A Day in My Life - April 14th

Yesterday I took part in Jenny's "A Day in My Life" where you document your day each 14th. It was a lot of fun!

5:45am Alarm goes off. Listen to our local ABC radio while waking up - answer quiz questions in my head. Did you know a "spat" is a baby oyster? I didn't!

6am. Up & dressed. Make Pete's lunch - roll out of a saved pork chop, spanish onion and cucumber. No fruit so have to open a tin of apricots & spoon into a container. Really must go shopping!

6:20 Turn computer on. Realise it's the 14th so grab a piece of paper & start jotting down what's happened, while chatting to Pete.

6:30 Check email - read a few that look important and / or interesting. Moderate Freecycle group. Pete gets B up.

6:35 Pete leaves - kisses & wave goodbye. Snuggle with Billy on the lounge and watch Bob the Builder. "Can we fix it??" One episode is enough, grab laptop and go back to snuggle. check a couple of boards, print list of books due back at the library this week, renew some books that I know haven't been read yet. Make a mental note to start reading more books with Billy through the day.

7am. Make breakfast - dippy (poached) eggs & toast for us both, water for Billy, cup of tea for me. (I drink water constantly through the day so I won't be writing down every glass I have!) While doing that water the seedlings & cuttings, help Billy write an email to his Ma (Pete's mum), clean off kitchen counter, dry dishes and deal with tired, grumpy, whinging, over-partied 5yo..

7:30. Have breakfast while reading emails, blogs.

7:45 Clean up breakfast dishes. Give fridge a cursory clean out, empty scrap bin to worms, wash dishes, fold basket of clean clothes that I dumped on the lounge yesterday while frantically looking for a pair of socks to wear out. Interrupted several times by Billy "watch me do this one" or "can you help me with this" as he plays on the Curious George website. Realise how much needs to be ironed because I didn't deal with it straight away. :(

8:15 Finally get to have a shower. Make beds, quick tidy of bedrooms. Load of sheets on to wash. Start making grocery list. Billy chasing one of those bouncy superballs around the kitchen.

9am Ring Smash Repairs to find out procecedure (damage from bingle earlier in the year). I've been putting off getting it fixed because a) it's going to be a pain to have the car out of action and b) I was trying to save up the money first without dipping in to emergency fund. But Pete got a phone call from the insurance company on Friday to say they can't settle the other guy's repairs until we get our car fixed. Sounds ludicrous to me but there you go!

Take a quick break to check emails, answer a couple of work ones and type up day so far otherwise I'm going to be typing for hours tonight!

Read an email from a client that basically contradicts everything he told me on the phone earlier so I'll need to go out and see him. Flag it to get back to him once I know what's happening with the car.

9:30 Hang load of sheets out. Put load of towels in. Billy now making something (?) out of boxes. I'm afraid to ask what it is! Make a note as I walk past the vege garden that there are spinach & snow peas ready to pick so will have to add that to the menu plan. Get back to making the grocery list.

Watch "The Billy Show". He's dressed up with a clown's wig, blue gloves, headphones and singing & dancing! Oh and jumping out of aforementioned box creation. I'm still not sure what it is - maybe a jack in the box??

Dry dishes, get drink bottles filled and have a couple of vita weats with plastic (sliced) cheese for morning tea because that's all that's left in the house!

10:15 Give Billy a hurry up to get dressed. He stomps off to his room in a huff because I won't play the game on his computer. Hang load of towels out while looking anxiously at the clouds in the sky. Radar still looks clear though.

10:30 off to the smash repairers. He took photos etc etc - they need it for 3 days! It's a tiny scrape but he claims they need it for that long for the paint to dry. They're taking bookings from 28th April, so have to ring back and organise a time that's less incovenient than any other!

Off to Bilo. Was distracted by the fact that it was freezing in there - even in the normal aisles so standing in the meat aisle searching intently for decent looking meat at a reasonable price was torture!! It ended up being an expensive shop with needing things like washing powder, plus I bought nuts and some nice fetta cheese.

Came in just under budget. Had to put up with a tantrum on the way out by a very hungry boy (well I'm excusing him for that reason) because *he* wanted to press the OK button on the EFTPOS machine. (I used a prepaid Visa that I'd purchased with points from Homescan).

12:45 home to dripping clothes on the line (so much for the radar!), a parcel at the front door that I tried to distract Billy from (a b'day present for him) and a message on the answering machine. I brought the groceries inside, put the cold stuff in the fridge / freezer, got changed, and started making us some lunch. Macaroni with grated cheese and a strawberry milkshake for Master B and a toasted cheese sandwich for me (oh and a nice warm cup of tea). Went back for some rice crackers and a banana. Checked email, moderated freecycle groups and read a few blogs.

2pm Scanned groceries & put away. I'm part of an AC Nielsen project called HomeScan where they provide you with a scanner, and you scan all grocery items that you buy so they can see shopping trends. You earn points by doing it regularly - that's where my prepaid Visa came from. It gets to be a pain sometimes but luckily I don't shop very often!

2:30 Checked & answered emails. Booked car into smash repairers. Tested Billy's invention that dispensed afternoon tea.

3pm Foot's hurting so sat down with a book. Was interrupted several times to help Billy do stuff. Put roast on to cook for tea. Billy watched Backyard Science and then tried to duplicate a couple of the experiments. Did the ironing and put clothes away.

5:15pm Pete home. Peeled some veges to go with the roast. Parboiled potatoes and put on to roast. Picked spinach and snow peas, and steamed them along with a carrot. Washed up the dishes, containers & cooking utensils that had magically grown on the bench since this morning!

7pm. Pete watching football, so jumped back on the computer. Answered a couple of emails, updated Money with new transactions.

7:30pm Start Billy's shower, help him dry & dress afterwards. Pete goes in to practice reading with Billy and say goodnight. I tidy bathroom & choose a book to read to him. My turn. I read a book to him, he reads one to me, then we snuggle, talk about the good things that happened today and what we'll be doing tomorrow.

8:30pm Out to the kitchen to wash the dishes from tea, fill water bottles for tomorrow and sweep the floor.

Back in to turn Billy's light out.

9pm. I was supposed to be doing An Hour for the Planet tonight but Pete didn't go to squash, so will postpone it til Wednesday night. Review a document for a client and send her feedback.

9:30 Off to bed to read for a while and then lights out.