Today the 30-day blog challenge is to describe a typical day from my life.
I do not have typical days.
The best and the worst thing about being self-employed in three different fields–karate, wellness, writing–while also homeschooling a teenager is that no two consecutive days will be alike. Toss in a sister who works as a flight attendant while parenting my little nephews, parents who love to spend time with extended family, and two crazy-sweet dogs, and it is guaranteed days will be interesting in the ancient proverb sense.
Let’s take today, for instance.
Up at eight in the morn (because I suck at early rising) to get laundry rolling and hoe the garden before it gets to muggy. By nine, the garden has been weeded, laundry is well underway, breakfast has been eaten by human and canine residents, and I’ve settled in to answer wellness emails while the Son works through his assignments in algebra and economics. We talk about Doctor Who somewhere in there. At a few minutes after eleven, the Son and I head out the door, with the Son driving. (We’re trying to figure out how to get the time for his driving test in before the end of the month.)
The Son sees his econ/algebra teacher for two hours. In that time, I run to the printing shop to pick up karate-related stuff, then see a karate student at his own factory to provide a private lesson on kata and kicks. We finish ten minutes late, which means I barely make it back to the teacher’s office in time. But the teacher is also running late, so all’s good. I return phone calls while I wait: a client looking for info on digestive enzymes, the mechanic trying to schedule what might be an all-day job for my car, someone seeking information on karate classes.
By the time we return home, it’s a little after two. The dogs dance on their back legs as if we’ve been gone forever and threatened to never return. Fortunately, the Lab didn’t find any unattended food items to devour, and the Bull-Boxer-Rotty didn’t tear up anything in his crate, so their greetings were well-received. We indulge in many minutes of playing with the dogs because it makes the entire day better for all involved.
Then came the midday ninety minutes with the Son, when we make something quick and easy for lunch before sitting down to watch one of the nighttime shows we record to watch together. Today was the most recent episode of Falling Skies. I ate a Sloppy Joe and salad. The Son had the Moo Shu left over from last night and a banana.
After the show, we chatted for a bit before the Son had to start his government assignment and I had to be out the door. I reached the dojo just five minutes ahead of both my instructor and my sparring partner. Fifteen minutes of kata work and forty-five minutes of sparring followed. Less than five minutes after the end of practice, I bowed beginning students on the mat for the first class of the evening. Four hours later, around nine, I bowed my last students off the mat. In between, I taught some students a new kata, others a new throw, then worked as both teacher and uki for an hour of multiple-attacker self-defense.
Upon arriving home, a shower–quick and cold–was the second order of business. The first was to hug the Son. Since the Son is working on a Minecraft something or other video and chatting with his international friends, I am left to my own devices: more answering of email, petting the crazy sweet dogs, and writing this post. By eleven, I’ll be settled enough to get some fiction in before my eyes begin to cross. By midnight, I’ll curl up in bed with my yet-nameless Kindle, and read until I fall asleep somewhere around one in the morn.
And that’s about as typical as it gets around here. Tomorrow I’ll teach karate again in the evening, and the Son and I will still spend our midday time together, but everything else will be different.
That midday time is most precious to me. Because the Son and I both often work evenings, we can’t have dinner together very often. Instead, lunch is our time.
Blair MacGregor 