A Day in My Life

The Middle School Language Arts class I work with, just recently finished reading The Fighting Ground, by Avi. The book follows a 13 year old boy, hour by hour, from the time he and his father start hearing the bell that calls the Revolutionary War Minutemen to assemble. The style in which the book is written (each section starting with a time of day), inspired the teacher to assign the children to write about their own day in that way, like an hour by hour diary. I've done this several times in the past, but it's been quite awhile, so I decided to do this project, too.

Here is Monday, March 9, 2009 (a typical weekday for this semester):


12:10 a.m. - I can't get to sleep. DH is sitting next to me on the bed, using the laptop computer, with the t.v. turned on, although the volume is turned down. The theme music from Madmen got my attention and now I am half listening to what is going on in the show, but I'm trying not to open my eyes anymore.


3:45 a.m. - I sit up in bed with a terrible pinching pain in the center of my rib cage. I get out of bed for awhile to move around and stretch.

4:10 a.m. - I return to bed. DH is thrashing around and says he can't sleep.

5:45 a.m. - The alarm goes off and I hit the snooze bar. DH gets up to use the bathroom, so five minutes later, when I do get up, I get a hug as he heads back to bed.

6:20 a.m. - I am now showered and dressed.

6:30 a.m. - I turn on the laptop computer and start trying to wake Nika up.

6:40 a.m. - I set up the coffee maker and turn it on, then tell Nika again that it's time to get up to go to school.
I check my blog to see that my entry for this morning has posted o.k. and doesn't need any editing (I wrote it last night, just before going to bed and scheduled it to post in the morning).

6:50 a.m. - Yet again, I tell Nika it's time to get up.
I put two slices of Rye bread in the toaster and start a cup of water boiling on the stove (I have an on-going project, making a Jello rainbow, so the water is to make orange Jello).

7:00a.m. - I make my last attempt to wake Nika. She missed school all last week and it looks like she's not going today, either..
I sit down to have my toast and coffee. The orange layer of Jello is done, so all that's left is the red layer.

7:30 a.m. - I take my last swallow of coffee, turn off the computer, and put on my jacket. It's time to leave for work.

7:35a.m.- The time change means it is just now sunrise. A bat circles overhead as I walk to the car and the clouds are a pretty pink color.

8:00 a.m.- I do tutoring for a group of sixth graders from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m.. There are supposed to be four of them, but this morning only one boy is there. We work on editing the vocabulary sentences he wrote last week. Then he does two vocabulary worksheets, labeling the parts of a book.

8:30 a.m. - The next boy comes in and is given the book labeling worksheets. I explain copywrite law to the boys and then start helping the late-comer with his vocabulary sentences, while the other boy, who is now finished with his work, wanders aimlessly around the room.

8:50 a.m. - Another of my students wanders in, but she only has time to do one of the worksheets.

9:00 a.m. - There is a five minute break before the next class starts.

9:05 a.m. - The Sixth and Seventh Grade Reading class begins (I am the teacher's aid) . I take attendance and find the spot on the story CD of A Wrinkle in Time, where we left off last week, and start it playing, so the kids can listen.

9:15 a.m. The teacher motions for me to come up to her desk and I am given a fill-in the blanks quiz on The Rime of the Ancient Mariner that she needs copies of for her Eighth grade class. It also needs a word bank, so the children will know what words she's looking for, so I head over to the high school to type up the word bank and make copies.

9:45 a.m. - Sitting back in my corner of the classroom, listening to the CD, I decide to use this time to balance my checkbook, but I can't find it in my purse. I have gone through my purse three times. Now, I am worried.
(My morning are slightly different on Tuesdays and Thursdays, because on those days I stay for writing class at 10:00)

10:00 a.m. I turn off the CD player and it is time to head home.

10:20 a.m. - I have arrived back home and checked through the car for the missing checkbook.

10:25 a.m. - I find the checkbook in the apartment.

10:30 a.m. - DH had given Blaze his medicine, but then Blaze had gone back to sleep. I bounce on his bed until he wakes up. Then I read aloud The Burning of Washington, by R. Conrad Stein, it is today's history lesson and is exciting enough to get Blaze's attention , so he stays awake.

