…the sweet sound of silence…

Back in the day when blogs were a thing, in a way they aren’t now…when they were more personal and friendly and less about pinterest views, there were a couple of bloggers who I would follow that would do “day in the life” posts. I am an unrepentant sticky-beak, and love to see how other folks manage their days.

At the time, I had small children, and these days of crafting and blogging and exercise classes and reading and enjoying a whole lot of peace and quiet and suiting oneself as to how one’s day unfolded seemed unattainably decadent. My days were feedings and changings and nap times and cleaning and maybe if I got lucky, a bit of craft in between it all, and blogging during feeds.

Now I have an almost-teenager and three primary school aged children, all at home full-time now that we homeschool, and life is a different kind of busy. There’s less nappy-washing, and less nap-times. There’s more paperwork and more “put your clothes in the laundry”. More independant meals and snacks, and more washing up. It’s neither better nor worse, but different. Being bigger, it is also easier for my mum to breeze in and announce she is taking them for an hour after work so I have a chance to get some jobs done, or, as was the case last week, when the mister announces he’s off to his home town over the mountain for a meeting, for me to, ahem, “suggest” he may like to take the children with him to have a day with his mum.

And so it became, Monday afternoon, I found myself baking some bikkies, packing an esky of brekkie and lunch supplies, and loading up the car with kids and pillows and bags, and waving off my family for a whole, entire 24 hours. TWENTY FOUR.

I had such big plans, which I kicked off by a night of…exactly nothing. I got takeaway for dinner, parked my lazy butt on the lounge, and watched a couple of episodes of Spirited. Normally I can get a wiggle on when left to my own devices, but there was zero mojo to be found. I managed to check in on a mentoring webinar, but that was about it. Tuesday, I was a bit more productive – a sleep in until 6.45, before getting up and hitting the computer, coffee in hand, ready to work. There was a week long promo running last week in my essential oil business, so I had to be coherent by the time it launched at 7am. An hour or so had my to-do list well and truly underway – graphics made, posts written, recipes shared, and it was time to treat myself to a yummy cooked breakfast and a second coffee – enjoyed hot! What a treat!

When on my own, I normally set a timer, for 20 minutes per block, to cycle between work, housewifing, and fun stuff. That way I feel like I’m not wasting all day cleaning, or like I’ve worked too much and the house is trashed, or I’ve been completely unproductive and done nothing but craft all day, which, to be fair, wouldn’t be the worst way to spend a day! I quickly whipped through some basic chores, and then I was out and into the sun to walk to a beginners Pilates class. I haven’t done an exercise class since Bear was born in 2006, and I went in reasonably pessimistic, to be honest. Would not have surprised me if I fell of the machines and broke something, because I am just that coordinated. But I survived intact, and enjoyed a coffee with my friends, before walking home again, to power through some work and housework, after an hour or so of something “fun”. I ended up doing blocks of 45 minutes of work and chores, which allowed me to watch some more Spirited episodes while folding socks and sorting washing, and then with all the housework caught up (fancy that, it’s not unending when there aren’t four kids underfoot undoing all my work as I go!), the afternoon was a cycle of more work, getting an ebook finished and some design work sorted, and doing a bit on my crochet as well. I even managed a bath to soothe my aching muscles from the morning’s class.

It was a nothing-very-fancy, ordinary, run of the mill kind of day. The kind of day I used to watch with envy. A day that I would have had, had we not decided to homeschool. It was a day to remind me that everything has it’s season. and the just as the season of naps and nappies came and went with terrifying haste, so too will these crazy, loud, mixed up, busy days of homeschooling. And it also was a day to remind me as nice as it is to have these days with a schedule that seems to encompass a little bit of everything, that I much prefer the squeezing it all in, and the vocal joy of having my babies around me is my favourite way to spend a day. Even if I don’t get much craft or blogging done…