A Day in the Life 2025

Welcome to my annual sociological research data collection on myself where I record everything I do in one day. My plan was to do the first Friday of January, but I forgot about it last week. Last Friday was more pleasant, though! I can briefly report that on January 3rd, I worked in the morning, and in the afternoon the 4 of us went to the California Science Center where we watched an IMAX movie about blue whales. For dinner, we went to Jack in the Box and one kid devoured almost an entire breakfast combo platter.

And now, for the report on January 10, 2025. Buckle up, it's a doozy!!

Location: Pasadena, CA. In the SE part of town, not our regular north-central neighborhood.

Cast of characters: DF, my husband. Gus and Gibson, our 9 year old twins.

7:00 AM wake up, later than normal. I had a hard time sleeping last night due to all the stress of the Eaton Fire, a huge wildfire that sparked in the early evening on January 7th in Altadena and spread out of control due to wind gusts near 100 mph that night. I check my phone for fire updates and see nothing moved closer to us overnight.

7:05 AM the kids wake up and come join DF and me in bed. (Normally, I would wake them up by 6:30 AM on a Friday but school is cancelled due to the fire. We were supposed to have a PTA Blacktop Coffee for parents at school this morning, along with campus clean up...obviously not happening.) DF attempts to keep snoozing while the boys and I play some NYT games. Gibson gets to choose the starting word for Wordle today - he picks ZEBRA. We still manage to solve it, lol. Then we all work together to solve Connections, though none of us understand the purple category and have to watch a YouTube video to learn about [SPOILERS!] the Monty Hall problem.

7:45 AM get up when the children get too rambunctious in bed. They go back to their room to play on their Chromebooks with towels tucked in the crack at the bottom of the door to keep the soot out.

8:00 AM I head downstairs to make some toast and tea.

Aside: Downstairs? Since when do we live in a 2 story house? Well, since we had a fire at our house about 2 months ago, which caused extensive damage to our kitchen and caused us to be displaced. We're staying in a rental house about 3 miles south of where we usually live. It's new construction, 3 bed, 2.5 bath, 1200 sq ft with an attached garage. The fire was caused by spontaneous combustion in our neighbor's yard waste on a red flag fire danger day. So yeah, these fires going on right now in LA County? They've got all 4 of us rather on edge.

But back to the present.

While I eat breakfast, I text/message with people near and far who are checking in on us. We are south of the fire evacuation and warning zones, though we do have bags packed and ready to go if evacuation becomes necessary. Our regular house is in a Level 2 evacuation warning zone. I'm staying in touch with the neighbors over there. The fires got within a mile or so when the flare ups were really bad.

8:30 AM Make breakfast for the boys and retreat back upstairs to our bedroom/my office, where it's less smoky, again with a towel by the door. 

9:00 AM Sign in to work. I'm in my second year as a part-time grant writer, and I've also been dipping my toes in managing our fundraising database. The agency I work for is located in Altadena. So far our campus has been spared in the fire. I draft some language for potential fire relief-related communications and try to chip away at some other projects, though it's challenging to focus. 

11:30 AM done with work for this week. Feed the children some snacks while discussing how math is applicable to politics. I respond to a friend's question about navigating a fire loss (didn't realize my knowledge was going to be useful so soon...). I also finally find out what water zone we're in at the rental. I knew it wasn't Pasadena Water and Power (PWP), but the landlord is paying the water bill so I wasn't sure. PWP is having troubles with water safety and quality due to the fire. Luckily, this house is served by a San Marino water carrier so we're not in an impacted water zone at this time.

11:50 AM the kids still haven't finished their homework for this week, so DF and I enforce a screen break for homework time. In math, they're multiplying 2-digit numbers (like 16 x 13). And for reading, they have a book in Spanish about hydroelectric power development in Sierra Leone. 

12:30 PM They've made a good effort on homework and are done for today. They watch DF play video games or something on his phone. I take a shower and make sure the squeegee off the walls when I'm done. I'm trying to keep the house nice for the owners, and also I hate scrubbing full tile showers with glass doors.

1:20 PM Eat some leftover pasta for lunch. Pro tip for all you dairy-free people out there: Papa John's garlic sauce is dairy free, and it adds a nice kick of flavor to your standard marinara sauce. While doom scrolling during lunch, I find out that PUSD has closed schools all of next week, too. It makes sense, but oh man, this is going to be rough bc DF is going to be out of town all week at a work training. 

1:45 PM Draft the weekly newsletter for our church Sunday School class. One family in our class lost their home, and another member's place of work was destroyed. It's a very challenging time. We're doing our best to support each other through it all.

More doom scrolling, then I eat some cookies and drink tea. The kids play Cat Quest III on the Nintendo Switch.

3:00 PM I consider doing laundry - our washer and dryer are out in the garage, which is probably full of smoke. I stick my nose into the garage and sniff - yes, quite smoky. Outside the front door, it actually doesn't smell that bad. I briefly open the garage door thinking I'll let it air out, but then realize a bunch of soot and ash will blow in if I do that. So I decide to just wash a load of towels and see what happens. Note, this is the first time any of us have opened an exterior door since Tuesday. It's seriously starting to feel like COVID lock down over here.

3:30 PM the children are going crazy. We play Spot It for awhile. They need to do something physical. This house doesn't have a lot of space to run around safely, so I direct them to their room for a (supervised) pillow fight. They wear themselves out eventually.

4:00 PM I gather up some clothes, shoes, and bed sheets that were donated to us after our fire, but that we haven't been using. One of the boys' classmates lost his home this week, and his mom reached out asking for clothes. I'm glad we have a little extra to share.

4:20 PM I move the laundry to the dryer - smells fine! Then I head out to run some errands in my KN95 mask. First, I drop off the bag of clothes. I need to go to the grocery store, but I decide to stop and get gas on the way because we're at about 1/3 tank and I want to be prepared just in case we have to evacuate. After filling up, I try to start the van and...nothing. It's sputtering but not starting. Oh. My. Word. This is the new (to us) 2021 Honda Odyssey we just bought a month ago when our last van BURNED UP IN A FIRE. And now this one isn't starting and what if we have to evacuate and we don't have a working vehicle and I. AM. TOTALLY. FREAKING. OUT!!! 

