Day in the Life: June 2020

Throughout 2020, I'm doing a series of day-in-the-life posts, looking at each day of the week. For June, I'm looking at a Friday!

Date: Friday, June 5, 2020
Ryan is 41 years old, Bekah is 42 years old, and Braeya is 14 years old.
(I've had a birthday since the last DITL documentation, so Ryan and I are no longer the same age.)

Weather: High of 89, partly cloudy with a stray shower or thunderstorm possible. 

* Special note: We are currently in stage 3 of reopening in Indiana after the Coronavirus quarantine. This means we're encouraged to still work at home if we can. Face masks are recommended, and we're encouraged to continue practicing social distancing. We can have up to 100 people at a social gathering, and all travel bans are lifted. Ryan has one more week of work on his proning team assignment, and I am still working for our church - but back in the office once again. 

Midnight-6:00 a.m.

I fall asleep sometime after midnight and sleep very well until the alarm starts going off. I have yet to work a full week in the office since going back after quarantine. This has been a four day week for me because we were on our last day of our birthday getaway Monday. I still don't feel back in the routine of getting up and ready so early. I hit snooze for a while and finally get up.

I put 20 ounces of water in my tumbler and start hydrating while the coffee pot fills up. I hunker down on the couch and do a little journaling before opening my Bible. In my quest to read through Psalms this year, I've made it to the second half of Psalm 90. I open to that and get out my Exploring Psalms commentary to go along with my reading for the day.

Ryan gets up, makes the bed, and brings me a cup of coffee and then heads into the bathroom to get ready for the day.

6:00 a.m.-noon. 

After I finish my time in Psalms, I move on to my next devo, which is another Daily Grace Company book. This one is called Faithful and is a study of all the covenants in Scripture. My reading for today is a reflection and summary of what I've learned over the last five days' worth of study.

Ryan heads out to water our flowers. This used to be my job when I worked from home (in previous summers) but he's taken it over now. His hair takes less time to do than mine, so he has more time in the morning. It's trash day, so while he's out there, he rolls the can to the curb. He puts his lunch in his work bag, pours his coffee for the road and prepares to leave for his day at the hospital.

I showered and washed my hair last night to save time this morning. I plug in the old flat iron so it can heat up while I say goodbye to Ryan.

It's supposed to be hot and sticky today, and the temperature in the church office is always a gamble. I'd ALWAYS rather be cold than hot, so I choose a pink casual sundress for work. It's the closest thing to jammies I can find that is work appropriate. :) Ryan calls to say he's coming back home to get Calamine lotion. He can't tell if he has a tiny bit of poison ivy, but if he does, he'll be a full-body itching mess in no time, so he wants to be prepared with treatment in case he needs it. I grab the bottle from the medicine cabinet and meet him at the front door so he can get back on the road.

I straighten my hair, which turns out surprisingly well considering I didn't straighten it after washing it last night. (I know better, but I didn't want to stay up later.) I get really shaky while getting ready - a sure sign I need some protein, so I grab a little trail mix left from our hiking weekend and eat that while I work. I feel better pretty quickly. I throw on some makeup and earrings - and Ryan texts to say he forgot to pack his breakfast cookie. I have a little extra time and his work isn't far from mine, so I let him know I'll drop it off on my way to work. I pack my own breakfast, lunch, and snacks, and get my work coffee and water tumbler ready to go.

Before I head out the door, I start the dishwasher, get the house all ready for Braeya's day-of-fun (whatever that means...secret life of pets, right?) and load my work luggage in the car. The drive to work is sunny and easy, and I call Ryan as I turn into the hospital parking lot to let him know I'm on the property so he can meet me at the door. He picks up his breakfast, and I drive on to work.

I'm the first one to arrive, and today I'm actually filling in for Abagail - which means I'll be doing the same job I did as a temp worker at the first part of the year. I haven't sat at this desk in almost three months! I have no idea if I'll remember anything about how her job works, but I put away my lunch, get out my water, coffee, hand sanitizer, and Thieves spray, and settle in to work. I'm not expecting too many staff members in today (many have Friday as their day off) so I crank the radio to keep myself company.

A couple of people arrive and we catch up on life while I eat my own breakfast cookie. (My new office is in a different area of the church from where I sat in my temp job, so I haven't gotten to hang out with these co-workers for a while, even though we've been in the same building.)

The morning is mostly about answering the phone and letting people in the building when they stop by. It's not too crazy of a day, which is perfect for a Friday.

Ryan texts mid-morning to send a picture with one of his proning team members. He and the team are able to step outside to get some sunshine before going back in to work. Ryan's lucky he doesn't have to worry about humid hair! He says it's a good day at the hospital. He really enjoys his team, and I'm grateful this has been such a good experience!

