Welcome to the second year of A Day in the Life, hosted by Trish of Love, Laughter and a Touch of Insanity. At first glance, this is not my type of blog event. What do I care what people do with their days? Yet, somehow, I do care. I guess it’s true that how we spend our days is how we spend our lives, which is not a quote from Days of Our Lives, it’s from a serious book (The Writing Life by Annie Dillard.) I participated on a whim last year, and read every single post linked up – more than fifty. This year, seventy two bloggers have already linked up, so I’ve got some reading to do.

My day in the life was not a standard one at all; I was on vacation, the kids were in school, and my sister arrived from Minneapolis.To mix things up, I documented my day with Snapchat*. I kind of messed up, though. Instead of saving all the individual snaps I did that day, I saved my story as a video. So take a little look see, or read on for the text version.

Wednesday, March 23 2016

6:07 am: Wake up for the day. This is a sleep-in, I’m usually up for the day by 5:30. Leisurely breakfast (green smoothie), get ready, catch up on social media.

6:57 am: Wake Benjamin up, give him breakfast (dry Cinnamon Toast Crunch)

7:00 am: “Wake” Henry up, as in, dress him and brush his teeth while he sleeps

7:24 am: Make school lunch with disgusting soy-based “peanut” butter

7:43 am: Henry still sleeping, Benjamin is ready to go

7:48 am: Benjamin dropped off at school. Benefit of living across the street is that I can go from “one child still asleep” to “at school” in five minutes.

7:53 am: Henry eats breakfast (Cheerios, he must pour his own milk, and the milk must fill the bowl)

8:20 am: Henry dropped off at daycare. FREEDOM… to do errands. Also, snow.

8:45 am: Errand number one: get car washed at fancy car wash. This is a once-per-year treat. This year I let them upsell me on the vinyl package. It’s so shiny! I read a devastating chapter of Cat’s Eye while I wait.

9:27 am: Errand number two: I am the Easter Bunny. I love London Drugs. I contemplated buying a copy of Birdie by Tracey Lindberg (I got it from the library,) not knowing it had been kicked off Canada Reads just a half hour earlier. Rude!

10:03 am: Errand number three: groceries. First time in Oliver Square Safeway since they renovated; it’s pretty uppity now. I’m also pretty sick of Jamie Oliver’s smug grin everywhere I look.

10:38 am: Pit stop: I pay almost ten bucks for a cup of tea and toast with peanut butter and jam in a fancy cafe (Cafe Blackbird) because I’m on vacation, damn it.

10:58 am: Errand number four: stock up on bras at My Filosophy. When you find the one, you just know. And you go back to buy it in multiple colours. I also tried on some clothes (vacation!)

11:29 am: Pick up Benjamin at school. I could pick up Henry at this time too, but, decide to have some one-on-one time.

12:03 pm: Lunch at Delux. Benjamin enjoys watching soccer highlights on the big screen (“why do they take their shirts off when they’re happy? Do girl soccer players take their shirts off?”) and free cotton candy.

1:21 pm: Emails and stuff while Benjamin watches some bizarre BBC Kids program.

2:45 pm: Screen time continues; blog for me, TV for him.

3:00 pm: Hide and seek. Neither of us are very good.

3:15 pm: Pick up Henry at daycare.

3:44 pm: Head to the park. Drama ensues when they don’t want to play the same game, and Benjamin finds a friend to play with and Henry doesn’t, and I end up carrying Henry home crying. Henry weights almost 50 lbs, so this counts as cardio.

4:30 pm: Read the boys a Star Wars book they bought at yesterday’s book fair.

5:00 pm: Jason arrives home with 24 beers in preparation for my family visiting this weekend. Not clear if the beer is for them, or him. I start making supper – trying a new recipe from Simply Nigella (out from the library and I’ll likely purchase; I’ve now made five recipes and they’re all great! Tonight I made Cauliflower & Cashew Curry.)

5:41 pm: All three boys refuse to eat the DELICIOUS curry. Jason barbecues hot dogs.

6:00 pm: My review of The Wake goes up on The Rusty Toque. This is the first ever piece of writing I’ve been paid to do. I’m a little excited!

6:30 pm: Boys are back on screens after supper. I spend some… alone time with Jason. Five minutes later, Henry needs his butt wiped. So much for romance. No snaps of either of these events.

7:16 pm: Board game with Benjamin. Sequence Letters is great for letter recognition.

7:43 pm: Snack time. The boys made me buy a dragon fruit yesterday, so today I make them try it. I end up eating most of it. Very mild. Then we hang out and read/ have screen time for a bit.

8:15 pm: Jason puts Benjamin to bed. Benjamin goes down easy (always does.) I begin the nightly rigmarole with Henry, which includes stories, additional snacks, bathroom trips, stuffies, back rubs, and sometimes, all-out tantrums.

9:05 pm: Henry demands warm milk.

10:19 pm: Almost done. We’re in the “lying in bed beside him in a dark room, breathing steadily, trying to fake sleep/not really fall asleep” phase.

10:38 pm: He’s down. FREEDOM! (i.e. wasting time online)

11:30 pm: My mom drops my sister off at my house. She’s just picked her up from the airport; she is visiting for a couple days over Easter. Oh yeah, I bought a signed copy of Freedom and had it shipped to her house in Minnesota to avoid international shipping, and she’s brought it with her. Eeek! We stay up yakking for an hour.

12:30 am: To bed, more wasting time on my phone.

1:00 am: To sleep.

*It’s totally cool and normal for a 35 year old to be on Snapchat. Here are some tips for elder Snapchatters I found. Follow me, I’m lauratfrey!