A Day in the Life of Jen

Here we are at another week of the A Day in the Life series! The series is meant to give us a glimpse into each others' lives... the parts we might not normally show or might not fit the 'theme' of our blogs. It's also meant to help us get to know each other even more, to inspire us, and to let us know that life isn't quite as glamorous as blogs make them out to be :). This week we have Jen from Meditatio  with her life on a Thursday.  Leave it to me to pull two totally random things out of the post amongst all the amazingness of this supermom, but Jen is a girl after my own heart because 1) her cat is named multiple times in the first paragrahph 2) she has a LOT of cats, of which I am jealous and 3) she puts jammies on as soon as she gets home, which is a rule I follow strictly. That makes her a rockstar in my book. Without further ado... a Thursday in the life of Jen! 

I wake up at 7:10 to the sound of Daniel pounding on the windows in the bedroom. I fell asleep in the recliner again last night listening to podcasts so I didn't make it into the bedroom. My house panther Edda meows at me to signal her intense displeasure at him being set loose in the living room. Jon takes Daniel to get his diaper changed and brings him to me in the living room, taking my laptop and glasses to put up in a safe place. It isn't five minutes before Daniel decides to unzip his sleeper and take his diaper off so I rouse myself and take him back to the nursery to change into his clothes for the day which are harder for him to take off. I snuggle him on my lap and we watch some cartoons together on Qubo (how I miss PBS!) before he decides to do other things. Edda takes that opportunity to curl back up on my lap and I have her curled up with me until Daniel decides he wants his Cheerios and Jon puts him back in my lap with his snack cup, making Edda vacate. Edda stews from the couch as Daniel occupies my lap while he eats. He goes off to trash other parts of the living room and Edda jumps back on me, settling on my chest. I remind her that I'm allergic to her and she looks at me as to ask why this is her problem. While Jon plays with Daniel and Edda purrs, I attempt to block out the TV and Jon trying to talk to me and pray about my day. Jon dresses and heads for the church a few minutes later.

Freya and Edda

At 8:30, I go into the kitchen and open my laptop after praying that our new Internet peeps would get our modem back to us today. (I've been without Internet since 3:30 on the 29th.) I look in the refrigerator for some kind of leftovers (I hate normal breakfast food) and see nothing. I do see that we have milk so I grab a packet of instant breakfast out of the cupboard and make myself that, hoping that it will last me long enough to drive to Elk Grove to get my meds. I speed-dial Walgreens and try to get through to the pharmacy but they're having phone problems. Great. I take what meds I have and drink my instant breakfast, calling Walgreens back when I'm done. Apparently, they have an overflow of calls and the person who answers at the register tells me to call back. While I wait, I realize that Jon has my paper copy of Our Daily Bread (the devotional I use) and I can't get to the online version because I don't have Internet. I climb back over the baby gate into the living room and grab my NOOK off of a shelf so I can read a Psalm or two. I note that the Bible on there (the Women's Devotional Bible) has daily devotions. Sweet! The devotion is on Joshua 4:1-7 and talks about memorial stones in our lives, tying it to the passage. Given my history with March 1st, it's not something I want to hear but oh well. (Entries for that day are here, here, and here.) I read the devotion and Joshua 4 and then pray over it before trying to call Walgreens back.

Jen's handful of pills

I finally get through to Walgreens, get my scripts ordered, and go toss on clothes so Daniel and I can run up there. While I'm getting dressed, I call River City Pharmacy (the home health care place that handles Daniel's Pediasure) and leave a message with the nutrition person to get a delivery of it. After getting dressed, I pull my hair back, get glasses on (no contacts for me!), and get shoes and socks on Daniel so we can head out the door. We hit up the library to drop off a book before heading up highway 99 to Elk Grove. While there, we hit up Walgreens for my meds (thank God for insurance that is actually functioning well!) and Trader Joe's to get ingredients for the pasta salad I promised to make for the funeral at the church tomorrow. (The family asked us to supply some salads and bread so I offered to make a pasta salad.) I grab a Coke at Carl's Jr and head back to my town, stopping at the grocery store for a couple things. When I walk in the door, there's a message from tech support at my new internet provider letting me know that the AT&T modem/router would not work for their service and that I needed to purchase a new modem. Biting back several curse words, I call the church and talk to our financial secretary (who is also our office administrator) and get permission for the new IP to bill the church credit card for the modem. He gives me permission so I call them back and stick Daniel back in the car to head over to their office. Jon accompanies me and chases Daniel while I talked to the tech people. We finally get home and off-load the groceries and everything else.