The second half of the morning seems to go much more slowly than the first. I've forgotten what it's like to sit in one area without getting to move around! The last ten minutes are always the longest, right? I may or may not send countdown texts to Ryan. (I take my lunch more seriously than anyone I have ever met.)

Noon-6:00 p.m.

When the clock strikes twelve, I head to the church kitchen for lunch. Today Ryan and I are both having leftover Dashing Dish slow cooker fajitas. Because one of the staff pastors and I talked at length about breakfast foods, I'm extra hungry, so eating doesn't take too long! Ryan calls just as I'm finishing up and we talk for the rest of our lunch hour as I walk laps around the church. I get my step count up to about 5700, which is pretty good for a sit-at-the-desk-all-day kind of day.

At the end of lunch, I head to the Keurig in the youth area to make a cup of afternoon coffee. I use my own K-cup and I know I just replenished the water yesterday, but it does NOT taste right, so I'm out for afternoon coffee. Cue the sadness.

I check for voicemails and emails that might have come in while I was at lunch (there are none). The USPS carrier arrives with a big stack of mail, so I open the door for her and distribute the mail when she leaves.

In between calls, I scan the $5.00 sale at the Daily Grace Company and notice they're selling out of several of the studies. I want to have a few extra on reserve for future use, so I go ahead and place an order. Three cheers for $5.00 off coupons combined with $5.00 sales!

A couple of my co-workers stop by to chat for a while, and in the process of the conversation I apparently win the quote of the day with the following: "I have eaten too many donuts to walk on eggshells...and you can put that on a t-shirt!"

One of our church members is setting up for a small bridal shower and needs an easel, so I go on a quick hunt for one and find it right where it's supposed to be. A Christmas miracle in June!

As the work day draws to a close, one of the pastors suggests we have a Moxie break. (Moxie is a soda that tastes like carbonated cough medicine. We usually open a bottle once a week and split it among all the people there that day. One swig really is more than enough.) The pastor had gone for an ice cream run earlier in the day, so we can wash down the Moxie with ice cream! Ryan texts me and says he's getting off work, so I tell him to stop by and have Moxie and ice cream with us. It's his first time to try it, so I get a video of that. Unfortunately I cut off the video before the true aftertaste reaction hits him.

Ryan hangs out with the staff a bit and then heads out for an errand. I stay until the end of the day, lock up the office, and stop by the post office to mail a package for one of the pastors. It's my first time to wear a mask outside in stifling heat - whew! Not a fan of that at all.

I talk to Ryan on the phone as we drive home (separately), grab a package from the porch, and fall down on the couch. We sit for a while, watching Andy Griffith, which is our favorite thing to do at the end of the day. We both accidentally fall asleep for a few minutes and wake up when a new round of the theme song comes on.

I go into the kitchen to make our dinner, which is a Dashing Dish chicken gyro recipe. I fill up my water tumbler again because I got behind on water consumption at work. I only had one tumbler there instead of two. I finish up dinner and we eat while watching more Andy Griffith.

6:00 p.m.-Midnight

After we eat, we have our first cup of evening coffee and watch a show Ryan finds called "I Survived." (It tells the story of three people who survived life-threatening events.) It's still really warm outside, but after the episode is over, Ryan goes outside to mow the yard, and I get busy cleaning up dinner and putting leftovers in the refrigerator.

I decide to call Mom and talk to her for a bit while getting in a few more steps. I usually talk to her on the phone about every day, but I missed a couple of days this week. She's driving and can't talk, so I decide to unload the dishwasher while I wait for her to get home and call me back.

I catch up on some blog stuff and see Ryan has finished mowing and has moved on to trimming the yard. (He handles hot weather so much better than I do. If I'd been on mowing duty, I'd be on my 18th water break right now. He hasn't been inside once yet.) Braeya joins me in the kitchen to sit in the window while I work on the computer and Ryan works in the yard.

Mom calls back, so I walk the house and talk to her. Ryan finishes up the yard work and does a quick little air conditioning repair project on his truck. (It's always air conditioning with us, isn't it?) The sun is going down, so we decide to take a long evening walk, and it's almost perfect outside, even though it's humid.

We get home just before dark, and I fill up the water tumbler and coffee cup one more time. I finish the blog post for the next day, and we watch a really old episode of Undercover Boss while we work on our computers.

We take it easy the rest of the night, being living room bums. Ryan eventually gets up to take a shower, but I miss it all because I've fallen asleep on the couch. He wakes me up when he's done and we go to bed!

And so are the events of a just-after-quarantine Friday. (Side note: Often, in regular times, Friday would be a date night for us, but since we were just gone/out all of last weekend, and since most places still aren't open, we just had a regular night at home.)