A Day in the Life, in Photos

I love doing a day in the life posts, even though they are a good little bit of work. They are so worth it. I did two of them in 2012, but haven’t done one since! I was inspired mostly by the idea of celebrating this special time. My life is about to change in a huge and awesome way, and I thought sometime in the future, I might like to look back and remember what these days were like. And maybe someday our children will want to know what Mommy did all day before she was rocking them and pushing them on swings in the park. I also wanted to try to get comfortable using the TimerCam app (free!) on my phone. Elise has been taking such great pictures of herself with her sweet baby, and I really want to be able to capture those moments when I am home with our baby too. I only managed to take two, but it’s a start! And so, without further ado, let’s begin the day!

This exercise makes me think of young Tolstoy’s first literary experiment, a short story called “A History of Yesterday.” It was unfinished and only fairly recently made available to the public (but not in English, sorry!). It’s a fascinating text–Tolstoy, ever the diarist, sets out to record the events of yesterday in full, only to find himself backtracking to the day before in order to explain the circumstances. He really can’t ever get to the present moment, which explains a lot about his future aesthetic and also probably explains why the story was unfinished. All this is to say: the same is true for me. My days depend on how the nights go. I am up at least once in the night to eat some yogurt or cottage cheese, and ideally it’s at 4am, so I can go back to sleep. But sometimes I wake up at something like 2 and 6, and I can never go back to sleep after 6. I end up sleeping late to try to make up for the lost time. And this day (last Tuesday) was such a day. But here is my breakfast, such as it was last week: a wheat bagel with cream cheese. For such a long time, this was the only thing my stomach would tolerate in the morning. Even the switch to wheat was an accomplishment. But now I’m happy to be eating oatmeal again, which I hope is a bit more nutritious. I like that my purple robe is in this picture because I put in on every morning for breakfast and catching up on the blogs I read. My parents gave it to me for Christmas when I was in high school, and it’s still going strong.

After breakfast, I got to work on the book proposal. Mornings are usually my best thinking time, so I try not to schedule anything before the afternoon.

This is a lot of what my life looks like right now, and I love it. These are some of the books that have been so helpful to me in putting my proposal together. (As a side note, Eric thinks I should write a post on which ones are particularly helpful. Would that be something you guys would be interested in?)

When my brain got tired, I got up and laid out a row of triangles for the baby’s quilt. Good to have a little change in posture too. (Also, color trouble: that’s not black, it’s navy blue!)

And then, lunch! This my leftover half of a burrito from Chipotle the night before. Not the healthiest lunch in the world, but I did get brown rice and extra veggies, so I can at least feel good about that. I was reading Los Angeles magazine, which is really great, and also a good accompaniment to a messy meal (wouldn’t want to get salsa on a library book!). I also had a Cara Cara orange, one of our favorites this time of year.

And then I flipped through this Paper Source catalog, which gave me the idea for my next quilt: solid color rainbow!

After lunch, it was back to work. Ah, not good posture. But I am happy to have this view of the other side of the office, which will soon be dismantled and reincarnated as the nursery. I like that you can see my word for this year, nurture, up on the wall, and my DIY mannequin for sewing. After another session with the proposal, I took my almost daily nap–usually about an hour.

This was my afternoon snack. Not my favorite flavor, but good in a pinch.

I headed out for my walk around 2:30. It was a gorgeous day, and I loved seeing the clouds above the mountains.

I always walk past Eric’s building on my walks, and sometimes I text him to come to window and wave. It’s one of my favorite things. I call this his “C for Cameron” shirt.

I was back home by 3:30, having done my usual 4-mile route. I am probably already embarrassing our child with my garish attire, but oh well! That little hand-held water bottle has been the greatest addition to the walking regimen. We got it on Amazon, and it’s great–not too heavy, not too big.

After a quick shower, I got to work on making dinner. On days when I cook, I have to get started by 4pm at the latest because I am so hungry by 5. Today I made cauliflower and quinoa chowder.

I used this pretty broccoflower, which…

turned the soup totally purple! It was pretty good, and it was chased by two clementines (I have to keep the citrus routine varied!)

After dinner I worked on some freelance editing. This little sheet is my constant companion.

Eric had some big proposals due today, so when he got home he decided to make himself a celebratory drink. He caramelized some oranges in brown sugar for a garnish.

The drink looked really beautiful, but obviously it was only for him! I think it was an old-fashioned, but I can’t totally remember.

By then it was time for my second dinner, just a few slices of fresh wheat bread and some cheese. (It’s funny how quickly you get tired of things…last week this seemed like an awesome treat, but this week…ehhh.)

At 10 to 8, Eric and I set out to go to a talk by three astronauts on the future of human spaceflight. It was so cold, and I was shivering in my coat. When we got there, the auditorium looked strangely dark, and we realized we had the date wrong! So here we are back home again.

Since I had the evening free, I finished laying out the quilt triangles. Huzzah!

Then I read a few lessons in my online painting course. My access to it expires at the beginning of May, so I am kind of in a crunch to cover all the material. It’s always uplifting, always inspiring.

While I was working on that, Eric was playing his bass. Adorable. That box on his desk for the iRig, which allows him to plug his bass into his computer.

I wrote my blog post for the next day, which I always do before going to bed. I wish it weren’t so impossible to take a picture of a computer screen! Ah well.

And then, since it was April 1st, I changed my calendar page. This one lives on the ledge of our kitchen chalkboard, and I love it.

And, of course, I was hungry again. This is my totally uninspiring bedtime snack, a PBJ. I am not a huge fan of them, but when you’re hungry, you’re hungry. At least it had some protein! (As a side note, I had my glucose tolerance test the next morning, and I didn’t fast. I am now even more overjoyed that I passed because I had a lot more bread and sweet stuff than usual on this day).

Finally, bedtime reading. This is Great with Child. I loved this passage and found it so apt. And I am happy that our sweet baby is in this picture. I hope some years from now, I will show him this post and say, “Look, there you were!”