Barhorst Brewed: Bonus Post: (Another) Day in the Life

I did a Day in the Life post ages ago when Olivia was younger than Gretchen is now. It seemed about time for another one. :)

6:45 am - I roll out of bed and go for a short run (outside because it's been so beautiful!), getting back before everyone wakes up.

The light is so bright...

7:15 am - I do not, however, make it into the shower before Gretchen starts whining. She often wakes up happy, but not this morning. I am pleased to note that her tone gets much more pleasant as soon as I walk into the room. This could be a not-cranky day yet. :)

7:25 am - As I feed Gretchen, I hear Olivia scampering out of her room. That's her preferred method of waking up lately: hit the ground running as soon as she hears others moving around (and then she tries to laze around in her pajamas all day, as if the running at the beginning was proof enough that she's awake). She pokes her head into Gretchen's room to ask if Daddy can turn on Old MacDonald for her. Having obtained my consent, she heads off to browbeat Bryan into also letting her watch the pictures (I usually just turn on the sound).

7:45 am - Gretchen is fed, changed, and dressed. She's a much happier camper than she was half an hour ago. Olivia is comatose in front of the computer. I'm cleaned up and dressed and Bryan's on his way out the door for work. Kisses for everyone and then he's gone. Gretchen plays in the toy kitchen while I clean up a little and open all the windows in the whole house.

8:00 am - Olivia's done watching videos and is getting dressed before we eat breakfast. She and I have some philosophical disagreements about whether leggings count as pants and whether underwear is more comfortable when worn forwards or backwards. Olivia tries to make that case that her underwear is not, in fact, on backwards, but she's absolutely wrong on that one. Can't argue with facts. Meanwhile, Gretchen is also attempting to (re)dress herself.

8:15 am - Downstairs for prayers, upstairs for breakfast. Olivia wants Kix and Cheerios mixed together. Gretchen doesn't care what she gets as long as she gets it soon. I put oatmeal in the microwave, and come back when it beeps to find that I overestimated the size of the bowl and the cereal overflowed. *sigh* At least that's better than yesterday, when Olivia accidentally dropped her bowl of mixed cereal all over the floor on the way to the table. What a feast the girls had while we picked that one up. :-P

9:15 am - Gretchen is cranky, so she goes down for a nap. Olivia and I head to the kitchen to attempt to make pop-tarts with some of the excess jam that we have. After the first batch is so sticky that it doesn't come off the mat neatly, we put handfuls of flour down and try again. The dough rolls out much better, but we make a huge mess with the flour. Olivia's main job is to put the filling in before I put the lids on and we poke the edges together.

11:05 am - Gretchen wakes up from her nap. Olivia goes to visit her while I clean up the kitchen from the flour we got everywhere. I tell Olivia not to climb into the crib with Gretchen.

11:10 am - Much laughter coming from Gretchen's room, accompanied by sounds of jumping. Olivia's in the crib. I go in to get both of them out.

11:12 am - Olivia begins her chorus of "It's warm outside, we can go play." I point out that, while it might be warm, it is also wet. She disagrees, but loses the argument because of those pesky facts again. She suggests that maybe we should all go sit on the porch swing to wait for Daddy to come home for lunch. Motion carried.

11:15 am - The girls wait by the door for me to be ready to go outside. Olivia unlocks the screen (because she can) and must accidentally loosen the latch, because a few seconds later Gretchen leans on the door and it starts to open. Olivia hastily pulls the door shut and relocks it before patting Gretchen patronizingly on the shoulder and saying, "No, you can't go outside without we. No, Gretchen, you can't go outside without Mommy and Olivia."

11:20 am - We bring books outside and sit on the swing to read. We're not there very long before Daddy comes home! Everyone heads inside for lunch.

12:05 pm - Bryan heads back to work, and the girls and I clear off the table. Gretchen plays in the kitchen while I decide to start rearranging rooms. Olivia decides to help me. We've been meaning to put the girls in a room together and turn the extra room into a playroom, but haven't gotten around to it yet. Now that Yellow Duck is on the way, though, we need to get the girls into the same room anyway, so we might as well have a playroom while they adjust. We've decided to put both girls in Olivia's room and to turn the middle room into the playroom. Olivia and I take books off shelves and move a bookshelf into the closet to hold all the board games. It looks better already.

1:40 pm - Gretchen's getting cranky again. Time for naps. I change Gretchen and put her down. Olivia sheds her clothes in favor of her polka dot jammies and goes to find two books for me to read. Books read, I leave her to her quiet time and flop down in front of the computer, deciding that I don't care about being productive right now. It's amazing how many afternoons I come to that conclusion. :/

3:00 pm - I feel guilty for not being productive, especially since Olivia is actually napping today. I write a large chunk of this blog post (up to this point) and work on finding hymn links for Jacob.

4:20 pm - The girls are still sleeping, so Jacob gets a second lengthy email full of links. I suppose I should go fold clothes.

4:45 pm - I never did fold those clothes. Gretchen is awake and happy, so I go to rescue her. While I'm getting her, Olivia stumbles into the room, looking somewhat ruffled after her nap. I bribe Olivia into clothes by telling her she can listen to more Old MacDonald. We have another philosophical disagreement about what constitutes a dress and what is really only a long shirt.

4:50 pm - While Olivia gets dressed and Gretchen bops around in the play kitchen, I move grown-up books from the shelves in the middle room to the shelves near the fireplace.

5:10 pm - We go outside to check the mail, and Olivia grabs our books from earlier so that we can sit on the swing to wait for Daddy to come home again. It would seem that he came home while we were getting the books, because he suddenly walks around the side of the house and tells us to come with him to look at the garden.

5:15 pm - We (Bryan and I especially) are all excited at the actual plants poking out of the dirt in my garden. Zucchini and beets are coming up, as well as one bean plant. It all seemed rather sudden, especially the zucchini, which was non-existent when I checked after my run and is now about the size of a quarter. What a difference 11 hours makes!

5:30 pm - The rain chases us inside, and Bryan gets tackled by the girls while trying to change out of his work clothes. Gretchen promptly dismantles his wallet, and then steals his phone. Olivia finishes the job on the wallet before joining the pile.

5:45 pm - Bryan gets his little grill out on the porch to make one last meal on it. Both girls decide they need to help. I stay inside to get potatoes ready (and finish moving some books).

5:50 pm - Good thing we have a new grill. The little grill is refusing to work, so the hamburgers get tossed into a frying pan instead. I'm now in charge of dinner again. Gretchen wanders about the house while Olivia and Bryan sit outside to watch the monsoon that is developing.

6:15 pm - Dinner is ready. Olivia eats an entire hamburger and asks for more. We are shocked. Gretchen devours almost all of the potatoes by herself. We are less shocked.

6:50 pm - After dinner, Olivia talks Bryan into letting her watch more videos online. Gretchen impresses everyone with her itsy-bitsy spider skills. The girls play for a while, and Bryan and I hijack Olivia's videos to watch Silly Songs with Larry. She doesn't seem to mind. We realize that the Silly Songs with Larry repertoire has increased dramatically since we last kept up with it, but do manage to find one amusing song: Monkey. Where Have All the Staplers Gone? isn't too bad, either.

Kisses goodnight.

7:45 pm - Bryan heads off to game night with some coworkers, and the girls and I go downstairs for prayers. Then it's upstairs for bed. They brush teeth and get jammies on and by 8:10 I'm in the kitchen doing all the things I ignored during naptime. Dishes don't take too long, though, once I get going, and the laundry does itself as long as I remember to press buttons. I still haven't folded clothes, but if I did that now then what would I do tomorrow? :)

More Pictures and a Video:
Vimeo Video (password BarhorstBrewed):
Two Little Monkeys

Gretchen looks much happier after she's fed and changed: