In The Cat Cave: Monday

I mentioned to you before that I am participating in Ali Edward's Week in the Life (WITL). I love telling the stories of my day and this is right up my alley. Typically Ali will write her stories in a blog post (see here for her post) including her photos and then "scrapbook" them later. She does this on a regular basis and not just for WITL. I intend to do the same.

This is a photo heavy blogpost, like most #witl2015 posts will be, so grab those lattes and coffees.

Look closely at the photos as I've added text to most. This was something Ali did last year and it seems to be working for me at the moment. I'll see how long that lasts.

It’s Monday. And it sure feels that way. Feeling the pains from a calf injury in yesterday’s soccer game, I barely made it out of bed and into the shower. I rarely get up before the kids but I am trying to make more of an effort. I’ve been on a mission to organize and plan my days so that I am less frazzled.

Oh, sure, it’s great to plan but when you feel like you’ve been hit by a train you don’t always think to look at your planner.. until too late. It was 8:07 when I realized that I needed to be at New World Fitness to get a time pass in order to register Jane for swimming later that day. I ran into the car to get the small piece of paper.

Luck would have it that Starbucks is next door and it didn't have a line! I quickly ordered a white chocolate mocha for Ryan and a black Pike's Place for me. I ordered two bacon and one ham artisan breakfast sandwiches to feed the troops. (They were only okay, next time I'll just get bagels)

I had planned to have Jack to daycare by 8:30, me at work by 8:35 and Jane at gymnastics camp by 9:00am. Yeah. We didn’t get out of the house until 9:15am.

That’s about how it works every morning. It’s a frantic juggle of getting everyone ready, everyone fed, everyone packed. Maybe tomorrow’s plan where be a little smoother.

When I arrived at my parents house, to start my work day - my sister and her children greeted me. To help with the logistics of the day, I took my sister to get her car rental.

( if you are wondering, I used PicMonkey to create the multi-photos.)

After one of my favourite lunches of "make your own sub sandwich", I went downstairs to began the process of paying bills. I set up my Mac on the left to watch some videos online at the same time. I didn't get very far with those.

The phone never stopped today but I felt like I accomplished some items on my "to do list". Somedays the phone rings and you never get to one single item.

Ryan didn't get a work call from Canada Post today but that suited us just fine. His list was long especially after our delayed morning. He was tasked with obtaining a copy of Jane's birth certificate to be used to renew her passport. You just never know when us Caines will decide to fly off into the sunset so a current passport is a priority. He also had some pick ups like getting my rain jacket that I left at the dental office last week and filling the propane tanks. He tells me he doesn't mind. He's pretty good like that. But these tasks took all day. He arrived back at my parents' house at 4:36pm with Jane in hand. Jane loves Nanny and Poppy's house because she loves ~~snacks~~ them. [insert emoji happy face] My work day was done the minute I saw her big happy face and twinkling eyes. Ryan picked up Jack at the Gingerbread House just around the corner and we stayed for a couple minutes to eat popsicles. Then we piled in the car and went home to make steaks.

When we arrived, both Ryan and I started to get supper ready. I really wished I had picked up some Pinot Grigio today. Next time I won't forget.

The kids are always starving when we arrive home so I typically cut up fruit or vegetables. Not because I am trying for 'healthy mom of the year' but because its ready and handy. It takes nothing to cut up some mini cucumbers and wash some mini tomatoes. Both kids gobble that down quickly and ask for seconds. In my mind, if that's all they choose to eat for supper, it's okay because they are getting clean good foods in their belly.

Jack gets obsessed. And I mean obsessed over things.

Right now Jack is obsessed with:

- Team Umizomi (literally two days ago it was Paw Patrol).

- Wearing a hat

- his "blankie" or "binky"

- "milky" in a sippy cup

- his sneakers and socks

- sleeping with his trucks

Ryan turns on the BBQ and then comes in from the patio and asks if I have a table cloth. "Sure, lots." "OK, Murph is popping the question today and he is dropping down to get one."

What can I say about these two? It seems that over the past 5 years they have been separable. They are joined by the bond of soccer but they seem to have the same values. He moved just up the street and its so great. I couldn't be happier to announce that Amanda Chretien said YES even though my mind was not encouraged by his selection of red chairs and a red tablecloth for his planned romantic evening.

Jane gobbled her steak down and ate the butter off her potato but left most of her corn. Jack didn't join us at all because he was too busy watching Team Umizomi. After supper Jane wanted to go on the trampoline to show us her new trick from gymnastics camp today.

And I faced this.

(it's now Tuesday and it still looks like this. I putting playing as a priority)

Somehow Ryan convinced her to play soccer. These photos touch my heart because she has showed no interest in soccer, a sport that both Ryan and I have spent many days enjoying on and off the pitch.

Off I went to finish off the swimming registration for Jane's private lessons. I got what I wanted despite my procrastination this morning.

We read books to the kids and go in and out. And in and out. And in and out of their rooms. When they were settled around 9:30, we decide to sit down to watch the new Mission Impossible movie while I edited my photos. The only problem was that Ryan soon realized that this was the old Mission Impossible that he had already seen so I let him snore all the way through the movie. I must admit, I felt like snoring as well but I had already paid the $5.99.

I have all my photos organized digitally. I've had this system for awhile now. This system works for me. I use Dropbox so that I don't lose them when I spill water over my Mac or smash its screen. *cough. cough.* The process is simple. I slide in my SD cards and plug in my iPhone every few days. The photos go into a "Camera Uploads" folder. They stay in that folder sorted by date until I move the photos out of there and into their more permanent home. They are sorted by year and month. I keep my creative work separate. I am treating WITL no different. Dropbox doesn't duplicate so I don't move the same photos out over and over. I also leave all the photos on the SD cards. I toss them in a bin as a third backup.

Here's how my WITL set up looks like: