Day in the Life | Winter 2017

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Nate and Julia are 35 years old
Truman is 6.5 years old
Cecelia is 4.5 years old
Porter is 2.5 years old (today!)
I am 14w4d pregnant with baby #4
Henry dog is 11.5
This is a lot of people and a lot of ages to list!


6:15 am | My alarm goes off, I snooze that sucker immediately. Nate is in the shower so I might as well wait to get up anyway. Decide to record today as my DiTL. Mentally prepare.

6:20 am | Get up. I'm freaking tired but I need to get moving. Shower, without getting my hair wet, to save time. Check the weather. Get dressed and see Truman come into the bathroom as I'm headed downstairs. He tells me his thumb tape stayed on last night and it feels alright. He sprained it yesterday after school, I saw him fall when playing football on the blacktop and it was a pretty bad. His first sports-related injury, and Nate taped him up with fancy Kinesiotape, which Truman finds fascinating. His sprained thumb is a big part of this day. 

Cold, but not disgustingly so. Dreary. Dark. Bleh.



6:40 am | Go downstairs for breakfast prep, lunch making, food eating. I have this part of the morning down to a science these days but it is still always a production. Get three plates, and put three vitamins on them, pour 3 cups of milk. Pop a frozen waffle in the toaster for Truman, get out two leftover pancakes for CC and Porter. Add peanut butter to Truman's waffle, add honey, then heat up the pancakes and start on Truman's lunch. I also need to make my lunch today since it's a workday. 



Nate comes in from walking Henry and we talk about the yoga he did this morning downstairs, the overachiever. We discuss a podcast I need to listen to today about healthy fat, Truman's thumb , my OB appointment yesterday, and our plans for this evening. We also talk about my interview at work today. This will be my third meeting with the bosses and I'm feeling very ready to make a final decision, either way. 

Back to lunches. Truman's is the same thing as always, and probably the same meal that's been in my DiTLs for the past year: PBJ sandwich, a Cliff bar, apple sauce, some pretzels, a special dessert treat, whole milk, and note for me. I also make myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, some chips, an apple, and a granola bar. I also take two giant jugs of water with me on the road. As I'm making our lunches, I'm talking to Nate about his work opportunities right now including getting some yoga classes at his clinic, working with a CrossFit gym, working with a golf pro, and a country club. His options are limitless it seems, and it's an exciting time for him (and us!). 

Mine and his:


I am including this picture of Nate because it's the ONLY one I took of the poor guy all day, and he does exist!



7:00 am | I'm done making both lunches so I start my coffee and my baked oatmeal. Um, this is an amazing recipe that I should share with you some time. It's very healthy and it keeps me full until noon, unlike eggs or anything else I've tried. Now that I say that I won't be full until noon today. Add bananas, butter, maple syrup to it. Oh, and my black coffee now has butter and coconut oil mixed in which is wild for me. Something like 'bulletproof' coffee and another way to add some healthy fats into my diet, which keeps me full longer and gives me energy. We hear the kids start to come downstairs and hope for the best because morning times of been very hit or miss in our house lately. Opposite extremes are how we roll in the mornings, for sure.


7:10 am | Truman comes down first, hides from us. He immediately reports that his thumb hurts but isn't worse. Nate inspects the tape. T says Cecelia is pouting about him coming downstairs first. I get CC at the top of the stairs, she is indeed pouting. Has her giant dinosaur, giant strawberry, two containers of Shopkins, and two loveys. Says she can't drink milk because her throat hurts. She alternates from whining to playing Shopkins as T and I sit with her and we all eat. They both play a bit and I check my email and type some of this(dictate it). Sweetest comment on my blog, new test result from my urine yesterday, Memaw email---all fun things on email this morning.






7:25 am | Porter is up and Nate is brushing his teeth, so I hope he grabs him for me. T is done eating and is now getting himself dressed and his teeth brushed. Easiest kid alert. Porter and Nate come down! Porter is telling Nate, 'Mommy is afraid of Porter.' Not currently, but sometimes, kid!


