Day in the life: Election Day and Pretend to be an Extrovert Day

My, um, cousin-in-law(?), Sarah, has been hosting two weekly themes on her blog and while I've wanted to join in, I either can't remember to do it until the day has passed, or I can't remember what I've done over the last week well enough to cobble together a post.  This has led me to reflect that perhaps I need to think a little more about what I am doing on a day to day basis!  It isn't that I feel like I'm missing out on life because I'm too involved in my to-do list, but rather I'm generally present in the moment but forgetting just about everything shortly thereafter.  Some of it, I'm sure, is due to my semi-permanent state of sleep deprivation (Justin is still up 2-3 times a night, ugh!) but some of it is due to my lack of down time.  It is so much harder to reflect when I am always caught up in the doing.

So I've been thinking it would be fun to do "a day in the life" sort of post occasionally.  I would like to have occasional records so I can better remember what this phase of my life was like, and I'm hoping by doing this I might be able to make better memories in my own mind.

So, without further ado...  My election day and pretend to be an extrovert day.

5:45 - woke up with a jolt, all of a sudden remembering that in last night's exhaustion I left my homemade enchilada sauce cooling in a water bath over night rather than putting it in containers to freeze.  Justin and Matt woke up a few minutes later and we decided to get ready to hike.

6:05 - Matt, Justin and I hiked our usual trail.  About 4800 steps and 40 minutes.  And thanks to the time change, we don't have to wear headlamps anymore.  Hooray!

6:45 - back at home, everyone is up.  Dish out crockpot oatmeal for everyone, and tried to read my email while feeing Justin and myself.  Gave up after a few minutes, but went back to it for a bit once Justin was done.

7:05 - cleaned up in the kitchen, headed up for a shower.  Left the baby in Emma's capable hands.

7:30 - back downstairs, did some gathering for our errands and finally put the sauce in the freezer.

8:00 - realized that if I didn't do my morning prayer now, it wasn't going to happen.  Nursed Justin to keep him happy, prayed the Magnificat morning prayer and reflection, skipped my usual Bible and commentary reading in the interests of time, and read day two in 33 Days to Morning Glory.  Emma, the 10 year old, worked on schoolwork so she wouldn't have to bring as much with her.

8:15 - Justin is done nursing and I'm finished with my short form of morning prayer.  More getting ready to go and also starting on dinner in the crockpot.

8:35 - gathered the children for our morning prayer.  Prayed the Mass readings with the children and had them narrate the Epistle and Gospel readings.

8:50 - told kids to use the bathroom and get shoes on, then take stuff out to the car.  Finished up the meal in the crockpot (black beans with tomatoes and pork, using some extra pork I cooked on Sunday - thank you Leila for reminding me how smart it is to cook a little more meat while I'm at it!) while they loaded the stuff.  Thought about making the coleslaw I had planned, but decided I was out of time.

9:10 - in the car and heading out to a friend's house.  Listened to a couple of narrations, then we started listening to The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (a Librivox recording I would recommend, by the way).

10:00 - At our friends' house.  The boys play and Emma plops down at the table to do schoolwork with the other kids.  My friend and I discuss California propositions as she finishes up her ballot.   The next few hours are spent visiting, helping kids with school work, and having a discussion about food and simplifying.  I'm trying to get a group of women together once a month or so to talk about these sorts of things.  This was our third meeting and while it went better than our second, I wish more people could have made it.  But sick kids, travel, and work schedules interfered.  But still, we had a good discussion about kefir, kumbucha, yogurt, trying to figure out which of these food things are worth doing.  We talked a little about simplifying Christmas, but that sort of petered out as people needed to leave and kids needed to be fed.  I also had a good conversation with my friend about how much I like being scheduled and following a schedule...  but I think to the point that I rely on it too much and it makes me anxious when it isn't there, or is there but isn't being followed and there's nothing I can do about it.  I tend towards anxiety anyway (especially since Justin's birth) and I am not sure I had realized how much I am managing anxiety by existing in my little scheduled world.  I don't think I'm on a fundamentally wrong-headed path, but I do think I need to open up our routine a little more so we can make more connections with other families.

2:10 - After a great conversation with the 15 year old daughter of my friend about her soon to be published book, we jumped in the car and headed out.

2:25 - Stopped in at the ranch and picked up two dozen eggs.  Since we've decided that a) we didn't want to keep a coop full of convenient bear snacks and b) we didn't want to build a concrete bunker chicken coop, we have been getting our eggs from a friend from church.  I miss the chickens and eggs, but I do not miss having to wake up in the middle of the night to scare off bears!!  And I like seeing my friend almost every week and getting a chance to keep in closer contact with her.

3:05 - Religious Ed. for Gregory, my 6 year old.  Justin and Nathan slept in the car while Emma and Gregory had a snack and played.  I chatted with some of the volunteers and tried to nicely explain why my family wasn't likely to ever go to the monthly Children's Mass.

3:25 - back in the car, and out to a local farm.

3:35 - picking strawberries - our last fresh strawberries until next June!  We picked 13 baskets and we'll be making jam tomorrow.

4:35 - Back in the car to go pick up Gregory.

5:00 - heading out again, now to the grocery store.  (So glad that most days don't involve this much running around!)  Everyone is in good spirits though, and we have fun shopping together.  I only ended up with one egregious purchase - two bags of Heath toffee chips.  They were on sale at least...

5:45 - off to the county elections office to drop off our ballots.  We went in and looked around - they were setting up to film local election announcements in the lobby.  It was busy, but by no means packed.  There were only a couple of people waiting in line.

6:00 - home!  Unpack the car, start some rice for dinner, quickly make the slaw in the food processor.

6:40 - Dinnertime.  Phew!

7:15 - Dishes, reviewing election results.  Emma starts in on her programming homework so she can be ready for her programming class with Matt at 1:00 on Wednesday.  Boys picked up and then played educational stuff on the iPad.

8:00 - I took Justin and hid upstairs for a bit to read a few blogs while Justin emptied out many of the contents of my bathroom drawers.

8:20 - feeling slightly less tired and overwhelmed, I got Justin ready for bed, and nursed him while praying the Rosary.

8:45 - Started typing this on my iPad, then remembered that Blogger doesn't get along well with Safari on the iPad.

9:00 - Gave up, came downstairs and remembered I was supposed to enter receipts tonight.  Sighed, decided to be responsible, and did it.  I was glad to see that there wasn't much to do.

9:20 - Checked out election results then switched over to typing this.  Now it is almost 10 and about time to go to bed.  I'll read this over once, add a few links, hopefully catch any truly horrible typos, write tomorrow's chores up on the frame, check the kitchen for anything that was left out, then head to bed.  I'll read today's Catechism section, maybe read a little of The Fire Within if I'm up to it, then go to sleep.  And I'll probably be up at midnight, three, and 5:30 again with a little guy who doesn't understand that 13.5 month olds should really, really, really be able to sleep through the night by now!!

I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise that I'm so tired these days...  but you know what?  It is a very good life.  And I'm extremely thankful for it.