A Day

0430 Alarm goes off. Pull on gym clothes, drive to Alamo 180 for

0500 Iron class. Weights, high intensity work, endurance. We're in the middle of a 2 week burpee challenge: class concludes with as many burpees as possible in ten minutes. Today was my most so far, 77.

I wish my form were this good.

I try to go class every day but 3-4 times a week is the actuality - Luke is out of town, I have a 7 am conference, Josie wakes up ready to play at 3 am.

0600 If we need something (bananas, milk, and toilet paper are the emergency items, in that order), go to grocery store across the street from the gym. Once a man in front of me bought two items only: a plastic tub of cotton candy and a tube of KY jelly. As then, I proceed with no comment.

0630-0715 Get ready for the day.

Drive to work. Work.

via GIPHY
 

1630 Leave work, pick up Luke, pick up girls (this is easiest with two people, given 57 pounds of toddler and 15 pounds of unwieldy stuff).

1700-1800 Dinner. It turns out Josie loves saag paneer. In keeping with our low carb lifestyle change, I'm trying to cajole the girls into more protein and veggies -- more whole foods, really -- and less frequent pasta and quesadillas. C loves hummus. Both will eat an astonishing amount of cottage cheese.

 

1800-2000 Kids remove every toy from its storage place; do not play with them. I try to prepare more meals - a batch of chili, scramble eggs, etc.

2000 Josie goes to bed without much fuss. But will she stay asleep?! As we peered over her last week, cooing Goodnight, Josie and placing her dog under her arm, she waved goodbye by rotating her little hand right by her face, that arm clutching her dog and the other hand holding the knitted blanket. So precious.

2000-2100 The ever-lengthening bedtime routine of Clementine. Two books, stories, snuggles, at least one I NEED TO GO POTTY, repeat snuggle steps, a plea for WATER, I'M FIRSTY.

2100 Hopefully C is asleep or at least singing to herself happily. If Luke hasn't been home, now I start washing the dishes, packing the lunches, putting together more meals for Luke and me, tidying up the house kicking debris aside. I view this as quality podcast and audiobook listening time and re-casting it in that light, instead of UGH CHORES I'M TIRED, has made a huge difference.

OMG IT'S 2200 all of a sudden. I have to be up in six and a half hours! Groan... Wash face. Set out gym and work clothes for the next day - the ideal but infrequent situation is my leaving the house with everyone still asleep in the morning. This requires me to slip around like a thief in my own home. Lately, the need for stealth evaporates promptly at 6:25 with C calling Mommy! Daddy! I'm a-WAKE!

If Luke is home at night I usually manage to get the lunches packed and meal prep done during dinner and playtime. Then I do have a little bit of time to do all the things I want to do (read for fun*, read for work, work on a cross-stitch project, work on the blog, plans that come to me in a flash and depart as quickly - like watching and then practicing braid tutorials on Youtube) but by this time I don't want to do what I want to do because I've been doing for 16 hours! So maybe I'll go to bed or watch an episode of Top Chef on the tablet. I fall asleep listening to an audiobook, setting the timer for 5 minutes. Every morning I have to back up 4 minutes and 40 seconds because of my nonexistent sleep onset latency (healthy? unhealthy? both?)

*books that I'm dying to read, cannot quite seem to start: intro to photography (x several), Letters of Note, Good Prose, The Sense of Style: A Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century, John Irving's new book Avenue of Mysteries ... and that's just what is at arm's length. I usually manage to get each week's New Yorker and New York magazine read by skimming an article or two while the kids play or the brussel sprouts roast. Still spending way too much time on the phone, keeping me from actual enrichment and intellectual nourishment.

Friday is wonderful - I like work, I like the late night with no looming 4:30 alarm (iron class is at 9 on Saturday, oh the luxury!), I like the no lunches-to-be-packed. We watch Daniel Tiger and The Ballet Cracker and relax. We are so, so lucky.