Only shot of all three kids today, what?!?


7:30 am | I get Porter to sit at the table for breakfast. CC still struggling, but I start my curling iron and run the dish washer. Make Cecelia some  warm water with honey for her throat, she loves it. We are all fighting off colds, I think. Nate leaves for work and Truman heads to the basement, since he is fully ready,  and now he gets to watch TV. This is a new set up, separating him and Cecelia as she continues to get ready for school. If Truman starts his show upstairs, Cecelia cannot focus and won't eat much and can't get herself dressed.  Cecelia and Porter are currently playing with the train table and eating here and there, I'm doing my hair and makeup in bathroom. 

Fancy new makeup from Brittany, my sister-in-law!


7:45 am |  I encourage CC to keep eating but she's slowing down so then I tell her to get dressed. And she does!! We somehow start discussing Bing Bong from Inside Out and how he cries candy. Cecelia wishes she cried candy, too. She brushes her teeth while I take a break from my make up routine.

7:50 am | I help Cecelia find Barbie on TV and I'm trying to get her proficient with the use of Netflix and various remotes, just like her big brother. GOALS. She did a pretty good job on her breakfast, but not the greatest, and I realize I've done absolutely nothing for Porter this morning. He must be pooping in the other room because he's incredibly content to 'play' alone. Start laying out all of the snow clothes for the kids while I walk around the house putting on mascara at the same time. Dangerous!

Favorite pic of CC:


Oh, hey!




8:00 am | I'm done getting myself ready, so I get Truman to get dressed in snow clothes and I help Cecelia. Porter did poop but no time to change him! Lois arrives, sorry about the stench! Porter's classic response when I ask if he's pooped is, 'Not.Yet.' He means he doesn't want to be changed yet, because he is a dirty bird and potty training him is going to BLOW.




8:05 am | T, C, and I leave the house to walk to school. It's super slick on the sidewalk today. We arrive to school before the bell rings, so we wait outside with the other kids. The bell rings, I give several more hugs and kisses, and walk home chatting with a mom friend for a bit. 





8:20 am | Back at home, I chat with Lois about my OB appointment yesterday, my upcoming interview at work, and the House Addition. Yes, capitalized. We also talk about their insulation that they just got done on their house and how messy it is. Lois usually has a pristine house, she is the cleaning master, so I know the mess is bugging her big time. I change Porter's diaper and get him dressed. We have literally two diapers left in the house for the day and I hope they last. Oops, sorry again, Lois!

8:45 am | I gather up my work stuff and head out the door, after giving Porter lots of kisses. I forget that my gas tank is on empty and I don't know if I have time to stop to get gas. Reflect that it's been a wild but good morning and now I'm in work mode. Start listening to that podcast episode about healthy fats that Nate recommended. 

9:00 am | I stop and get gas even though I know I'll be a few minutes late to my first patient. But I don't like seeing that I only have 6 miles until empty and she should be okay with it. It's real cold out right now. I think pumping gas in a Wisconsin winter has to be one of my least favorite activities in life. Seriously.




9:05 am | See patient number one: a hip surgery patient who's doing really well. She had a lot of questions answered since the last time I came because she talked to the doctors office. Love when patients take initiative for their own care!

9:47 am | Done seeing her, so I do a quick note in my car in her driveway before heading to patient number two. 

10:00 am | See patient number two,  last day with this 92-year-old. Doing pretty well, but I had to help her get dressed for the day. I think she's going to be OK moving forward without me. She says she will miss me though, and I wish her the best. 

10:45 am | I'm back in the van and call this patient's son to give him an update as I drive to patient number three. I'll have extra paperwork to do for her visit later. 

Oh, the businesses in Milwaukee...



Podcast, a good one:


11:00 am | See patient number three: a brand-new patient, only 62 years old with a lot of medical issues happening.  Fill out all the paperwork with him go through basic evaluation, scheduled to come back tomorrow. 

