It’s back! Follow along for my “A Week in My Life” the 2012 version, coming to you each day this week! This particular week that I am recapping occurred exactly two weeks ago, beginning on Monday, October 1, 2012. I hope you enjoy this very detailed look into the inner workings of my life!
5:00am: My alarm goes off and I quickly jump out of bed to silence it before it wakes up G. I am not an early riser by nature. If I had the kind of life that required no alarm clock, or schedule, or zero self-care, my day wouldn’t start until lunchtime, easily.
Or happy hour.
But here I am, awake at 5am, standing two steps away from my bed because that is where I need to put my alarm clock to guarantee that I actually get up and out of bed when it goes off, versus hitting snooze and cursing every nine minutes for the next two hours.
I should be cursing though, considering I have an 8 mile run ahead of me.
I should be cursing my friend Jill, more precisely, for talking me into running another half marathon next month with her.
5:20am: It’s 41°F and pitch black when I step outside and start my 8 mile run.
This is not my idea of a good morning.
6:45am: Back from my run. I ran my 8 at a 9:12 min/mile pace (not bad for me) and ran my 400th mile of the year! I hop in the shower and when I get out I see that Kate is now awake. I say good morning to her and G, and and G brings Kate downstairs to feed her breakfast while I get ready for the day.
7:30am: I come downstairs, give Kate a big kiss while she sits at the kitchen table and she unexpectedly replies, “I love you, Mom.”
Now that’s is my idea of a good morning!
I give G a kiss goodbye as he leaves for work, and I make myself a cup of coffee with almond milk and vanilla protein powder – my favorite morning workout recovery drink. I clean up after Kate’s breakfast and she watches Super Why (a cartoon on PBS all about letters and spelling – her current obsession) while I figure out our menu and grocery list for the week.
8:30am: Alright, time to focus on getting out the door. I grab clothes for Kate, get her dressed, and pack a bag with some snacks for her to enjoy while we run our morning errands. I tell Kate that I need to use the potty before we leave and, and in a surprising role reversal, she joins me in the bathroom, sits on the stool in front of the potty and proceeds to read me a book while I go – something that G and I usually do for her!
8:45am: We’re out the door! Our usually Monday morning errands are a trip to Whole Foods, followed by a trip to Target (for groceries and other essentials), and today is no exception. Kate cheerfully plays with her magic wand in the backseat as I tell her Whole Foods will be our first stop.
8:50am: Kate’s magic wand breaks. It’s supposed to spin and light up when she presses a button but now it’s not working.
“That makes me so sad,” she explains to me with concern.
I think it just needs new batteries so I tell her we’ll go to Target and get some after our stop at Whole Foods. I ask her to remind me so I don’t forget. She then tells me she’s hungry so I offer her a homemade granola bar and she proceeds “carseat drive” between bites on our way to the grocery store: “It’s green, Mom. . .red means stop.”
We arrive at Whole Foods and when I open the back door to get her out I see a pile of almonds in the car door. Kate has decided that this space in the car door is “the garbage” and apparently this is her way of telling me she no longer wants almonds added to the trail mix snack I gave her yesterday. Dully noted.
Almonds in “the garbage.” |
9:45am: We check out at Whole Foods, Kate asks for stickers from the cashier (like she always does) and is thrilled to receive them (like she always is) and we’re on our way to Target!
10:12am: Arrive at Target. We need to pick out a card for Grandma Lisa (my mom) whose birthday is in a couple of weeks. Kate absolutely loves the greeting card section at Target and from her seat in the cart she directs me to grab various greeting cards for her to see and inspect. Music cards are her favorite and she decides to hold this one hostage, playing it 1,697 times as we stroll through the store for other things we need:
10:47am: We check out, and leave Target. Once I have Kate buckled into her carseat she tells me that she needs to go potty. Back into Target we go!
11:00am: We leave Target (again). Unfortunately they didn’t have the special batteries we needed for Kate’s magic wand so I tell her we’ll need to go to the battery store to find them. She tells me again that she’s “so sad” her wand isn’t working, and I can tell this time that she’s losing faith that it really will be fixed.
“Can we go to the battery store now, please?” she asks with raised eyebrows and a look of defeat.
11:10am: We arrive at the battery store and Kate skips in saying, “I’m so happy!” She goes right up to the sales lady at the counter, holds out her wand and asks, “Can you fix my magic wand, please?”
Kate, closely supervising the repair of her magic spelling wand. |
11:15am: Twelve dollars later (about 10x more than I paid for it in the first place), Kate’s magic wand is fixed and we are on our way home.
11:30am: Home.
I carry in groceries and make lunch while Kate sits at the kitchen table and practices cutting construction paper (one of her favorite activities right now).
