Day in the Life - Summer 2016

I was sure I would do a work day this time for my summer 'day in the life' since it's been awhile, but then I just didn't have it in me. It's a busy time of the quarter and it seemed much more fun to capture a weekend day instead. Thanks to My Life in Transition for hosting another 'day in the life'.

Saturday 7/2/16
Riley is 6 years 5 months
Jesse is 41 and I am 44
Lucy the cat is 12

11:54 - I went to bed at 10:20 and expected to sleep longer than this, but I wake slowly and feel agitated. I wasn't sure what was happening until I realized the cat was on top of me. I get out of bed and hear the cat feeder go off so I assume she's hungry and was trying to wake me, but she just moves to the hallway so who knows what her deal is.

2:48 - Up again.

4:28 - And again. Not sure why I'm up so much this night, but I know that I was often uncomfortable - too hot, too cold...

5:59 - Riley gets up and comes into our room. I'm not really with it, but I think she says "Hi mama, I love you" and then runs off. I turn over to see that Jesse isn't in bed which allows me to stay in bed longer. I continue to struggle with being too hot or too cold, but eventually fall back to sleep.

7:28 - This feels like I got to sleep in super late. I get up and make the bed and then get on my gym clothes. I really need to shower, but I also haven't been to the gym in a long time so that's a priority. While I'm getting ready I hear Riley crying pretty hard. I'm guessing she fell or something and almost run downstairs, but I can hear that Jesse has things covered. I head downstairs a few minutes later and discover that Riley was watching TV in the basement while Jesse was on the main floor. This isn't an out of the ordinary scene, but she got spooked and started crying. We've gutted our basement bathroom recently so I'm guessing that something related to that freaked her out.

8:10 - Riley is now fine and hugging the cat. Moods can change fast which she'll demonstrate more than once today. I do my morning stuff... eye drops, dishes, etc.

8:30 - I eat eggs and an orange while Riley has blueberry Mini-Wheats. Jesse and Riley build a cat house and then get dressed and ready for the gym.

9:10 - We head out the door to the gym. Riley's mad at me because I won't let her bring a toy with, but I asked her many times to get her shoes on and they still aren't on so I stick to not letting her bring something. Plus, I don't think she needs to bring anything as there is plenty for her to do at the child care center at the gym.

While working out, I change up my sequence a little as I decide to do abs on a mat instead of one of the machines. I end up going into my stretches and totally forgetting to do my 15 minutes on the treadmill. Jesse comes up to me and asks if I'm almost done and I tell him "yes". Later, in the locker room I look at my fit bit and see a low number of steps and it then hits me that I missed a key part of my workout. I walk all over the multiple levels of our gym trying to catch Jesse before he gets Riley, but I'm too late. We laugh about this later as he thought he'd totally lost track of time, and was confused as to why I was done as fast as I was.

10:10 - Head home from the gym and Riley and I eat snacks while Jesse gets ready to go help his buddy. This wasn't in the original plan for the day, but one of his truck friends asked if he could help him do some repairs on his truck. This guy has helped Jesse out a lot so Jesse always likes to return the favor. I also feel like his friend been mentioned in the last few days in the life.

10:27 - Riley and I head out for a walk so I can get my steps in and so she can visit a park she's never been to. We've been randomly picking parks nearby and visiting them to change things up. I picked this one since I knew it was within walking distance. I agree to let her bring along a toy, but warn her that she's got to carry it the entire time. We get around the corner of our house and a car slows... it's a friend of Riley's from school. We say hi and head on our way. We get another block and Riley starts whining that a bug bite that's on her knee is hurting her "like it's bleeding". We pause and try to decide what to do. I'm not ready to give up so I tell her we can go to our "blue" park which we are right next to, but that I really want to show her a new park. She says she can give it a try.

Yes, this is a big no no to stop in the middle of the street for a picture, but I did it anyway

Interesting things are to be found on a walk

We get about half way to the new park when she starts to break down. She was happy a moment before and was even wearing a ring that she says has happy powers, but she decides to take it off. I ask if I can wear it and she tells me I don't need to because I'm already happy. She walks about 10 steps behind me until we get to the park and then she starts to cheer up... and then switches mood several more times while we're there.

Sad

Happy

Ecstatic

Sad again

Eventually, we leave and head back a different, hopefully shorter, way. Riley tells me her happy ring really isn't magical after all and is back in sad mode. I know there's a Little Library in the neighborhood and was hoping to find it. We did, and it was a good one. Tons of kid's books and it cheers her right up. She picks two books and we continue home. We see a large dog that we saw on our walk to the park and we talk about the dog's possible name. She likes to name animals and people all the time so it was fun to stop and talk to the owner of "Roxy" the dog and get to pet her. Another mood lifter. We get about a block away and she tells me she needs to take a break. I really have to pee by this point, but it's a lot of walking for a little girl so I get it.

