I never do DITL posts, because I feel like my life is unexciting. But today at breakfast I was pondering Mondays, and thought I would document this one. You know… just for the fun of it.
The day starts at 5:30 am. Sigh. This is what happens when you have a daughter in high school. I stumble out of bed, wake up my daughter and start the morning routine: feed the cats, make my daughter’s breakfast and pack her lunch. You might be thinking- your daughter is 15! Can’t she make her own breakfast and lunch? Well… if I didn’t make her breakfast, she wouldn’t eat anything and I’m not okay with that. Same with lunch. If I didn’t pack a lunch, I’m pretty sure she would just buy something from the vending machine at school. Again- not okay.
Yesterday- Sunday- I did a long trail run, which means I don’t have a big workout this morning. Other days I’ll run or go to the gym, but lately Mondays have been a much easier day. The only thing that’s sore from yesterday’s run are my quads, so I cue up a Glutes and Core workout from my app. I do half of the workout, drive my daughter to school, and then come back and finish it.
Because it’s an easier workout day, I have time for a nice, leisurely breakfast! I eat my oatmeal while reading blogs, and then linger with my tea while I update my planner for the week, and write in my journal. The journal is a relatively new thing, an attempt to “Write 24 in 24.” Some days I do it, some days I don’t. I’m taking Gretchen Rubin’s advice here- “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.”
No, that’s not a Starbucks drink. It’s my own tea which I drank from a used Starbucks cup. Sometimes I do that if I know I’ll be taking the rest of my tea along when I go to work. Yes, I know there’s such a thing as a travel mug.
9:30- leave for work. Oh look! There’s a new podcast:
At this point you’re probably thinking, “Jenny! What are you DOING with your life? Drinking out of old Starbucks cups and listening to Christmas podcasts in April?” Well- this is a podcast I normally listen to in December, but they release new episodes now and then throughout the year.
Arrive at work- this is where the gentle part of the day ends. In order to be at work fewer hours, I work 10-3, doing five massages in a row with no break. It’s pretty intense, and some days I’m still questioning this schedule. Somewhere in the middle between clients I gulp down a protein shake (just a scoop of protein powder mixed with water.) Oof.
On some days I finish work and race to the school to pick up my daughter- but today she doesn’t need to bring her guitar home, so she can take the bus! And it’s Earth Day! Over the weekend I got an email from Sprouts saying I could get a free shopping bag if I go today. A free bag? I’m there!
I get a weird assortment of groceries from Sprouts: Ezekial bread, cereal, nuts, broccoli and beer (I did our main shopping on Sunday.) Then I get in line behind a woman with a HUGE cartful of groceries. Because I’m nosy, I watch her check out. It looks like she’s buying a week’s worth of groceries for a large family- bread, cereal, cheese, apples, potatoes… nothing big and expensive, just a LOT of food. Her bill comes to $410. Ouch.
I get a protein bar to eat on the way home-
I’ve been trying not to eat these anymore because they contain erythritol, which is one of the things I’m avoiding. But that’s what happens when you go to the store hungry.
After all that, I’m given the cheapest, cheesiest bag ever. Had I bought it, it would have cost me 79 cents. Hmmm.
4:00- Home! It’s my daughter’s flute lesson day. The good news is, the teacher comes to our house. The bad news is… this means I have to clean the house. This woman has been coming weekly for almost four years, and has never once used our bathroom. Unbeknownst to her, this makes her a gold-star guest. But there’s a first time for everything so I clean the bathroom just in case.
5:00- nap. Ahhhhhh….
5:30- start throwing dinner together. My husband and daughter are having leftover pasta, and my dinner involves a baked sweet potato. We’re all having roasted cauliflower and I add white beans and a tahini sauce to my meal.
After dinner the countdown is on- I’m just looking forward to getting in bed so I can read. Dishes, cleaning the kitchen, laundry (some nights, but not tonight) and taking care of all the critters. This night has an added twist though- my son’s college orchestra has a concert, which is live streamed!
It cuts into my reading time, but it’s worth it. So incredible that he plays a concert in Texas, and we can watch it in Florida.
Reading in bed- the goal is to turn the lights off and go to sleep at 9:30- that hasn’t happened lately though. It’s been more like 10:00 or 10:30 AT THE LATEST.
Just as I thought… my life is officially dull!
Top photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
35 Responses
I don’t think it is dull! I love hearing how you spent your day! Also five massages!! Woof!
I used to do back to back long runs on Sat/Sun so Friday and Monday were always my rest days. Sometimes I would do other things, strength or a walk or a hike, but it was very rare for me to run on Mondays when I was doing longer mile weekends. Are you feeling better now re your ankle? How was your long run?
Well thanks Kyria- but I still think my life is dull compared to yours! My long run was great! The ankle is okay- a little achy, but I can run just fine.
Why are day in the life posts so interesting?
You re-used a Starbucks cup on Earth Day! That’s a win, Jenny!
