Category: A day in my Life

Today I awoke about 5.30am (after a great nights sleep on our new mattress). It had cooled down overnight and was now quite windy. I debated going for walk but decided I’m feeling too lazy after my busy day yesterday (doing lots of baking). Instead I stuck to my usual morning routine of letting the dogs out to the toilet and getting a cup of tea to enjoy while playing on the computer. I check my e-mail, twitter and some of the my fav blogs. Saw that A Vision Splendid now has a e-book so I bought that (good value for $12 I think).

I then worked on our budget. It’s a pleasure doing it now that we’re on a cash budget and are moving forward rather than backward. Such a wonderful feeling, esp. at this expensive time of year.

And most of my little containers even have money in them :-).

At some point I put on a load of washing and at 8am I headed up to have a shower and get ready for the day.I found Christy out of bed so got her ready and told the girls to go check the advent calender. Todays treat was a visit to see Santa and go out for breakfast.

We left home just before 9am (to avoid the crowds).  It was great as when we arrived in David Jones their was only family having their photo with Santa so we didn’t have to wait long at all.

This is a great Santa – and one we’ve been too most years. He spent quite a bit of time talking to the girls – which Christy loved and Amy is still happy to do.

After photos the girls were allowed to pick a Christmas ornament. This was on the advent a few weeks ago but we didn’t manage to do it that day. I also got myself a nutcracker. For reason I decided I wanted one this year and thought this fellow was cute (but when I got home I realized he really needs a friends…oh, well, next year).

Next up was a quick trip to the newsagents so I could get some envelopes for my Christmas cards. The girls also got a kids magazine each. We bought some cheese rolls for Christy and headed to Gloria Jeans for breakfast. The only seating was in the smoking area but no one appeared to be smoking so we sat there. Kevin and I shared a cheese & spinach roll and we each had a small iced chocolate. Just as we were finishing some people sat near us and started smoking – so we quickly packed up and left.

It was a nice treat for us since we rarely eat breakfast out (though Kevin informs me he does). Christy was especially excited by the whole thing and I think this will become a new Christmas tradition for us.

On the way home I suddenly realized we should stop at another shopping center so I could pick up some frames I had had made. Since parking was difficult I just went in and got them while the girls and Kevin waited in the car.

We got home just after 11am and Kevin was good enough to put up the new frames.

I then finished putting together the gift baskets for today’s Christmas lunch with family friends.

I did all the baking yesterday, plus made a potato bake and desert. I also hung out the load of washing, tidied the kitchen (didn’t want to come to the mess) and unpacked the dishwasher.

Christy had fun rolling over the bubblewrap that had been around the frames.

Just after 12pm we headed next door to my Mum’s. We had a lovely afternoon with some very good family friends. Mum hosts this every year and we always a lovely time.

We sat outside to start with, then moved indoors for lunch. I forgot to take a photo but I had some potato bake, a bread roll and roast pumpkin salad.

For desert we had white chocolate and coconut cheesecake that I made, followed by tea/coffee. The tray below shows what I made for the gift baskets – shortbread, caramel fudge, cookies and xmas puddings (I’ll try and post some recipes later)

We exchanged gifts and chatted and laughed. Chirsty had a great time playing with a belated birthday present – Find it. The tube is full of things and you have to see how many you can find in a certain time. Apparently their is a penny hidden inside – which we could not find. Jenny, who gave the gift, was going to take it back to the shop. But when Kevin looked online apparently the penny is VERY hard to find and if you find it you can type in the details of the penny. So we will keep looking.

We eventually came home about 6pm. I bought in the washing and sorted it out.

Kevin replanted the mandarin tree he bought yesterday (and planted to close to our ornamental pear), and watered the veggies for me.

I started to upload todays photos so didn’t take any more. I got the dogs their dinner of leftovers (from Friday nights party) and a bowl of potato bake for my dinner. Then Kevin and I sat down to watch a couple of episodes of True Blood. I’ve been reading the books since the first one came out but the TV series is a lot more serious. Seems pretty good though (though some of the sex scenes are a bit too much).

We headed up to bed about 9pm and I put Christy to bed (Amy had fallen asleep on the couch and I’d sent her up to bed earlier). I read for a bit before turning out the lights and drifting off to sleep.

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When I woke up the clock showed 5.04am. Light was just starting to fill the sky so I got up and got dressed ready to take the dogs for a walk. Amy was already up and decided to come with us.

