Typical Day

I am not sure what is typical anymore. For today's Type + Writer assignment (yet another of my online classes!), we are supposed to do our free write about everything we did today. Wow, I wish I was doing this on a more interesting day.

Today is Friday. I had several things on my to do list to accomplish today and wasn't sure which ones I should, and which ones I should just put off. I did the priority system method and decided by priority which things were most important.

(I really just wanted to go to Ikea and spend money.)

But, the choice was made for me. When I dropped Ailin off at daycare, I realized that I had forgotten her bag at home! So, I would have to stop by the apartment at some point between my many other errands and try to get the bag to her BEFORE lunchtime.

(Which meant I would just have to do all those darn errands instead of going to Ikea.)

So, I went to the bank, returned some dvds to the rental store, & sent some packages from the post office. Three things checked off.

Then, I drove over to Hard Off and submitted the baby bed gate. I had been hanging on to it all this time thinking I might need it again, but since I found a better solution to the family bed issue, I no longer need it.

(Besides, we've moved to the futon in the kids' room recently.)

I had to wait 30 minutes before they would reveal to me how much they would give me for the bed gate. 160 yen! Enough to buy a coffee from a vending machine and maybe a piece of gum.

(I had just bought a coffee from a vending machine.)

Well, that was kind of a wasted trip. Then, I drove back the apartment, ran in to get Ailn's bag, ran out and drove back to the daycare.

(I was just in time!)

Finally, all my errands were done! I felt really proud of myself, and I even thought of a good solution for my Ikea craving. I would ask Yusuke to go with me and the kids during the weekend. Maybe he has an Ikea craving too!

(I did ask, and he did agree to go with me, but wanted to make sure that Ailin knows her own name just in case she gets lost in the store.)

By then, it was nearly noon. When we got home, Luka, who had been a good sleeping baby this entire time, and I took Max for a walk. Luka continued to sleep in his carrier.

(Then he woke up and wouldn't go back to sleep all afternoon.)

I still had a lot to accomplish. In between entertaining Luka, doing little household chores, and eating my lunch, I managed to make some progress on my online classes.

I finished my mini-project for the simplify 101 class, so I uploaded my photos of the "after" results, and then checked out the forum to see if there was anything new. I also started brainstorming for my next tasks regarding this class, and I went through one of the boxes from my storage room.

(In case you are curious, it is great class about organizing different areas of your household. I am working on my storage room, the kids' room & our veranda. My mini-project was my computer desk & top drawer of the filing cabinet.)



My computer desk & top drawer which is now pristine & neatly organized.

Still, the main thing was to do the lay out for the Type + Writer class. I am one day behind. I spent some time on that, and it was challenging. I learned how to do circle journaling, create a brush from a quote, and type-set a quote to make it look really cool. When I finished, I uploaded it to their gallery.


(All digital materials from the Type+Writer kit supplied in class, template created by Jessica Sprague.)

And, for my 3rd online class, a photography class, I did my creative assignment for the week. We were supposed to portray some kind of emotion through color.

(I decided to portray the emotion of "stress". Can you guess the color I chose?)


I used the following settings to create this effect. Shutter 1/125, f-stop 4.5, focal length 30.5, ISO speed 400. It is just the view from apartment and those apartment buildings and trees.

Finally, it was time to go pick up Ailin. On the way downstairs, I noticed a rainbow in the distance. When I showed Ailin the rainbow later, she kept calling it a "rainboat." That was so cute!

Gross alert:
During dinner, (we had rice, fried chicken & salad), Ailin started to do a big poopy. I took her straight to the toilet and forced her to sit on it. She did her first big poopy in the toilet. I was very happy, and so was she.

After dinner, we took a bath, got dressed & read a few bedtime stories. Luka, who had not really napped since noon, was beside himself.

We went to sleep, and I woke up about 1 hour later to continue on with my night. My first priority was to do some work for my photography class. I still had not watched this week's how-to video and needed to that. I was doing email when Yusuke came home about 20 minutes later.

(To make it seem like I was a busy bee - which I am, by the way - I took the laundry out and hung it up.)

Back inside, I dutifully sat on the couch and chatted with him even though I had a million things to do. After a while, he turned on the TV, and I took that as my cue to leave the room and go back to my projects.

I worked a little bit on each class, and then I sat down on the floor to go through another box from the storage room. Making progress there...that storage room will look really spiffy in a few weeks.

Now, here I am, doing my daily free-write. It is 2:16 am. Time to go to bed.

(But, must check my email first.)