Day in the Life - Fall 2015

I decided to do this Day in the Life on a day I was sick, but it was hard to avoid since I've been sick for a couple weeks. I didn't take any notes that day and am finally writing it up about a week later so we'll see how accurate it is. Luckily, I took lots of pictures to help trigger my memory. Thanks to Julia at My Life in Transition for hosting the Day in the Life Round up.

Sunday 10/4/15
Riley is 5 and three quarters
Jesse is 40 and I'm 43
Lucy (the cat) is 12

9:35 - The night before, I went to bed a little earlier than usual. I've had a virus for over a week and thought it was going away, but I'm pretty sure I have a sinus infection now (sinuses hurt, head hurts, teeth hurt...). I wake a little after 11:00, but barely remember it as I fall back to sleep fast.

1:53, 3:05, and 5:59 - I wake multiple times which isn't that out of the norm for me, but it's usually once or twice and technically this would be three times before I finally wake for the day just before 6. The only reason I get out of bed at this time is because Riley is yelling from across the hall that "it's 6!". I get up and shuffle to her room. I fall into her bed and announce that I am doing my day in the life post and she bounds out of bed, turns on the light, and starts snapping pictures with my camera after I first get a shot of her.

The light is so bright I can't even open my eyes. The burning!

Most of her pictures are blurry so I won't post them here, but it was nice of her to assist me in getting pictures. We go downstairs and I set her up with her 'non-breakfast' food request of a cheese stick, apple, and tortilla.

6:35 - Riley eats and draws or does some sort of art picture. She always asks for TV in the morning, but I make her do something else. I do some morning stuff including picture editing. I went on a photo walk the day prior and have a bunch of pictures to go through. Eventually, I eat breakfast while Jesse comes downstairs and then proceeds to the basement to play a video game. It's a generally lazy Sunday morning. Normally, we'd likely be getting ready to go to the gym, but we have plans to hit to corn maze as soon as they open at 10:00 and I'm not up for gym activity so we laze around.

8:07 - I go upstairs and notice a small spot of cat puke next to the bed. I clean it up, but think it's odd that there isn't more and then I look at the bed. Gah! Cat puke on the duvet, the throw, and the puke has seeped through to the comforter. I clean it up and throw everything into the laundry basket to bring downstairs when I almost step in another pile of puke near the closet. Good God, cat - what did you eat? I bring everything down to the laundry and start that unanticipated task.

I head back upstairs to pick out Riley and my clothes for the day and realize that I need a rest. I'm just not feeling my best, but want to make the most of this day so I lay down in bed and turn the TV on. Ahhh, me time.

And then two minutes later Riley and Lucy join me because apparently I'm not allowed to be alone. Riley brings up the iPad which I've allowed her to play with and for some reason the sound won't work on any of her games so she starts playing with this meditation app where the sound does work. It's supposed to be soothing sounds like the ocean, birds, the wind, etc... but when you have 12 of them playing at once, not so much.

Lol - scary cat. 

I go downstairs to shower and find Jesse cleaning the house. Once out of the shower, we all get dressed and I pack up some snacks to take with us.

9:45 - We get out the door a little later than anticipated and stop at the bank for cash on the way to Sever's Corn Maze. We've pre-purchased the tickets online, but know cash will come in handy. We get to the corn maze a little after 10:00 and proceed to spend over 3 hours here. The time goes fast and we don't get to see everything, but I was ready to go home when we did.

We started with hugging pumpkins and walking through the 'Gourd Walk' and then headed into where all the fun is.

Clearly

This place is expensive - we saved a dollar on each ticket, but still spent $42 for the three of us. That doesn't include food and some potential extras like the $2 per slide ride (we did 3 of them). Oh, and we bought some apples and honey on the way out. But, it really does have a lot that you can do and Riley loves it. We started with the air pillows....

Then moved on to the corn pit which Jesse actually joined in for the first time and was sold on how fun it is...

Corn gets everywhere

We followed this by climbing on the kid train, playing at the playground, and then going on the super slide a couple times...

Of course, we had to do the hay bale maze which everyone just runs on top of...

And then it was time for a break. We ate corn dogs and corn on the cob while listening to the band play and we discovered that they have instruments for the kids to play as well.

