Go birds! I am posting this after a close and snowy football game. I was not there in person this time (the weather was a lot better last week!) and watching it on TV was…wow. I guess they were plowing the lines frequently.
Anyway, if you have made it this far in the 2025 Time Tracking Challenge, congrats. The week is close to over. I hope you have found the experience enlightening.
The past 24 hours have been fairly low key. After posting my blog yesterday, I read my daily chapter in Anna Karenina, then played with the 3D printing pen the 10-year-old got for his birthday. We did that for a while, then at 4:00 I went for a quick walk outside. Then I did my puzzle from about 4:20-5:00 while I was waiting for the 5-year-old to come home.
When he arrived we played with these dinosaur skeletons he had gotten at the natural history museum. We played for about 45 minutes, then I started cooking dinner with my husband (who was on grilling duty). We ate surf and turf (steak and lobster tails!) at 6:15. We were done 6:45, and cleaned up.
I gave the little boys a bath, and then it was football watching time for the next hour. We had taped the KC/Texans game and watched it, fast-forwarding through commercials. When we were done at 8:15 I did my puzzle again for an hour until I collected the 5-year-old and attempted to put him to bed. This was a slightly frustrating experience, as he was complaining about not doing something over the weekend that he had said he didn’t want to do, and then all of a sudden did want to do. We are talking psychological warfare here — at one point he told me “I’m never hugging you again!”
(Update: He has in fact hugged me several times since, so I guess he didn’t mean it.)
Around 10:00 I gave up and told my husband to go in there. I have no idea what happened because I got ready for bed and conked out at 10:30 p.m. I woke up briefly at 5:15 (and thought I might not go back to sleep because, hello, that’s already a full night) but lo and behold I did. I woke up with my alarm at 7:30. I don’t believe I needed 9 hours of sleep…but I got them.
At 7:30, I showered, got dressed, got my coffee and ate breakfast. I chatted with my husband for a while, finished getting ready, and left (by myself) at 8:45 for church. I practiced with the choir from 9-9:40, then relaxed, with some texting and emailing, until the service began at 10. This went until 11 — we sang a Jane Marshall piece and the spiritual “Every time I feel the spirit,” with our lovely alto soloist. (Nobody else in the family went. My husband was taking the little boys skiing and the youth group didn’t meet with the holiday.)
After, I went to the grocery store, which was a funny experience. Between people getting party stuff for the Eagles game, and people prepping for the snow storm, the place was packed. I meant to grab a basket inside but couldn’t find one. So I carried a cake (for the 10-year-old’s party early in the week), a plate of cupcakes, guacamole, and chips up to the counter and then carried them out to the car (we don’t get free bags in my county…and somehow there weren’t any in my car). I made it home around 11:30. I got a snack and a second cup of coffee, and consumed those while doing my puzzle. (My husband had taken the little boys skiing so only the big kids were around.)
From 12:00-12:15 I put my laundry in. Then I assisted a child with cleaning this child’s room for the next 1.25 hours. The place was a disaster and I realized it probably needed my help to get done. We loaded all the dirty clothes into the hamper and I started the laundry after mine was out. I meant to be working out by 1:30 and that didn’t happen but I did make 1:45.
From 1:45-2:20 I did my combo treadmill/weights workout. I run 2 miles or so in 5-minute chunks, with resistance exercises thrown in between the running parts. This is less boring than just running on a treadmill. And since it was starting to snow, I figured this was better than running outside! I listened to Taylor Swift to pump myself up. Then I changed clothes and was at my desk at 2:30. I did about 30 minutes of work, went to walk outside for 20 minutes, and then met my husband and the little boys, who were coming home. I got them inside, and then hung out at the kitchen table with my 5-year-old while he was doing various things (and I was on my computer… I got another 45 minutes of work done). Then we started watching the Eagles.
This was also taped and slightly delayed (so we could forward through commercials) but this meant I needed to not be on my phone where I might see the score. We watched the game through to about 6:30 (not long after it ended live). Quite the snowy scene! But at least it turned out the right way. We ate chicken wings, nachos, etc.
Not much else is likely to happen this evening. Music lessons are canceled with the snow. Kids don’t have school tomorrow so I will not be able to convince them to go down early. It could be a long night…
Here’s my past 24-ish hours in log form.
Saturday
3 work, AK, 3D print
3:30 3D print, hangout
4 walk outside, puzzle
4:30 puzzle
5 H- play dinosaurs
5:30 dinosaurs, help cook
6 cook, eat w/family
6:30 eat, clean up
7 bath, watch football
7:30 watch football
8 football, puzzle
8:30 puzzle
9 puzzle, H milk + stories
9:30 sit w/H, he’s upset
10 H, ready bed/read
10:30 sleep
Sunday
(5:15 bathroom)
7:30 up, shower, H, etc.
8 breakfast, chat M
8:30 ready, to church
9 choir practice
9:30 choir, texts, etc. prelude
10 church
10:30 church
11 to Acme, cake, home
11:30 snack/coffee, puzzle
12 laundry, clean (kid) room
12:30 clean (kid) room
1 clean (kid) room, laundry
1:30 change, run/weights
2 run/weights (2.2), laundry
2:30 work
3 walk outside, kids
3:30 work/H
4 work/H, Eagles
4:30 Eagles (etc.)
I am jealous of your “Every Time I Feel the Spirit” I was looking forward to singing “Lift Every Voice and Sing” which is traditional for my church on MLK weekend and somehow it turned out to be a very English music selection.
@Gillian – we did sing that as our final hymn. You have to allow for us being a bunch of Presbyterians though…perhaps not the world’s best performance of it!
I really enjoyed tracking my time for the whole week. I had done the odd day or two before but never stuck with it. Thank you for the motivating e-mails!
I tracked with different colours down the side of each day in my paper planner, so it is not super detailed, but the special events and the hard landscape of work, driving kids and other appointments have entries in the planner anyway. As I use a weekly spread the colour coding is enough to give me a quick visual overview of my days and the whole week at once.
One good thing I take away from the week: The small bits of time talking a quick walk, reading a couple of pages or spending a few minutes engaged with a kid between activities do add up over the course of a week.
@Friederike – so glad you were able to stick with it! Yep, there often is at least some space for personal time, even in a very busy life.
My AK slow read has failed miserably. I found it so compelling that I just kept reading and finished it last night, only a year ahead of schedule 🙂
But I’ve really enjoyed my no phones before reading rule in the am. I say 1 chapter and often end up reading for 15-20 minutes. So going to find another chunky read with nice short chapters.
@Coree- it is a good book! I read it many years ago, so I’m trying to read it differently this time, really absorbing the little allusions Tolstoy is making. We shall see if I stick with it but…congrats on finishing many many months ahead!