I’ve been reading a bunch of books on the craft of writing and my reading binge was triggered by a writing class that I’m taking.  I just finished, Write Every Day, by Cathy Yardley and it gave me an “aha moment.”  I think one of my greatest obstacles to achieving my writing goals is time management.  And so, as suggested in the book, I’m keeping track of how I spend my time.  Here in Georgia, the kids are already back in school and that means my days have gotten very busy.  This is how I recently spent an ordinary day.  Reader be warned, ordinary can sometimes mean boring! 

My alarm went off at 5:35 A.M. and I hit the snooze button twice before finally getting up.  I made my coffee and packed the children’s lunches.  Then I headed upstairs to wake up my two youngest children.  I made breakfast, watched the weather report and turned on the Jimmy Fallon Tonight Show episode from the night before.  Audrey was in a pretty decent mood (yay!), but Camden was another story.  He was half asleep and took twenty-five minutes to eat his cereal.

Audrey got frustrated with her messy bun, and asked me to re-do it for her.  “Doing” Audrey’s hair is never fun, because she’s rarely satisfied with my work.  The hair gods were good to me, because she approved of the outcome.  After that, I realized we only had minutes before the bus arrived.  I started shouting, we went outside, it was raining.  Oh joy.

By 7:00 a.m. the younger two were gone.  I found Barrett sitting on the couch in a zombie-like state and I called (yelled) up to Hunter as a wake-up call.  I made Barrett’s breakfast.   After realizing that Hunter still wasn’t up, I went upstairs to shake him.   My hour with the boys was pretty easy, because they’re quiet and somewhat self-sufficient.   After reminding Hunter that he was on Barrett watch – which meant getting him on the bus – I was out the door.

I headed to Pure Barre for my 8:30 a.m. class, but got stuck in rain/school/road construction traffic, for about twenty-five minutes (on a good day, my journey should be 10-15).  Consequently, I arrived to class five minutes late.  Fortunately, they still admitted me.  After getting my butt beaten by the instructor, I drove to my daughter’s dance school to sign her up for fall classes.  I had to get her registered to secure a spot, but she won’t be able to attend classes until October 1^st, because last week she was diagnosed with Mono.  Poor thing.

Quick stop at the grocery store, for all the items I forgot on Monday’s run.  I dropped everything at home, checked my email and then rushed out the door to my dentist appointment.  After the appointment, I stopped at the bank.

Once I got home, I folded two loads of laundry, put Barrett’s clothes away and started another load.  I took some chicken out of the freezer to thaw for dinner.  Made lunch.  Checked email.  Read some blogs.  I also got a little distracted by Google+ and a Blogger 911 episode on photography.  After I paid some bills, I finally opened a word document.  I have three blogs to write this week and have done nothing.  #isuck

Are you bored yet?  Just another ordinary day for me…..

The first blog I had to write was for Mama Kat’s World’s Greatest Writing Workshop.  This week’s prompt was to write something inspired by the word ordinary.  There are so many ordinary topics to choose from.  I feel ordinary in terms of being a writer, a middle aged woman, a housewife and as a klutz in my Barre class.  Finally, I decided to write about an ordinary day in the life of a suburban mom.  How can you get more ordinary than that?

But before I typed a word, I folded another load of laundry, checked on my chicken and headed for the front porch, to wait for the bus.  While waiting, it dawned on me that I had to pick up Barrett from school, because he had speech and occupational therapy that afternoon.  I frantically texted his teacher and hoped that she’d get it in time.  I also texted Hunter, because he was SOL – sorry buddy, you’re a bus rider today!

My babes arrived home.  My joyful welcome, however, was disrupted when my little guy told me that he got on yellow (behavioral chart), again.  Apparently, first grade is proving to be a more difficult transition than I’d expected.

I quickly prepared the chicken for dinner, so that all Dad would have to do was stick it in the oven.  Then I calculated that I had only minutes to pull myself together – sans shower, on a work-out day.  Sad, but true.  Momma had things to do and places to be!

Before leaving, I quickly conferred with Dad to give him the information he’d need to prepare dinner for the night, and informed him of his son’s latest delinquency.  I rushed out the door to pick up Bear.  On the way to his speech therapy, I made a quick Target stop, to buy the Play-Dough I promised Audrey’s teacher (and neglected to buy earlier in the day when I was at the grocery store).  Also, I finally found a yellow container for Bear’s personal care items at school.  Yellow is his student color.

We made it to therapy a bit early, so I whipped out my laptop to work on my post.  After delivering Bear to his therapists and chatting about his weekend, I returned to begin work on a second post that was due later in the week.   Ten minutes in, my computer battery died.  Fortunately I’d printed out some blogs and blogging related articles to read.

After Barrett’s therapy I drove home and dropped him off to eat dinner with the family.  Then I was off to the elementary school for Audrey’s curriculum night (Camden’s was the night before).  Once home, I was grateful to see the kitchen cleaned.  I got Bear and Cammy ready for bed and read to them.  Audrey went to her room to read and Hunter, R. and I watched Dallas.

That was it, an ordinary day in my life.  As they say, the days are long, but the years are short.  Days like this one, when I’m constantly on the go, sometimes get me down.  I long for a slower pace.  I truly do.   But then I got a reality check in the form of some not-so-good news about a friend.  I’m so grateful for my ordinary.

Tell me about your ordinary day.

This post was inspired by Mama Kat’s World’s Greatest Writer’s Workshop.