Below is a blog post I started over two years ago. I never finished it because…well, because I was busy taking care of my toddlers. I saved it as a draft and was never able to come back to it. But today seemed a good time to brush it off and post it because it notes an important time in my life: the time when I started working on the latest draft of Grocer Cleveland Academy #3: To See Clearly. Yes, it’s been that long.
So I thought it would be fun to post this blast from the past. Tomorrow I’ll post an update so you can see how much my life has changed and stayed the same over the years. I present for your reading pleasure, a day in the life of Jessie Sanders, April 2014
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7:20 I hear the boy turn on his light and start playing with his Captain America action figure. I am thankful that the boy slept past 7 am and go back to sleep.
7:30 Sean’s alarm goes off.
7:35 Sean’s alarm goes off again. The boy and the girl both start calling for me from their rooms.
7:36-7:50 Let the kids out of their rooms and make sure they use the toilet and put on clean underwear.
7:50-8:17 Make oatmeal, pour milk into sippy cups, set the kids down at the counter with said oatmeal, make Sean’s lunch, kiss Sean goodbye, sweep the kitchen, and unload the dishwasher.
8:17-8:25 Clean up breakfast, send the kids to play in the living room.
8:27 Retire to the living room with a bottled Starbucks frappucino (because I remembered to buy some yesterday but somehow forgot to buy a new bag of coffee beans), get out my laptop.
8:30 Tweak some stories, a project I started last night that could totally put off, but I would rather do this than something bigger and more involved.
8:37 First tears of the day. The boy bit the girl. The boy, upset that I make him apologize to his sister, retires to his room to play. Comes out two minutes later.
8:45 Finish my coffee. 🙁
8:48 Finish story tweaking and get on Facebook.
8:55 Decide I really must get to work on GCA3. I need to change my outline, tweak some things, and then, if I have time, start at the very beginning (again) and start rewriting.
9:00-10:33 Turn on a movie for the kids. They alternate between watching it, jumping on the couch, and wrestling. I alternate between working on my story outline and browsing the Internet.
10:34-39 Movie is over. Kids go to the bathroom and try to convince me to put in another movie. When I say no, they start playing with the books on the dining room floor.
10:40-11:00 Send the kids to play in their room so I can clean up the dining room.
11:00-11:50 Make lunch. Eat lunch. Clean spills, refill sippy cups, wipe faces, wash dishes.
11:50-12:10 Put the boy down for a nap.
12:10-12:30 Mop and tidy the kitchen. The girl pretends the wet floor is a frozen fjord that she must cross to find Princess Anna.
12:30-1:45 The girl plays relatively quietly in the living room. I’m back to Facebooking/working on the outline. Begin to wonder wether fixing the plot is really working and if I shouldn’t go back to previous outline.
1:45 The boy stirs.
1:50-2:35 Put the kids in jackets and shoes and send them outside. Pick up toys and dirty clothes, straighten the couch cushions, play on the internet, edit a little bit on GCA3 chapter one.
2:40 Snack time!
3:00 Put the girl down for a nap.
3:10-3:35 Clean the bathrooms.
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This is where I stopped writing down my day. I’m assuming the day ended with play with the kids, making dinner, watching Netflix with my family. But the details are left to time. Tomorrow, we zoom back to the present and see how I live my life now!