A day in my life: Tuesday, March 10

Last week, my friend Kimberly posted photos on Facebook documenting a typical day in her life. I loved the idea, so yesterday I decided to take a crack at it. I'm not tagging anyone, because this is a little time intensive, but if you're into it - have at it (and please let me know you did it so I can come check out your photo essay).

The rules are simple:
1. Pick any day.
2. Photos should all be within a 24 hour period. (I'm hoping you'd pick a 'typical' day, if possible. But it's really your preference.)
3. Take one photo every hour that you are awake. Aim to do so in one hour increments, ie, 5:40, 6:40, 7:40, but it's okay as long as it's close to it. (You can skip shower photos.
4. The photo can be of anything you choose that gives a glimpse into your life in that hour. It doesn't HAVE to be of you.
5. Self-portraits are welcome but, really, you choose what you want to photograph to document that hour.
6. Upload the photos to Facebook, Flickr or your blog and label the album "24 hours" or "A day in the life of XXX" -- anything that makes it clear it's part of this photo challenge.
7. Have fun!

I want to apologize for the quality of some of these pictures. For all the love I feel for the iPhone, it's not really the best camera, but it had to do. So here we go!

7:30 a.m. - Breakfast



In the interest of full disclosure, I have to say that this happened a good 45 minutes later than usual thanks to some later-sleeping children (but who is complaining?!) Can you guess whose is whose?

8:30 a.m. - Getting ready



At this hour, we are in the throes of getting ready for school. The girls get dressed, I make their lunch, we brush our teeth, etc. On Tuesdays, Peanut has ballet right after school, so she wears her leotard. We also have to put her hair up, so that was what was about to happen here.

9:30 a.m. - YMCA



So the girls are at school and I've gone off to the gym. Here I am cruising for a spot in the YMCA's very, very, VERY crowded parking lot. As you can see, there are a number of cars ahead of me also looking for spots. After this loop, I gave up and parked on the street behind the Y waaaaaaay down the street. I really should start counting the long walks I have from my car to the Y as part of my training.

10:30 a.m. - Post-swimming



Here I am fresh out of the pool looking very much like a drowned rat. After this, I took a shower and then drove back to my town to pick Loaf up from preschool.

11:30 a.m. - Pick up time



I pick Loaf up from school at 11:30 a.m. After this, we went across the street to a local cafe for lunch and then to . . .

12:30 p.m. - The library



. . . the library where we killed about 35 minutes before having to go back to the school to pick up Peanut and her friends for ballet.

1:30 p.m. - Waiting



Like I've mentioned, Peanut takes ballet on Tuesdays with two of her classmates. We three moms carpool so we each only have to drive (and also sit around and wait for 50 minutes) every 3rd week. This week, it was my turn, so here Loaf and I are chilling in the hallway while Peanut and her friends learn to pirouette and all that other good stuff.

2:30 p.m. - Driving the ballet bus



Class is over, and we are on our way home. And just to be clear, I was parked when I snapped this photo. No worries, people! Safety first!

3:30 p.m. - E-mail



We're back home and the girls are having a snack so I took a moment to get a little work done. Here I am checking my email. On my lap is Janey. The second I sit down, she hops into my lap, so this the view I have of my screen.

4:30 p.m. - Laundry



Believe it or not, somewhere under all that laundry is a pool table. At about 4:30, I decided to try and find it. And I just know this photo makes you want to break out singing "Glamourous Life," by Sheila E. <----Yeah, me neither. Le sigh.

5:30 p.m. - Bath



It probably seems odd, but I've gotten into giving the girls their bath before dinner (unless we're having something ridiculously messy). After dinner, they're just too tired (and so am I) and a bath usually ends in screaming (them) and/or crying and pleading (me). So to make life easier on us all, we bathe before dining in this house.

6:30 p.m. - Dinner



After the bath, I explored the kitchen hoping to find a nice wedge of salmon or a big breast of chicken, but alas, the grocery elves had let me down again, so we went with a frozen vegetable pizza from Trader Joe's (which was actually really good!) and a spinach salad with red onions, dried cranberries and walnuts. Not bad for having to pull it out of thin air.

7:30 p.m. - Work



After dinner, I read to the girls for about 30 minutes and then put on an episode of "Curious George" for them to watch. They don't watch TV all day, but they typically are allowed one show before bed. While they watch, I try to squeeze in a little more work. Here I am sitting before the (highly unflattering) glow of my laptop.

8:30 p.m. - Still working



The girls are nestled all snug in their beds and I am still working away.

9:30 p.m. - Winding down



Brushing my teeth, washing my face, packing up stuff for work tomorrow, etc.

And no, I have no idea why this photo looks like it was smeared with Vaseline.

10:30 p.m. - Bed



If you look closely under that cat and that book (which is not a cheesy romance novel, but the classic Rebecca), you will find a very sleepy me, just about to switch off the light. It's been a long day and my alarm goes off at 5:30 a.m. tomorrow so I need to get to bed. Good night y'all!

(I'm considering doing this again tomorrow, since it's an office day for me, and as you can imagine my work days are vastly different. But we'll see. I'm not sure how exciting 8 consecutive shots of my laptop would be, but maybe I can find some more creative things to show.)