11:00 a.m. - I get Blaze his vitamins, a bowl of strawberry yogurt, and some dry life cereal for breakfast. While he eats, we watch the lesson 10 video for Math-U-See Alpha .

11:30 a.m. - I help Blaze do a page of math and then I check my blog.

12:05 p.m. - I call the pharmacy to place a refill order for Blaze's anti-seizure medicine.

12:10 p.m. - Get out clothes for Blaze and make sure he gets dressed.

12:15 p.m.- I make the red Jello. DH is sitting at the table working on drawing T-shirt designs. Nika is watching cartoons on t.v.

12:28 p.m.- I listen to Blaze read Pop Fox, one of the books from Hooked on Phonics.

12:45 p.m.- I quickly eat pepperoni, cheese, and crackers for lunch, while sitting in the tiny wooden child's chair in our kitchen.

1:05 p.m. - Left to go pick up Blaze's meds from the hospital pharmacy.

1:20 p.m. - I drop the bottle of pills off at home. Blaze is watching the end of The Backyardigans on t.v., so I tell him to turn off the t.v. and go outside to play. He says he is going out to the volleyball court to dig a hole. I ask him if he is going to dig a hole all the way to china and he says no, he is going to dig one all the way to Ula (his sister) in Minnesota.

1:30p.m.- Back in the car, headed back to work. I tutor two boy in the afternoon on Mondays and Wednesdays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Blaze has occupational therapy and speech in the afternoon..

1:50 p.m. - I arrive back at the school with ten minutes to spare, so I fill out my time sheet for this month, thus far.

2:00 p.m. - I hunt down my first tutoring victim and take him off to the elementary library to work.

3:00 p.m. - I'm done with Andrew's tutoring, so I sit down on the steps of the High School stage to watch two of the sixth grade boys play ping pong, while waiting for James, my next tutoring student to get out of art class.

4:12 p.m. After helping James with his travel brochure to Dr. Evil's Secret Volcanic Island (The English Assignment is to write a travel brochure for any place) for an hour, I am ready to head home.

4:26 p.m. - I stop to pick up the mail.

4:30 p.m. - I'm home.

4:45 p.m. - Blaze and I go to the garden to water it and pick snow peas, carrots, and parsley. I do a little weeding, while Blaze plays with a bamboo stick .

5:05 p.m. - I wash the parsley and use it to make sauce for our dinner.

5:20 p.m. - I play on the internet, looking at all the Unplugged Challenge entries for this week and add my own entry to the links.

5:55 p.m. - I go to the kitchen to prepare dinner.

6:20 p.m. - serve dinner

7:00 p.m.- Blaze and I listen to the first three songs on the new Dan Zanes album Blaze got at yesterday's concert.

7:10 p.m. - I leave by myself to go to the library. Most of what I'm returning is over due by a week or more.

8:42 p.m. - I leave the library with almost more books than I can carry, all of them for Blaze.
The man leaving the library behind me is talking to himself in a rather animated way.

8:50 p.m. - arrive home.

9:10 p.m. - I have Blaze get ready for bed, while we listen to more of the Dan Zanes CD. Blaze had waited until I got back to hear the rest of it.

9:40 p.m. - I make microwave popcorn for the show Blaze says he wants to put on using his View Master Projector.

9:56 p.m. - Blaze starts complaining about a headache. DH gives him his medication and some children's Tylenol, because his head feels hot when I touch it.

10:10 p.m. - Blaze is laying down with his head on my lap, but he's writhing in pain, holding his head. He complains that the light hurts him, so we turn out the light.

10:20 p.m. - We have move Blaze to his own bed, with a mixing bowl next to him incase he throws up.

10:30 p.m. - Blaze throws up into the mixing bowl. I clean out the bowl and place it next to him again, but he's acting healthier since vomiting.

11:49 p.m. - DH is sitting on the bed next to me using the laptop computer and watching t.v. at the same time, but I decide to go to sleep.