A Day in the Life: November

Saturday, November 30, 2024

5a 
Kissed B goodbye as he headed off into the woods on the first day of rifle season. I was snug as a bug in a rug heated blanket, so I closed my eyes and went back to sleep for awhile. 

7:00a-8:30a
I got up and dressed for the day, got the bed made and sorted through one hamper worth of clean clothes until I was in real need of a warm drink to start the day. 

I drank two cups of coffee, made some Christmas gift purchases and added a few things to my Amazon cart that I am considering. I peeked in on Grey around 8a to make sure he was moving around.  

I did some morning prep work: emptied the dishwasher, got the laundry started, and cleared off the kitchen counters and kitchen table. 

Then, I remembered with a flash of panic that it was 11/30 and our elf was due to arrive today! I took the necessary steps for that. 

8:45a -9:00a
Time for Grey to go to basketball practice, so we bundled up and shivered our way to the school. 

After dropping him off, I stopped at Dollar General to pick up milk, candy canes, and marshmallows (for hot chocolates today!) I also got some candy that I will pack away for St Nicholas day shoes on 12/06! 

9:00a - 11:25a
Back at home and 4 kids awake and had already found Marco in his 'charging box' hanging on the front door! Happy kids and Marco already got a lot of snuggles (and has been fought over several times)

I sat for a little while with my coffee, my planner, and my Holly Jolly calendar to get myself focused and organized while the kids played in the living room.

Morning chores: emptying the dishwasher, starting the laundry cycle, feeding and cleaning Queen Barb's cage, Breakfast making/ serving / cleaning up, feeding Bullet. All four wanted hot chocolates, so they had a little drink date around the kitchen table giggling and getting sticky marshmallows and candy canes all over themselves and the table. yeesh. 

Then it was more laundry sorting, saying Good morning to sleeping beauty (aka Gemma) who finally woke up and made herself eggs. She is a beauty inside and out though because she carried the Christmas tree down from the attic and set it all up by herself (bless her!) 

11:30a - 12:30p
Time to pick up Grey from practice again and it's still flipping freezing outside (20 degrees and windy). He came out of practice pretty gassed (they had to run 17s today) but cheerful because his cousin Reid had texted to say he got a deer. He came home to shower while I started grilled cheese sammies and broccoli cheese soup (cheat bag mix from Progressive). 

Pappy arrived to take Grey to the woods with the rest of the cousins and uncles. I got everyone fed and Grey was bundled all the way up and I kissed him goodbye - I won't see him again until dark now. 

12:30p - 2p
Not a great day for technology in our house...I sat on support chat with Samsung for 30 minutes trying to figure out how to get our brand new (yesterday!!) tv to stop giving the error message "Smart Hub is updating. Please try again later" with no luck. 

Rusty and Violet did the farm animals (let chickens out, feed chickens, collect eggs, warm water to the goats, Osa, and the chickens, feed Osa). They came up frozen popsicles because despite me telling them several times to dress properly - you know they just threw on random shoes and unzipped coats and no gloves (!??!) and just got it over with. Ugh. thankful they did it, but always a production over here, I swear.

I took a break from tech annoyance and separated the Christmas tree branches while Olive played with the dollhouse, Violet finished assembling our Lego version of a Nativity set, and the rest of the kids watched Cinderella (the musical / Camila Cabello version) in the den. 

I got a call from B that he shot a buck and was tracking it down! 

Violet's new curl products arrived today so she hopped in the shower and then she and I tried them out to see if we can figure her hair texture out. We watched a couple videos to figure out the order and the hand motions and I was happy to get some one-on-one time with just her laughing about the whole process.

Then, I was trying to carry too many things up the steps and I dropped my phone on the tile floor face plate down (?!) and the screen went black. Still vibrating and pinging, but can't see anything. COME.ON. 

photo cred: B!

2p - 5p
I curled Gemma's hair in the heatless curl wrap and got Olive snuggled up for a nap. Then switched the laundry again and talked Violet through disappointment that her hair wasn't giant curls like the girls in the videos (it was our first time trying it, we can try again using different order or method, you probably need to try more than once - this is not a scenario that requires tears or frustration - we are just trying something new and it didn't go like we hoped. No big deal). 

Tried restarting my blacked out phone (no luck), so I emailed Brandon to let him know my phone was not a textable option and he'd have to email me. 

