#onedayhh (otherwise known as a day in the life)

 

Happy Wednesday, friends! I said on here yesterday that Tuesday was my favorite day all year on social media—it's called #onedayhh, or one day hour by hour. It's basically a fancy way of saying a day in the life, but it's fun to participate in and to have to look back on. I usually forget by three o'clock, but I stuck with it pretty much all days, so I thought I'd share it on my blog as well, for many of you who aren't on social media.

(A fellow blogger and author, Laura Tremaine, is who started this.) 

So, without further adieu, here is what my day was like yesterday.

I was up at 5:30. I love this hour! I love being up early, especially when the time has changed and the sunrise is earlier. I love being awake to witness it rise and seeing how the light changes in the house. The first thing I do every morning is let the dogs out. I refill their water bowls and start making Noah his coffee and lunch. I finish that and then make my own coffee and let the dogs back in. I love to drink that first cup of coffee everyday. I also like to sit with my laptop and check emails and I read blogs. I'll get on Facebook for about five minutes, then I shut it all off and turn off the local news.

I only watch local news, then I turn off the streaming device and let the tv switch over to screensaver mode, which is always a pretty background. I got another cup of coffee and read my book for thirty minutes. After that, I got up feed the dogs, to make Todd's, Graham's and Jonah's lunches and coffees/waters. I folded a load of clothes and transferred the ones that had been in the washer over to the dryer, then sat down for my quiet time. (This is during the time they're all leaving, which is always around 8:15-8:30.)

I wrapped this up around nine, then got my protein drink for breakfast and sat down to call my mom. (We always talk around this time of day.) 

I took all the dogs out again, then went up stairs to make the bed, straighten up and get dressed. I have to lock Oakley in my room when I do this so that she doesn't wander. She has a toy in my room that she loves to play with, so while I get dressed, she occupies herself. I started another load of laundry, put Oakley in her kennel and left to run a few errands. 

Look at the leaves! I'm loving the colors of fall and I'm so glad it's finally here. We've had an unusually hot fall this year, so it seems like it's taken a little longer for the colors to show up. Speaking of grocery shopping, guess what today is?! The day my Kroger reopens! It's been closed since the end of September because of the mass shooting that took place there, and they took that opportunity to remodel after they finished the cleanup process. I'm so excited! Todd and I are going to the grand reopening this morning. I never thought I'd be so glad to have my store open back up! I've been shopping at Aldi's, Walmart and Target during these last six weeks. I shopped at Walmart yesterday.

Do you organize your grocery basket when you shop? My friend told me she did this several years ago, and it's a gamechanger! That way it's organized as they check me out, and it makes a difference on how they pack the bags. I'm weird, I know. I came home to organize all of this and put it away, then made my lunch and sat down to watch a movie (I only watched part of it, because I kept getting busy.), but when I walked into the living room, I walked into yet another massacre of a stuffed squeaky toy. 

Crash cannot be trusted with squeaker toys! Every single time, he has to rip them to shreds. See the red rubber toy by the smaller dog bed? That was what was inside the stuffed toy. Somehow, Crash managed to keep that in tact. But he wouldn't look at me! He still won't look at me or Todd when we pick that red rubber part up. It's hysterical. I pretended to be mad at him, but I wasn't really. Poor pup, he just can't help himself!

The minute I finished my lunch, Oakley jumped up and did this for the next hour while I watched the movie and scrolled on my phone. Speaking of...look what was in my memories yesterday. I got to meet Sophie Hudson several years ago at a women's event at another church. It was such a fun night and she is every bit the doll I knew she would be.

I will never forget one thing she said that night—she said to anyone who needed to hear, "Sister, I affirm you, just like I affirm those cheesy grits we had with our dinner." If you've never read her books, you should! She was a blogger before blogging was a thing, and now she's an author and podcaster. She was known as Boo Mama, and her friend Melanie (Big Mama) is also a blogger/author/podcaster and I got to meet her as well! I love both of these women and am grateful for writers like them who inspire, encourage and who make me laugh really hard.

I took Oakley out again (she has a tiny bladder) and made myself a cup of coffee, because my early morning wake-up was catching up with me. While I did that, Oakley did this.

I left home at 1:45 to meet my sister Trish at Dad's house to finish his Christmas lights. 

This Christmas tree made of lights on my dad's flag pole may not seem complicated or a big deal, but let me tell you—it is WAY more complicated than it looks! We got it up on the first try this year. Praise! 

We added some net lights to another bush at the end of Dad's driveway, stopped to take this picture because we forgot to on Saturday, then we left and went our separate ways. I came home and let the dogs out, then sat down to read some more for about thirty minutes, before getting up to make our dinner.

I made taco soup and pigs-in-blankets for the picky eaters. It was so good! Bonus: Drew came home to eat. That never happens these days and we even had one spare. I think he enjoyed himself and I loved seeing all my boys. I cleaned the kitchen, packed a goodie bag of food for Drew to take home and came to sit down in the living room to watch some Gilmore Girls and to write this blog post. 

Why yes, I do still watch this show over and over again. I even Snapchat my friend Kim about it all the time! 

After this I'm going to finish putting the leftovers away, then I'm going upstairs to shower and read my book before going to sleep and starting over again tomorrow. Most days are a bit simpler than today, but it was a good day and I got to have several really good phone conversations too. I love it when that happens!

How was your day? I hope I didn't bore you to tears. These days are still a little weird for me, with getting adjusted to a new "normal" routine. It changes from week to week and I'm not used to it yet. I was talking about that with a friend yesterday, how phases in life change and that we have to learn to adapt. Anyway, I digress. Thanks for reading my blog! Love to all. ❤