A Day in the Life at N's - Tuesday the 12th

Davan and I had fun with the last day in the life, so we decided to do one periodically (but not too often because it's very time consuming!). This is, again, long and picture filled, even more so than the last one. You've been warned.

I got up at 7:00 and got ready for a bike ride. It wasn't quite light yet:


I didn't take the camera with me, but my ride made me with I had a smaller camera that would have fit well into my jersey pocket because it was really pretty. I rode up to Crown Point, which has a great view of the Gorge. It was extra pretty because of the early morning light. Riding during the sunrise was great. I did 20 miles, finishing when it was light, at 9:20, even though I was supposed to be home for chores at 9:00 - opps:

I came in the house to find Davan doing this:
She, somehow, injured her back. It was sore for nearly a week, but not so much so that she was in real pain, but then she was jumping rope Sunday evening and that seemed to tip things over. It's been quite painful. So, for her workout, she stretched some, then lay down on the heating pad with her legs up on the couch and a book.

Still, mean mom that I am, I made her participate in chores.

I did tell her to take her time and pick the ones she thought would be easiest. Plus, we shortened chore time because of my late return. Anyway, as you can see, she wasn't too upset about it:
Chores culminate in breakfast at our house, which took place about 10:00. I had steel cut oats with a mashed banana and blueberries plus tea:
while I did a wee bit of hanging on the computer.

Davan had a pancake almond butter and fruit spread sandwich with a clementine and an apple plus tea, as well:
The cloudy shot glass is an indication of how sore her back is. Davan won't usually take any pain meds because she can't swallow pills and hates the taste of chewables. However, this time, she was willing. What we did instead of chewables was cut open a liquid capsule and mix it with a little water, which she drinks as fast as possible, always following up with water (or tea) and something better tasting. You'll be happy to know that she only took a total of four doses over two days and, today, is feeling better enough that she's not doing ibuprofen any longer.

Because of her back, Davan didn't multitask as much as usual and just listened to a book on tape while eating.

After breakfast, Davan headed to the shower:
While I headed back to the kitchen:
Due to the afternoon schedule, I needed to pack dinner. In this go, I worked on salad:

I also started a lunch tray for Davan while I was chopping. The first tupperware type container is Davan's dinner salad of a mix of romain and red leaf lettuce, sliced cucumbers, 1/2 an apple and some carrot sticks. She doesn't like her salads mixed up. My container has the same salad mix, but more of it, red onions and a half a chopped apple. The glass jar on the side is my dressing - a homemade mustard/balsamic vinegar deal. On the plate is Anthony's because he would be eating his at home, and is lettuce, red onion and carrot. Then there is a produce bag with the leftover lettuce, which I'll use for my salad for lunch today. I also put a half a cucumber in the blender for my lunch green drink. And the compost container is full, over in the corner.

Davan, done with her shower and having self braided her hair, opted to do some drawing. She, first, collected her displayed drawings because she wanted to work with the same character:

Then she got up on her bed to draw, with Cinnamon for company:

How she can draw sitting on her bed with a sore back is beyond me, but I did notice she was sitting up much straighter than she usually does.

I went off to take my shower:
Give Licorice a pet:
Notice Pearl up on top of the cat structure that Anthony built:
And get back into the kitchen to keep working on dinner:
To go with our salads (all packed up in the background), I was making sweet potato hash with mostly prebaked sweet potatoes that I'd put in the toaster oven during morning chores, a large onion, garlic, a bag of frozen corn, Bragg's and some pepper. When I'm making it for just Davan and I and have one around, I put in a bell pepper, too.

While I was periodically stirring the hash, I checked on Davan, who was still happily drawing and listening to her book on tape, of course:
And also worked on lunch. This was Davan's:
We used to do lunch like this often, but had gotten out of the habit, until I was reminded of the joys of sectional eating for kids, especially, by Green and Crunchy. Davan loves eating this way. The muffin containers, from top to bottom, left to right, contain: carrot sticks, sliced cucumber, lettuce, frozen corn, a clementine, grape tomatoes, leftover short grain brown rice from sushi night, Mrs. Dash seasoned pinto and red beans, sliced baby bella mushrooms, unsweetened dried cherries, orange essence prunes and leftover apples and steel cut oats mixed with a spoon of raw almond butter.

