is over, I meet with some women dropping off items for the big upcoming event, and then I return to my desk to make more coffee and clean off all the piles that have somehow accumulated during the morning. The afternoon is filled with answering the phone, sending emails, updating calendars, receiving guests, and trying to keep track of everything I need to remember for the day. (Easier said than done.) I may or may not sneak a chocolate chip cookie from the break room to get me through the afternoon. But only one. The work day draws to a close, so I tidy up my desk, turn off everything and hop in the car to head home. It's an easy commute today. All green lights and no crazy drivers.
* On the way home, I stop to visit Ryan at work and talk with his co-workers for a while. I used to visit him at work often, so I miss seeing all his co-workers. He's finishing up his notes for the day, and when he's done, we head home. Braeya is "dehydrated" (aka thirsty because she's refused to drink from her water bowl all day), so I turn on the sink for her to drink some water while I transfer clothes from the washer to the dryer. I hang the ones that can't go through the dryer. We have leftover wings (buffalo for Ryan and honey BBQ for me) from dinner Sunday night, so I warm those up for us to eat. We hunker down on the couch to eat and watch last week's DVR'd episode of Dateline. We have little ice cream bowls and coffee for dessert, and then our evening officially begins.
6:00 p.m.-Midnight
* Ryan says he feels better than he did earlier in the day, but he's still tired, so he curls up on the couch to rest and watch bad acting documentaries on the ID channel. I catch up on some emails and read over the talk Ryan and I are giving this coming weekend at a Valentine banquet. In the middle of all that, the dryer finishes, so I pause to put the clothes away before they wrinkle. While I'm doing sit-down work, I charge my Fitbit, because I completely spaced doing that at work today.
* I write the blog for Tuesday and take a few minutes to read through the blog roll for today since I didn't get up early enough to do that this morning! I want to just sit and scroll, but it's time to cook. I make a Bolognese sauce to cook in the slow cooker all night so we can have it for lunch the next day. Though I beg him to keep resting, Ryan refuses and gets up to put away dishes and clean up the kitchen while I cook. I get everything in the slow cooker and time it to be done cooking right around the time we get up in the morning.
* Because I wasn't home over the weekend to do so, I change the perpetual calendar to reflect a new month, print out my January journal entries to archive in hard copy form, and back up some files. When I finish those projects, I do my pathetically short workout. (In January I did a progressively lengthening workout and loved how it worked for me, so I started over with a different version in February. Right now my workouts are super short!) Then I check out the YouTube channel of some full time travelers that Abagail (whose job I'm filling right now) told me about. They have 710 videos, and of course, I had to start with #1. :) This could take a while.
* One of Ryan's co-workers loaned me her combination hair dryer/volumizing brush, and I wanted to give it a second try before sending it back to her, so I take a shower before bed so I can work through the hair situation when I'm not rushing against a morning time clock. While my hair marinates in the towel, Ryan and I do a run-through of our banquet talk. I'm hungry, so I have a little mug of cereal - one of my favorite evening snacks. After I feel like enough time has passed, I head into the bathroom for the hair-drying festival. It takes a while to work the brush through my crazy thick hair, but I'm hopeful that it will buy me a few days of full-volume hair!
* At long last, we declare the day done. I've squeaked by with just over 10,000 steps and very near to my daily goal of 80-90 ounces of water consumption. Ryan fills up the diffuser and humidifier and we head to bed for a few hours of sleep before we start all over again!
* I write the blog for Tuesday and take a few minutes to read through the blog roll for today since I didn't get up early enough to do that this morning! I want to just sit and scroll, but it's time to cook. I make a Bolognese sauce to cook in the slow cooker all night so we can have it for lunch the next day. Though I beg him to keep resting, Ryan refuses and gets up to put away dishes and clean up the kitchen while I cook. I get everything in the slow cooker and time it to be done cooking right around the time we get up in the morning.
* Because I wasn't home over the weekend to do so, I change the perpetual calendar to reflect a new month, print out my January journal entries to archive in hard copy form, and back up some files. When I finish those projects, I do my pathetically short workout. (In January I did a progressively lengthening workout and loved how it worked for me, so I started over with a different version in February. Right now my workouts are super short!) Then I check out the YouTube channel of some full time travelers that Abagail (whose job I'm filling right now) told me about. They have 710 videos, and of course, I had to start with #1. :) This could take a while.