I look around and realize that, fortunately, I have happened to stop at a gas station that has an attached mechanic shop. So I walk over and ask a guy if he can help because my van won't start. He grabs some type of tester thing and says, oh yeah, your battery is shot. He jump starts the van for me. I'm grateful. I scrap the plan to get groceries b/c no way am I stopping this vehicle now. I call DF and ask him to try to find the Honda roadside assistance info we got from the dealership. I decide to hit the drive thru at Del Taco to pick up dinner, as it's usually a family favorite. 

5:45 PM return home, backing the van into the garage in case someone can come and replace the battery. I call the Honda service line and find out they are not like AAA and won't deliver a battery to me. But they will tow me to a Honda service center, if needed. I'm still freaking out because what if the van won't start next time I try??

6:00 PM wolf down an epic burrito and feel a bit better about life. Also I had a deal in the Del Taco app to buy one get one free, and who doesn't like free burritos? DF and I talk about the van and decide we'll see if it will cooperate to start up in the morning. I'm having flashbacks to when this exact same thing happened the last time we bought a used Odyssey - that a few weeks later, the battery died. I wonder if there is a battery conspiracy going on, but I can't figure out what the angle would be there.

6:40 PM Family video game time - Super Mario Party Jamboree. Surprisingly, there are no tears shed. That might be a first! We just play a few mini games.

7:00 PM Screens off for kids. Epic Gus and Gibson battle when they both go upstairs and somehow manage to start a fight about using the bathroom...even though there are 2 bathrooms up there. Meanwhile I'm trying to pay an invoice to our builder on our ADU (Accessory Dwelling Unit). Construction was almost done on the ADU when the fire hit - the first one, in November. Now things are kind of in limbo, but we do owe the contractor money for the work he had already completed. The ADU sustained some fire damage in November. We're hopeful all those repairs will be covered by our insurance.

7:20 PM we play a family game of Coup. It's a card game. I quickly die, per usual. Everyone is happier when mommy dies first.

7:45 PM time to get ready for bed. It's the usual potty time and brushing teeth with a lot of stalling mixed in. Now that we live in a house with stairs, the kids like to play games that involve racing Slinkies, or cars, or other toys down the stairs. Once they're finally ready for bed, I grab their new footless footies from the dryer. (what we call PJs that are one piece but don't cover your feet). It's my turn for storytime tonight, which still involves a Goldilocks story! Tonight the Three Bears' house catches on fire when they are making porridge on the stove but get teleported away. I have to say, fires have been popping up a lot in their stories lately. Trauma coping strategy, I assume.

8:30 PM boys read books in bed. We're running low on library books. Hopefully at least some of the library branches will be able to re-open soon.

9:00 PM they're in bed but arguing. Gus was tapping on his legs while I was singing Gibson his good night song (Silent Night), which caused Gibson to growl-sing in annoyance. Not heavenly peace.

9:10 PM I hear them through the door discussing words they know in different languages. I venture downstairs to switch over one last load of laundry.

9:15 PM Upon returning from the garage, I heard the pitter patter of little feet on the second floor. I find them both underneath Gibson's bed, with blankets. They say something about a fortified bed that I don't really care to understand. I extract them both and tuck them in on the mattress side of their beds.

Then I typed up this epic saga, and that's about it for now. 

What will our lives look like in 2026?? Guess you'll have to come back next year to find out if I remembered to write about it!

A Day in the Life 2024

Hey readers, it's been awhile but I'm resurrecting the blog for my annual day-in-the-life post. I record everything I do on the first Friday of the new year. Looks like I forgot to do 2023, so I consulted my calendar to see that on 1/6/23, I was working in the morning, then met up with a friend for coffee in the afternoon. And now, on to the present!

Cast of characters: DF = Das Fenster, aka Dad. Gus & Gibson the 8 year old twins.

Location: Pasadena, CA

I sort of forgot to record the exact times that things happened today. Here are my best recollections.

7:00 AM Wake up when the boys come into our bedroom to tell me dreams they were having about school. They are on their last day of winter break and apparently having some feelings about returning to the academic life. I get up with them and we hang out on the couch in the den for awhile before facing the day. Once we get moving, I have to play Wordle, NYT Connections, and Spelling Bee, my daily ritual.

8:30 AM DF and I have a video appointment related to one of the kids and a medical condition. It goes well and is over sooner than I thought, so I make some breakfast and sign on to work earlier than expected.

9:00 - 10 AM work. I started a new job this past May as a grant writer, and so far it's going great. I work 20 hrs/week for a local child welfare and mental health agency. It's a remote job and flexible with my schedule. Yay! I just have one hour to finish up this week so it's a short day today.

After work I hang out with the guys for awhile. DF has been on vacation for the last 2 weeks, though he's normally off on Fridays. 

11:30 AM I go to the library to return our current stash and check out some new books for the kids. They usually read one or two picture books each night, so I try to keep our supply fresh! They are in 3rd grade this year, still doing the dual language (Spanish) program. Their teacher recommends that they read in both languages but I forgot to get any bilingual or Spanish books today, oops.

12:30 PM back home, making lunch for the boys and me. DF scrounged up some leftovers already. I check my email and see a notice from the library that a book I had on hold is now available. D'oh! 

1:00 PM Time to send out the weekly newsletter for our church group. DF is the president of our adult Sunday School class, so as the "first lady" my duties include drafting the weekly email for him. Gotta put my Communication degrees to work, you know :) 

1:30 PM the boys have been scheming all of break to turn the living room into a giant fort, and apparently today is the day. Gus gathers all the couch cushions in the house and piles them up in the middle of the floor. Then we discuss his vision for the fort. Gibson chimes in. We build a rather large fort that does indeed take over most of the living room. They also want to sleep in it tonight. We shall see... While they play in the fort, I fold some laundry.

2:30 PM play Super Mario Wonder, a new Nintendo Switch game they got for Christmas. All 4 of us can play together, which is nice. I like to be yellow Yoshi, who is a character that is invincible to everything except falling/getting squished. It's a good match for my skill level, lol.

3:00 PM Gibson and DF continue playing video games, while Gus and I need a break. He watches some YouTube while I pull out my laptop and work on PTA Treasurer stuff. I compare our budget to actual for income and expenses and draw up a draft of a mid-year budget adjustment. I was the PTA Secretary for the previous two years. This is my first time serving as Treasurer - it has been a bit of a learning curve, but I think I'm getting the hang of it now. I should also be working on the student picture pages for the school yearbook, but I don't really know what I am doing so I will continue to avoid that task. 

5:00 PM off to Domino's to pick up pizza for dinner. Gibson is on a major pizza kick lately. I stop by the library again while I'm out to retrieve the book that came in for me, Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. I saw this book on several of my friends' lists of "top books of 2023," so I'm looking forward to reading it!

5:30 PM DF and the boys are playing hide-and-seek while I load the dishwasher. They mainly seem to be hiding in their fort, which is not very sneaky. I suggest we all play a board game and we decide on Catan Jr. Things are going well for a couple rounds until a child who shall remain nameless has an epic meltdown due to other people not playing the way he thinks they should. The game is called on account of tears. 

6:30 PM the boys play Minecraft until the end of screen time at 7:00 PM. Then I get them a snack.

7:30 PM get the kids ready for bed. I still brush their teeth for them, and they always want me to tell them a story while I do so. Tonight I try to describe what my school was like in 3rd grade. I attended a private Christian school and recall pledging allegiance to the American flag, the Christian flag, and the Bible. Where are my 1980s evangelical kids at??

8:00 PM DF reads them a bedtime story in the living room, then there is a lot of scurrying back and forth as they gather everything they need to prepare the fort for bedtime. I sing them Silent Night, their bedtime song, and tell them that if it's too hard to sleep in the fort, I'll help them move to their beds. I'm posting this blog just before 9PM and all is quiet behind the couch cushions...wish us luck!

I will be reading my new book and then going to bed soon myself!

A Day in the Life, Year 7

This is everything that happened in my life on Friday, January 7, 2022. Location: Pasadena, CA.

Gus and Gibson are 6 1/2 years old.

6:30 AM Gus and Gibson wake up and crawl into our bed. They bring stuffed animals with them. Gus has a cheetah; Gibson has a family which includes a dog dad, unicorn mom, and baby dogicorn. Today the dog-unicorn family decides to adopt the cheetah as well. 

7:00 AM time to get ready for school. The kids are in first grade this year and have been attending in person since the beginning of the year, minus one week of quarantine due to positive COVID cases. I help them put on their uniforms, then make myself some coffee. I check my email to see negative COVID test results. The kids' school tests everyone on Wednesdays. 

7:20 AM Kindles turn off. I use the parental control functions to set time limits for them, and once they got used to it, it has been working well to keep our morning schedule moving along. Now it’s breakfast time. We have a standard breakfast menu that is hanging on the wall in the dining room. Gibson grabs a pencil and draws a picture of a cookie on it in hopes that it would join the permanent rotation along with toast, cereal, and waffles. Good try, ha ha.

7:42 AM we are out the door! Kids in puffy coats today because it is below 50 degrees. Too cold for Californians!

7:48 AM manage to drop off at school just before the bell rings. They get a squirt of hand sanitizer and temperature checks as they enter. I have upgraded their cloth masks to KN95 now as the Omicron variant is running rampant through LA county. Over 25% of the student body was absent on Tuesday. I stop to get gas at $4.45 a gallon.

8:10 AM Back at home, I eat breakfast then chat with DF. He works Monday-Thursday and has every Friday off. A few months ago, he had to start going back to the office about half time. I play some Duolingo, a language learning game. I want to keep my Spanish skills strong. Recently I’ve started Japanese as well. I like learning hiragana (one of the writing systems). It’s so different from English, and I think it is cool that humans have created such diverse ways to communicate. I play a few other games and scroll social media.

9:20 AM take shower. I try out some new skin care I received as Christmas presents, including a moisturizing eye cream and a spot/blemish controlling turmeric roller. 

9:50 AM Time for some work. I submit my first time sheet for paid employment since 2015. I just started a new job. This week was online training. It’s a temporary and part-time position administering a standardized test for the US Department of Education. It will be good to get something current on my resume.

Next I type up minutes from a school meeting yesterday. I am the secretary for the school PTA and one other committee this year, called ELAC - the English Learner Advisory Committee. For this one, the meeting is conducted in both English and Spanish, and I produce bilingual minutes. It definitely takes some extra brain power, and there is a bilingual staff member who reviews my work. She says I’m doing ok and it makes her job easier, so I guess I’ll keep it up.

10:00 AM DF takes the van in for an oil change. I will be commuting to different sites around LA and the surrounding suburbs, so I need to have my vehicle in good shape. 

10:30 AM Uncle Monte, DF´s brother, emerges from the guest room and greets me as he gets ready for work. He has been staying with us since the fall. He works swing shift as a delivery driver. 

10:45 AM I am done with the meeting minutes and have the house to myself. I crank up the Hamilton soundtrack while putting away laundry.

11:00 AM DF is back. We watch the latest episode of the Expanse. It’s a sci-fi show on Amazon Prime. Season 6 just started and I’m having a hard time remembering what happened in the previous 5 seasons, in part because most of the action happens on various space ships that all look similar to me…but I still enjoy it.

12:00 PM lunch time, then I wash some dishes and attempt a vinegar-baking soda solution for the hard water stains that have built up in one of our toilets. Oh such a glamorous life I lead. It worked somewhat but I need something stronger to really do the job. While waiting for the solution to do its thing, I read a social media post about vaccine mandates that is full of logical fallacies. I write a rebuttal in my head but decide not to actually post it.

12:40 PM meal planning. Since I will be working 2-3 days a week for the next couple of months I am doing what I can now to get organized. DF and I discuss some meal options, and I look up a few new ideas to add to the rotation. I make a spreadsheet of ideas. 

1:00 PM DF turns on the new Nintendo Switch to play Zelda. It was a whole family Christmas present. I ponder if the children would eat a casserole. I can’t recall them ever doing so… I put aside the meal planning project and read a book instead, “The City We Became” by N.K. Jemisin. I am on chapter 2 and I am already digging it! She is a great author. My latest Amazon order arrives, replacement parts for the robot vacuum, which is probably my favorite household tool. 

2:00 PM I leave to pick up the kids from school

2:50 PM return home. The school is a 2-3 minute drive from us. What takes so long? Their class comes out late, and they boys like to play on the steps outside the building. We walk across the street to the library to use the bathroom, but of course they have to fight about who is going to go inside first. They have been so loud inside the library lately that I make one of them wait outside with me while the other one goes inside. 

I get them a snack and set the 1 hour sand timer while they watch Daddy play Zelda. They get an hour of screen time before homework. I eat my own snack and putter around the house.

4:00 PM homework time, but first they request a piece of candy. They have a math worksheet, a book to read, and their snap (sight) words to review. They need a brain break between English and Spanish so they play Prodigy, a fun math game that involves battling wizards.

4:45 PM I head over to Domino's to pick up pizza for dinner. It's cold and foggy outside. My phone says it's 53 degrees but it feels colder. At home the kids are still playing prodigy. They take a pizza break, but get distracted by yogurt pretzels that I left on the table from earlier. Oops. I heat up some leftovers for myself, since I don't eat cheese.

5:30 PM homework is done and the guys are playing more Nintendo. I watch as the gamers beat the final Bowser boss on New Super Mario Bros! Fun animations at the end. I'm half watching thyen play, half scrolling on my phone. I have also poured myself a glass of Two Buck Chuck Cab Sav. Not that bad really, I usually get the red blend but Trader Joe's was out of it.

7:00 PM screens off, and the nightly WrestleMania begins. The rest of the routine includes snacks, read stories, go potty, and brush teeth. I manage to load and start the dishwasher, too. 

8:00 PM I tell the Goldilocks story tonight. Yes, this tradition continues! Tonight's tale is Among Us themed (the video game). Gus is an imposter, Gibson is a sniper, Mama Bear is a ninja, Baby Bear is a medic. I don't have to say much, as the boys pretty much tell their own story these days. One more potty break, several hugs and kisses, and by 8:20 I'm out of their room. Better than usual these days! 

8:28 PM Gibson calls me in to tell me he's scared of Huggy Wuggy. This is a character in a video game he has never seen or played, but it's apparently a popular thing to talk about to scare your classmates in first grade. I tell him to think about something happy like unicorns or candy rainbows. Gus says he's scared of furry tarantulas crawling in the window. They talk to each other for a bit and eventually quiet down. 

I eat a snack and veg out on the couch until bed time.

9:55 PM I get ready for bed as another day in the life comes to a close.

A Day in the Life, Year 6

 It's time for my annual tradition - make a list of everything I did on the first Friday of the new year (that's not Jan. 1).

Cast of characters

DF = Das Fenster, my husband

Gus & Gibson = our twin offspring, age 5

Location: Pasadena, CA

Date: January 8, 2021

7:00a Gus & Gibson come into our room and crawl in bed. They ask if it's a school day (sí, es viernes). We all snuggle under the covers until they start fighting bc Gus wants to pretend his grandpa died before he was born and Gibson does not approve.

7:20a get up. Make coffee, unload dishwasher.

7:30a DF gets up. He works from home now due to the pandemic, and he still has Fridays off. He tells me about a dream he had in which I died…

7:40a make breakfast.

7:45a kids turn their Kindles off, after being reminded repeatedly. Eat breakfast. 

7:55a sign on to school. Find out we have a substitute teacher today. Oh, this should be interesting.

8:05a the sub just told us she doesn't really know Spanish. (We're in a dual language kindergarten where 90% of instruction is in Spanish.) Gus says he doesn't need to go to school if it's in English. Gibson is laughing at her attempts at Spanish pronunciation

8:30a we made it to break time (descanso!) At least this sub knows how to use most of the remote learning technology. The last time we had a substitute, she really struggled with that aspect. During the break, the boys and DF play with race cars while I drink coffee and do a sudoku puzzle.

8:40a back to school. Math class actually goes fine. For reading, we listen to a cute book about a zombie who likes to eat vegetables.

9:25a long break. I wash my face and put in contacts. Gibson comes into the bathroom to ask for help with a Lego creation, then drops bricks under a shelf and I have to retrieve them from the dust. I get dressed in my daytime pajamas. We're on what feels like day 7 billion of staying home due to covid-19. LA county is experiencing rapid virus spread right now. Our family is not leaving the house for at least another 4 days. We're quarantining since we traveled out of state for the holidays.

9:45a kids are pretending something about Pokemon. I help Gibson assemble a giant egg with his stuffed turtle inside.

9:55a start their online homework. We read a book about animals that are orange. 

10:05a Gus has lost his focus. Back to legos. Gibson plays the reading game a bit more then joins in the Legos. They eat a snack. I return to sudoku.

10:32a Gus realizes he didn't do much work during the break and starts freaking out.

10:35a school starts again. Time for phonics. It's a semi disaster at first since the teacher doesn't know Spanish. Then the students start helping her.

10:55a Gus melts down over writing words. I carry him to his room to take a break. 

11:05a actual break time. I eat a snack while boys play/fight. I take full advantage of DF being off on Fridays!

11:15a last session of school. We watch a video about reptiles that is pretty cool. Then they draw a picture of a reptile. Gibson takes this opportunity to draw a tiny snake. Gus teaches me a new one, a lizard from Australia called the thorny devil. He says he learned about it from Wild Kratts. The day ends with PE (dance videos). I have to break up one freezing ice/fire eagle fight.

12:00p school is done. Kids fill their footie PJs with plastic balls and crack themselves up. 

12:10p Gus is supposed to have a small group with the teacher's aide. I forcibly remove several toys from his PJs. The teacher arrives and he practices reading. He then refuses to write letters (anyone notice a theme here??) and the lesson ends in tears. 

12:40p I point out a pile of ignored toys and propose getting rid of them, which makes the kids immediately start playing with them. Gus is rejecting all the lunch options I offer while also begging for candy.

12:47p I nearly get stabbed in the eye with a paper periscope. Leave the playroom to eat lunch.

1:10p I pick peanuts out of a container of mixed nuts - with skin for Gus, no skin for Gibson. I believe this is lunch. They get a piece of candy afterwards. 

1:25p finally start doing school work. 

2:10p done with school work. It was a struggle but we finished all assignments. Gibson complained a lot about how long our last name is (6 letters) because one assignment was to write your first and last name five times. 

2:15p the guys turn on the Wii to play Lego Batman. I catch up on the news.

2:45p the news is too much. COVID, attempted coup, racism, general political upheaval… I sneak into the kitchen and eat some coconut ice cream while the kids are distracted by video games. Make a cup of tea. Then I check social media, but just a bit so I don't get sucked in. Play a game on my Kindle.

3:55p forced outside time. Come on people, we have a nice yard and it's 71 degrees. 

Kids ride scooters and bikes in the alley. I pick some grapefruit. Gibson starts whining that his legs are tired after maybe 20 minutes. We're all becoming total couch potatoes.

Back inside, we make grapefruit juice. The boys are helping until they both stick their hands into the sugar container seconds after I tell them not to. They are then shocked, SHOCKED, that I say they are done helping and have to leave the kitchen.

5:00p I ponder what leftovers options we can rustle up for dinner. After getting the kids to eat something resembling a meal, we decide it's movie night.

5:40p pop some popcorn and watch Fantasia 2000 on Disney+. I enjoy a Rip City Lager from Deschutes Brewery, a Christmas present from my brother. We give the movie 4 thumbs up.

7:00p time to build a fort in the den. This has been happening every night for the last week. 

7:10p they stopped at making a pile of cushions. Now they are dropping reusable ice packs down their footie PJs because they got too hot with all the jumping around.

7:20p oh good lord, they are filling their PJs with balls again. Is it bedtime yet????

7:30p story time. We're currently reading Little House on the Prairie. Gotta be honest, I'm editing a lot on the fly to skip the most egregiously racist parts. Not sure we'll continue the series after this (book #2). I loved them as a kid but I'm reading with new eyes now. Like, I didn't understand what it meant that the Ingalls family "settled in Indian country." Whoa, that's some hard core white supremacy there. "We don't consider these 'savages' to be real people, so if we feel like rolling our wagon on in and building a house in the middle of their territory, that should be fine…"

8:00p get the kids ready for bed. 

8:30p DF tells the "Goldilocks" bedtime story. The kids always want a role in the story. Tonight, Gibson is a ninja garbage can. Gus is a baby bear, younger than Baby Bear, and Goldilocks is his mother.

Then it's my turn to sing songs. As usual, Gus requests "Rockabye baby". Gibson's new favorite is "What a Wonderful World."

8:45p official good night. I sit on the couch outside their door and listen to their conversation which, not surprisingly, revolves around poop, pee, and toilets. They quiet down after a few minutes.

9:00p read a chapter in the book Inspired by Rachel Held Evans. It's for a church small group meeting that we'll have on Zoom tomorrow.

9:30p played a few phone/Kindle games then posted this to my blog. I'll head to bed around 10:15pm.

Thanks for reading along!

A Day in the Life, Year 5

Everything I did on Friday, January 3, 2020
Location: Pasadena, CA

6:30am Gibson crawls in our bed and wakes me up

6:50am I get out of bed to cough and blow my nose for awhile. I've been battling a cold/laryngitis/possible bronchitis for a week. It's getting old.

7:00am Make a cup of tea. It does not taste like vinegar, thankfully. My electric kettle had a bunch of mineral deposits on it yesterday so I tried a vinegar soak. Now it's nice and clean. I find a package of Hawaiian hot dog buns in the cupboard that need to be used up so I toast two and add PB&J for breakfast.

7:15am Gibson comes into the kitchen pretending to be Gus because he wants the jelly bean Gus is owed from last night (our current bribe for using the bathroom by oneself). I feed them some generic Lucky Charms. They mainly eat the marshmallows.

7:30am the boys go back to bed to jump on Daddy. DF switched to a new job this year where the vacation time schedule is very flexible, and he was able to take two full weeks off for the holidays. We've definitely enjoyed having him home! I text our relatives in San Diego that we won't make it down to visit this weekend, since I'm still sick. We'll have to celebrate our belated Christmas even more belatedly, I guess.

7:50am Remember that it's the first Friday of the year and I need to start writing this list. DF and boys get up and play blocks in the playroom (Whomp Kings, a game they made up). I hang out with them for awhile.

8:15am Unload the dishwasher. It has been leaking lately. I clean out the "gunk" trap over the drain, which is super gross. Hopefully that will help. Wash dishes still hanging out in the sink from last year (ha ha). We had company for a week over New Years and we're still recovering. DF and kids are playing Lego Star Wars on Wii now. I take a long hot shower and inhale as much steam as I can before my California guilt kicks in about wasting water. I decide to be brave and wear contact lenses today. We had pink eye making the rounds here so I was wary of sticking my fingers in my eyes, but the kids seem to have recovered fully. Try to install the new phone screen protector I got for Christmas. Drat, it's the wrong size.

9:15am Gibson requests a cookie. More tea for me. Clean off the pile of stuff that has accumulated on the top of our dryer, the family temporary storage area. Send a Christmas card that got returned for an old address. Read the news about impending war with Iran. Try not to despair about the state of the world.

10:00am Time for more Mucinex. Watch the Wii game. Gibson is whining sooo much about the game my ears are about to explode. DF turns it off and takes a shower. The kids and I play "what animal am I thinking of?" and other pretending games.

11:00am I eat black eyed peas and greens for lunch. More good luck coming my way! The boys are playing Legos. They eat some beef jerky, apple slices, and corn muffins. Gus blows muffin crumbs all over the place. He informs me his New Year's resolution is to make more messes. <eyeroll> We have a discussion about death, the afterlife, and options for disposal of bodies. This is a fairly common topic of conversation.

11:30am DF takes the boys to a thrift store to look at toys because they want to spend their Christmas money. While they are out, I run the robot vacuum and do some laundry. I get deeply involved in making a "decade in review" post on Instagram, scouring my photo archives for images to represent the spectrum of my life for the last 10 years. I also reply to some messages that come in from a volunteer organization I work with. We are making plans for our 2020 fundraiser. Just as the boys come back, I field a call related to the fundraiser and croak out some words on the phone for 10 minutes. Doing so makes me feel like a productive member of society.

1:15pm Shoppers return home. They are loaded down with swords, light sabers, smash balls, Legos, and other things I don't recognize.

1:30pm Snack time - granola and frozen blueberries. We all play with the new toys. I trim my fingernails and convince the boys to sit on the front stoop so I can trim theirs, too. DF assembles 26 smash balls.

2:40pm all smash balls have been destroyed. They contain little rubber sports-themed figures. I drink more tea and do more laundry. The kids picked up some banks at the store and want to transfer all their coins from their previous banks to the new ones. We practice some Spanish - hola, adios, te amo - because we're planning to send the boys to a dual language Spanish program for elementary school. I send the robot vacuum to the back of the house.

3:40pm cracker snack. Watch Sponge Bob Square Pants. I install a new game on my phone because I recently got a new phone and am going crazy enjoying all the memory space, lol.

4:25pm load and run dishwasher. Fold laundry. The kids are watching Super Wings.

4:45pm turn off the TV. Attempt to get the kids out the door to a restaurant for dinner. They attack me with light sabers.

5:05pm They are finally dressed. (They had been wearing PJs all day. I let them wear PJs nearly whenever they want because soon enough they'll have to get dressed in a uniform for school every day. If they whine about it, I plan to say, "Remember when you were little and you used to wear your pajamas all day every day? That was nice, huh? Now you are big kids who go to school, so you need to wear your uniform.") We finally leave at 5:15. Stop by the UPS store to return my phone screen protector to Amazon. I don't even have to put it in a box. Whoa, such service. We eat dinner at our favorite diner that has a special with 3 hamburgers, 3 fries, and 3 drinks for $11.99. The boys share a burger (and don't even finish it) and I drink water, so it's a great deal for our family! On the way home, we try to pick up an item from our local Buy Nothing group but the family wasn't home.

6:40pm We're home. I unload the dishwasher, which did not leak on the floor. Yay! The kids are excited to see their toys again.

6:50pm Take anti-anxiety medicine, my current best friend. Drink more tea. Motivate the kids to clean up the playroom by rebuilding one smash ball for each small amount of cleaning effort.

7:45pm Snack time. Gibson requests peanut butter on a spoon. Gus ignores my repeated warnings of bedtime approaching.

8:00pm Time to get ready for bed. Gus, predictably, objects that he didn't get a snack. He scarfs down a few pretzels while Gibson brushes his teeth.

8:15pm DF tells them a bedtime story. It's still called a "Goldilocks" story and bears little resemblance to the traditional narrative. Usually, I do it but we've reached the point in the evening where my voice has faded and the coughing intensifies. I go to make a cup of (disgusting, licorice) Throat Coat tea. While I'm waiting for the water to boil, I read the ingredients and notice it has cinnamon bark. Whoops, I'm allergic to cinnamon! I'm off the hook and choose Sleepytime Vanilla instead. Write some Amazon product reviews while sipping tea.

8:35pm Children are loudly singing the rainbow song from their beds. I go in and tell them it's time to quiet down. After one last hug and drink of water, they go to sleep. DF and I watch a few episodes of Undone, a new Amazon show that is really trippy.

9:45pm I take Mucinex and vitamins and head to bed, propped up on 4 pillows.

Thanks for reading! You can check out previous days in the life here:
2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 <-- the most exhausting one

4 Years

Happy 4th birthday to Gus and Gibson! Here is what they are up to these days.

Creative play

• They love to play creatively together. They try to include the whole family when both parents are available. Many evenings have passed with them hopping back and forth on the couch as they pretend to be various Mario Bros. characters. DF and I are assigned to be Bowsers, or sometimes good guys. 
• Everything can transform, when they are imagining. They can go from magic carrot to butterfly to zapping robot in the span of thirty seconds. It's hard to keep up :)
• At night, they want me to make up a bedtime story for them. They tell me what should be in the story. Last night, Gus was a treasure chest and Gibson was a baby bunny who lost his family. 
• We went camping last month - stayed in a cabin. Although they had been running around playing outside all day, they seemed almost compelled into creating a pretend scenario before bedtime that involved crawling through a blanket on their dad's lap.

Physical development

• Both are expert balance bike riders. Gibson always wants to go in front down hills and is a bit of a daredevil. Gus usually lets his brother go first, though he also has a need for speed.]
• DF and the boys like to race their scooters in the alley behind our house
• They love to climb higher than my nerves enjoy - playground equipment, trees, etc

Academics

• After one semester of preschool, we decided to pull them out of school at the end of last year. It was just too much for all of us.
• We attend a local tuition-free Parent Education program, which has been awesome. It's like a preschool where the parents and kids stay together for part of the time.
• They know their letters and can count to 20, with minor confusion in the teens
• We're big into science experiments these days (slime, de-oxidizing pennies, soaking raisins, nature exploration, oobleck)
• Their video game education has begun. They're knowledgeable about all the Super Mario Galaxy characters/planets/lumas. They can sort of drive in Burnout (Gamecube). They like slicing stuff and bad guys on Wii Sports Resort in the swordplay levels. 

Social

• For the most part, they like going to Sunday School at church and have made friends there
• They think "big kids" are cool, like to follow them around, and try to do whatever they are doing (anyone older than say 6). They even joined in a water balloon fight recently without a melt down!
• They generally find babies annoying. We are doing our best to help them form a good relationship with their 18 month old cousin. Gibson was proud of himself during her most recent visit because "I only kicked her one time today!"
• Gus is more of the rule follower and enforcer. He likes to be helpful. 
• Gibson is more mischievous and will see what he can get away with. He loves to laugh.
• They fight with each other a lot and also play together fairly well
• Both boys are super attached to me, sometimes to the point of clinginess. I'm hoping they grow out of it before kindergarten...

Language

• They talk A LOT! I am biased but feel their vocabulary is extensive for their age. People can usually understand their speech. They don't have any "twin language" that I'm aware of.
• Gibson likes to tell us bedtime stories. They even have some plot to them!
• They are getting better with pronouns. Still confusion on male-female and also he/him she/her.
• Their past tense verbs are creative. Made-ed, eat-ed, put-ed
• Pronunciation seems pretty age-appropriate. They still have lots of cute things they say, like "gwish" instead of "squish." Hey, stop gwishing me!  Neither of them say r correctly all the time. Gus's sounds like /w/ while Gibson says /y/. That confuses me sometimes (run could be wun or yun).
• They use multi-syllable words with no problem, like camouflage, elephant, and Saturday. But then they drop the first syllable of other words, like (con)troller, (ma)chine, (with)out, (dis)penser. Actually that last one is pronounced fencer, as in Gus, you be a candy fencer and I will be an ice cream 'chine.

People told me raising twins would get easier, and you know what? They were right. The first 1.5 years are kind of a blur. I'm glad I took photos/videos and recorded my thoughts on this blog. But really, now I feel like I just have two kids who happen to be the same age, and in a lot of ways, that's great!

A Day in the Life, Year 4

Once again, it's my annual post where I record everything I do during in one day.Yesterday was just a regular day over here, so please enjoy my detailed notes!

(Previous years available here: 2018, 2017, 2016)

Location: Pasadena, CA
Date: January 11, 2019
Gus and Gibson are three and a half

6:40am Das Fenster's alarm wakes me up, but I try to go back to sleep

7:05am DF leaves for work. The kids are still asleep. We had a late night last night at choir practice. I think about how I should get up and do things, but it's so cold and my bed is so warm. Around 7:15, I grab my phone and lay in bed looking at Facebook and Instagram.

7:45am Gibson comes to climb in my bed. He says he had a dream about pink balloons. He pretends to be a hug machine but turns into a zapper. 5-10 minutes later, Gus wakes up and joins us. A brief turf battle ensues, as usual. They settle in on each side of me. Gus says he had a dream about me driving a monster truck. Gibson says he was riding on top of my truck and he was a transforming robot. Then they pretend to be Mario and a mole, or a bunny, who was stuck in a hole by a witch and ninjalinos (from PJ Masks).

8:10am Roll out of bed. Potty stop, then they ask to play Kindles. I tell them they aren't charged, so the kids play trains instead. When I find the Kindles and plug them in, they are actually at 70% battery. I don't mention this fact... They sing to themselves as they play, which is a regular occurrence. They play a version of Blokus called "puzzle game" - we made it up yesterday.

8:30am I make coffee and am gone from playroom for 3 minutes before Blokus fight breaks out. Then we have a poop situation to deal with.

8:45am I quickly change out of my pajamas because a person is supposed to come by btwn 9-10 to give us a quote for pruning our grapefruit tree.

8:55am Boys eat pancakes while watching Super Why. I have instituted a 2 hour daily limit for TV/Kindle time. We have a 1 hour sand timer on the entertainment center that I use to track how much they've watched.

9:00am Realize I have no bread or bagels in the house and barely any soy milk. I make instant oatmeal for breakfast. Must go to store today! It's an adjustment not having the kids in preschool anymore. They stopped going at the end of 2018, so I was used to having two mornings a week free for errands and etc.

9:20am Boys are still asking for Kindles. I explain that the TV timer will keep running and it's all part of the 2 hour limit. They say ok.

9:45am The "Boo" characters on their Kindle game need a nap, so we turn off screens. Gus wants coffee (mostly milk, splash of coffee). Still waiting for tree person to arrive. We read a library book about Star Wars featuring Legos.

9:55am Now they want to play Legos.

10:00am Tree lady says the grapefruit tree is in pretty good shape overall and should be pruned every 4 years or so to remove dead and crossed branches. She also mentions that if we give the grass in the back yard a good rake and fertilize in March, we'll have a nice lawn for the summer.

10:17am The boys are happily playing with Legos. I tell them I'm going to take the fastest shower ever and will be right back.

10:21am I get out of the shower and hear a total scream fest going on.

10:40am We've sort of recovered from the big feelings. They're rolling around on the floor under blankets. I am not able to figure out exactly what happened, but I do gather there was a slobber-related problem.

10:45am Almond snack

10:50am Start getting ready to go to Aldi (grocery store)

11:02am Out the door, thanks to a cookie bribe

11:50am Home with only a few extra items that weren't on the list. How can we resist chocolate coins for only 99 cents?

12:03pm Kids are watching Blippi and eating peanut butter sandwiches. They wash their hands with only minimal drama when I had them get the step stool out by themselves. They are really into being independent lately, especially Gus. I make my own lunch by dumping all the leftovers in a bowl with salsa and avocado. Drinking lime seltzer, my latest obsession.

12:23pm I discover half a cup of cold coffee from this morning. Mix it with vanilla soy milk. Yum! Start a load of laundry. Take out trash. Put away rest of groceries. Tidy up and sweep entry way. Unload dishwasher.

12:42pm Gibson hops into kitchen pretending to be a frog. I tell them they've watched enough TV for now. We play block tanks. (Build tanks out of blocks, say boom boom boom a lot)

1:25pm Transfer laundry to dryer. Read the kids a story. Play Blokus and Taboo. (You play Taboo with three year olds by using all the "taboo" words to explain the clue, FYI.)

