A Month of Faves: A Day In The Life

So we're two and a half weeks from Christmas as of this past weekend and before that arrives, I am hosting a dinner party and book club. Plus I'm still finishing up shopping. But...I'm battled the tail end of a cold so I wasn't as productive as I'd liked to have been.

8:30 a.m. - My alarm went off but I'd been up to 1:30 a.m. so I shut it off and thought I'd get a little more sleep.

8:37 a.m. - Well, that didn't work. Time to get up.

8:45 a.m. - First cup of coffee. It's the weekend so there will be at least a couple more cups. I settle in to watch the rest of CBS Sunday Morning.

9:30 a.m. - Breakfast time - bagel with cream cheese and lemon curd. While I'm eating (and having my second cup of coffee), I'm internet shopping. I'm philosophically opposed to Amazon but, damn, I do love free, 2-day shipping.

10:00 a.m. - Time to get busy. I dust the walls on the first floor, then scrub the walls in the vanity, back hall, and kitchen. Can anyone explain to me how some kind of liquid got spilled on the walls in the back hall?

11:00 a.m. - Third cup of coffee. Time to check in on Facebook and Instagram.

11:30 a.m. - Back to cleaning. When I win the lottery, I'm paying someone else to clean my bathrooms! One bathroom done.

12:00 p.m. - Blogging time. Getting my Sunday post written.

12:30 p.m. - Lunch time. The Big Guy made stir fry and I'm here to tell you that sometimes that guy can really shake a pan.

1:00 p.m. - Laundry time. It seems like it's always laundry time on the weekend.

1:30 p.m. - Watered the plants. Two years ago I had two plants. These days I have 15 in the house. I'm always forgetting to water at least one of them.

2:00 p.m. - Repotted a couple of plants. BG hates when I play with plants in the house; I tend to get dirt every where. In my defense, I am also the person who cleans it all up.

2:45 p.m. - I finally get dressed and convince BG to make a Christmas shopping trip with me.

Love the title, love the price!

3:15 p.m. - Barnes and Noble time. We look at games, books, and when we check out we find that we've gotten a "buy one cookie, get another free" coupon.

4:20 p.m. - We buy those cookie: peanut butter cup for me, oatmeal raisin for BG. We'd eat them at the store except we have plans. We're pretty darned excited to have earned another coupon. Guess we'll be back to the store again soon!

4:35 p.m - Did you know that Dunkin' Donuts has lattes and cappuccinos for $2 from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. every day through December 30th? I found this out on Saturday, thanks to Instagram. A latte for him, a cappuccino for me.

4:50 p.m. - We've brought our coffee and cookies home for an early dinner, I guess, and enjoy them while watching football.

5:45 p.m. - Because apparently we're old people, and also because we probably need to put something at least nominally healthy into our stomachs, BG gets us some apples, grapes, popcorn, and cheese. This, of course, requires that we continue to just sit.

6:15 p.m. - Time to clean up the dishes. Miss H has been kind enough to clean out her car today. It's kind in that I now know where half of my plastic containers have gone and will finally have some again for packing lunch. This also means that cleaning up the kitchen involves washing all of those containers as well as a half dozen water vessels she's been driving around with.

6:45 p.m. - Shopping time. BG and I spend the next hour online shopping and discussing what we'll get for Mini-me and Ms. S. While I'm at it, I'll be having a text conversation with Ms. S about things they might need/want as well as her visit, today, to my sister's house.

7:30 p.m. - Pretty sure we've hit present gold but it's a bit of a daring choice so we don't pull the trigger just yet. This one gift will require 30 minutes of conversation with no decision.

8:00 p.m. - Time to catch this post up while I can still remember what we've done today. I'm old, you know, and these things pass quickly from my memory.

8:10 p..m. - On the "I'm getting old" front, time to put new insoles into my shoes. This is about as exciting as it gets on a Sunday night, folks.

8:15 p.m. - The dishes got done but the kitchen is still a mess. Anyone else's kitchen the catch-all spot in the house? Everything gets put back where it belongs, then I sweep and mop and cross my fingers that no one spills anything on the floor for at least a couple of days. History tells me that the best I can realistically hope for is 24 hours.

8:45 p.m. - Time to work on the bullet journal for the coming week. I'm happy to see that I won't be carrying much into next week that was on this week's to-do list.

9:05 p.m. - Finally opening a book for the first time this weekend. I'll be reading while I watch football so it's not the most productive time to read but it's better than nothing.

9:20 p.m. - Oops! Back on my phone again. In my defense, I'm doing some Christmas shopping. I have two gifts left now (which I will get this weekend) and some stocking stuffers and then I'm done! Now to wrap them all. But that's for another day.

10:35 p.m. - The football game is done and it's time to do the "end of the day" tasks. One last spin through the kitchen to make sure it's still tidy. Check the cat's water bowl to make sure it's full. Turn off all of the Christmas lights - three trees, the mantle and six sets of twinkly lights. It's worth every minute - I'm so enjoying the glow all around my house!

11:05 p.m. - One last load of laundry in, which I'll toss into the dryer in the morning.

11:15 p.m. - Fill up a glass of water, get my purse, pour out half dozen kitty treats and then we girls head up for the night. Kitty will have her treats next to her bed. Wash face, brush and floss, jump into my jammies (well, maybe not "jump" exactly) and then crawl into bed where I will actually read for another 25 minutes.

