I have a friend who asks me sometimes what I have planned for the day, or how my day has been. He always responds with a comment about how busy I am/was. Which is true. I feel like that’s a part of homesteading, there’s an awful lot of active time. But part of this is because I’m really split into several roles. Yes, there’s our homestead, but also I write and I teach full time. This year, I added two grad courses too, ‘cause somehow I thought being an adult student would be less time consuming…
I have two distinct kinds of days too during the school year, whether it’s a work away from home day or a work at home day.
Today is a Sunday. My husband is out of town, so my schedule is completely mine to make. Except for dogs. The younger one thought 4:30 was an appropriate time to get up. And 5:00, and 5:15 and 5:30. At which point I decided I would not be sleeping anymore. Lol
So I got up, got dressed, brought the dogs out, fed the dogs, and made coffee. I checked in on email and socials. Then I sat down to read the last two chapters of this week’s grad courses work. The related questions were about case studies and the law. The law questions were pretty quick to answer, I already knew most of that and just had to verify a few details. The case studies took longer. I got about two thirds through the short ones before needing a break. I made myself some breakfast and previewed a student activity for next fall. I was hoping it would be an activity that I could do the first week or two before the kids have their devices but it works better if they each have their own computer. It’s still a super cool activity and I added it to my notes for next year.
Next, I food prepped for dinner tonight, dinners for the week, and washed the dishes. Back to case studies then, including the much longer one. Took a break to put laundry away, and returned some messages. Then I schooled a week’s worth of Facebook and Instagram posts for my author profile. Then finally finished the long case study and submitted the last of this week’s course work. Guess what, next week’s work for one course is available, so I opened those documents.
Back out to the garden (and the blackflies) to plant broccoli, cilantro, parsley, and a row of flowers for the pollinators. Then set up a new hose out towards the garden, but I’m not using it in the heat of the day. Then cleaned random things like the litter box, the fridge, bringing out the garbage, and then a load of bedding into the washer.
Now I’m sitting down.
Soon, I’ll work on one of my writing projects. Then finishing up tonight’s dinner. Then the 8th grade photo slideshow for their graduation. Oh and finishing that laundry, ‘cause it never ends.
Now this would look a lot different on a work away from home day. The dogs still have me up between 5-5:30. Yay. They’re fed, gone out, and I make coffee first. But then I choose to write on my fun stuff until 6:00. At 6 I get dressed, prep anything I need for dinner, take the dogs out again, pack my lunch and leave by 6:30.
My full day at school has me leaving somewhere between 3:30-4:30 most days and putting me back home by 4:00-5:00. Regardless of whether they were out five minutes before, the dogs want me to take them out. Then I start laundry (I tell you, it never ends) and dinner stuff.
Dinner clean up then leads to me finally sitting down with the hubby. Laundry may still need tending, but not much. Usually I’m too tired now to do much requiring thought so I tend to make graphics for social media or blog posts. Finally, I give up and lay back to doomscroll or play a game on my phone. Sometimes I read, it depends how tired my eyes are. Thank goodness for audio books when I’m prepping food, folding laundry, or driving. Then it’s bedtime to start all over again tomorrow.
Is this normal? I don’t know. But it’s my normal. Do I have balance? Well…kinda. It’s a balance of all busy. But I do enjoy summer when I go to a local lake and veg for a few hours in the sun and water. Those are my mental breaks.
How is your balance? How is your workload? Tell me about your typical day!
You may also enjoy these posts:
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