1:50pm Yogurt snack. We got a 32oz tub of vanilla Greek yogurt at Aldi for $0.25 because it was only 2 days from its sell-by date. Score! I explain how yogurt is made, per their request. Gus says I can only eat vegan cheese yogurt. (They're a little confused about dairy-free)

2:05pm Snack done. Whoa, they barely made a mess with the yogurt! That's a first! Now play cat/dinosaur/transforming car/tackling.

2:12pm Gus asks me to take off his socks, which he is only capable of doing when I don't want his socks being removed. I eat a vegan ranch crunchy pea snack I found at Grocery Outlet.

2:20pm Text Auntie Hipster about making slime when she's babysitting for some friends tomorrow. This inspires me to order a gallon of glue off Amazon for only $12 so we can make more slime here. Gus tells me he want to grow up and get really tiny so he can go into electrical outlets and get zapped.

2:30pm Explain to kids that I need to go to CVS to get contact solution. Tell them we are only getting contacts solution. We are not getting toys or candy. Ask them if they understand, and if they still want to go to CVS. Gibson asks if he can pet the toys. I say yes. They agree we should all go, and they'll ride their balance bikes. It's about 2 blocks away.

2:55pm Finally leave CVS after resisting a lot of begging and pleading for toys and candy. While we are there, we see a friend we know from a local moms group.

3:00pm Arrive at park. It's just a block away. We love our bikeable neighborhood! I've had to learn to talk to Gus and Gibson before we embark about whose turn it is to ride in front because apparently that is a very big deal! They generally do ok as long as we talk about it first. Otherwise it's a crashing, brawling free-for-all for the lead.

At the park, they ride their bikes a lot, go on swings, open a pretend restaurant where they get cooked into a pie by Mr. McGregor, and generally run around. They chase some kids who are using these electronic rolling skateboards until one of the riders informs me, "if they crash into me, this thing will catch on fire!" While I doubt the accuracy of her combustibility gauge, I tell my boys to back off anyway. Some friends from church happen to be at the park too, and all our kids have fun together. I also see another mom I know from another parent class. I feel so connected! At one point, Gibson says, "I want to pee on you," which means he needs to use the bathroom. Really trying to get him to stop saying that...

4:40pm Get home. Give the kids a cantaloupe snack.

5:00pm Use up the last of their allotted TV time to watch Fireman Sam while I make dinner. We're having spaghetti.

5:26pm DF gets home. Gus screams for awhile. Transitions are rough for him.

5:40pm Dinner time. They both ask me to feed them, but Gibson takes over and feeds himself eventually.

6:00pm Dinner is done. DF plays with the kids while I clean up the kitchen. They play Wii. So far I have kept video games separate from the TV timer because it's more of a bonding/fun thing they do with their dad. If I start worrying about their brain development, maybe I'll dial it back.

6:25pm Kitchen is mostly clean. I even wash my cast iron skillet - usually procrastinate on that task. Take Lexapro (anti-anxiety/anti-depressant). I've been on it for a month and I feel like it's helping me handle life better. I research grant opportunities for an early childhood education program that we attend, because I've now been recruited to be on their board.

6:50pm Start bath time. Neither kid wants to take the first bath, so their squirt toys go first. Gus and Gibson both choose second bath. They eventually get in the tub after protesting about the water temperature (too hot for one, too cold for the other). It is the longest bath ever because they both need a poop break in the middle. Hey, I'm glad they tell me so I can get them on the potty. But then they want privacy but I don't want to leave the other kid alone, so I pull the shower curtain around the outside of the tub and stand behind it, looking at the tub rather than the toilet. Oh, motherhood...

7:50pm Give them bedtime snacks and drinks. They're playing pretend with DF. They are baby moles. Then it becomes Mario, Bowser, and a poison swamp. I join in as Mommy Bowser.

8:15pm Start heading towards bed. Bedtime routine involves pajamas, brush teeth, story, song, hug & kiss, one last drink of water, and a Goldilocks story told by mom when they are tucked in bed. I let them each pick one element of the story. Gus usually says Goldilocks drives a wolf house that transforms into something. Tonight it is a bumper car with guns. Gibson says there should be lots of cupcakes and the bears drive a boomer cannon. So I tell a story about how the bears shoot cupcakes out of their cannons and Goldilocks shoots frosting out of her squirt guns and they make a huge tower of cupcakes as tall as a giant.

8:49pm Bedroom door closed. Goodnight #1

8:50pm "Mommy, my head is too hot." "My legs are too cold." "I'm scared of shadows."

8:52pm "Mommy, my head too hot again!" (I flip his pillow over)

8:53pm Gibson runs out to tell me, "I love you so much," then tells me I look like a cat with so much fur when I put him back in bed (because I've taken down my pony tail). Gus wants his pillow flipped again. I try for the 100th time to show him how to do it by himself.

8:56pm Gus needs to go potty. Meanwhile, I've been trying to get my phone to retrieve texts and wind up restarting it. My phone is kind of sad. We need to find out if another carrier has better service in our neighborhood and maybe switch + phone upgrade.

9:00pm I take a chance and get some coconut ice cream out of the freezer.

9:02pm D'oh! Hide the ice cream! Gibson emerges asking to be re-tucked in. That kid can't stay in one spot in his bed, awake or asleep. I tell him to close his eyes and think about something happy to help him sleep. He's going to think about Batman, Spiderman, Hulk, and "different characters."

9:05pm Gus calls me in to ask questions about Paw Patrol. I review the bedtime checklist with them. I emphasize that we did everything on this list, so now it's their job to close their eyes, be quiet, and think about sleepy things. "I'm not coming in here anymore," I declare. I sit on the couch right outside their room and scroll Facebook/Instagram.

9:15pm I haven't heard any more peeps out of them! DF and I watch an episode of Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. I read a few chapters of In the Distance by Hernán Díaz, which is the 2019 One City, One Story selection for Pasadena Public Library.

10:30pm Take my vitamin and get ready for bed. Move laundry aside. I'll fold it tomorrow...maybe. Make sure boys are covered up and find Gus "Mr. My head too hot" with a blanket under his head! Play a fish game and a word game for a bit on my Kindle before calling it a night.

And that's another day in the life of a stay-at-home mom with twins!