A Week In The Life

Life flows through seasons, which feel completely normal while you’re in the midst of them, but looking back, it’s hard to remember what they were like. With that in mind, I wanted to outline the last week and detail the end of the week.

Monday

The schools were on holiday for Indigenous People’s Day, but O had a marching band clinic. Dropped her off at 7:45 a.m. at school. I worked from home today, taking a few meetings and picking up O around lunchtime. I brought nine of her friends back to the house for a homecoming mum-making party that Vanessa had organized.

While mum making was happening in the living room, I was working in the home office. I don’t have anything on the calendar happening in the evening. The Band Boosters meeting was pushed to the following week.

Tuesday

It’s my birthday! I dropped off O for morning band practice at 6:40 a.m., then the elementary kids at 7:30 a.m., and headed into the coworking spot. Meetings, some work. Pick up one of the elementary kids, home/work for a bit, then back to pick up the elementary school choir kids.

For my birthday, Vanessa snagged tickets for a chef collab at Nixta Taqueria between their James Beard award-winning Chef Edgar Rico and the Michelin two-star Dhamaka‘s James Beard award-winning Chef Chintan Pandya. Indian meets Mexican. It was an incredible menu, and, to top it off, Vanessa won a cooler from the event’s sponsor, Yeti.

Wednesday

A pretty light day. O to school at 6:40 a.m., then over to the coworking spot.

Vanessa had a couple of meetings for her Qué Bueno Bakery. She’s been operating as a cottage bakery (e.g., out of our home) and just secured commercial space. It isn’t a storefront, simply a commercial kitchen, but it’ll open up many options for new product lines and distribution channels. Cottage bakeries are extremely limited in what they can produce and how they can sell them under state law.

She’s working on the financing piece, and, hey, I have an MBA, so we had a few conversations during the day about how her meetings went.

Meanwhile, drama in kindergarten. An e-mail went out that while a sub had the class earlier in the day, some of the kids apparently convinced the sub that snack time meant opening all the snack boxes. They went to town. While some kids knew better and stayed away, others joined in one way or another. Another e-mail would be coming to those parents whose kids were involved.

And then we got the second email. Our kindergartener wasn’t the ringleader, but the way to her heart was through her stomach, and when someone offered her snacks, knowledge of rules went out the window.

I picked up the elementary kids and talked with her about making good choices.

After a little bit more work, I took the kids to religious education. Vanessa and I tag-team teach the class for parents of children in sacramental preparation, and this was my week. Taught an hour on the role of parenthood.

Thursday

4 a.m., the “gray room” kids woke us up. The kinder kid threw up. She hadn’t seemed sick, so wondering if it was nerves? She is empathetic and sensitive—the previous day’s snack episode weighed heavily on her.

Okay, I got her settled, and it was close enough to the alarm time, so I might as well get ready. O to school at 6:40 a.m. Arrive back at home to see the middle schoolers leave for the bus. The kinder woke up, and we wondered if we should send her to school. No fever… and then she threw up again. Okay, she’s staying home.

Pretty normal day otherwise.

Thursday afternoon, I picked up elementary kids. Cross country is over, so I didn’t need to do a pick-up at middle school.

V had an event, so I left O in charge and took A to a sleep study. Around 10:30 p.m., we switched off. I headed home and checked out the sicky kid sleeping in the living room. O went to sleep in there, too, and didn’t want to move when I got home. I skipped the evening clean-up so as not to wake them up (for better or worse…)

Friday

Woke up and got the kids ready. Left to take O to school at 6:40 a.m., then home just before V and the sleep study kiddo got home. Left to take non-study kids to elementary, stopped home to grab homework that a middle schooler left. She asked since I was going to the middle school for a meeting anyhow. I discussed the web communication strategy for the upcoming magnet application season with a school admin and another PTA exec board member at the middle school.

I made it home in time to jump into a leadership meeting at work immediately. While I was at the school, V took the sleep study kid to elementary late once she could wash all of the sleep study glue out.

After the meeting, I headed to the coworking office.

I picked up elementary kids from school and then went home to work some more. Ate some dinner, then took a middle schooler to her homecoming dance and then to the football stadium for the high school game. Because of the timing, I couldn’t help with the band setup and only went as a fan.

V arrived at the game with the rest of the kids. We all watched the pregame halftime show—the band performed early to cede halftime to homecoming festivities—and then V left to pick up the middle school dance kid.

I stayed with the rest until the high school homecoming halftime finished, then home to get them to sleep.

Dishes and reset the house, then pick up the kid post-game at the high school around 11:30 p.m.

Saturday

At 7:25 a.m., I left to take the high school kid to band practice at one of the football stadiums, home to make breakfast and oversee Saturday chores. I picked up the high schooler at 11, then we all headed to our church’s fall fest, where we simply enjoyed being there. There are plenty of volunteer opportunities, but we typically need to pass on things we can during the fall semester.

Sunday

Normal Sunday. I was the master of ceremonies at the 7:30 a.m. Mass while the twins were altar servers with a few others. Breakfast after Mass, then home. O had a confirmation class for a couple hours in the afternoon, then the rest of the day went to reading and getting ready for the upcoming week.