A Week in the Life of... Me: Thursday

Thursday wasn't quite as productive in the way of lots of little things getting done... and to be honest, I had a hard time tracking the exacts of the time and all. But still, I'll see if I can remember the gist of the day.

The big ticket item for the day was making rolls we could take with us to the funeral today. I was excited to be able to serve My friend W in this way, but I've never had much success with rolls, so I knew I needed to start early... just in case I needed to try again if they didn't work. We found a recipe and tried one with spelt. The recipe was going to take 6 hours, so I had to build it in from the beginning.

Up and dressed in the morning, all of us. Sweet Pea nursed and I made scrambled eggs for the three of us. No breakfast for My Beloved, sadly. We just didn't get up early enough. He had a Cliff Bar at work.

Eggs, bananas, and juice done, we cleaned up and headed for another potty time.

Around 9 I realized we would need to make more bread. The loaf from the other day was especially little and didn't last long. So I made some bread (more specifics on this process next week.)

Once the bread machine was going, we made our way to the bathroom for bath time. Sadly, when things get busy and overwhelming, I tend to forget this until after the kids are in bed for the night. I hate it, but you should know the truth. So with this being the case, I made a very deliberate attempt to do bath time. You should also know that when we found out Sweet Pea would be a girl, I swore I would not bathe them together... being boy and girl and all. I tried and tried to hold true, but they get bathed so much more often now that I let them bathe together. At some point in the future (probably nearer than further) I'll separate them for modesty reasons. But for now, it's necessity.

They love bath time and laugh and splash and play. Steal cups from each other, etc. Of course neither of them love the actual washing part. Sweet Pea acts much like Tornado did at her age. Tries to get out of the tub every time I get water in her face. I finished her up and let her get out... letting Tornado play a bit. Sweet Pea was having a blast in her towel playing in the mirror. I got her diaper on her and got her all dressed while Tornado played. Then it was his turn to get out.

Around 10 now, I let the kids play (Tornado in his towel) while I gathered clean clothes from the house to put away in their drawers (seems like clothes are always folded while someone is asleep... then they just sit around the house for days. Not good. I took some time to get a few pictures of the kids playing too. It was fun.

Around 10:15, we got Tornado dressed and put Sweet Pea down for her nap. Then Tornado and I headed back to the kitchen. Tornado played while I cleaned up the kitchen some.

Closer to 11 we began the rolls together and I put the bread into the oven. I set the roll dough to rise for a couple hours around 11:30.

11:50 came before we started Circle Time, so we did an abridged version... I just let him color in his Bible Story Activity book while I made something for lunch. Just before noon, My Beloved called to say he'd be coming home soon.

I got Tornado started with lunch (sunflower butter and jelly sandwich and avocado slices) and then made sandwiches for My Beloved and I.

I got Sweet Pea up before we ate because I didn't want her sleeping longer. Sadly, she was already awake and playing... so I could have left her playing and eaten my lunch. Oh well... I nursed and ate and nursed. It all works out.

My Beloved headed back to work and the kids and I headed outside (after potty time) to take advantage of our beautiful, sunny, 70 degree weather. The kids had a blast running around in the grass and I just soaked up the warmth (while chasing and watching them of course.)

Tornado went down at 1:30 and Sweet Pea and I played on the couch a while (she just loves that). I let her play with toys for a bit too while I punched down the roll dough and kneaded it some more. Then back in the bowl it went to rise for another hour.

Sweet Pea went down around 2. Tornado wasn't sleeping yet, so I grabbed my book and "stood watch" outside their door, correcting as needed. It wasn't as bad as some days. By 2:30 or 3 Tornado was asleep and Sweet Pea was laying quietly playing with a blanket or something. I made my way out to the computer to try to get something done.

We are trying to design some new marketing pieces to send out to people about Senior Portraits. This takes a bit of time, but we really need to get some new clients this year. The Christian school that used to send all their seniors to us has changed the way they do things. While they are going to give them our information, they aren't requiring the kids to use any one place... but are letting them choose. I'm imaging we will have fewer students from there because of it. That's fine though... we really needed to break out into the public schools anyway. Though we had been planning to back off on our business, with My Beloved's job being shakier than we ever expected, we have decided we need to try to grow our business instead.

I worked on this and the rolls through the afternoon. Just before 5 I pulled the chicken out of the fridge and started prepping dinner. We decided not to do the casserole idea from my meal plan. Instead we just poured some Frank's hot sauce over it and threw it in the oven (still hot from the rolls). We added to that rolls and fresh pineapple. It worked... and was super easy for me.

My Beloved got home and we got dinner going (he loved the work I'd done on the marketing pieces by the way... I was thrilled!)

Dinner was over by 6:30, (again, I was thrilled!) so we headed out on a walk down the street. A cold front was moving in and the skies were overcast now, but it was still warm enough not to need jackets. We met a "neighbor" from around the block out walking too. We are hoping to see him out on walks regularly and have a chance to build a relationship and introduce him to Christ along the way. We don't have many relationships outside of our Christian circles, so we were excited about this contact.

When we got back home we ran into our neighbor/landlord closing up his shop for the day (his shop shares a driveway with our house and his house is on the other side of us and around a little corner.) They were still having trouble with their scanner, so we headed over to see if My Beloved could fix it. His wife was in the shower when we got there, so the kids and I headed back home instead of staying to visit with her.

The kids played so cute for the entire hour I worked on cleaning up dinner and dishes. Tornado would sit on the ottoman and throw a little stuffed cow toward the kitchen. Then Sweet Pea would pick it up and run it back to him... remind me to share with you my "kids are like dogs" theory sometimes. It was pretty funny.

It was just after 8 when I was done int he kitchen, so we headed to the potty and got ready for bed. I tried to call My Beloved when jammies were going on so he could come home for tuck ins if he wanted, but it rang in the bedroom.

Just after the kids were all tucked in and I was about to leave them, the front door opened. Daddy made it just in time.

My Beloved and I worked on some garden things the rest of the evening, then spent some time together. It's wonderful that a day can accomplish fewer things and still be a great day!


Today there are significantly fewer things on my to do list... not because there isn't much to do, but because there is little chance to do them. I was supposed to have a client come this morning, but weather and traffic has pushed that meeting until sometime later. This afternoon we will be at the funeral and then I'll see how much I can do. We may scratch the burrito meal off my menu too instead of something quicker. We'll see how much I can get done. Making everything from scratch makes that a more difficult meal than it would otherwise be. Oh well... more on today later.

Labels: As it happens...

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 10:35 AM