Friday 27 March 2015

A Day in the Life

Today Trish is hosting an awesome blogger event called A Day in the Life. It's pretty self - explanatory - the idea is that everyone picks an ordinary day and just keeps a record of what they do and then shares. The day I journalled was actually this Tueday just gone as between then and now we've had a few odd days with appointments and then today Rhys has an extra day off work so we'll likely be out all day. I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone else's posts this evening though!

Day in the Life Event

If you want to join in the fun you can check out the other posts here

5.45am    Ben wakes up. Rhys goes in to stay with him and try to keep him in bed longer. It doesn't work all that well...

6.15am    I groggily respond to calls of 'mama!mama!' from Rhys and Ben (who think it's hilarious that they've made me get up!). Sam is now up too so we all hang out in the boys room having cuddles and reading a few stories. 

6.40am    I bring the boys downstairs. They play in the playroom while I make breakfast and Rhys gets read for work. 

7.30am   We have breakfast - cereal and toast. Rhys leaves for work. 

8am         Breakfast over, boys listen to Peter Rabbit audiobook and watch a little Fireman Sam while I do some blog stuff. 

9am        I hang laundry and play with the boys a little. This mostly involves throwing Sam in the air while he giggles madly and letting him bounce on my knees as if I were a trampoline. He gives a lot of kisses, which involve him grabbing my face in a fairly scratchy manner and then slobbering all over my face. Lovely :-) 
9.30am   Sam is grouchy so I put him down for a nap. 

10am      I do some painting with Ben while Sam naps. We are finishing off a 'Paint your Own Birdhouse' kit he got for Christmas. It's incredibly colourful, but most of the paint is running out so it's a good thing we're nearly done! After we finish we do a little drawing. Apparently drawing along a ruler is the funniest thing ever and causes Ben to laugh hysterically for a good five minutes. Then (predictably) we have to pretend pens are lightsabers and have a fight. Also predictably I have to be Darth Vader. It starts raining. 

10.50am   Sam wakes up. Ben and I get dressed (I know, really late!). We start to get ready to go for a walk but are interrupted by an impromptu dance party while listening to the soundtrack to the Muppets movie. 

11.15am    No walk yet, we got distracted by Beatrix Potter books, the favourite of the moment! We read most of The Tale of Mrs Tittlemouse and Sam is crying because he's hungry so we all have a snack. 

12 noon    We finally go for our walk! 

1,45pm    Back from our walk. We went down to the sea via the post office as I had to post some letters to international penpals. Ben counted boats (there were eight!) and Sam wore his Gruffalo jacket and giggled. Sam is sleeping when we get back and I'm anticipating having a little time to relax when Ben wakes him up by yelling. We have lunch. The boys eat while I check the fridge for leftovers to put in pasta sauce for the evening. 

2.30pm    Pasta sauce is on the hob. Eventually settled on carrots, mushroom and the last of the gammon from earlier in the week with tomatoes. Yum. We listen to the Muppets (again) while the boys play cars. I read some bloggiesta posts and then go and play cars with Ben. 

3.30pm    Boys watch another episode of Fireman Sam while I gather toys to bring on the bus trip to pick up Rhys from work (approximately 40mins). It's the first time we've taken the bus from our new house - up until now I've just been going to our old house and getting everywhere from there, so this is a big step! I'm finally accepting that I don't live in my old house anymore! (It is the same bus route as the old house, just further along but also perfect as a trial run to check how long it actually takes before I return to work on Monday!). 

4pm    We leave to pick up Rhys. The bus stop (just up the road) is about a half hour walk with Ben walking! Typically with me being so prepared with toys and snacks, both boys sleep the entire journey!

5.10pm   Arrive in Canterbury. Rhys doesn't finish til 6 so we go to the supermarket to pick up garlic bread for dinner and grab an extra drink. We walk around to Rhys' work and feed Sam while waiting. 

7pm     We get home after having to stop to pick up a carton of milk for Sam and feed him en route as he was beside himself crying for some reason. Teeth I think! Rhys puts Sam to bed while I cook pasta , garlic bread and reheat the sauce we made earlier. Rhys comes down from putting Sam to bed and we eat dinner. Ben and I look at his alphabet poster and talk about the letters and what sounds they make. For the past couple of days he's been obsessed with it! We've been going on 'letter hunts' outside where he basically spends a lot of time pointing at street signs and I tell him what the letters are.

8pm       Rhys takes Ben up to bed and I load up the laptop to work on the blog. 

9.30pm  I finish working on the blog. I've made social media icons which are pretty, the right size and work. This is incredible for me as my technical ability is pretty much zero! I've also commented on lots of Bloggiesta posts  so I'm pretty happy with what I've done!

9.30 - 11pm  I make a few more slips for my TBR jar and think about getting a bigger jar. I've only done nonfiction and graphic novels so far and it's already half full! I still have eight shelves of fiction to go, plus kids books I haven't read yet! After that I curl up with my book. I'm determined to finally finish Peter Duck after months of reading it and move along to the next book in the series for my big Swallows and Amazons read! I don't quite manage to finish as my eyes are closing, but I do only have one chapter left to go! 