Davan was delighted to see her tray show up and continued to draw as she nibbled:
She showed me a new character while I was there:


My lunch started with a green drink:
Yesterday's drink was made up of a half a cucumber (which I didn't love with the rest of the drink and would eat on the side in the future with this combo), plenty of spinach, a banana and 1/2 cup blueberries plus a little water. After blending, it looked like this:
Meanwhile, the hash was done:
and this was our dinner. There was more hash in the fridge earmarked for Anthony's dinner and, in another container, his lunch for today.

While I drank my green drink, I was also gathering things, getting ready to go out. I use a crate when I'm taking a lot:

In this crate is dinner, including waters for each of us, the book I'm currently reading, my journal that I keep with my best friend, my mp3 player, three DVDs to return to the library, another book in case I finished the one I'm reading, a book for each of the two book groups we're going to, my hat, gloves and raincoat (I was wearing a jacket, but there was the possibility of rain).

I got the rest of my lunch dished up and warmed up:
but didn't get to eat it until we were on the road. This week's TexMex is hulled barley, pinto and red beans, kale, corn, tomato sauce, chili powder, pinch of cayenne pepper and nutritional yeast. I'm not liking the barley as much as the wheat kernels, but it's okay.

We got on coats and shoes:


hopped in the car:
and headed to the library for homeschool book group:
where there were people other than Davan and I, but I didn't want to include other people's kids without approval.

We participate in two different book groups on the third Tuesday of every month. One group is for 7-11 (or so) year olds and the other is for 12-18 (or so) year olds. We discussed Mogo, the Third Warthog in the younger group and The Naming in the older group.

Then, it was back in the car, heading to the Sunnyside location of Do Jump for the preschool class Davan helps with. We were in a rush, so she changed in the car:

Also because of the rush, I didn't get a picture of her going in. But here I am, about to go for a walk while Davan is teaching:
Along my walk, I went past this intersection, which is always fun:
stopped by the Sunnyside park to do my pull ups for the day:
and strolled through Laurelhurst Park:

The time came to collect Davan. Here she is, coming out amidst all the little folk:
We moved the van over to near the Echo Theater location of Do Jump and, because it was a relatively temperate evening (otherwise we buy a small supplement to the meal and eat at Fred Meyer's), we sat together in the van to eat:


Davan thought she looked sad, so we took another picture. I decided to keep the original just so you'd know that she doesn't always (very often, though) go around smiling:

After dinner, during which we talked about the preschoolers and the book I'm reading, Davan entered the Echo Theater for Zig Zags:

She told her instructors that she had a sore back and might not be able to do everything, but it turned out that, shortly into their stretching, there was a black out that lasted until class was over, so they mostly just talked about their show, which was something they needed to do, too. That worked out well for Davan!

Meanwhile, I walked the 1/2 mile or so to the library, where I got online for a bit. It's where I posted my blog entry from last night:
I also got in a little reading before going back to the Echo Theater to discover the blackout. Davan always spends the couple block walk to the van and part of the ride home talking animatedly about how Zig Zags went:
The rest of the car ride, we listen to our audio book.

Back at the homestead, Anthony had dinner with his dad. I'd forgotten it was his Dad's night to come over for dinner when I'd prepared food earlier. However, with the extra prepared lettuce, I figured they'd be okay with that and the hash. It turned out, though, that Anthony had opted to go with TexMex instead. I guess he felt there was more of that available. Or that it was better guest food than hash? I dunno. No big deal, though, really. Other than I'll have to make another batch sooner rather than later.

My FIL had left our Christmas gifts:

which Anthony and Davan opened immediately. The visa gift cards will be used.

This is what the crate looked like upon coming home (that's Pearl there, very interested):

It's different books (we're doing picture books for next month's younger book group) and empty food containers, mostly.

After changing into her footie pjs, Davan became interested in some mail that Anthony was looking over and the two of them had quite a discussion about politics (two party systems, unions, health care) while pursing the, what I'd have thought of as, junk mail:

I was feeling pretty hungry, so I whipped up some blueberry/banana soft serve (just frozen blueberries and bananas with a little water in the Vitamix - fruit only, so it's in keeping with my January challenge):

Davan was very happy to take her first spoonful:

By the time we were done, 8:30 was upon us and we all went off to brush our teeth:
Snuggle on the couch while Anthony read out of the family book (Oscar, too!):


and then Davan and I read each our own books for about a half an hour. Our last activity of the day was to cuddle together with the lights out, listening to soft music and relaxing before crawling in bed and waiting for sleep.