12:13 pm | I finish with him, get in my van,  check my phone and see I missed a call from the doctor's office and a text from my mom. Start driving to my fourth patients apartment and decide to check the voicemail first as I drive. 

Note the muddy, nasty snow and gray day:



Call the ultrasound place back ("maternal fetal medicine") and at first she wants me to schedule a genetics counseling appointment before the ultrasound since I'm 35. Sigh. Why would I do this BEFORE the ultrasound? To hear another hour of worst case scenarios of what we might find? I decline because the ultrasound is what really matters to me at this point, and my OB never recommended the counseling to me anyway. Got scheduled for Thursday, February 16 at 12:45 when I will be 19 weeks and five days pregnant. YES! Had to weasel in those extra couple days since she wanted to do it the next week, but really Thursday afternoon is the only time that Nate can come with me, so she was all for that. 

12:25 pm | I'm parked at my fourth patient's apartment complex, texting Nate about the appointment time. I decide to plow through as much paperwork as I can while parked in this car. Realize I am actually a little hungry and it's lunchtime so I'll eat. I definitely have to pee but that's going to have to wait. Take a selfie and realize that I completely forgot to pencil my eyebrows today and now it's bugging me. 



1:00 pm | Head inside for fourth patient, I did get some decent paperwork done first. Have to pee real bad. My patient tells me to use her bathroom instead of the public one down the hall, which I don't love doing but also don't want to be rude and refuse her bathroom. It's a good session, she is 96 and adorable, doing great.

1:48 pm | I'm done with her visit, go to the van for paperwork time.

2:08 pm | Drive home and I'm literally a half a block away, I can basically see my house from this apartment which is awesome. It just started to rain, and I'm going to get Truman today from school. Wednesdays are 'early release' and they get out at 2:20, so I don't usually pick him up (Tony or Lois will, depending on Porter's nap). Today I will drop him off and then head up to the office for my big interview. 

Home! Such little snow to show for a winter DiTL. We had a lot more but it's melted, somehow.



2:10 pm | I go inside and get a water refill. Lois is upstairs with Porter in his room, and it looks like he is sleeping. CC is on her Kindle on the couch. I go out and get Truman from school and we walk home together. He tells me about his day briefly and that his thumb was all right except his teacher felt really bad for him, so she didn't make him do a complete writing test today. What a teacher's pet! We go back home, Truman checks the mail and we get inside. Lois is sitting down with CC at the table and says Porter is fighting his nap. Apparently he has been for over an hour!

Sure enough, I hear him screaming upstairs. I go up to get him and he's jumping up-and-down in his crib, telling me to turn his light to yellow. Cecelia does this for him, and then he wants to go down and play trains. I ask him why he's not taking a nap and he has no good answers. He tells Lois that he slept "for three minutes."

Truman and CC both want snacks, and I approve since I want them to be non-whiny for Lois the rest of the afternoon. I gather up Cecelia's dance outfit for later and help them get some peanut butter graham cracker sandwiches. Cecelia asked me why I have to go to so many places today. It is a very busy day! Porter is already back to the basement, bossing Lois around and wants her to build a giant track for his trains. I wish them luck and head out for my interview. 

2:35 pm | I'm driving up to the interview, it's very gloomy and kind of raining now. I guess I should mentally prepare for this interview but it is the third time going into meet with my boss and her boss and at this point I just want to decide between all of us if this job is a fit for me or not. Listen to more of the podcast about fats as I drive. 

2:50 pm| Arrive at office. Text Brittany about her first Stitch Fix. Here goes nothing!

3:35 pm | Well, done with the interview and it went pretty well. I probably won't go into much detail more than this:) Head back home and it's already getting dark out, think about the job the entire way home, and try to remember everything we talked about. 

4:00 pm | I'm home. Porter is still awake and looks very tired. The other two kids are doing OK but CC seems ultra-whiny. Talk to Lois a lot about the interview, as I help Cecelia to get on her dance costume. I give all three kids a snack of more graham crackers because they were starving apparently. CC is really kind of a hot mess. Says she is cold and that she didn't get good sleep last night. I don't think she is getting really sick or anything but I am sure she doesn't feel 100%. She still wants to go to dance class and I try to pump her up to have a great evening. 

