Thoughts from the Washing Line : Chronicle of A Typical Monday

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So, yesterday was a typical sort of Monday... and this morning, I was wondering how it is that I am so tired; then I remembered all that I did yesterday and of course, then it was obvious! 

 

I'm sure everyone has a busy day in their week and sometimes several; I know we all have extra-busy days sometimes.  So, I'm not writing this post as a way of moaning, or making it look as if my life is busier than anyone else's.  I just thought it would be an interesting exercise, to chronicle my day... 

 

Monday 28th April

5am:  Woke up feeling thirsty.  Got a drink.  Of course, I was now awake and it was getting light... but I wanted to be asleep.  Played a quick game of "patience" on my little ipod touch. Amazing how quickly that makes me sleepy... Remembered to turn off the ipod before I fell asleep again.

6am:  Mr LizzieMade got up and went for a shower.  Heard him pottering in the bathroom, but kind-of stayed asleep...zzzmmmzzzz...

6:45am : Woken by Mr LizzieMade getting his bag ready to go out, at the bottom of the stairs.  Time I was waking anyway - the alarm is due to go off.

7am: Downstairs (in my dressing gown!).  Feed the guinea pigs. Make breakfasts. Make J's packed lunch.  Start some laundry. 

7:25am: The Boy is still upstairs... Teenage faffing about, no doubt... Call up to him that he should be down now.  Boy appears, looking drowsy...  Feed the starving Teenager, who miraculously awakens as the food disappears!

7:30am: Sit down to eat my breakfast.  Chat with James until it's time for him to go out.  He goes to clean his teeth & get ready, while I tidy up our breakfast stuff.  (He usually helps with the jobs in the morning, but is running late today). 

7:45am: James trots off to get his bus.  Hug him and wish him a good day, then go to sort out some jobs.  Find the empty carrier bags from last week's shopping delivery.  Tidy and clean in the kitchen.

8am: Sort out the dishwasher.  The shopping delivery arrives just as I press the "On" button - good timing!  Delivery man leaves the shopping in the kitchen.  Unpack the shopping and put it away in the fridge, freezer & cupboards.  Re-pack the items that are for my mum.

8:30am:  Decide I really should get washed & dressed (!!).  Shower, clean teeth, get dressed, brush hair etc etc...  Find some spring shoes that I forgot I had (how can I forget from one year to the next?) and decide to wear them, but with trouser-socks, so my feet don't freeze. 

9am:  Pack up a parcel for the Post Office.  Check e-mails and have a sneaky peek at Facebook and my blog comments...   Read the nice comments about the prize draw I was running on my blog / Facebook page.  :-)

9:20am: Pack up the car with parcel and shopping, then head for the Post Office.  Sort out the parcel, then collect my mum's pension for this week - also for next Monday, as it's a bank holiday (she gets muddled if the routine is upset, so this way, she can still have the money on time next week). 

9:40am: Arrive at my mum's.  We are off to the dr's in a bit, so get started on the important jobs;  unload her shopping & put it away, hang out the wet washing in the garden.  Stop for a quick warm drink before we go out.

10:10am: Help mum with her coat, collect her bag, chair cushions etc and help her into the car.   Drive to town, as we have to visit the town branch of the practice today - the dr. we are seeing doesn't come over to my mum's village. 

10:30am: Arrive at the dr's.  Sort out some forms to register my mum for online prescription requests (to save me having to take a paper request form to the village practice, which is then sent to town the next day, for the pharmacy to collect on the 3rd day.... It should make the delivery a day quicker and save me remembering to deliver the slip - last week I forgot until Wednesday and had to drive to town to deliver it & sweet-talk them into treating it as urgent!). 

10:45am: Mum's appointment.  She sees a very nice lady doctor, who looks at the weird scab on her leg & decides to refer her to a dermatologist, just to make sure it's nothing more than a normal overactive area of skin....  Help shaken (shaking!) and anxious mother to the car, then explain that; Yes, the dr did say "Urgent", but that's because if she didn't ask for an urgent appointment, it would be over 6 months before my mum got seen.... No, it probably isn't anything serious, but the doctor wants a specialist dermatologist to see it, so they can be sure of what the problem is.... Yes, she is probably covered by her health insurance, which means she can be seen quickly at the little local hospital...  Phew!!! 
11:10am: Arrive back at my mum's.  As we are getting out of the car, we see a van that my mum thinks may belong to an engineer who's due (in the afternoon!), to repair her stair-lift.  Sure enough, sitting in the van is the engineer, who is writing her a note to say he's sorry to have missed her.  The engineer comes in with us and my mum sets about explaining the problem.

11:20am: Persuade my mum to have a sit-down and relax for a few minutes, while I make her a drink and a snack.  Make a drink for each of us and sit down too.  

11:25am: Sort out the list of items I had brought from the shopping; add up the total cost, which my mum gives me back.  Help mum sort out her weekly budget - money to be paid into the bank, for bills, rent etc, money to be saved up for other items - carer, cleaner, fish-man, hairdresser, bin-man, window cleaner, birthday presents, charity donations, essential new clothing etc etc... 
Also field queries form the repair man and help mum find the form from the recent service of the stair-lift.

11:40am:  The postman arrives and leaves some letters.  We go upstairs to sort out some jobs.  I re-make my mum's bed and take the old sheets downstairs, so they can go home with me for washing.  Stop to fuss the cat, who's sleeping on the bedroom chair...

11:50am: The repair man leaves, after telling us he has ordered parts to repair the stair-lift. Continue sorting out jobs in the house.  We have a bit of a sit-down to rest and start finding the information for the health insurance people, so my mum can phone them.

12:10pm: The Administrator arrives from the housing Trust.  My mother has some things to discuss with her, so I sit and listen, help with clarifying what she wants to say etc.  (Sometimes it is difficult for my mum to get the words to sort themselves out. I think it's a left-over from her stroke, combined with the neurological problem she already had. She has a stammer-type thing, which can be frustrating for her. Still, it doesn't stop her from getting on with things!). 

12:40pm:  The Administrator has left.  We call the health insurance company, to check the cover for the planned dermatology appointment. 

1:05pm: Lunch is late!  I go and put a piece of pie in the oven to warm up, then get potatoes & veg ready.  

1:25pm: Lunch is ready... but the pie turns out to be un-eatable.  It is very salty, my mum says (I tasted it when I got into the kitchen - she was right - what a waste!).  She can't go without a decent lunch, especially after such a busy and stressful morning.  Luckily there are plenty of frozen meals in the freezer (I make them up in batches, then we freeze them in individual portions, in margarine containers - how useful those are!).  So, she has chicken stew instead of pie and all is well.  There's a nice raspberry trifle in the fridge, because I bought it as a treat when I was in the local shop on Sunday.  Good idea for dessert!

1:50pm:  My mum has finished lunch and is looking more relaxed.   The washing is still out on the line, so I go and get it, then fold it and put it away in the airing cupboard.  Tidy the kitchen and check all is well. 

2pm: Phew! I can go home now... My mother says she will make her own tea, as she thinks I'm looking very tired (wonder why!).  I'm not sure, as she is more tired than me... still, she wants to try.  So she takes some ham out of the freezer to defrost and promises to call me, if she feels she won't be able to manage after all.

2:15pm: Arrive home... Head for the kitchen and find some food!  Make myself nice sandwiches and a cool drink, also some coffee.  Snacks for the guinea pigs too - they squeak in excitement whenever they hear a salad bag rustle!

2:30pm: Sit down to eat my lunch and read a book... While I'm eating, the doorbell rings.  It's the neighbour, to ask if I can take in a parcel on Wednesday morning (no, I have to take my mum to the nurse, then go to the osteopath...).   Finish my lunch and slouch a bit with the book...

3pm: Get out my laptop and start checking for shop messages & e-mails etc.  Answer a few e-mails, sort out some financial bits & bobs...

3:30pm: Feeling lazy... start sneaking around on the computer, looking at goodies on Etsy, Folksy and Facebook... 

3:45pm: The doorbell - it's James, home from school.  Chat about his day, then he goes up to change.  I offer to make him a snack, but he wants to do this himself.  He asks to use the computer for some homework and disappears upstairs again.

4pm: I'm tired. It's a while til dinner time and I don't have to go over to my mum's.  I decide to skive off my jobs and play a computer game ;-)

4:50pm: Phonecall.  My poor mum has spilt a glass of sticky juice on her sitting-room carpet.  She wonders if it'll be alright until Wednesday, when I could clean it for her?  She can't get down on her knees now, as she gets stuck - we discussed it only last week, so I know this.  I tell her I think I should come and help her now, as we don't want her carpet to be spoiled. 

4:55pm: Go upstairs to ask James if he'll start our dinner at 5:30 or so.  We have a visitor due in the evening, so we need to eat on time.

5pm: Drive off to mum's.  The spillage isn't too bad and my mum isn't upset, so all is well.  Mop up and clean the carpet, then drive home again.

5:30pm: James is making the dinner.  I make some drinks and help him to serve up the meal etc.  We put some aside for his dad, as Dave is due home at around 6.30pm.  We sit down to eat... nice dinner...

6pm: Phone call from Dave, to say he has only just got out of work and is on the way home; he will be late.

6:15pm: Phone call again... This time it's Jeff, our builder, who's due at 7pm for a meeting about the architect's drawings.  He is also running late and wonders if 7:30 would be ok, so he can eat some dinner?  That is fine with me (!), so he will be here at 7:30...

6:45pm: We finish our dinner and tidy up.  Put some coffee on to brew, tidy the table so we can use it for our meeting, find my laptop...

7pm: James is relaxing upstairs (painting models, no doubt!).  I sit down to play with my jigsaw puzzle... 

7:30pm: Jeff arrives and we chat while we get settled down.  He did the bedroom extension for us, in 2009, so we are glad to see him again.  Dave arrives home and eats his dinner, then we all get down to business.

9pm: Jeff goes home, after we've sorted out some of the details of the building work and set a provisional start date (May 16th !!!).

9:15pm: James goes up to bed.  Me & Dave sit down with the computer, to sort out some stuff for his business; he works for himself, but is now starting a Limited Company - we need a new bank account...

10:30pm: We are tired... bed seems like a welcome idea...

11pm: Falling asleep over my book... light off... zzzzzz

* * *

So, actually, I'm not surprised that I felt tired this morning...  That was a fairly typical Monday, though the evening meeting was a bit unusual.  Normally on a Monday evening, James has a trampoline club, but just now it's not running, as they are looking for a new coach.  At least the meeting was at home, instead of at the sports club!

What does everyone else do on their busiest day?  I'm sure many people fit in loads more than I do - at least I managed a couple of slouching sessions!