Day in the Life: Thursday, January 19, 2017

One of my photography projects for the year that I am hoping to accomplish is a "day in the life" series for one day each month.  The general idea is that you take photos all day long, documenting your day.  I took an approach of trying to take at least one picture each hour or whenever our activity or setting changed.  Some hours may have more than one photo because I couldn't decide on a favorite.  I hope to both create a different sort of history from this project that we can look back on years from now and remember what the day-to-day life of our young family was like and to learn and grow in my photography from it as I attempt to do more than just snapshot the regular stuff in life.  Like as I edited these photos, I started to realize that I don't get very many detail shots - I tend to gravitate toward pull-backs.  So I need to think about making goals or mini-projects that will help me overcome my weakness with shooting close-in and capturing details.  

It is also really fun that my sister-in-law and photog inspiration, Deborah, has also decided to do the same project.  I loved looking at her day that she posted earlier this month (because she is way more on top of things than me).  

5:30 a.m.: Paul is heading out to catch BART to go into SF for work.  He gets up at 5:00 everyday and I usually wake up when I hear him turn on the shower, which is fine by me as it gives me some quite time in the morning to get centered and do some quiet things before the girls wake up. 

6:20 a.m.:  My morning routine pretty much consists of scriptures, checking my schedule for the day, and working on photos, food blog stuff, or other goals until the girls wake up.  I love, love, love this calm time of day to focus and get things done.

7:00 a.m.:  Trying to wake up.  Rose almost always bursts out of the girls' shared room at 6:45 shouting gleefully that their alarm clock has turned green ("It's green! It's GREEN! Mom, wanna come see?!") followed immediately by a moaning that she is hungry and needs a snack and no, she would not like breakfast instead, thank you very much.  Clara always has a harder time waking up and it usually takes her a bit longer.  She often just lays on the couch while I pull breakfast together.

7:50 a.m.:  Getting hair done for the day.  The girls are both pretty good about letting me do their hair.  Braids for Clara, pigtails for Rose.

8:36 a.m.:  Kindergarten drop-off.  I actually had a thought that I would take a picture of Clara's boots in line with all the other kids in her class, but we got to school just as her class was filing into their classroom so I missed that chance.  Maybe I will attempt that shot in February's "day in the life" and try to get to school a few minutes earlier.

9:00 a.m.:  3-year old "well child check-up" for Rose at the doctor's office, followed by an appointment with my general practitioner to have a peek at my left ear, which has been bothering me for a bit (um, kind of my fault since I accidentally jabbed it too hard with a Q-tip and now I can't hear out of it very well).

9:15 a.m.:  Rose goes from happy-to-lucky to throwing a massive tantrum when we took her pants off for her exam.  She knows whats up when we go to the doctor and take her pants off because it usually means shots (none this time though) and was definitely NOT happy about it.  Dr. Kaneko (who is awesome and I love her) looks appalled, lol, but she has a 3-year old too and knows just what this is all about.  

10:30 a.m.:  Made it to the gym.  Normally I do a bodypump class at 9:00 on Thursdays but because of our appointments today I had to improvise and put myself through the paces.  This shot is admittedly a bit of a lie because I totally do most of my push-ups from my knees.  I can only manage one or two like this but I'm working on getting stronger.

11:30 a.m.: Back at home and taking care of the chickens while there is a break in the rain.  Their coop needing cleaning so Rose explored the puddles in our backyard while I took care of that chore.  We are trying to figure out how to drain the water that collects into little lakes in our yard and slowly continuing the process of reshaping the landscape and hardscape in both the front and back of our house.  Rose and Clara both got new gardening boots for Christmas from Grandpa & Grandma Nash.

12:05 p.m.:  Eating lunch.  Clara has "focus group" after school on Thursdays with her teacher where she gets an extra hour with her teacher and just a few other kids from her class who need a little extra help with math, so Rose and I did lunch on our own today.

