A day in the life of....

As an intellectual exercise today, I kept a list of everything I did today. As I completed a task, I wrote it down on the white board in the kitchen and then crossed it off (*very* gratifying!). I just wanted to see *what* I actually do on a regular typical “day-off” from my paying job and usually I can’t remember by the end of the day. So now I have a better appreciation for why I feel so tired at the end of the day....

So to preface, last night I received an e-mail saying that I didn’t need to go into the hospital today because we didn’t have many babies, so I knew last night that I had today off....

So here goes, in no particular order:

Got up, dressed and ready to face the day
Fixed breakfast for Masha, fruity pebbles dry – no milk, which she didn’t eat since she was sulking. (Mean mom, I told her she could *not* wear a tiara to
summer school)
Drop Masha off at school, wait for bus to arrive & depart with said child
Wipe off kitchen counters
Sweep kitchen floor
Empty dishwasher
Fix Molly’s asthma meds in her food
Feed cats breakfast
Clutter control – i.e. returning “lost” objects to their rightful home from the main
living areas
Change sheets on beds
Wiped down the vanities & mirrors in the master bathroom
Cleaned the toilet in the master bathroom
Dust whole house
Vacuum living room
Washed, dried, folded and put away *six* loads of laundry
Emptied travel bags from lake trip on Sunday
Emptied back of Jeep and put water toys away in garage
Fixed squeaky doors in kitchen pantry & bedroom closet
Vacuumed stairs and placed rug under stair litter box
Rounded up the remainder of garbage & took out. (DH already got 3 bags from
the weekend out of garage, then I added two more kitchen bags, one 30-
gallon big bag, 2 empty litter containers & 2 old air filters – total three more
trips to the curb)
Stopped to take a shower – needed it after all the cleaning
Took photos of all birthday cards on the fireplace mantle before taking them
down & sorting them into “keepers” & “not-keepers”
Took photos of Masha’s bathtub toys on the window ledge
Took photos of Tucker being really cute during his nap
Put camera battery on charger & plugged a charged battery into the camera
Ate lunch & read scrapbooking magazine for 20 minutes
Checked e-mail and answered a few
Looked up address & printed map for interview on Wednesday (don’t get too
excited, the doc has already said that there won’t be an opening for 6-9
months.... <very big sigh>....)
Looked up names of pedi’s not yet sent cover letter & my CV
Printed out photos for a Thank you card to good friends MJ & Tarl, wrote out card
and got ready for mail
Printed out photos for late Father’s Day card to my dad, wrote out card & got
ready to mail
Rounded up my brother’s mail that is being delivered here and got ready to mail
to him in San Antonio
Dropped off dry cleaning
Stopped at Post office for postage on above packages
Picked Masha up from school, chased down bus to get her daily folder back that
she left on bus.
Fixed afternoon snacks
Took Masha to gymnastics
Made phone calls to two practices in an attempt to set up interviews –
unsuccessful. One closed at 3:30 and switched over to the answering
service, other one the main doc is on vacation until next week.... <very big
sigh>....
Called my friend Kirsten, so far no chickenpox at her house *yet*
Went home from gymnastics & started cooking dinner
Set table & served dinner, translated a lot during dinner, got to eat some
Washed pots & pans and cleaned up after dinner (Michael put the leftovers away)
Loaded dishwasher
Fix Molly’s asthma meds in her food & feed the cats dinner
Looked at calendar and realized that today is Pixel & Molly’s 10th birthday
Made lunch for tomorrow
Made more ice tea
Replaced batteries in two of my clocks
Ironing
Herded Masha out of bathtub & into pajamas
Prompted her to go pick up her stuff from all over the house (Mean Mom – I keep
what I have to pick up and she has to do extra chores to earn her stuff
back.... It’s taking a while, but she’s learning....)
Got her settled to bed & good nights
Checked e-mail and answered a few more
Visited favorite blogs
Signed into the classroom chat at my current BigPicture Scrapbooking class
Working on my blog as the posts are posted at the chat.
I have my clothes picked out for tomorrow, gear for tomorrow packed up & in the
jeep.
Checked back on Masha to see if she’s closer to being asleep – not a chance.
It’s already 8:45pm – that 6:30 am wake up will just bite in the morning.
So now I’m just chilling in front of the computer & feeling very tired. Funny thing is that on the days that I “Go to work”, I generally do about the same amount of stuff in addition to seeing x number of patients. I feel fairly illuminated just listing out everything, and Michael was a little bit floored looking at the list on the white board – which was only about 2/3 of the real list since I ran out of room there and had to go to regular pen & paper.

Interestingly enough, the only two items that did not make it to today’s list were “Mop the kitchen floor” and “Scrapbooking – start sorting photos” ... Maybe tomorrow. Just got e-mail a bit ago that the baby count is still low so I may not need to go into work tomorrow..... I can hope! ( So if you wonder why you haven’t heard from me in a while, it’s probably because I’m having a day like today. )