A Day in My Life | a 2023 edition!

On Monday of this week, a reader told me she’d always enjoyed my Day in the Life posts, and she wondered if I’d be willing to do one now, since my life looks so, so different than it did all those years ago.

There’s never a perfect day to do this, so I decided, hey, why not do it right away? So yesterday I made a point of documenting what I did.

Come experience a day with me!

6:00

I woke up (no alarm. I just do not sleep late. Like, ever.), did some scrolling on my phone*, played my Wordle game and sent it to my mom, and then rolled out of bed and put on walking clothes.

*I know that’s not something you will ever find on How to Have a Productive Morning lists, but I’m here to be more real than inspirational. Ha.

6:30

I went walking, this time just on the trails near my house.

It took me about 45 minutes to walk two miles, which is definitely slower than the rate I walk on pavement. But I have noticed that trail walking is just never as fast!

Also, on trails, I am forever stopping to take pictures so that slows me down too.

This is especially true on mornings when the sunlight is really beautiful or there are lovely raindrops on all the leaves.

This was one of those latter days!

Also, I always stop to sniff the honeysuckle flowers.

I listened to podcasts while I walked, as I always do.

And I listened to them at 2x speed, as I always do. Podcasts are just too slow for me otherwise.

7:00-7:30

I finished walking, came home, and had a brief chat with Lisey before she left to pick up some FAA paperwork.

I unloaded the dishwasher, brought an Amazon package inside, and made my bed.

7:30-8:00

I did some kettlebell and dumbbell exercises.

In between sets I:

• shared the day’s blog post on my Facebook page and in my Facebook group
• sent the day’s blog post out to my email subscribers
• peeled some wrinkly potatoes  (I found them when I was putting some dishes away while unloading the dishwasher) and started them boiling

• started a pot of cornmeal mush because I knew I was making a breakfast-for-dinner meal

8:00-8:30

I showered.

And to be real, in case this helps someone else not feel alone: while I was in the shower, the menu-planning-related bad memory came up again and I was filled with blinding rage over it.

The blinding rage is frequently a necessary step for me: to look at something with new eyes and understand the injustice, to be angry about it, and to cry angry tears, followed by sad tears. Then I can often release it.

I squeegeed my shower (really cuts down on the necessity for shower-wall-scrubbing!) got dressed, did my (minimal) makeup, and blow-dried my bangs (because otherwise they really have a mind of their own).

8:30-9:00

I transferred the finished cornmeal mush to a loaf pan.

And then for breakfast, I drained and mashed the potatoes, fried up two eggs, and made a mashed potato bowl, topped with green onions.

On the side, I had some salad greens dressed with a sweet vinaigrette. I’ve been on a greens-for-breakfast kick of late, as long as they have the right dressing.

I am not ready for ranch dressing at 9:00 am (!!!), but I can do a slightly sweet vinaigrette.

9:00-9:30

I ate my breakfast and typed up my day so far. I shared a few photos to my Instagram story too and read some blog comments.

9:30-10:00

Lisey came back home with her official certificate from the FAA. She’s all signed off and ready to go work on planes. Yay!

I chatted with her and also:

• made a cup of coffee

• washed some dishes

• got some bacon out from the freezer for dinner
• started a load of laundry
• responded to a bunch of blog comments

10:00-12:00

I put my shoes on and went out to run some errands.

But when I opened up my van, I noticed that my low tire pressure light was on.

So I grabbed my tire pump and fixed that. I checked all four tires, but just one tire was low, and it was only slightly low.

I will keep an eye on it and see if it keeps losing air faster than the others.

By the way, I love this Slime brand tire pump! The girls and I all have one for our cars, and I give them a 10/10. So easy to use!

And I love that the pump is designed to keep the cords corralled in between uses.

Anyway, I did finally get on the road, and my first stop was at the college to drop off some forms and tax returns they needed from me.

Then I went to the mall to drop off Lisey’s old phones to be recycled at the Apple store.

They were super old ones that she found while she was cleaning out to prep for Hawaii!

Next, I went to a Hispanic food store to get some ingredients for a Cook’s Country recipe that’s on my menu plan (Sopa Seca, a noodle dish).

12:00-12:30

I stopped back in at home, put my groceries away, switched some laundry, said bye to Zoe as she left for a class, and printed a birthday coupon.

12:30-2:00

I headed back out, got gas at BJ’s, then ordered a chipotle bacon flatbread at a local restaurant, using my $10 birthday coupon.

While it was cooking, I wandered around at Goodwill next door.

Then I ate my flatbread in my van (the coupon was only good for takeout!) and did DuoLingo on my phone while I ate.

Next, I picked up a few things at Aldi. I discovered this particular Aldi has a self-checkout, which was wild to see!

Then I headed back home and put away my Aldi groceries.

2:00-3:00

Lisey came back home from some errands so I talked to her and also helped her with some of her paperwork for onboarding with the new company.

I started a batch of this cinnamon bread because I wanted to give a loaf to my neighbor Donna, who has been faithfully helping Lisey with car repairs this week.

3:00-3:30

I spent twenty minutes updating this post with all my errands!

Then I responded to blog comments.

3:30-4:00

I switched my laundry again.

Next, I shaped my bread dough into cinnamon loaves, covered them to let them rise, and cleaned up the whole bread-making mess.

Then I poured my new package of chia seeds into a glass jar; I do this because I am way more likely to actually use my chia seeds this way. Using them in the bag is kind of annoying and I’m prone to spilling them.

The jar makes it super easy to grab some to sprinkle on yogurt or oatmeal. And it looks nicer than having a plastic bag of chia seeds on the counter.

I also made a batch of chia seed drinks, using some juice from Aldi.

4:00-5:00

Ooh, I can tell I am reaching a not-as-productive stage of my day. What did I do with this hour?

I texted with a friend. I folded two loads of laundry and put them away, while listening to a podcast.

5:00-6:00

Mostly, I worked on this blog post; choosing and uploading pictures takes a while!

6:00-7:00

I cooked dinner and ate with the girls. 🙂

7:00-8:00

I brought a loaf of bread over to my neighbor Donna and chatted with her for a while.

Then I came home and cleaned up my kitchen.

And ooh, I am seriously running out of steam.

Normally on Tuesday nights, I have yoga class with Sonia, but she cancelled because she wasn’t feeling well. And maybe that’s a good thing for me because I am feeling pretty pooped.

8:00-9:00

I finished up this post, and then since my brain felt so tired, I worked on a sign that I am painting for the children’s museum where I do a little bit of volunteer work.

It’s a pretty mindless task, which is exactly the kind of thing I’m up for at 8:30 pm. 😉

This is the second one I’m doing…here’s the first one, and the truck is Sonia’s handiwork.

9:00-?

I brushed my teeth, washed my face, and hopped into bed to do some Duolingo practice and a little reading before I sleep.

My body is tired and my brain is tired too. My step tracker watch says I’ve logged almost five miles today, so I’m pretty happy about that!

_________________

As I reflect back over this day, I am reminded of what Laura Vanderkam says…that there are no, “normal days” or “normal weeks”.

This day was more full of errands than usual, for example.

I didn’t do yoga like I usually do.

I don’t always bake bread for a neighbor.

I don’t always have birthday freebies to use.

But if I chose to track tomorrow, there would be odd things about that day too; my days right now vary greatly from one to another!

And my days right now look so different than my days will in six months; two big changes are that I’ll be in nursing school then, and Lisey will be in Hawaii.

Soooo, maybe I should do another one of these posts six months down the road. 🙂