CRAZY EYES.



My daughter I walk across the street to her dance class at school and when we arrive, her friends all yell, 'HI CECE!!!!' It's adorable, she is a loved little girl. They all run up and down the hall together to 'warm up'. She seems to be pulling through. The teacher takes them inside right after 4:30 and I hustle back home to the boys, as Lois just pulls away to go home for the night. Thanks, Lois!

Disgusting ground.


My girl.


Love.


4:35 on | I need to change out of my work clothes! Boys are fine and vegging out on couch with screens, this is how we usually handle my dinner prep time lately. I change into yoga pants and a comfy hoodie and I eye the two laundry baskets full of clean clothes that are folded. I should really put them away sometime tonight. Suddenly feeling very tired.  Close the blinds downstairs, it's dark out already. Winter.



Unamused.



4:45 pm| I need to start dinner, I have 30 minutes until Cecelia is finished with class. Yawn. Get stuff out to start 'soup and sandwiches', a gourmet dinner meal, indeed.

4:48 pm | Porter melts down because he wants a granola bar and I offered an applesauce instead. I quickly remember the skipped nap but hold tight to my decision on a healthier snack right before dinner. After a fit, he ends up eating the applesauce and asked for another. Fine. Whatever. Says, "thank you, mama." Poor guy. 



5:00 pm | He's back in the kitchen again asking for a third applesauce and I don't give it to him. But he finds his yogurt in a bowl that I just made for part of his dinner and I let him carry it into the other room so I can continue making dinner. This is quickly becoming the least favorite time of night and admittedly Wednesdays are the craziest because of Cecelia's dance class. 




5:13 pm | Time to get Cecelia, arrive to school at 5:16, the ballerinas are coming out, I get mine dressed in her snow clothes. Cecelia declares, 'I hate putting all of this stuff on.' I HEAR YOU!!! Preach it. We walk home, I almost fall twice on ice as we admire our face-down Santa blow up. 



5:21 | Back home, CC cries because T has the headphones she wants. I cannot deal with this emotional outburst, because when I check the headphones they are fine. I finish making gourmet dinner for all, get really into my salad and make WAY too much food for myself. I made another salad for Nate and popped it in the fridge. 

5:30 pm | Turn off the screens, it's time for dinner! Cecelia: "You gave me too much food. This chip is too salty." Sigh. We decide to play I Spy with colors, which is always a favorite dinner time game. Truman talks about his thumb a lot, and mentioned that even his music teacher noticed his tape job. Cececlia is the first to  finish all of her food! Next comes Truman, they must have been hungry.


Beloved salad with beets, cucumbers, blue cheese, avocados, tomatoes, red peppers, sunflower seeds, and spinach.


Way too much food, but I can't help it.


Hi, mom. My thumb!


Clean plate!


Looking at a book Truman brought home.



6:07 pm | Porter is downstairs playing trains. I clean up dinner and the bigs get dessert. 

6:15 pm | I yell for everyone to head upstairs for baths and shower and homework! "I miss YaYa, is she here?" says Porter. "I don't always listen to you. But now I will," says Cecelia.

Sorry, not sorry.


Stinker. So long and lean, right?


6:25 pm | I get wild man Porter in the tub first, since I found new bath toys that excite him. Cecelia gets in with him and I put away the laundry. Truman is reading and timing it for his homework. I set out some clothes for all kids tomorrow, to bring downstairs for tomorrow morning. I find library books due tomorrow. Nate puts away his own clean clothes since he doesn't like how I fold. Wonder how long this will sit here?



Homework guy:




6:37 pm | I go supervise bath time  "We are playing the poop game!" Great, this sound sanitary. Comb Cecelia's hair which she hates absolutely hates, even with her wet brush. Porter gets pulled out first because he's splashing too much. I see this on Instagram the next day and chuckle, SO TRUE.



