A Day in The Life: What is a typical day in your life? How do weekdays differ from weekends? How do you balance out life's "chores" from the betterm more enticing things such as spending time with friends, family, hobbies or recreation? How do you fit it all in to make sure everything gets done (get up early, stay up late, recruit help from hubby/other family, hire it out, etc.)? At the end of the day do you go to bed feeling like you accomplished the majority of what needed to be done or do you think of all the things you've had to let roll over to be done another day?
I'm not sure how to really answer all those questions, so I'm going to procrastinate and show you a sweet picture of how I start my days:
Every weekday morning after we have breakfast, Chris leaves for work and Jayna and I have about 10 minutes before we have to brush teeth, brush hair and go to school.
And every morning after breakfast, without fail, I hear these glorious words: "Mommy, do we have time to cuddle on the couch?"
You bet we do. Even if we don't.
You see, I've come to expect cuddle time on the couch before I come to work. If I don't get my JBird cuddles before I have to continue onto my "get-rich-slow scheme," I am cranky for the rest of the day.
I know the cuddles won't last forever. I know my time is limited. And I know that I should soak in these moments because the day will inevitably come when she is...gulp...TOO OLD FOR CUDDLES.
And to that I say BOOOOO.
I have a difficult time in realizing that these little things are the big things. Some say it's a personality flaw. I agree. I worry too much. I think too much about the future. I get frustrated with things I have no control over. And I don't stop to smell the roses that often.
It's a sad life I live.
After breakfast JBird cuddles have helped me with that. If I didn't cuddle with her in the morning, I'd have time to do the dishes. I'd have time to start a load of laundry. I'd probably even have time to PUBLISH A FREAKIN' TOGETHER ON TUESDAY ENTRY ON AN ACTUAL TUESDAY. But I don't really care about dishes. Or laundry. And let's face it...there aren't that many of you reading. If I'm a day late, I figure y'all will forgive me. Just these 9 times. :)
And now to answer the topic questions FO' REALZ.
What is a typical day in your life?
A typical workday for me is, well...a typical workday. I get up around 5am, make myself as presentable as I need to be, eat breakfast, cart the kid off to school and go to work. I work from around 7:45am to 3:30pm. When I get off work, I will sometimes run a few errands to give Jayna some extra playtime with her schoolmates, or I'll go pick her up and we'll go home to continue the daily grind. Getting home means taking care of the dog, doing chores, making dinner and playing with Jayna. After that it's bath and bedtime for Jayna around 8pm. And THAT'S when the REAL FUN begins!!
Just kidding.
Don't get me wrong...I do love those couple of hours after Jayna goes to bed so that I can do whatever it is I feel like doing. Last night I did some gardening. Some nights I watch television. Some nights Chris and I sit on the back patio and I listen to him play guitar and I sing along to the songs with him. Some nights we have deep talks about worldly things (read: work and/or parenting). Some nights I read. And some nights I'm snoring on the couch by 8:30pm.
So...that's a typical day. But right now, things are NOT typical at all.
Right now, Jayna has swimming on Tuesdays, tumbling on Wednesdays, and swimming again on Thursdays. I spend most of Monday evening making dinner for those 3 nights since there is NO time to do it on the actual night. And Friday is spent watching movies or going out to dinner. You know, family time.
We stay busy. And we like it that way. For the most part.
How do weekdays differ from weekends?
A typical weekend? That doesn't exist.
The staples are trips to the grocery and Sam's, cleaning the house (sure...), and trying to see Nana M or Nana B. Those are the things we try to fit in. But that doesn't always happen.
Yes, we keep up with the daily chores. The dishes, the laundry, making sure the bathrooms aren't a pit and vacuuming. Those are things that get done atleast once a week. Other things like dusting? We ain't got no time for no dusting. It gets done when it gets done. We are way too busy creating memories for ourselves and for our Jayna to be missing out on things because of a little dust.
In June, we have had NO free weekends. The first weekend was spent at the zoo and at a baseball game. The second on was spent at a pool party and a father's day barbecue. The next one will be the Dave Matthew's concert and another baseball game. And the last one will be our 10th anniversary and a company picnic. The first weekend of July will be spent at the lake. The second will be spent in Washington, D.C. The third? Maybe we'll get to sleep in or see our long-neglected friends!!!!!