I love how she still holds my hand all the time. I totally want to capture this memory as I know it won't last forever.

Riley sits down and peruses her books. We take some pictures together and then she's ready to go home. Another block and we have to cross a busy street. She refuses to hold my hand and wants to hold on to my back. Not acceptable and she won't listen so she gets another break in the grass. We talk about why it's so important to hold my hand and eventually she does so. We walk the last few blocks in an okay, but not great mood.

"Okay mom, now I'll take a picture of you"

We had a treasure hunt list with us and 'wheelbarrow' was on it so I had to take a picture

12:17 - So glad to be home. That walk took far longer than I anticipated and probably felt far longer due to the mood swings. I worry that the entire day is going to be this way, but it only gets better moving forward. I warm us up leftovers for lunch and let Riley watch TV for a bit while I go online. I read a thread on Nextdoor.com where some guy complains about how the geese are a nuisance at a local park and that they are pooping everywhere. Other people counter with how geese are essential to the biodiversity of this world. Someone accuses people of complaining about first world problems. Then Kyle jumps in and suggests a crowdfunding to import and introduce wolverines which we would obviously declaw for safety reasons. He ends with "it's time for the Honkers to pay". I love neighborhood Kyle, whoever he is.

12:29 - I check Facebook and see a message my niece wrote about her brother. Something bad has happened, although I'm not sure what. He's had a lot of struggles in life so I worry about what it is. I send her a private message asking for details and then Google his name. It's about as bad as I can imagine - he's been charged with murder. My heart sinks. My niece writes me back and says that my nephew was attacked and it was self defense, but it seems like it's his word against theirs. Totally sick to my stomach. I decide to call my sister after I bake a cake with Riley. She's been looking forward to this all morning so I don't want to put it off anymore.

12:38 - Riley was given a list of things to do each day over the summer and one of them was to bake a cake. We didn't have what we needed on that particular day, but Jesse picked us up a box mix and some frosting so this was the day for cake making. We mix it up and stick it in the oven.

1:05 - I tell Riley she needs some quiet time in her bedroom. I am super stinky from working out and our walk and I need a shower bad. I set her up in her bedroom with her new books and jump in the shower. Best shower ever. Jesse texts to let me know that he'll be home soon. I also use this time to call my sister (and at some point pull the cake out of the oven). She's obviously beside herself. She knows that her son hasn't always made the best choices, but we both agree that he wouldn't have done this without being attacked. I can't begin to imagine what it's like to be in her shoes. She doesn't have a ton of support so she mentions that she would like dad and I to come visit, if possible, when she's on vacation in a couple weeks. There won't be anything we can do for her son and his trial isn't until August, but I understand the need to have family nearby. She lives in Missouri so we rarely get to see each other. I decide to check with my dad later.

2:00 - I'm still on the phone with my sister, but hear Riley call out. I go get her and guide her downstairs and out into the back yard. I continue to talk on the phone while Riley picks up the hose and starts playing with it. Our outside faucet broke the other day and won't turn off, but the sprayer attachment stops the water from running all the time. Riley waters all the plants in the yard - she's useful and has fun while doing it.

2:14 - I'm off the phone and continue to watch Riley play with the hose.I go inside to use the bathroom and she follows along. I notice a package on the front step and go and grab that. It's my new headset for my work phone. My current one had been cutting out so there must have been a short somewhere. Riley and I go downstairs to my office to switch them out and I give her my old one. She then pretends that she's on a call. It's kind of hilarious to hear her do this and makes me wonder if that's how I actually sound on my work calls.

2:55 - Jesse is home!  He goes to his computer and then eats, Riley works on a school packet they sent home at the end of the year and I'm not sure what I did. Perhaps folded the laundry I brought up earlier or did dishes. Dishes and laundry were definitely done throughout the day.

Jesse heads up to shower and Riley and I head upstairs at some point too. I go out onto the deck and check to see that all the hornets are dead after spraying their nest. The other night I went out there with Riley to read and plopped myself down on a chair with my feet on the ottoman and suddenly there were a whole bunch of hornets at my feet. I didn't stick around to count,but there were a lot. I'm just glad I didn't get stung. At any rate, the deck is clear, but I think they will rebuild as they've done this in the past. Riley joins me on the deck and even takes some pictures of me as I sweep the deck. We stained out deck last year and it totally came up over the winter. Annoying, and something I hope doesn't happen every year.

Crazy hair

3:26 - I head back to our main floor and out onto our back deck which is shaded with an umbrella. I read some of my book  Allegiant.  Finally, jumping onto the Divergent series bandwagon. I only read a couple chapters as it's putting me to sleep. Not that it's boring, but sometimes reading does that to me. While I've been reading, Jesse feeds Riley the exact same thing I gave her for lunch: plain noodles, a cheese stick, and carrots and cucumbers.