I also keep a journal and sometimes it stresses me out if I get behind. Maybe I should take Gretchen’s advice, too??!
A question about the journal lying on top in your photo: it looks like you have started it from the back and are working your way to the front. Or maybe it just seems like that?
Have a great week!
Yes Catrina they’re interesting! ***HINT***HINT***HINT***
Ha ha…
HAHAHA!!!
I think it just looks like that in the photo. I have a pen marking my place, and I’m almost at the end of it. I need to get a new one!
I love reading about other people’s life post. it’s never boring but our lives are soooo different!
you don’t get hungry during those 5 hours of hard work? I’ll be needing some extra energy especially after a long run day.
400 groceries bill? that’s a lot! I paid 200 yesterday and i thought it was a lot and probably not enough for a week. eating well is not cheap anywhere in the world.
I think these posts are fun BECAUSE our lives are so different! And yes- eating well is not cheap.
Aw yiss DITL!!!
Yes a 15 year old *could* make her own breakfast and lunch, but I’ve never seen that happen in my house. I can always tell how far into the school year we are by how late our high schooler gets out of bed. At the start of the year we see him at 6:40 for his 7:00 departure, lately we see him around 6:59 and my husband gives him a cup of tea in a travel mug and a cereal bar as he drags himself out the door.
Yes to Christmas songs in April!
I am very guilty of checking out other people’s grocery carts while I’m waiting in line – but in my defense it’s great entertainment! I’ll have to start paying attention to their totals. I’m not sure that I’ve heard a price tag over the 200s for one cart – but also I believe that I can be done.
I’m obsessed with your sweet potato dinner. And yay for the Baylor concert!
Apparently I’m obsessed with that dinner as well, because I had a variation of it three times in a week. And… the late wakeup MIGHT be a gender thing. My daughter definitely needs her time in the morning before school.
Jenny, I don’t judge. I made lunch for my kids every single day until they graduated high school. I thought of it as a little “I love you” for their day.
I don’t know what this says about me but $400 didn’t seem excessive. Most of my grocery bills are between $300 and $500, depending on the week. I justify this by thinking that we rarely if ever eat out, and my husband is retired now so eats all his lunches at home…but it is still a lot, groceries are expensive.
I love DITL posts! I find them so interesting! Also, I love roasted cauliflower and sweet potato.
Unfortunately, it seems like the healthier you eat, the more expensive it is. You guys eat a lot of good quality food, so I’m not surprised you spend a lot. Not eating out definitely makes up for it, at least partially.
I love day in the life posts because I’m also nosy and like to see how different other people’s lives are than mine!
I can’t imagine spending $400 a week in groceries but unfortunately food costs are going up so I can never seem to leave the store without spending at least $100 and sometimes it doesn’t even seem like I’m getting that much food. Ugh, why do groceries have to be so expensive?!
I’m impressed that you’re able to wake up at 5:30 am after going to bed after 10 pm! My alarm is set for 5:00 (but I usually snooze it until 5:20) and I’m in bed by 8 and asleep by 8:30. If I go to bed any later than that, the morning is going to be rough!
Ashley, I should be going to bed at 8 or 8:30, but I don’t. I would definitely be doing better with more sleep. I’m working on it. And, who knows how big this woman’s family is- she could have five kids, or three teenage boys. Teenage boys eat a LOT!
I could not survive with a 5:30 am wakeup. What is going on with those high school times?! Our daughter heads to high school in and few years and it starts at 8 am (she’d catch the bus at 8:40ish).
I LOVED this post. Three cheers for re-using your Starbucks cup on Earth Day.
I find it endlessly cool that your family is full of such talented musicians!
Groceries are so expensive. We eat relatively healthfully – not organic, mind you – and we’re spending a little over $800/month for a family of 4. But this year it could easily get to $1,000/mth. The prices are just going up and up and up.
I still make lunchboxes and don’t have plans to stop anytime soon!
I think there’s a law going into effect Angie’s senior year that high school can’t start before 8 am. So… that will be a little better. For the last year?
Yes, groceries are expensive. Just wait till Levi is a little older… I don’t know what it is about teenage boys, but they eat SO much.
5:30 is my regular wakeup time and I don’t have a teenager in the house, just a dog. In the dog’s defense, she’s super pumped to be up and going for a walk in the mornings, so I guess that is probably a win for me. But I rarely get into bed before 10 despite my good intentions. *sigh* Sleep! It’s so hard.
We spent $125 at the store on Thursday and then spent another $48 on Sunday. In a regular week we would probably have gotten away with just the $125 because we’d also been to Costco the weekend before, but I was hosting book club, so I bought some party food I would normally not have on hand. Bonus: We did not finish the party food at book club, so I’ve been taking leftovers for lunch! But I mean, we’re spending so much money on food!! It’s crazy.
I know- you get up at 5:30 voluntarily! I will say that on days where we try to sleep in, the cats wake us up. So, I get it.
I love these posts! I do want more minutiae about your work life though. How many clients? What is the best part of your job? What is the worst part? How do you choke down plain water with protein powder in it?!
The whole thing about cleaning the bathroom for the flute teacher is SO RELATABLE.
I love your shopping list at Sprouts. I usually do my main shopping trip at a local grocery store, and then supplement with stuff I can only get at Trader Joe’s. Sometimes it is a very eclectic collection! Like peas and beer and enchilada sauce. The staff never bats an eye though!
Ha, it might be interesting to work the cash register at a grocery store. At least, I would find it interesting for a day or two- then I’m sure I would get tired of it.
I”ll write another post at some point about work- it’s a whole topic in itself that I’m grappling with!
Love love love this. I think you should do a whole week. I might!! SO COOL to be able to stream that concert!!
5 back to back massages DOES sound hard!!! I love getting massages but obviously can’t do it THAT often, I maybe go every other month. and I am always impressed at how much care the practitioner puts into it, and I think about the fact that this is a LONG day for them.
(I go to a place called Lifestream in Fort Lauderdale and they seem to have low turnover and people who have been there forever so hopefully that means it’s a decent work environment)!
Massage therapists can be very flaky (not me!) so if they’re staying at Lifestream, you know they’re being treated well. Yes, you should totally do a week in the life series!!! I loved the podcast you and Laura did where you shared your morning routines! I want more!
Not dull at all.
I think I eat too much!!
I don’t think so, Darlene- you’re not overweight!
This is a fun post to read! i really do love DITL posts. I like reading about the at times mundate details of a person’s life.
Your comment about making Angie’s breakfast and lunch is so relatable. You care that she eats and you care what she eats and thus you make her lunch. This is completely different but I fold and put the boys’ clothes away because I am very particular about how their clothes are organized in their dressers (like clean long sleeve shirts go to the bottom of the piles of long sleeve shirts so Paul doesn’t wear the same things over and over again – that doesn’t work for Taco because he has STRONG opinions about what he wears and he generally wants to wear a Mickey shirt every day so he does wear the same things over and over again). If I cared less, I might be tempted to have Paul take over this task but I still pick out his clothes most of the time and it’s easier to do that with the system I have going. Oddly he has never really cared about what he wears. Different story w/ Taco obviously but maybe that will change with time. I like having their clothes picked out and downstair (where they get dressed) the night before to make our mornings run more smoothly. So I might save time if I taught Paul how to pick things out but then I’d add time to his morning or he’d wear the same shirts over and over and over. Wow, I had a lot to say about laundry.
5 massages in a row sounds INTENSE. You must get so tired – and so thirsty!! I love that you got to watch the band concert live. What a world we live in!
Ha, that’s funny because my Paul also never cared what he wore. But Angie did! I remember when she was about 18 months old she had this pair of pants that she LOVED, they had hearts on them. She wanted to wear them all the time. One day we were at the mall and we saw another toddler who had a pair of pants, different, but they also had hearts. Angie toddled right up to her and was staring at her legs in fascination, and I could just hear her thoughts- “Where did you get those pants???” So funny. Now both my kids like clothes, so it does change.
No, not dull. Like everyone else I enjoy reading these DITL posts, and it’s good to have for yourself to look back. I did a WITL little photobook when the kids were in grade 6, 4 and 2 and I look back and think what on earth. How did I have the energy to do all that running around. But so interesting to have to look back on later.
Five massages in a row? How are your hands and arms after that? I suppose you’re used to it, but that seems like a lot.
Yes, it’s too bad I didn’t keep a record like this when the kids were younger. I suspect my life was MUCH harder then, and it would be fun to look back on.
Five massages can leave me feeling really tired, or just a little tired- it depends on the client and type of massage. Some days it seems like everyone wants keep pressure and it’s like, “REALLY?” Some days are easier though.
Thank you for this post! I am fascinated with the minutiae of people’s lives. In these little moments, that is when life happens. Food is so expensive. We don’t buy organic because – prices- and I wanna say we spend about 1K per month for a family of 4?… I think? Which is bloody a lot. I need to eat less.
I buy some things organic, and others not. It’s my compromise! Buying everything organic would be way too expensive.
Well, I think DITL posts are interesting to read, regardless how “boring” they may seem 🙂 My routine has changed a bit with my commute, but it’s also kind of exciting to have a new routine. I’m still working out the bugs, though …
I think I remember you once did a sort of DITL post- about what you ate? I can’t remember exactly but it was interesting!
NOT DULL AT ALL, Jenny! This was fascinating because it’s so fun to get a glimpse into what your daily life is like. Five massages in a row is a LOT, and I’m excited that you’re going to talk more about the minutiae of your job soon.
Thank you for sharing your day Jenny. I don’t think it is dull. It’s just your day and it may feel dull because you have some sort of routine. It is totally totally different from my or our days. Which is easy having no kids.
How wonderful that the concert was streamed. The internet is a great thing. Mostly… not always.