We had a lovely walk and enjoyed the beautiful sunrise. The dogs had so much fun – swimming in the duck pond and running through the mud :-).

It’s garbage day at our place and I’m lucky Dad always remembers to put the bins out for us.

When we got back the dogs needed a bath so I did that in our shower, dried them off and then had my own shower since I was soaked. and got dressed for the day.

My washing machine isn’t working so I took a basket of clothes over to Mums (how great that she lives next door) and put on a load.

Then I finally got to sit at the computer with a cup of tea.

When Christy came downstairs at about 7.30am we had breakfast. Today I had scrambled eggs and baked beans.

After clearing off the table I got Christy’s lunch organised (Amy does her own).

Then I went back upstairs to get Christy ready for school and to straighten my hair now that it had dried. Next up was hanging out the washing and putting Christy’s bedding in the machine. All the animals were fed and watered and bags made ready for school. When Mum came over at 8.45am we were all ready to go.

Mum and I both do reading with Christy’s class today. It’s been so great seeing them improve as the year has gone by.

From here I drove to the local shopping center and raced in to a present for my Uncle’s birthday on Sunday. Then I drove to the beauticians. Todays appointment was for my nails and eyelashes/eyebrows. After such a busy day yesterday it was so nice to moving at a slower pace today.

It was now 12pm and I was starving so I drove home, got Bailey his lunch and made myself a taco salad (with leftover TVP Taco mince from last night), which I ate while printing out this weeks lessons for my Big Picture Scrapbooking class.

I also ordered some protein powder online (since I’ve almost run out) and made a list of what food I want to have for afternoon tea at my Partylite Candle party tomorrow afternoon.

I made myself another cup of tea and went to work on the banking for the school uniform shop (we’ve had kindy orientation this week and have been open 3 days for the Mum’s to buy uniforms). Also placed an order for more stock.

At 2.15pm I left to go to bank, then to school.

I was a bit early but a friend I haven’t seen for ages was there so it was nice and sit and chat while we waited for the bell to go. Once home we unpacked the car and school bags.

II quickly washed up their lunch containers. We had a sprinkle of rain so I raced out to bring in the washing and as I was putting it away Kevin arrived home (very early for him). It’s been a stinking hot day here so the girls wanted icees to cool them down.

Then Amy got ready for her dance lesson, Christy had swim, and I enjoyed some hummous and crackers while making some tarts for tomorrow’s afternoon tea. I also watered the veggie garden – everything is growing so fast in the warm weather.

At 4.15pm Amy and I left for her private tap. While waiting and sat and read through a SImple Scrapbooks mag. I haven’t done any scrapbooking all week (with having the open the uniform shop in the afternoon) so I’m quite anxious to do some.

Here’s a shot of the passenger seat. It’s always full of stuff (normally more than this but I had Mum in the car this morning).

Back home at 5.15pm I enjoyed a lemonade ice-block while downloading some photos to flickr and starting work on this post.

I went and made up Christy’s bed (ready for when Poppy put her to bed), did a quick tidy up upstairs and got ready to go out. My car was nearly empty so we stopped to get petrol and could grey clouds moving in from the South,

We had dinner at our current favourite Lebanese restaurant. We get a wrap each and take half with us to have later. The meals cost us a whole $16, and we don’t feel silly not being able to eat very much. I love the falafel wrap with cheese and salad.

While we were at dinner it started raining in earnest. It was bucketing down and even with the umbrella we would be been drenched by the time we got to the basketball stadium. Luckily it eased off a bit when we had finished eating so we were able to get there without getting too wet.

The game was great, as usual, though we lost by 1 point in the last 2 seconds!!!!! It was funny in a way because it was a 3 pt shot by one of our old players that no-one liked. He used to get boo-ed by his own team supporters – which I never understand. How was he supposed to get better being heckled by the people were supposed to support him? Anyway, he got his own back tonight so I kind of didn’t mind that we lost.

We got home about 10pm (Dad had already put the girls to bed) and made a cup of tea. I read for a while before turning off the light about 11pm (which is a VERY late night for me). Unfortunately I was up at at 11.30, 1am, 2am and 4am taking Bailey out to the toilet (I think he drank too much duck pond water this morning!!!) Poor fella.

Anyway, that was a day in my life. Be sure to hop over to Little Jenny Wren to see what others were to today.