11.30ish   Bed! Inevitably woken up at 2.50am by Ben refusing to accept it's the middle of the night. After 45 mins of struggling to get him to stay in his bed I give up and stick him in ours where he immediately falls asleep. Typical. 

So that was my day! Next week they'll start to look a lot different as I'm back at work two days a week and Rhys is in charge!  

What do your days look like? Anything like mine or totally different? 

31 comments:

  1. I'm tired just reading about your day. I think it is very cool that you can go for a walk to the sea. I'm landlocked here.

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  2. Sounds fun and busy with your boys.

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  3. What precious little boys! Loved the pictures. You are a busy Mom indeed. Love the idea of a TBR jar! Thanks for inviting us along!

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  4. I did Tuesday for my Day in the Life, too! Fun with Bloggiesta going on.

    Love the photos of your little guys -- especially the one looking out to sea (the sea is so far from where I live, that I consider all coastlines exotic).

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  5. Birdhouse paint time is just too cute! What a fun day!

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  6. It sounds like a lovely lovely day! Cute boys! :)

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  7. Such a full day! I always feel "lazy" when I complain about waking up at 6h30 and I don't have kids yet :/. Your kids are so adorable! Thanks for sharing :D

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  8. That sounds so tiring! I'm impressed with the long jaunts on foot, my kids would have whined too much.

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  9. Sounds like quite a busy day! I do wish little ones would sleep longer. The early morning stuff slays me. Love the pictures!

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    1. Thanks Katherine! I hate the early morning too, I basically just stumble around being unable to form proper sentences and trying to stop people from falling headfirst into stuff for the first half hour at least. Maybe when they're older they'll sleep more. I remember sleeping all the time as a teenager!

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  10. When we were in Ireland two years ago, I was so impressed by how many mums I saw walking about with their children in the cold (50F) weather. You just don't see it here--maybe because our layouts are a bit different--without a city center? I know I should be better about getting out and walking with the girls but I'm a weather wimp.

    Love that Rhys puts the kiddos to bed--we both do it at our house but sometimes after I've been with the girls ALL day I just want to relax ALONE for a few minutes.

    And why must we always play the bad or boring character? We've JUST started roll playing at home and I want to be the cool character. ;) Thanks for sharing Bex.

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    1. I think the layout probably helps here - we spend a lot of time walking down to the town centre. It doesn't help that on the way we pass a playground and the library so we usually end up being out loads longer than I anticipated!

      I totally get what you mean about wanting to be alone for a while! Sometimes after they're in bed, even, he'll be trying to talk to me and I'm like 'ssshhh for a few minutes please'. Silence is necessary sometimes!

      Thanks for hosting it, I really had fun keeping track of my day - it made me realise that even when I feel like I'm not doing much with them or paying them enough attention I'm actually doing ok :-)

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  11. Your boys are adorable! And I wish I could walk down to the sea, so pretty.

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    1. Thank you! We are so lucky to live so close, even when the weather is bad it's beautiful :-)

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  12. What an exhausting day! To be one of your kids though . . . It sounds like fun. :-)

    I remember the days when my daughter would wake up in the middle of the night and want to play. I am so glad she sleeps through the night now. If only I could . . . Haha

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    1. Absolutely exhausting! Honestly they're mostly pretty good about sleeping through, just on occasion they wake us up in the middle of the night, but I can't really complain.

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  13. I'm envious of that sea-side view!!

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  14. Your boys are so cute! The difference between little kids and tweens is tweens sleep in much later. :)

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  15. I am so jealous that you can just take a walk to the sea! Your day is definitely a lot different from mine and it was so fun to read about!

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  16. Can I come over and play? I wanna sing along to the Muppets! ;-) It sounds like loads of fun at your house.

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  17. Precious children. Sounds like a great day. So jealous of your walk!

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  18. Wow! Sounds like you and your two little guys have some full, fun days. But I also imagine it's nice to be at work as well. Thanks for sharing your day!

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    1. It's really nice to have a mix of both :-) My job is pretty low stress so it's nice to not have to worry about keeping anyone except myself alive on those days!

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  19. What a great post! I love reading about reading Beatrix Potter and counting boats. I miss the toddler years.

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    1. They are lovely, I just have to keep reminding myself of all the lovely bits when we're in the midst of a tantrum or refusing to share things or refusing to eat favourite foods!

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  20. I have a little one too and I keep trying to remind myself that one day I'll have to wake him up.... in like thirteen years.

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    1. Haha it seems far away doesn't it? I'm sure once this stage has passed I will miss it, but maybe not the early mornings!

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  21. Its a good solid day! I love reading about everyone's family life - now that the kids are grown my hubby works a ton of hours for our business and I am running around planning events and working freelance it seems like we do not have a lot of that time together. I miss it!

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  22. Very nice blog and a very busy day.

    Thanks for sharing.

    Elizabeth

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  23. I miss impromptu dance parties with my kids! It's so much less fun by yourself! How great that Beatrix Potter is a favorite right now. It's amazing that the old books still have the power to entertain after all of these years.

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