A day in my life

We are half-way through another month and its time for me to record a day in my life.

The alarm went off at 6:10 this morning and I checked that eldest son who was working 7am - 3pm today was awake. I made my morning tea and took it back to bed and looked at my notebook and to-do lists. Today was an at home day perfect for catching up with housework and chores.

By 6:30 I was dressed in lots of layers, its a bit chilly in the mornings here and it was time to wake younger son. Wondering whether to do any washing to day, I peered through the steamed up windows at the still dark sky to try to see what the weather would be like. As I dry my washing outside all year round, I like to check the weather before I start, but at this time of year I want to get the washing out in the garden as early as possible, so in the winter I am often trying to predict the weather from a pitch black sky. The sky looked clear so I decided to go ahead.

Time then to put on gloves and scarf to drive eldest son to work. I have started making my gloves from left over sock yarn as they wear so much longer than pure wool ones and today by coincidence my gloves and socks matched - how very co-ordinated for that time in the morning!

Back home just after seven and just time to let the chickens out of their house and into their run. As the day lightened I was pleased that the sky did indeed look clear - a good day for washing.

At 7:10 I was in the car again taking youngest son down to the station and then by half past seven I was back in the house on my own and the morning rush was over. I put porridge ingredients together on a low heat on the stove and made myself coffee, time for a short break at the computer before starting the day.

Next, hanging the washing on the line, letting the chickens out into the garden and putting dinner in the slow cooker. Tuesday evenings can be a bit busy especially when I am on my own so the crock pot is perfect, whatever crops up I know that at least dinner is sorted. Tonight's was lamb hotpot, everything in together so extra easy.

The next few hours were spent doing housework which seems to take forever. I took a couple of breaks for cups of tea, and then back on the computer to send a "good morning" email to my husband who is working in Boston for a couple of weeks.

After a salad lunch I went out into the garden for an hour. My tomato plants which up to now had escaped blight were just beginning to show signs so I decided to pick the tomatoes and get rid of the plants. As always the chickens showed great interest in my activities.

I also pruned a pyracantha which had got out of hand. I had been putting it off because they are such prickly bushes to deal with but today wearing thick leather gloves I cut it down to size. Gardening was stopped by a short shower which also meant a scrabble to take in the washing which was still quite damp. This in between season is always the worst for drying washing, summer is obviously best but cold crisp winter days also dry well, the still damp days of autumn don't really have much drying power. I will have to hang the laundry on the clothes airer but as we don't have the heating on yet it will take a while to dry.

I left to pick up my eldest son from work just before 3pm. I thought I might get nice long days without interruptions once the children got older but now my son is working different shifts I seem to have to keep my eye on the clock more than ever. The lack of transport in country areas was not a factor I considered when we decided to move here seventeen years ago. Village life was great when the children were small but as a mother of teenagers I do find that I spend a lot of time in the car.

Back home and time for a cup of tea with my son before sorting the rest of the tomatoes. I have about 4lb of green tomatoes.

At 4pm I left to pick up younger son from the station. Back home again I googled recipes for green tomato chutney. I think I will try this one although possibly with less chili. I've not made chutney before but ten chillies in four jars of chutney seems quite a lot to me.

More general tidying before an early dinner. Tuesday night is Lacrosse training for younger son and we eat early so he is not running around full of dinner! The slow cooker made a lovely hotpot as always.

After dinner I quickly washed up, shut the chickens safely away for the night before leaving for lacrosse training with one boy while the other waited for friends who were coming round to watch a film.

Training is in town about nine miles away and lasts two hours. To try to be a bit more environmentally friendly I stay there rather than driving home. There is a Waitrose nearby so I did my weekly shop before it closed and then I sat in the car park at the sports centre and knitted. I always take two knitting projects with me, if I can park near some of the floodlights I can do any knitting because there is enough light to see if I need to but if I find myself in a dark part of the car park then I only do simple knitting like dishcloths! Today I found a good space and spent an hour knitting my top down jumper.

We arrived home at 9:30pm and I unpacked the shopping. I could hear the mumble of chat and laughter coming from the living room, its lovely to hear a group of friends enjoying themselves.

Now I'm upstairs finishing this post. My husband has just phoned to say good night though of course it is still at afternoon in the States.

So that was my day today, fairly typical of my non-working days. This series of posts will be a good record of how I spend my time and I'm sure I will find them interesting to look back on. I've never been much good at keeping a diary but I enjoy recording my activities one day a month.