His head is bigger than hers here.


6:45 pm | I get him out and dressed. "Porter looks like Ken!" says Cecelia. Truman turns on music for Porter in the nursery. I get Cecelia out. Truman takes off his beloved thumb tape. 

Ken:


6:50 pm | I get CC dressed. She's cold and tired, so I tell her to lean on the radiator for added warmth. Nothing better than putting on warmed pajamas that have been sitting on the radiator. Old home bonus!

6:55 pm | I get Truman to come in to bathe, adding some fresh water to existing. He's good to do the rest on his own! Braid Cecelia's bangs, which is our go-to for controlling the hair around her face. She's busy playing Shopkins when all of a sudden, Jessicakes's arm falls off. Tears! Promises of super glue! So sad. Porter then wrecks her magnatile creation. I get mad at P, cannot believe he hasn't passed out yet. It scares me that this child doesn't require a nap on days like this. Remember how he told Nate I was scared of his this morning? Right now I am. 

BROKEN ARM!!!!!!!!


Masterpiece braid:


7:10 pm | Nate texts that he is coming home. Hallelujah. Brush Porter's teeth and tell Truman to get out of the bath in two minutes.

7:15 pm | I read a book to Porter. Help Truman with his socks because his bum thumb is really posing a challenge. He then brushes his teeth.



New smile:


Could her hair GET any longer??


I throw this away because I hate it to death. Some kind of 'foam' silly putty thing that Porter spreads over the whole house.



7:25 pm | Woot, woot, Nate is home! He takes Truman down to re-tape the thumb. Cecelia demands to with them, so she can show daddy that Jessicakes broke her arm. I read Porter another book, then yell for Nate to come up and say 'goodnight' to his youngest. 


Fancy!



7:35 pm | Goodnight, Porter!! I go downstairs and need to call a patient for tomorrow. Once I call her I find out tomorrow isn't going to work for her, so I might have added paperwork time in the morning after all. 

Go.To.BED.



7:45 pm | I head back upstairs to say goodnight to all kids, since Porter is crying for me and the bigs are waiting for their stories. Once that is done, I go down to talk to Nate over some hot tea at our island. This is my favorite part of the night, as we've been trying to have real conversations without computers or TV in the evenings. We discuss so much: my interview, the ultrasound, his work, house addition, etc. It's nice to reconnect and feel like we are a part of a team, one that communicates and isn't just nodding at each other in passing before crashing for the night. 

8:40 pm |  He says he's going to bed, but I need to do some paper work. Start my paperwork and also text Brittany about her fix. She wants all 5! I gave her a gift card for Christmas and now I might have gotten her hooked. Oops, but she looks dang good in all of the choices. I get a chunk of paperwork done, will have to do more tomorrow. Check IG and email, kind of zone out for a bit.

9:26 pm | Woah, its late! We have been trying to get into bed by 8:45 to read, asleep by 9. Not tonight! Instagram a video of Porter quickly, didn't mention that it's a DiTL. Also don't think I took many pics and I know I got none of us as a family or even all 3 kids together. Wow!




9:40 pm | Upstairs to brush teeth, wash face, then read for a little bit. I'm reading a book about fixed versus growth mindsets and it's really good! 

File this nasty toothpaste blob under 'things that drive me crazy.' How did Cecelia even brush her teeth if all of the paste came out like that?!?


Good book. Must learn to accept challenges and not be afraid of failure.


Goodnight, angels.



10:00 pm | Kiss Nate goodnight and promptly pass out. Sleep soundly until 6:15 when my alarm goes off, must have slept through Nate's at 5:15. YES. 

Number of baby bump selfies: 0 (horror!)
Number of family selfies: 0
Number of photos with all 3 kids in it together: 0 (maybe 1, actually)
Meltdowns: 2 or so
Laughter: countless
Mentions of Truman's thumb: at least 20
Curses towards the weather: 3
Naps for all five of us: 0

But it was a great day! 

There's still plenty of time to record your own Day in the Life, just get it to me by Sunday, January 22.