A Day in the Life

[Geila]

I was thinking about Chicken Lady's dilemma with her current situation. And I thought maybe if we shared parts of our own lives, it might help her gain some perspective on hers. And it would be a fun thing to do for it's own sake. Sharing a day in the life of a regular person who seeks a simple life... whether we've achieved it or not. Since it's anonymous, we can be honest, no need to curate/gloss/embellish.

I'll start it off and see if there's interest. If not, then the thread will just die a natural death.

A day in my life: Friday, July 28th

7:14 am, get up, it's later than I'd like but last night I didn't get to bed till 11 pm
Walk with the dogs - 2 miles
Give med to dog and treats after
Go out to breakfast - make to do list for fri/sat/sun, bring leftovers home
Put bed sheets into the washer
Apply flea meds to the 3 pets
Request City service for neighborhood issue
Take food out of the freezer for dinner
Quick email to family member and friend
Pick up after pets
20 min play session with the pets (even the cat got in on the action!)
Put sheets back on the bed, pick up house in prep for cleaning
Clean house - thoroughly - 5 hrs - might do a separate post about this (eat breakfast leftovers for lunch)

4:30 pm - Gym - 75 mins, swim laps and jacuzzi
Feed pets when I get home
Shower
Eat dinner - from batch cooking - beef tacos and spanish rice
Post on Simple Living to keep myself awake - it's 7:50 p.m., too late for a nap and too early for bed

Later I will wash up after dinner (Dh working late), wipe down kitchen counters, prep coffee maker for tomorrow, give dog her meds, get ready for bed, and pass out! I forgot - I'm trying out the Crest Whitening strips and will pop those in for 30 minutes at some point.

[early morning]

Ok, I'll play.

Up at 5:30; wake up DH, who goes back to sleep
5:35: feed cats, start coffee, scoop litter, shower, dress in scuffy
6:00 start my breakfast, tell DD that DH will need shower, does she need bathroom first. She goes back to sleep. Eat, drink coffee. Lots. Check work email
6:30 wake up DH again; log into computer to ck banking/credit card balances, pay some bills
7:00 more coffee, pack lunch (and leave in fridge) as DD and DH sort of eat breakfast
7:45 follow DH so I can pick him up after he drops of truck for brakes, take him to oral surgeon ap't that I've taken a few hours off work to attend, drop him back home and pick up my lunch and more coffee
9:30 - finally leave for work
10:15: work, meetings for work, calls for work, reports, emails, another meeting off site
3:30: meeting over, head home a little early (one of the few meeting perks!) - errands: Aldi, Dollar General for small number of items
4:45: home - deal with VERY angry DH due to nasty snafu with washer repair people - try to calm him down, talk to repair people, complaint lodged with head company; check work email
5:30: DD home, cook supper, clear up, run dishwasher, wash pots that can't go in dishwasher, feed outside cats
6:45: pull some items to take to booth tomorrow, price, look up info on several items
8:00; collapse in chair, watch two episodes of Gilmore Girls, talk to my sister on the phone
10:15: clean bathroom (hit the high spots only!), get coffee ready for AM, plot out what might go into the new antique booth we're stocking starting next week, read for a while, get coffee ready for morning; read here
12:00 - get ready for bed - I get to sleep in tomorrow, until 6:30!!

[nswef]

This makes me realize how serene my life is. Yesterday was a going out day. 7:30 up after a very rough night of sleep, dress
7:40 make coffee, do stretches, slice banana for DH
8:15 drink coffee, write in journal
8:50 slice peaches for breakfast, more coffee, eat
9:25 change clothes into "going out"
10:30 arrive at restaurant for breakfast and talk with college friend ( 45 years!)
2:15 head back home, storms coming and want to avoid flash floods- usually we'd keep talking until 3 or 4pm.
3:30 home and happy no trouble
3:45 check computer, spend way too much time
4:30 TV- Queen Sugar catching up
5:45 make dinner, clean up
7:00-10 read the paper, do the cypher, watch tv..computer...
10:00 water pic, brush teeth, take bath, clean tub, do neck stretches,
10:45 in chair reading
11:00 bed

[catherine]

Friday, July 28th: Happens to be a very light work day.
6:30 dog wakes me up. I check my phone (for calls/emails from kids) and sleep pattern on my Fitbit
6:32 rise, find I need to make another pot of coffee (one pot usually lasts 2 days).
6:35 take dog out on a walk
6:50 feed dog, cap it off with a home made treat of peanut butter in an old marrow bone.
7:00 internet time: browse around, plan day, make list, check on this forum, FB, NYT, WSJ, CNN. Watch a Brian Johnson video. Follow any other bunny trails around the web
8:00 wash & dress, make bed, do light picking up
10:00 chat with DH about stuff in general
10:30 note that a discussion guide came back from a client with a few minor edits. I make them and send back.
11:00 Putter
11:30 Have a text convo with my DD about whether or not she should purchase a certain dinnerware pattern. I tell her I need more (free) cleanser from the high-end cosmetics firm she works for.
12:00 more puttering--I actually have no idea WHAT I did for the next couple of hours. This is NOT typical on a working day, but it sure is nice!
2:00 DH alerts me that the lawn mower brake cable is broken and wants me to help diagnose the problem. We determine it needs a new one, so we find the part on Amazon and order it.
2:30 go to the farm stand to buy Jersey corn and tomoatos (mmm).
2:45 get home to hear the lawn mower going: DH was able to jerry-rig something to get it working!l
4:00 respond to more work emails
4:30 order a rain jacket online from a gift card I have
4:45 peruse recipes for a zucchini/cucumber dish for dinner--see I need olives so..
5:00 go out to a Walgreens and buy olives (the Friday night traffic on the Main Street through town was ridiculous)
5:15 prepare dinner for me--DH plans on eating a Bubba Burger
6:00 tend to garden, help DH re-place the lawn furniture
7:00 sit down for dinner while watching Jeopardy
8:00 go for a walk to the church at the end of my street as a multitasking endeavor: I get in 2,000 steps on the Fitbit and when I get there I spend 20 minutes meditating/praying
8:45 return home. Debate whether I should eat the other half of a black and white cookie. I eat it. There go the calories I just burned.
9:00 DH scans movie options on Amazon Prime. We decide on Gone Baby Gone GREAT movie.
10:40 do a plank. Go to bed. Read a bit of St. John of the Cross, a little of Melissa Coleman's book about her family.
11:00 lights out.

Geila: I'm doing the Crest whitening strips, too! Let me know what you think!

[Tybee]

This is so interesting to read! To do this, I will have to start tomorrow and try to keep a time map, which is something I have been wanting to do anyway. Right now, it's all kind of a blur. I need to start in the am, so I will try to begin tomorrow.

[SteveinMN]

Yesterday was my first "normal" day after several days of traveling, so let's see how "normal" it was:

6:30 Alarm goes off. Ten minutes extra sleep for my wife; ten minutes of petting for the dog.
6:40 Feed the dog. Prep something for myself for breakfast (I find I'm better off eating soon after I awaken).
6:50 Start catching up on the email blizzard I passed over while I was on the road and had only cellular data.
7:30 Get wife ready to leave for work, verifying her schedule and weekend commitments.
7:40 Finish breakfast, empty dishwasher, and start refilling dishwasher.
8:00 Back to the stuff I missed on-line and take a look at the local papers (on-line). Jeez, I wish some companies realized I like to hear from them, but I don't need to see the same tweet four times in three days and I don't plan to buy hundreds of dollars of electronics Every. Single. Day. Time wasting... I'm also icing down a toe that feels -- broken? The pain comes and goes. Today is not a good day to be off my feet.
8:30 Shower/shave/etc. for volunteer work at Second Harvest.
9:00 Out the door to drive to SH.
9:30 Move boxes of frozen food around. Good crew; I move more than 5,000 pounds of food from pallet to sorting table to pallet.
12:30 Didn't have anything at home ready for lunch, so visited the Chinese Buffet restaurant. Not that I eat a lot there, so it's kind of expensive for lunch, but I'm tired, I don't have to prep, they serve me iced tea right away, and I can pick and choose from the offerings at my whim.
1:10 Drive home.
1:30 Back home; shower and change after working. Take the opportunity to put away my traveling bag and its contents.
1:50 Check email again and check voicemail and make a couple of follow-up calls to people. One of them is my mom. There's a "bug infestation" at her house (turns out that means more than six houseflies). Try to call her back to find out when I can come over to address the issue but the phone is always busy because she forgot to shut it off after talking on the phone. This goes on for almost an hour while I'm noodling along on the computer, checking Facebook and craigslist. More icing of my toe.
2:40 Finally decide the phone will never be on-hook until I tell her it's off and go to the house. Pick up some items which we've amassed for the next time we see her.
2:45 Get to the house and find out my mom is worried her five-pound dog has been trying to eat the bugs which have been sprayed with about half a can of Raid. I go outside to see if there's an entry point for them. Also diddle with a "universal" garage door opener I got on ebay to replace the one she can no longer find, only to find that the opener in the garage is apparently out of this world -- and universe -- since no combination of button pressing and clicking teaches it the right combination to work. I'll have to come back with a ladder so I can unplug the opener to power-cycle it and maybe spray the Learn button that hasn't been pressed in about a decade.
4:40 Finally get out of the house after drinking a cup of coffee while telling my mom about my trip (to see relatives for a funeral), fending off more home redecoration ideas for which there is no budget, getting an account of what's not working well in her life (largely because of choices she's made which now cannot be un-made), and hearing for the umptieth time how terrible politics are (preaching to the choir here).
4:50 Empty the mailbox, which apparently has not been touched since I left Tuesday afternoon. Sort out the recycling and the mail that's not even ours and work on the stuff that's left.
5:00 Feed the dog. Let the dog out. Let the dog back in.
5:05 Keep going through the mail.
5:30 Start making dinner. Frozen pizza for my wife; a piece of pizza and salad for me.
6:00 My wife comes home and we eat dinner while watching the news and catching up with each other.
6:25 Clean up after dinner and do the washing the dishwasher doesn't (the "good" knives and some plastic for recycling).
6:45 More catching up on-line and listening to a call-in request show run by the DJ who did the music for our wedding. Catch up on some paper magazines and catalogs which have come in and pay some bills on-line. I also come up with a list of groceries to be procured today.
10:10 Show's done. And so am I. Get the dog outside, make sure things are off and/or locked, and head to bed.

Well, no day is typical. I don't do Second Harvest every week. But if it isn't that, it can be something else. Housework. Errands. Didn't walk with the dog, but that would be a more typical day if I felt up to it. I probably spent more time on-line than most days because I was catching up. But that's as typical as days get here.

[Tybee]

How do you all know these details? Do you write them down?
Am I developing Alzheimers? I don't remember this kindof detail.

[ApatheticNoMore]

7:30 alarm
7:35 get up
7:30-8:10 take bath, get dressed, do late minute prep on food to take to work (had done most prep the night before)
8:10-9:00 drive to work
9:00-1:00 or so, work at one point take brief break to eat breakfast
1:00-1:30 lunch
1:30-5:30 work, on one point take walk break
5:30-6:30 drive to see bf
6:30-10:00 see bf and his mom, go out to eat with them, get into a bit of an argument with bf
10:00-11:00 drive home
11:00-1:00 process pain, cry a little
1:00 bed, so it's late, it's not like tomorrow is a work day or anything

how do I remember, the times are approximate, my memory is not that perfect.

[Geila]

How do you all know these details? Do you write them down?
Am I developing Alzheimers? I don't remember this kindof detail.

On busy days like this I write down a to-do list and check things off. Other days I don't. I only keep track of time if it stands out for some reason. You can share your day in any format you like. It doesn't have to be as detailed as others. In fact, it might be nice to have some contrasts.

[iris lilies]

How do you all know these details? Do you write them down?
Am I developing Alzheimers? I don't remember this kindof detail.

I dont either, and I wont be writing anything down because THEN it will be staring me in the face how much i sit around.