12:00pm: Lunch time. Kate’s lunch is a peanut butter/banana/raisin roll-up with sliced pears and bunny crackers, milk, and a green smoothie. I eat a ham & triple cheese panini w/flax corn tortilla chips, hummus, and a green smoothie.
12:30pm: I put Kate down for her nap and return downstairs to put away groceries and clean up the kitchen. Kate pretty much never naps anymore, but we still put her down for a nap with the expectation that she stays in bed and at least tries to sleep. If, after about an hour, it doesn’t appear like she’s going to sleep we go in and get her. At the very least it’s a good chance for her to rest and get a bit of a sensory break.
1:00pm: The kitchen is clean so I sit down for a moment of relaxation while I browse through my local grocery co-op’s newspaper, which is packed with great food/healthy eating articles.
1:30pm: I check the monitor for the dozenth time to see that Kate is still not asleep and it’s clear she will not fall asleep for nap today. I go into her room to tell her naptime is over and discover her reading the book “Are You My Mother?” to her doll and puppy:
2:00pm: Kate and I come downstairs and we make harvest spice cookies. As we add ingredients and stir Kate says, “You’re such a good helper, Mommy! Let me give you a kiss.”
Kate giving kisses is a brand new thing, so of course I was just eating that up!
Mixing up cookie batter with Kate – her baby doll even helped with the stirring! |
2:45pm: Cookies are the in oven, and Kate, baby, and I take a potty break. As we wash our hands afterwards Kate wants to wash baby’s hands and I tell her that we can’t get baby’s hands wet (they’re fabric) – we only wash her hands for pretend.
“Why?” Kate asks.
“Because she’s a toy. Toys don’t wash their hands with soap and water, only humans – like you.”
“I’m not a human!” she exclaims.
“Yes you are,” I laugh in response. “You’re a human, and Mommy’s a human. Just like you’re a girl, and I’m a girl.”
“You’re not a girl,” she responds, matter-of-factly. “You’re Mommy.”
2:50pm: I sit down to write some notes about the afternoon while Kate plays in the living room. I also remember to call Kate’s daycare to ask about a change in her schedule this week. Grandma Pam needs to switch the day she comes to take care of Kate from Wednesday to Friday.
3:05pm: I take the cookies out of the oven, and Kate and I walk to the playground to play while they cool. I see a former colleague of mine there with her three children (who also go to Kate’s daycare, so Kate knows them as well) and we chat while our kids play.
4pm: Back from the playground. Kate picked wildflowers that we had to bring home and put in a vase.
Harvest spice cookies and wildflowers – both from the hands of my two-year-old. |
The cookies are cooled and I offer one to Kate but she refuses to eat it – nothing new when it comes to my picky little eater!
I ask her what she’d like to do next, give her a few options, and she chooses to bake something else. We make individual fruit crisps and she gobbles up the pieces of apples and peaches almost faster than I can cut them for the recipe!
4:30pm: Fruit crisps are in the oven, and Kate’s on the potty, needing “privacy, please.” I start unloading the dishwasher, but then Kate summons me into the bathroom to read her a book while she does her business.
4:40pm: Back to unloading the dishwasher and cleaning up the kitchen (for the second time today) while Kate enjoys the PBS app on the iPad.
4:53pm: I lied. Instead of cleaning up the kitchen I got on the laptop and checked FB instead.
Okay, now back to unloading the dishwasher and cleaning up the kitchen.
5pm: I look out the window and notice a huge fricking BLIMP flying low over our house!
A blimp flying over our house. Just your typical Monday night in suburbia. |
I grab Kate and we run outside to look at it, but she’s unimpressed (like blimps fly by every day?!) and wiggles out of my arms to go back inside.
Blimps have nothing on iPads.
5:20pm: I prep Kate’s dinner and tell her it’s time to get off the iPad. She’s not a fan of that idea and negotiates “a few more minutes, Mom.” When a few minutes are over, she still doesn’t want to close it (of course), so I give her the old “I’m going to count to three…” bit:
“Either you can close the iPad, or Mommy will. I’m going to count to three and if you don’t close it, I am going to. One…two…three…”
She doesn’t close it, so I do, which of course leads to her getting upset. She cries for a few seconds, but thankfully she’s quickly over it. I’ve found that the “I’m going to count to three…” thing works pretty well with her when she knows her choices up front. There’s no surprises and she knows there’s also no negotiations.
5:30pm: Kate’s dinnertime. Normally G would be home by now and we’d try to eat a family dinner, but he’s at the Milwaukee Brewer’s baseball game tonight, so that’s not happening. Kate’s dinner consists of leftovers (her leftover peanut butter/banana roll from lunch, and a leftover homemade cranberry nut bar) and a fruit cup fresh out of the oven. I plan to eat later, but we sit together and chat while she eats.
