I'm a big believer in growing, cooking and eating nutritious, whole foods. It is a work in progress, but I am attempting to ditch the grocery store and work on making my own traditional whole foods. My kids are newly in school, after homeschooling for many years, so my schedule has opened up quite a bit. This is a typical day for me at this point. In this case, it's Friday.
6AM I'm up and ready to go. My day starts early, since sleeping late is not something my body has ever allowed. Being a morning person allows me to get much of my work done before noon. I start by letting Toby out and getting his breakfast ready. He eats a combination of home cooked food and dry dog food supplemented by garlic and brewers yeast to deter fleas and ticks. We don't use the chemical deterrents here. I then go out to check on the chickens. Their tractor is moved to allow them new areas to scratch and forage, along with weeding and mowing my lawn. What a deal! They also get some weeds and spent plants from the garden along with any foods that either Toby or the family didn't eat.
7AM The kids are up and the race begins to get them fed, lunches made and up to the bus. My kids aren't huge fans of sandwiches. They take things like yogurt, cheese, nuts, dried fruits and anything else they find appealing for that day. I just bought them thermoses to bring hot foods like soups and the like, so they'll have something warm in their tummies next week. Both kids have spelling tests today, so we go over their lists and onto the bus they go.
8:30 AM The last the kid is put on the bus and Toby and I are off for our walk. We were predicted to have quite a rain storm, but it came during the night and now we have gorgeous weather. Our typical walk is about 2 miles. I use this time to organize my day in my head. It is wonderful to start my day with some exercise and fresh air. When I get home, I make breakfast for Hubby and I. Today is eggs from the girls and sausage I made from the pig we just purchased from the local slaughterhouse. This is made into a sandwich with bagels, which makes me realize I need to make more bagels. That will have to be another day.
10 AM I sit down for a minute and check the internet and read a few blogs.
10 :30 It's time to make the Pasta e Fagioli soup.
11:15AM Time to do the dishes. My dishwasher died a few months ago and I'm finding that I really like hand washing them. I don't have to worry about how clean they are and it is rather cathartic.
Next is repairing a shirt that my son ripped the cuff off of on his first day wearing it. Then I finish knitting the ends into some dishrags I made last week.
1:30 Since it poured last night, there isn't much to be done in the garden. We're also toward the end of the growing season. My helper came and helped me with the manure again yesterday. Since most of the garden is taken care of, I can relax a bit. The kids will be home soon, so I decide to make them brownies. We've been cutting a lot of sugar from our diet, so they will be thrilled to have something sweet when they get home. While they're baking I run up to take a shower and fold some laundry.
3PM The kids are home and have their snack. Since it is the weekend, they have no homework and are off to play outside. We have a wonderful neighborhood, with lots of great kids. It's wonderful to have so many playmates for my kids and great moms for me to talk to as well.
5PM Dinner needs to be made. Hubby is running late, so I am making it later than usual. I have leftovers to make over tonight. There is chicken, rice and some broccoli from the garden. I decide to make up a white sauce, throw some cheese in it and make a bit of a casserole. Recipes are not my strong suit. I tend to make things up as I go along. It isn't bad, especially considering I'm not much of a casserole girl.
7PM Hubby is home and we've had dinner. We relax together with the kids and hear about how school went. I'm knitting a scarf for a Christmas present while we chat.
8PM The kids are in bed and Hubby and I relax with some TV before going off to bed.
As part of the meme, I'm to nominate a few people to carry it on. In that vein, I'll ask Leigh of 5 Acres and a Dream to join in, Daphne of Daphne's Dandelions and Harvest Monday fame, and Thomas from A Growing Tradition to round out the group.
I hope you enjoyed my day in the life. I'd love to see more join in as it's fun to see what people do in a day.
This post is also part of Simple Lives Thursday. Head on over and see what everyone is up to.
7 comments:
Wow. This is one of the most interesting and useful memes I've ever seen. By reading yours I've learned some things and can chuckle over what we have in common, for example, eating lunch in front of the computer(!)
I hadn't thought about canning our own dried beans. I love these cooked and could eat them every day. Slow cooking over the heat stove is good, but so are having them conveniently ready, just waiting for the jar to be opened.
Oh, and a big "yes!" to hand washing dishes! Sometimes it's a nuisance, but I definitely feel better about our lifestyle for doing them by hand.
OK. I'm on my way to go work on my own!
What a great day in the slow life! I like to pressure can beans too and keep them on hand. I have not done that for a while though and your post reminded me that I really should just go do it.
I really need to start canning beans too. I don't own a pressure canner, but ought to. I usually cook up dried beans, but have store bought cans in there just in case I want to make something and haven't prepared. That is the problem with beans. They take too long and you have to remember to make them in the morning.
There is a big part of me that wants to play devil's advocate and give you yesterday as the day I do. I wasn't feeling well. I woke up with a touch of vertigo and my stomach felt iffy. I basically ate store bought the whole day - mostly. I played on the computer and watched TV. I spent 20 minutes in my townhouse mates' new hot tub. OK I was outside making raised beds for 2 1/2 hours, but really I didn't do much in the way of a typical "slow day". I like playing devils advocate way too much (which drives my daughter crazy sometimes), but maybe I'll give you Monday as it will probably be a more "normal" day.
Never thought about canning my own beans, I have some in coffee tins - mice problem - and I just put them on to soak the night before.
Your days aren't much different than mine. Add in whatever bookwork I need to do for the farm. Errands in town - try to go only once/wk. Sept to June is swimming and scouting so we do run at night and Sat. I refuse to do any "kid stuff" in the summer. They can go out and play, ride bikes or sit around a campfire instead. We don't have other kids to play with, although family is up and down the road, my nieces and nephews are much younger than mine are.
My dishwasher is on the way out... needs a new door. Eldest sat on it. Still works for now, but if it dies before Xmas... we'll be back to washing by hand until the New Year. I am a dishwasher fan.
Leigh, I can't wait to see what you write! I'm glad I'm not the only one who likes to wash dishes.
Laura, thanks for asking me to do this, it was fun. I love having those beans on hand.
Daphne, you crack me up! You should do whatever day you want! It's about life, not perfection.
Farmwifetwo, the convenience of the beans is nice. I hope the dishwasher gets fixed for you.
I've thought about not using my dishwasher any more too but I keep loading it up. Maybe someday I'll take them back out and fill the sink up with water then use the washer as a drying rack like my Grandma did. Thanks for sharing! I need to get mine up!!
Annette, it's hard to stop using it when it still works!
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