Daniel being a toga boy

Back home, I change back into jammies and stick Daniel into the pack n'play while I clean things up and try to make the living room look like a 2 year old doesn't regularly trash it. When I finished, I stuck him in the highchair and let him eat cheese shreds and graham crackers while I fought with AT&T regarding internet things. J, Daniel's occupational therapist comes at 1 while I'm on the phone with AT&T and works with him for an hour. Upon hooking everything up, I get an email message from my mother-in-law telling me that she has volunteered me to write some devotions on the Book of Acts for a devotional that one of her friends is putting out. I call her to get clarification on what I'm supposed to do and catch the last 5 minutes of Daniel's session. After J leaves, I change him and get some Pediasure for him which reminds me that I haven't had anything solid today. Rats. The fast food angel and devil appear on my shoulder and the devil tells me to go get some Carl's Jr. The angel reminds me that I was already out today and the devil answers back that I gave the sandwich I had gotten for lunch to a homeless person and Carl's Jr has a drive-thru so I don't have to change out of my pajama bottoms. The devil wins that one and I grab Daniel to head back out. Once home again, I put Winnie the Pooh on the DVD player and ask him nicely to consider going down for a nap. I sit back down at my laptop and bring up the Our Daily Bread website to read the day's devotion. It's on Joshua 9 and exhorts me to be careful of who I trust and to seek Godly counsel. I do the rest of my Interet things while I listen to Winnie the Pooh and Daniel taking apart furniture in the living room.

Daniel working with his occupational therapist

Jon gets home at 4:15 and realizes that he has not deposited his paycheck. I offer to do it if he'll stay home with Daniel (who is still not asleep at this point) and exchange my pajama bottoms for jeans. I drive to the bank, take care of the deposit (splitting between two accounts), and come home where I put on my jammies again and retreat to the bedroom to listen to some music. (It's St. David's Day so Unapologetically Episcopalian is featuring Welsh music.) This serves as a chance to actually do some praying for people in my life who are sick as well as about my Bible reading today. After praying, I transfer my posting drafts over to my server and schedule my Quick Takes to post at 10 p.m. PST. I then work on a Lenten piece for Friday until "The Big Bang Theory" comes on. Edda and her sister Freya join me. (I do actually have two more cats [my boys Finian and Cullen] but they haven't been around today.) It's a re-run (and a crappy one at that) so I switch over to "Judge Judy". During a commercial break, I start Daniel's bath and Jon bathes him. "Winter Wipeout" comes on at 8 and is one of the highlights of my week. During it, Daniel has a tantrum when we re-dress him and winds himself up so much he throws up. I fetch clean jammies for him from the wash house while Jon bathes him again. Additionally, I wet-jet the floor and clean the carpet. I also start putting my pasta salad together for tomorrow by boiling water, cooking/draining the pasta, pouring a jar of bruchetta sauce over it as well as a container of feta, and then tossing it. I reserve some for dinner tonight and stick the rest in the refrigerator so that the flavors can set overnight.

Jen's pajama bottoms, which are made of win

At 9:00, Jon takes Daniel to the bedroom for storytime, prayers, and his goodnight song. This is when I am able to get a lot of writing done. After showering and having a little of the pasta salad for dinner, I work on my Lenten piece for Friday some more and get it scheduled to post at 8:00 a.m. PST. At 10:00, I start refreshing Conversiondiary.Com to see if Jen has her Quick Takes up yet. I end up being #2. (Emily beat me by a split second.) I surf some more while watching She-Ra and turn the TV off at 11. I'm getting sleepy so I put a podcast on and before midnight, I'm drifting off to sleep to the sound of Capt. Jeff of Airline Pilot Guy discussing aviation.

Jen is a Lutheran pastor's wife living in northern California with her husband Jon, son Daniel, and four very spoiled cats. She is not quite sure when she lost her mind, but blogging at ::Meditatio:: seems to help. When she isn't being a mom or herding cats, she reads voraciously and is active with the Promise Walk and preeclampsia awareness. She also loves crocheting and cooking but can't seem to find the time (or counter space) to do either right now.