Next up was the corn maze. Usually, Riley doesn't care for this and just wants to go back into the corn pit, but we had to pull her out of the maze this year. It was probably about this time that my head started killing me. I took some cold meds before we left thinking they would help give me some pep, but I think they turned on me and just made me feel crappier. Plus, the day before on the photo walk my thigh muscles seized up (weirdly, they often do this on days I work my biceps at the gym - myofascial is interesting) and they were bothering me this day too.

There was a firefighter theme this year and you were supposed to find all 26 signs. We probably found about half and if it was up to Riley we would have found all of them.

From the maze we headed up to the bridge to view from above, checked out the firetruck where a boy pushed in front of Riley while she was trying to get in the front seat. I want Riley to be more aggressive, but glad she wasn't like that boy. I wanted to scold him, but just gave him a look instead. How do you deal with that stuff when it's some stranger's kid?

And finally, we went to check out some of the animals. Next year, we decided that we'd start on the other side so we could see the pig races, magic show, pony rides, and check out the other corn pit which looks like it has some hanging bars and other things to play on in it.

Oh, and Riley and Jesse went down the slide one more time before we left. Riley wanted me to go on it, but those suckers are fast and scare me. 

1:40 -  We arrive home and Jesse eats a salad (he skipped the corn dog at the maze) and Riley has a snack before rest time. I swap out some laundry and ten minutes later I decide to take a nap. I feel like crud. I grab my sleep mask and head to the guest room since I don't have any bedding on my bed.

3:35 - I wake and realize Riley has fallen asleep during her rest time too. I turn on the Vikings game while I prep making apple crisp with the apples we got at Severs. Riley wakes and I get the apple crisp in the oven and clean up the disaster in the kitchen.

5:45 - I have no recollection of what we ate for dinner, but I do remember watching the last of the game at the dinner table so I will assume I was eating at that time. After dinner, I continue to edit photos while Riley plays or watches some TV.

6:00 - Jesse just bought Riley a game that is apparently the kid version of an grown up game so Riley and I play this. He hoped it would have more strategy to it, but it really doesn't. It's a pretty simple game that is fun for it's ease, but I wish it had a couple more rules to it (maybe good for a 3 or 4 year old). Even so I will take playing board games over playing pretend. Ten minutes of pretend is harder for me than hours of Candyland. Guess I do best with rules. However, since this game is so simple we start to make up some rules which gets a little too close to pretend. Actually, the problem comes in when Riley gets frustrated that I don't understand her unspoken rules. I tried, but after about 6 rounds of this game I was done. While we were playing, Jesse attempted to master his new Lord of the Rings board game. He's been playing this game by himself nightly all week and finally 'won' later in the week. I think you are supposed to play this game with others, but what do I know.

 

6:56 - While Riley gets on her PJ's, I bring up the laundry and put the bed back together. Putting a king sized duvet on a comforter is a little like torture, but I accomplish it without too much frustration.

Once the bed is made and Riley's brushed her teeth, we settle in for book reading. We select Llama Llama Home with Mama which seems fairly fitting based on how I feel. Luckily, my head feels way better, but my teeth and sinuses still ache. Riley insists on helping with taking pictures (of every page of the book).

Before I head downstairs she picks out a book to read on her own. She sometimes reads four or five books, but I think she may have been out after reading just one.

7:25 - I head downstairs and dish myself up some apple crisp to eat while editing a few more pictures and watching Grace and Frankie. I had no intention of watching this show, but I had a couple people recommend it. It's ok. I'd watch a second season, but I'm still having a hard time believing that the President from the West Wing and the attorney from Law and Order are gay lovers. I just can't get their previous roles out of my head.

9:08 - I head upstairs and read some of my book, The Boys in the Boat. I'd recommend it.

9:45 - I'm tired. Time to go to sleep.I sleep ok, but it feels like my sinus infection might be breaking up a little bit. I have a bad sore throat all night and wake with a scratchy voice and a cough which leads me into the next phase of my virus.

It's a week later as I finally finish writing this and I still feel a little cruddy, but also feel like I am finally starting to turn a corner. It's about time. :)