I go inside and check the cake. It's cool enough to frost. I scoop the frosting onto the cake and Riley swirls it around. Jesse suggests decorating it and she selects a handful of dried strawberries to place on the top.

 4:15 - Jesse has 'boy's night' tonight. He and his buddies get together on the first Saturday of the month at one of their houses and play board games. He leaves and I head out to Michael's with Riley to pick up some craft things. I planned a canvas project and decide we will do shrinky dinks after seeing a friend post on Facebook her kid's result of trying both of these. I also pick up some felt for another project that Riley's been asking to do where she makes a cat toy, and she gets to pick out a journal.

5:07 - Before we leave Michael's I call McCoys and order a burger. I've been craving one and I don't feel like making dinner since it's just me.

5:23 - I pick up my burger and Riley sings non stop from the car, in the restaurant and back to the car. it's only when I get back to the car that I realize she's been belting one out. It's just something that she does all the time that I've come to expect it as background noise. I wonder what all the restaurant guests thought of it.

5:40 - I finally sit down to eat after getting Riley set up with a piece of her cake. She gobbles it right up. Riley starts begging to make Shrinky Dinks, but I tell her I need some time to rest after dinner.

6:25 - Okay, time to do an art project. I explain the whole concept of Shrinky Dinks and give Riley the option to create her own design or copy one that was included. She decides to copy those included and makes a ladybug, a pencil, and an ice cream cone. We put them in the oven and she's blown away at the results.

6:51 - I should really be winding things down for Riley's bedtime, but since it's just her and I and it's so nice out, I suggest we walk to the park at the end of the block. There is a lady there with a bunch of 8 or 9 year old girls. It's not until she gets up and walks towards her house that I realize it's the lady that works at my eye doctor. Last time I was at the eye doctor we talked about living so close to each other and that her daughter goes to my daughter's school. I probably should have gotten up to say 'hi', but that didn't happen. Riley ends up in the sand pit and contently plays there, humming to herself, for a very long time. It's beautiful out so I just sit there and take it all in. Occasionally, I try to call my dad, but his phone is busy.

Me and my gear for the day

Not sure this shirt was appropriate for the first half
of the day, but it ended up a great day in the end. 

7:45 - I've been telling Riley that we need to head home for about 5 minutes now when she suddenly informs me we have to leave now because she has to go to the bathroom. We get home and she doesn't have to go after all, but that's okay because we needed to get home anyway. She gets cleaned up and in her pajamas. We check the deck again to make sure the hornets aren't there (there are a couple) and we head inside to read. She's totally into cats, cats, cats... all things cats lately so we have to read one of the cat books she picked up at the library on Friday. Tonight is Magic Kitten, part of a series of chapter books.

8:15 - I go downstairs and load my pictures from today and start this post. I finish an episode of Orange is the New Black and then listen to music on Pandora. I call my dad again, but he doesn't answer. He's probably outside or taking a shower or maybe even in bed so I decide I'll just connect with him on Sunday. I go through recent pictures and decide to post one on Instagram.

It's the 4th of July weekend so, of course, the fireworks start going off around this time. I cringe as I don't want Riley to get freaked out, but then I remember she's grown a lot in this area over the last couple years and doesn't get scared like she used to. However, I feel for all the other parents in the neighborhood with little ones and furbabies that are scared of fireworks, a compassion I didn't really have until I was a parent. Luckily, Riley is wiped out from a long day and is probably already asleep at this point.

9:56 - I decide I better get to bed since I know Jesse will come home late and I'll be the one getting up early with the kid in the morning.

10:30 - Geez, I yell at Riley sometimes for stalling around her bedtime and here I am finally getting to bed after leisurely viewing pictures and then finally completing my bedtime rituals. And then I get into bed and have racing brain. I get up at 11:00 and go to the bathroom and get back in bed. I try to will Lucy up into bed to cuddle with me, but apparently I don't have those powers. I imagine cuddling with Riley as it comforts me. Is that cheesy? Perhaps, but it's not the first time I've done it and it works. I finally fall asleep shortly after that.

1:00 - Jesse gets home and slips into bed.

3:00 - I wake and realize that Jesse is in bed with me. I never heard him come home. I go to the bathroom and fall right back to sleep.

5:28 - I greatly dislike waking at this time since I know that Riley will likely be getting up in a half hour and it means I probably won't get any more sleep. I decide to get up and go to the bathroom again and slip back into bed. I lay there for quite a while, but must have fallen into a light sleep for awhile. Riley was nice enough to sleep into 6:44. I slip out of bed and let Jesse sleep in... and we start yet another day.