I nearly forgot that it’s once again my job to document A Day in My Life. I was up around 5.20am. Not that I wanted to be but Kevin had to leave early to go to Sydney and since our bedroom opens up to our bathroom there was no staying asleep for me. A shame. It’s rainy and overcast and would have been a great morning to snuggle in bed with Rosie (guess, I should have said Kevin 🙂 ).

Downstairs to let the dogs out for the toilet. Then I made myself a cup of tea which I enjoyed while watching the slide show presentation for my Design Your Life class, and reading blogs in Google Reader.

Got Bailey his breakfast and watched him and Rosie playing. He’s growing up so fast and is nearly as tall as Rosie (esp. at the back end).

At 6.45am I headed upstairs to have my shower. Christy was already up so I helped her get dressed and put away some the girls clothes. I made my bed, not easy with the dogs.

Then had my shower and got dressed for the gym. I didn’t realize quite how warm it was and should have waited to shower AFTER my workout. I cleanse, moisturize and put on a bit of makeup.

Now, I’m all ready to face the day.

Back downstairs. I put the washing on – adult clothes today.

Help Christy organise her lunch and make breakfast. Really couldn’t decide what I felt like this morning. Ended up with cruskits and cottage cheese and a Milo (which I have about once every 6 weeks).

We had been planning to walk to school but it had started raining so we drove. I had to open the uniform shop at school. We had NO customers today. I forgot to take a photo until after I had closed up but here’s were all the action (!!!!) takes place.

Aren’t these flowers at the school absolutely beautiful?

Next stop was the gym.

Today was lower body workout so it’s a quick one and I was back home by 9.45am. The dogs helped  me bring in the mail.

Put the washing in the dryer. I don’t like to use it but the rain looks very set in and is supposed to hang around tomorrow as well.

Time to rest my jelly legs and enjoy a protein shake while reading blogs. If you’re looking for a good one to read go check out simple-green-frugal-co-op. It’s new but you can tell it’s going to be fantastic.

After recovering from my workout I ventured out into the garden to get some cauliflower for tonights dinner. We’re also having snow peas but I’ll go get them later when it stops raining. I bought them inside, removed the leaves (gave some to the guinea pigs) and washed the florets. I then took some leaves out to the chooks, who were in an area by the back door (where the’re not supposed to be). No eggs yet today.

I then did a bit of ordering for the uniform shop. We have the kindy orientation coming up in a few weeks.

I then made up some fruit loaf and got it started in the bread maker. Our machine is working out really well and even Christy likes “some” of the bread I’ve made in it.

I’m feeling VERY lazy today. Normally after my weights workout on Tues I do my groceries. I’ve worked out I never have a lot of energy for a while afterwards so I do my cleaning on days I do cardio early in the morning. However, I don’t think the weather is helping things today. So I made myself a cup of tea and wrote up some of this post. So many things I should be doing but I’m just in the mood today.

I ended up getting motivated enough to go and do an 1/2 hour of ironing and managed to get it ALL done. Now I just have to put it away – I hate that job way more than the ironing.

Time for some lunch. Today I had a grain roll with a slice of cheese and some pasta salad. I ate while reading blogs (bad, I know).

At 1pm I headed into the scrapbook room to work on some layouts from our big trip. I got quite a few done and am on the home stretch with the album.

At 2.45 I left to go pick up the girls from school. It had stopped raining but had turned quite cool. However by the time we got home and out of the car, the sun was out and it was rather warm (didn’t last long though). Christy played a bit of basketball outside and I sent Amy to pick some snow peas and broad beans.

She go the beans out of the pods for me, then upon doing some research I realized they have to be boiled slightly and then peeled again. I did this and it wasn’t as bad as I feared. The bread was ready and Amy enjoyed some for afternoon tea.

I got back on the computer (and a cup of tea) again and got side tracked finding photos for Kevin to print on canvas for our loungeroom (it’s been on my to-do list for some time now).

Time was getting away so I thought I’d better finish getting dinner made. I got the dogs their dinner, which they devoured.

Dinner tonight was cauliflower in the cheese sauce, snow peas & broad beans and honey carrots. Amy and I ate together. Christy had already eaten and was over and Nan & Pop’s, and Kevin was late home.

After dinner I got the kitchen cleaned up and Kevin arrived home. We sent Christy up for her bath and Kevin had his dinner. We settled down to watch and episode of the Tudors Season 2 and I finished up this post.

To read about others days make sure you visit Little Jenny Wren.