* One of Ryan's co-workers loaned me her combination hair dryer/volumizing brush, and I wanted to give it a second try before sending it back to her, so I take a shower before bed so I can work through the hair situation when I'm not rushing against a morning time clock. While my hair marinates in the towel, Ryan and I do a run-through of our banquet talk. I'm hungry, so I have a little mug of cereal - one of my favorite evening snacks. After I feel like enough time has passed, I head into the bathroom for the hair-drying festival. It takes a while to work the brush through my crazy thick hair, but I'm hopeful that it will buy me a few days of full-volume hair!
* At long last, we declare the day done. I've squeaked by with just over 10,000 steps and very near to my daily goal of 80-90 ounces of water consumption. Ryan fills up the diffuser and humidifier and we head to bed for a few hours of sleep before we start all over again!
7 comments:
Do you seriously only sleep from midnight to 6, or am I reading it wrong? There is no way I could be a functional human being with only 6 hours of sleep!!
In response to Julie - Add me to the list of people who only sleep from Midnight or 1am to 6am.
Ohmygosh I love these DITL posts soooooo much! If all bloggers posted these every day, I would never, ever get tired of them. Even the most mundane tasks, laundry, dishes, interest me, but you and Ryan do so many fun and interesting things in addition to the mundane tasks.
Where did Braeya get her name? She is such a beautiful cat. LOLing at her pitiful dehydration when you got home from work. #ILoveBraeya
Mmmm fajita leftovers and bolognese sound delicious.
I always wondered why couples on house hunting shows get so excited over double sinks. Never thought about the getting ready at the same time thing. Now I'm thinking double sinks would also be good for roommate situations. I remember what a pain it was having to get up EXTRA early so I could get ready for work in time for my roommate to then get ready to go to her work. I voluntarily took the early bathroom shift because I can be done in 20 minutes whereas she needs an hour to shower and another hour for makeup and hair.
But yes, double sinks should be a standard of all new construction.
That's great that you are aware when a grumpy mood is creeping in and have ways to stop it in its tracks.
Oh dear...lunch cancer...sorry to laugh...only laughing at you, not the individual who has it. I pray all the prayers work for him or her.
No office worker can be expected to resist at least one chocolate chip cookie. I'm sure you burned those calories right off wrestling with the printer.
Wow...a husband that insists on getting up to help in the kitchen even when he's not feeling well. We need to clone him ASAP. Hope he's feeling much better today!
Your blog made me very, very tired but it also brought back memories of the ladies who were the church secretaries in the church of my childhood. What wonderful ladies they were and they were sisters!! They were able to do anything, fix anything, pray and sympathize with all who passed through the doors AND often gave their lunches to someone who came in who had not eaten for a long time...so much of your day reminded be of them and I feel you are walking in their footsteps. Hugs, Lois
Have you considered a pet fountain for Braeya? We purchased one when our kitty arrived, and the dogs love it, too. Everyone drinks more water than they did in the pre-fountain days. Otherwise, your day makes me feel exhausted!
YES!! Your day sounds SO exhausting, but it also inspires me to keep moving and accomplishing things. Fun to read about your day! Hope Ryan is feeling much better!
Julie - I used to do these posts hour by hour and decided I didn't need to be quite that specific about my habits. LOL! So now I post in 6 hour spans. Having said that, we do typically only get 5-6 hours of sleep per night. But when we were first married, it was more like 4, so this feels like a treat! (Back then we often went to bed at midnight or 12:30 and got up at 4:30 to do our commutes.)
Jinjer - Well thanks! I love DITL posts too! Not many people seem to do them anymore, but I like them. I'll have to do a whole post on Braeya for you - because I needed an idea for tomorrow anyway! Thank you! :) We've never had double sinks in any house we've had, but Ryan had that super high on his wish list for our current house - so we could talk while we got ready. Alas, that was one of the compromises we had to make, so now we have to divide and conquer! And yes - Ryan needs to be cloned. ;)
Lois - I have ALWAYS said that's the most important job in any business. Anyone else can call in sick and life goes on. That job calls in and the whole place shuts down!!! (I remember from when Lynette would call in!)
Karen - We haven't gotten her a fountain only because Ryan had one for a pre-Bekah cat and he said it always got gunk in it and he hated cleaning it out. I have a feeling even if we had one, she'd STILL insist upon the sink. At our old house it was the tub. (sigh.)
What a busy day!! Love seeing a peek behind the scenes.
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