11:55 p.m. - Turning out the light, finally. One day I'll learn how to get myself to bed early. Today's clearly not that day.

Well, that could not have been any more dull to read about but I do love a good, lazy day!

A Day In The Life

Thanks to Trish of Love, Laughter, and a Touch of Insanity for hosting "A Day in the Life." With any smalls left in my house, my days are a lot less crazy than Trish's and many of yours but still there never seems to be enough time in a day.

Last year I wrote about a day in my working week life. It's pretty much the same this year, with the added addition of two adult children back in the house. This year I decided to share a day in my life on a weekend. Which, as it turns out, is not all that much more exciting!

8:30 a.m. It's Saturday and I have no small children so I sleep in when I can. I still set an alarm because I'm a night owl and, as much as I want to make sure I get eight hours of sleep on weekend nights, I don't want to sleep the morning away.

8:40 a.m. I love big breakfasts - just not necessarily for breakfast. So even on Saturdays, breakfasts are usually quick and easy. Today it's a couple of Eggo waffles with some peanut butter and a little maple syrup and a giant mug of coffee.

9:00 a.m. Time to watch Rick Steve's Travels. Saturday mornings, from the time we get up until 9:30 are all about the travel shows on public television.

9:30 a.m. After cleaning the kitchen, it's time to take The Big Guy's car in for an oil change and tire rotation. I might have gotten a little cranky about having to get dressed earlier than I usually do on the weekends.

10:00 a.m. It's quieter around here on Saturday mornings than it is in the evening and easier for me to find the time to sit down at my computer and read some blogs.

I follow 82 blogs these days, down considerably from what I used to and I have trouble keeping up with those. Several are inactive but I keep them on my blog roll in the hopes that my friends will return. One of the blogs is one a friend battling cancer started to record her fight. She died several years ago but I can't bring myself to delete the blog.

11:10 a.m. Laundry time. Ugh - it never ends. Truly. Usually I try to get started earlier on Saturdays.

11:40 a.m. Time to tidy up around here and de-winterize. Blankets are going into storage, snowmen are getting packed up, and I switched to my spring purse.

12:15 p.m. I'm battling a headache and nothing sounds good so I just nosh on some leftover egg noodles with Parmesan cheese.

12:35 p.m. I give up and go up to my room, where it's quiet, for a quick nap to see if I can shake this headache.

2:10 p.m. Oops! That nap got away from me! Time to get cleaning and check in with Miss H to see how the packing is going for her trip to Boston. It's, in fact, not happening. We have a little chat about getting a list started and making sure everything she wants to take is clean before I head downstairs to dust.

3:00 p.m. Miss H's bestie comes over to show off her new car. And to help Miss H pack, thank heavens.

3:15 p.m. Yep, it's time to switch the laundry and fold a load. I warned you this was not going to be exciting!

3:25 p.m. Time for a little plant control. I bring in several pots of herbs over the winter which more than doubles the amount of plants I usually have in the house. If it's growing, it's now overgrown. That big plant? Started life as a housewarming gift in my first house in 1986 in a 4" pot. It's almost impossible to control and drops leaves like crazy but after 30 years, I can't get rid of it!

3:50 p.m. Quick run the vacuum over the first floor of the house. With cats and dust allergies, my vacuum gets a lot of use.

4:15 p.m. Time to pick up BG's car.

4:30 p.m. I've been using BG's anti-perspirant for the past few days and I'm tired of smelling like Timber. Time for a quick run to Walgreen's while I'm out. I see one of Mini-him's friends and end up chatting for a while.

4:50 p.m. Finally time for some reading. I've just gotten a book that's scheduled for review on Tuesday. No way I'm going to have time to finish it before then but I want to get far enough in that I can post something about it.

5:40 p.m. Back to laundry. Starting to sense a theme to my weekends?

6:10 p.m. The cats remind me that it is past their dinner time.

6:15 p.m.  I've got to make a couple of pies in the morning so I grab some recipes and put together a grocery list.

6:30 p.m. We're living large tonight - McDonald's for dinner. Because I just couldn't be bothered to make dinner and we don't have a lot of time to go out.

6:50 p.m. Time to shower (finally!) and get my face on. Saturdays are my day for a nice long shower; you'd think I'd want to get to it sooner.

7:40 p.m.  Head out the door for the Omaha Film Festival.


8:00 p.m. Pick up our tickets from will-call, browse the festival's auction, get our popcorn (because, as you know, we hadn't eaten in a very long time!), and meet up with our friends.


8:40 Movie time! We watch a movie called "Trivia Night" then enjoy a questions and answer period with the movie's director and writer/lead actor. One of the fun parts of the festival is getting to interact with the talent.

10:40 p.m. Because, as I've already pointed out, we haven't eaten enough, we and our friends swing by for a reverse happy hour. Some wine and beer, some appetizers, and some good conversation - right up until we realize they have just turned off the parking lot lights which must mean it's...

Midnight

You'd think that would be the end of my day but you would be wrong. We still need to swing by the grocery store. We get home about 12:25 a.m. It is then that we remembered that we have to get up early and that it's time to switch to Daylight Savings Time. When will we ever grow up and become responsible?!!