Tuesday 18 October 2011

A day in the life...

There is a great post here on Rhonda's blog about "Selling our brand" which is about Home-making as a "profession" or a way of life.

In the spirit of that, I am sharing the day I have had today. Although I am "at home", I am obviously not sitting on my backside all day watching the television!

So, alarms went off today to wake us up, and I got up to wake the girls at 6.45am. I pottered downstairs at 7am, made a cuppa and turned on the Breakfast news programme. The girls came downstairs and made their breakfasts, and lunches, and then, once all their stuff was ready for school, they turned the channel over to watch part of "One Tree Hill". I drank my tea and did some knitting. Quite a bit of knitting - until about 7.55am when the girls left.

I started on the day properly then! Quick tidy round in the lounge, and a swipe of the kitchen. A quick swipe! I then put on my coat and wellies and went outside at 8.30am to let out the chickens, feed and water them, and check them over generally. This takes about half an hour.

Once I came in again, it is time for another cup of tea, and a slice or two of bacon for my breakfast - the FH has surfaced and he has some too. Time to turn on the computer, check the banks, emails and blogs I check through. By 9.45am I am back outside, booting up the washing machine in the workshop, hanging the last load done yesterday, and having a quick tidy round in the verandah where I hang the washing.

At 10.30 I started cooking the tea - shepherd's pie, cabbage and peas. All cooked and chilling for later. In between that, I get a message that another Governor needs a reference for something, as he has put a note through the door earlier whilst I was outside! I phone him, check my emails and find the form he needs me to fill in has come through, so I make a phone call to the agency that wants it to briefly discuss it, and then I fill it in and email it back. I also print off a copy to sign and send back.

By 11.30, I am preparing some paperwork for tomorrow evening's Governing Body meeting. It takes a while, and then we stop for lunch at 12.30.

After lunch, I slice up a fruit cake I made yesterday and arrange it on a platter. I also wrap another one in clingfilm and write a label with the list of ingredients on it. I stick that on the bottom!

You may have noticed that I haven't got dressed yet!! I am still in the fetching pair of leggings I pulled on when I got up, so I go and have a shower now. I put on some older gym clothes, and start to load up the car. At 2.15pm, I leave the house with spare clothes for later, the cakes, the snacks for the girls, etc, and head off.

First call is the chapel where I leave the cakes, the sliced one for the Harvest Supper refreshments and the whole one for sale in the Auction of produce. I then nip off to the Co-op in town, where I grab some potatoes and cauliflower from the Reduced section, and collide with some very old friends in the car park. We have to chat for a good while to catch up on the news since we last met, and I find out that their daughter is in an interview for a job as we were speaking - I wish her lots of luck! I then leave, at 3.20pm to nip in to see a friend from chapel who I know is going through some tough times. There is just time to have a chat and give her a big hug before I am off again to pick up the girls at 3.35pm, luckily not far away.

The girls get in the car and we head off to gym where we help the Head Coach to finish setting up the gym for the evening's sessions. The girls have a Mug Shot for their "tea" and I catch up with the Head Coach. The other coach arrives, and I get changed to move on, again! Normally I would have stayed and coached but tonight I had a meeting, so I had to leave.

I set off at 5pm to work my way through the evening traffic to a big town about 20 miles away. I arrive at the offices for a 6pm meeting and I am a little early. My colleague from the school arrives and we have a meeting there for an hour and a half. She talks and I take notes. At 7.30pm, I leave that office and call in to Tesco - the EFG has a huge blister lingering from the marathon walk the other weekend, and she needs some special blister plasters, which I eventually find.

Arriving home at 8.20pm, I find the FH here, lighting the fire, but the girls nowhere in sight. I had expected him to fetch them home from gym so I am a little puzzled but then he explains that a friend who also has a daughter at the gym class will bring them all home. Sure enough, they all turn up 5 minutes later.

We are all eating the previously prepared Shepherd's Pie by 8.45pm and then the girls start having bath/shower time. The FH watches "The Body Farm" and I am listening whilst I am typing. Still to do is the washing up and shutting up the chickens for the night - we are very lucky never to have been troubled by foxes here, or this would be too late.

This has been one of those days where I have been constantly on the go, and not at home. Other days are similar, but sometimes I get to spend more time here, when I can do more house work, ironing, etc and some gardening. Yesterday morning I spent all morning cleaning out the chooks and then spraying the shed for red mite again - then I enjoyed some time in the school, doing French conversation with some Y6 children, which was fantastic.

That would have been a better post with some photos, but the camera is still out of action! I can't charge it up because we have lost the power cord so I either wait until I find it, or can buy another one cheaply..haven't found one at the moment..

1 comment:

Mac n' Janet said...

You definitely have a full-time job, and it sounds very rewarding.