5:45pm: Kate isn’t really interested in eating. She tells me she’s “all done” so I wash her up and we go in the living room to play. First, Kate, puppy, and I play her Super Why Letter Game:
…and then we do some puzzles until bedtime:
Putting together her Map of The USA puzzle – one of her favorites! |
6:10pm: We start bedtime a little early tonight because we’ve had a full day and I can see Kate is fading fast. I change her into her pajamas, we brush teeth and floss, I read her a book, and we say prayers.
6:30pm: I give kisses and say goodnight to Kate and come downstairs to start my own dinner. I decide on shrimp and pasta. G’s not a fan of shrimp so I like to make it on nights he won’t be home.
I turn on the TV and an episode of Giuliana and Bill is playing. YES! I love me some Giuliana & Bill!
I pour myself a glass of chardonnay and as I dig through the recipes in my secretary I spot this card I recently received from my friend Allison:
Love this card from my dear friend, Allison. |
It is one of my absolute favs, so I pull it out, deciding I need to tack it onto my bulletin board at work, and toss it in my handbag.
7pm: Dinner time!
My dinner: baked shrimp and pasta |
7:30pm: All done eating, now it’s time for blogging, drinking chardonnay, and watching NBC’s The Voice.
9:30pm: I hit publish on tomorrow’s blog post. It’s bedtime for me!
10:00pm: I get upstairs and realize I had forgotten about a package that arrived today from JCrew. I try on the dresses I ordered for my sister-in-law Lesley’s upcoming wedding, and decide I like none of them.
10:30pm: Okay, now I’m going to bed.
Great post! Will you share your recipe for the harvest spice cookies?
Oh my word, the picture of Kate with the glasses on? Who is the 6 year old?!?!?
Pfft, I don’t want the recipe for the harvest cookies, I want the recipe for the SMART COOKIE! I just love Kate so much, love the videos! Her gentle soul, mixed with intelligence, mixed with the cutest haircut ever – Watch out world!
(ok, I lied, I’ll take the harvest cookie recipe too)
Do you mix protein powder into hot coffee? I have heard that it clumps and gets gross.
how long does it take for Kate to go down for the night
I have an almost two month old and am a runner as well so I’m curious to see how you get your workouts in. I’m still trying to figure that out. Also, do you use an app to track your milage?
Thank you for your comments, everyone!
@Amy: I couldn’t remember where I got that recipe, but I tracked it down and it turns out it’s a recipe from my friend Susan over at Our Family Eats! Here’s a link: Harvest Spice Breakfast Cookies from Our Family Eats. I’ll link it up in my post, too. Hope you like them!
LOL Leah! She’s been looking so much older to me these past couple of months, too. It’s crazy how fast they grow, isn’t it?!
Thank you so much, Allison!! Your comment has me beaming. I’m such a proud mama!
@Anonymous: I blend the protein powder with almond milk before adding it to my coffee. You can see my recipe here: Coffee/Vanilla Protein Recovery Drink
@Anonymous: Our bedtime routine usually takes about 30 minutes. Once it’s lights out and we leave her bedroom she’s usually asleep pretty quickly – I’d say within 30 minutes or so. Does that answer your question?
@Angie: You’ll definitely get a good look at how I squeeze my workouts in in this week’s recaps! I use a GPS runner’s watch to track my mileage when I’m running, and I just use the little widget in the right sidebar of my blog (which I update manually) to track my total mileage for the year. Hope that helps!
I had to laugh because my daughter, also two, loves SuperWhy as well. My husband and I do not get it because it seems a little advanced for her but she insists!
@Amy S: It’s such a great show, and clearly a hit with the kiddos!
Hi! Do you have any tips on quick menu planning? It seems like you always have a good amount of leftovers for lunches and homemade snacks on hand? I feel like menu planning takes me forever. Do you look at sales flyers for Target or Whole Foods first? Thx! cc in VA
@CC in VA: I’m actually incredibly terrible when it comes to checking out the sales and clipping coupons. We have a large freezer in our garage, so I stock up on chicken when I see that it’s on sale and we buy our fish in bulk from Costco, which helps cut costs. We also buy 1/4 of a cow from a local farm so we have a freezer full of beef pretty much at all times. As long as I plan ahead and defrost we always have fish, chicken or beef as an option for dinner without me needing to head to the grocery store (other than for sides or additional ingredients). After that, I just think about what we haven’t had in a while, what I feel like cooking, anything in the fridge or cupboard that needs to get used up before it expires, etc. and that’s how I decide what to make for the week. I like to make large dinners on the nights that I cook (often doubling recipes) so G and I have leftovers for lunches and possibly even another dinner later in the week. Hope that helps!
Love those wall calendars/organizers in your kitchen! Can you share where you bought those?