1:15 p.m.:  Tea party in the toy room with one of Rose's favorite birthday presents.  She and Clara played and played with this set when we were in Solvang so we got it for her.  I think they especially love it because it isn't plastic.  She always puts this leotard on backwards and I cannot convince her otherwise.

1:30 p.m.:  After school.  You can see how wet everything still is from the rain earlier in the morning and there are dark clouds rolling back in for another round of rain.  It's pretty much been this way for most of January.  I wasn't totally prepared for this shot and don't love the crop on Clara's head, but I love the natural emotion, the swing of her dress, and the strong, moody lighting.    

2:00 p.m.:  At the library picking out new books for the week.  I'm making an effort to take the girls to the library more often this year.  I also had an appointment at the orthodontist to pick up my retainer and it's right around the corner from the library.  Plus, we had to return "My Fair Lady".  The girls love helping to do check-out and share the responsibility, each scanning half of our pile of books (29 of them this time around).

3:00 p.m.:  In the five minutes it took to drive home from the orthodontist's office, Rose feel fast asleep.  She hasn't napped regularly in almost a year, but every now and then she passes out like this.  Lately it's been once or twice a week that she does this so I wonder if she is going through a growing spurt.  I carried her inside and she settled right down into her bed under her blanket.

 4:00 p.m.:  Perusing our haul from the library while Rose naps.  Clara's reading is really coming along and it's so wonderful and exciting to see her develop this ability.  She still has to be encouraged to pick up a book most of the time and doesn't do it on her own very often, but new library books tend to be an exception.  I came into the living room and found her like this.  We ended up reading "Bad Rats" together.

4:15 p.m.:  Paul actually got home from work at 3:00 today, which is totally not normal, but things have been slow lately and he had a client lunch in Berkeley so he didn't bother going back into the city afterwards.  It was nice because it gave him extra time to work on Rose's B-E-D (he and Clara keep spelling it instead of saying the word so that it could be a surprise for Rose).  It looks AMAZING and I can't wait for it to be painted and set up in the girls' room.

5:10 p.m.:  I got kind of a late start on dinner, which was salmon, roasted potatoes and asparagus.  It all cooks in the oven at the same time and is so, so easy.  We are actually making it again today (Sunday) for friends who are coming over for dinner.  Perfect for Whole 30.  This is the hardest time of the day for Rose, who was still groggy and grouchy after waking up from her nap.

5:30 p.m.:  Dance party while dinner cooks.  The kitchen was clean (the living room obviously was not) and Clara has been obsessed with the soundtracks from Trolls and Moana, so we turned up the volume and danced in an attempt to cheer Rose up and get her through until dinnertime, which is when she usually starts to perk up again.

6:30 p.m.:  Bathtime for Rose.  She had another melt-down when I told her it was time to get out.  She would stay in and soak for a good half hour if we would let her, but by then she has usually splashed out most of the water that was in the tub to begin with.  Poor Rose, I don't mean to make it sound like she has melt-downs all day long, but it is hard to be three.  And even though her tantrums are epic, she also has gloriously happy, bursting-with-sunshine-and-joy moments during the day as well.  That seems to be just part of who Rose is and one of the things we love about her.

7:00 p.m.:  Scriptures, prayer and story time before bed.  This usually takes a while and the actual tucking in part typically involves songs and snuggles and goes until about 7:30 or even 8:00 if we let it (or if we fall asleep during snuggles, which happens all too often).  I often get my hair done by one of the girls at some point during the day and I love it.

8:30 p.m.:  The house is (sort of) back in order so get to do things like upload photos!  And work on blog posts!  Because I'm nerdy like that.  And it's something I can do while listening to podcasts or audiobooks while Paul is in the garage sanding Rose's bed.  Otherwise we would usually be watching a show together on TV.

10:00 p.m.:  Bedtime.  Next time I will have to try to take a photo to show part of our bedtime routine.

I love this project (even though it made for an exhausting day and a lot of work!) and am looking forward to doing more of them this year!