See? I told you we stay busy.
We love doing all these things. But it really does interfere with things that NEED to be done.
How do you balance out life's "chores" from the better more enticing things such as spending time with friends, family, hobbies or recreation? How do you fit it all in to make sure everything gets done (get up early, stay up late, recruit help from hubby/other family, hire it out, etc.)?
We don't balance out. We do memory making FIRST and chores LATER. Is this the best policy? It is for now. That will change. Before I had a kid, I would come home every Friday and clean the whole house top to bottom. That way it would be clean for the weekend. And now? Well, for now that isn't going to happen.
Jayna is little. She is young and she is impressionable and she is soooo dang cute. She loves to spend time with us and we love providing memory making experiences for her. She is and forever will be our only child and we will only get one chance at this time in her life. We have chosen to take advantage of it.
That isn't to say that I don't get frustrated with the clutter in our tiny house and eventually explode into a cleaning frenzy. It happens. Not just to me, but to Chris too.
When Chris and I first started living together, I did 100% of the cleaning. After all, I was the one with less responsibilities and more time on my hands. Well, that changed along the line and my 100% cleaning responsibility did NOT change. So he and I had a sit down talk at a bar (probably Yogi's) and I told him very plainly: I am not, nor will I ever be, a housewife. I don't make all the messes and I shouldn't be responsible for cleaning all of them up. He responded in a positive manner and to this day...more than 10 years later...he still does atleast 50% of the household chores.
He and I have a system. It's called Get It Done. If the dishes aren't done and Chris is working late, I do the dishes. If I'm having a swell time playing with Jayna and don't want to stop to vacuum, Chris vacuums.
Actually, Chris vacuums 100% of the time. I hate it and I refuse to do it. The end. I reciprocate by cleaning the toilets 100% of the time. We'll skip the part where HE cleaned the toilets on Father's Day. Ahem.
Anyhoo, my point is this: We don't have set chores. We just get shit done because it has to be done. And we are respectful of one another and we understand when one or the other needs to pick up the slack on occasion.
Organized chaos. That's how we live.
At the end of the day do you go to bed feeling like you accomplished the majority of what needed to be done or do you think of all the things you've had to let roll over to be done another day?
I NEVER go to bed feeling like I accomplished everything that needed to be done. NEVER.
Does anyone? Maybe Martha Stewart, but we'll go ahead and be honest when we say that she has people doing lots of things FOR her at this point.
Even when I was single and childless did I ever feel like I accomplished enough in one day. Never.
Lately though, I've been asking myself different questions at bedtime. Did I give Jayna enough attention today? Did we play enough? Did I ignore her? Did we make memories?
Those are the important questions at this time in my life. And I take the answers to those questions VERY seriously.
The long and short of my days are to just ENJOY living. Yes, there are things that must be done that aren't enjoyable. But I like to think like my favorite nanny, Mary Poppins: "In every job that must be done, there's an element of fun."
Dang. I don't really think like that. We just rock out to the Disney station on Pandora waaaaayyyyy ttttoooooo mmuuccchhhh.
But really. When we clean the house, there is music blaring and we're ALL (Jayna included) singing and dancing along. We cook meals together. We do chores together. Everything is less of a chore when you have a helper. :)
We enjoy life. After all, that's ultimately why we're here.
Now: go over to the sidebar on the right and read about the days of the other fine ToT ladies!
3 comments:
I loved your post, too! I made Ben read it :). I love cuddle time on the couch. I love making memories first and chores later. I love your end of day questions. These are the things that matter in life!!
I think that you've got it right....the house can always be clean another day, your kid is not always going to want to cuddle on the couch. I usually end up hating myself when I tell Georgia that I don't have time to do something with her. All I can do is hope that she has memories of her childhood where her mother is loving and caring and fun. I think that I worry about it more these days with the twins coming and taking ALL my time. I just hope that we can find some balance soon after they arrive.
Wow-I was really impressed with that Mary Poppins can do sing a long. I know you better than that though. Just kidding. I think you have a great thing going, and your priorities in line. :)
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