Tried out resetting the network on the tv to see if that would work and I got a new error message of crazy coding. I typed that into google but it didn't help so I sat  on support chat again with the Samsung people to see if the TV can get working again. While I waited for my turn (I started out as 22nd person in line). I did some blogging, trashed email, checked the hours for our local cell phone repair man. Violet and I got started on stuffing and addressing Christmas cards until it was finally my turn in line.

After a lot of back and forth through support chat and trying a million different things, I got a download of an updated version that I needed to save to a USB drive (?! had to go find that, but couldn't, but I did find an external hard drive so that worked) downloaded the software update, unzipped it, saved it to the drive, hooked the drive up to the tv, ran it for updates, and....nothing. oh man, so disappointing and frustrating. 

5p - 5:45p
Started dinner, we had baked ravioli tonight, but I snacked on leftover shrimp from Thanksgiving appetizer (thanks Uch & Kev!) While I started dinner, I also loaded up the dishwasher and started a quick wash. Violet continued stuffing Christmas card envelopes and the other three kids played hide and seek with Marco too! 

Gemma got picked up by Peyton to go see Wicked! I sent Peyty off with her family's Christmas card to save on postage (hah) Thanks for taking Gemma Lasure family! 

5:45p - 7:45p
The fellas returned from the woods with three deer! Daddy got a 7 point, Grey shot a spike, and cousin Reid snagged a doe. All the camo'ed boys got to work setting up the garage to be the skinning and butcher shop over the next few days. Uncle Ray, Pappy, B, Grey, Cousin Ray, Reid, and Rowan worked while me and the kids peeked in on them (but honestly, it's too cold down there for us, hah!)

While the boys were working away in the garage, I finished dinner and switched the laundry again. A new 3 loads awaited to be sorted so I quickly sorted and put away clothes from that. 

Violet took orders from the workshop fellas (3 coffees, 2 hot chocolates, and 2 raviolis). The little kids ate and I reheated my fourth cup of coffee (don't judge me, hahah). While the kids were eating, I made a double batch of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. 

photo cred: Pappy

7:45p - 8:30p
I got to hang out with Grey, B, and Pappy listening to their day of hunting stories and finishing the cookies. Grey and B got showers so they could go get wings at the Tollgate with the Gilmore cousins which is an annual tradition after the first day of rifle. 

I cleaned up the kitchen and talked the littlest two into staying home with me instead of going for wings (because no way would they be pleasant at that hour). So I promised them watching The Grinch in my bed together which was a good deal for them. 

Grey took warm water down to the goats and Osa, B cleaned out the cast iron skillet, and Pappy was subjected to hearing about our "Christmas socks" from Olive (aka stockings, hah). 

I sat and read in the chair that holds the oven door totally shut so the cookies could finish (lol, big families get it). I was interrupted a million times obviously, but it was nice to get in a few pages in the moments between kids coming in to take cookies and ramble on about random thoughts in their mind. 

8:30p - 9:15p
B, Grey, Violet, and Rusty all went to Tollgate for wings with the Gilmore cousins. Gem was still at at the movies. I got the cookies all finished and packed up and then took Red and Olive up to my room to watch the Grinch. And honest to goodness - no joke on technological difficulties today because our Roku remote was not pairing and usually when that happens we just use my phone as the remote...but my phone is black screen!? Laugh so you don't cry. 

But we are problem solvers around here, so I pulled up the Grinch on the laptop instead and the kids were good with that while the three of us snuggled up and they watched the Grinch and I honestly tried to keep my eyes open, but LOL, couldn't.

9:15p - 10p
Gemma got home from Wicked and we had a whole debrief about it in the kitchen. (She loved it) and we talked about her favorite parts and although I haven't seen it, I did read the book (probably 20-some years ago now) so I mentioned parts that I remembered about the book too. Then she played a few of the songs on Echo for me to listen to them while she sang and danced around the kitchen until we both decided enough show tunes for the night and it was time to get into bed. 

10p-10:15p
I went back upstairs and since Reddy was zonked out in our bed, I moved him to his own bed. Olive was still awake because she is a little night owl (like Rusty!) and I just laid down next to her still tossing and turning. I gave her a little hand massage and squeezed her arms and legs in some medium pressure (that always helps her relax) and then I drifted off to sleep myself. 

10:15p
B woke me back up for a kiss goodnight when everyone got home from Tollgate wings but then immediately falling back asleep like the granny that I am. 

*any photos taken after my phone broke are from B's phone that I borrowed after he got home from hunting just for this post! hahaha, dedication!