Wednesday 25 January 2017

A day in the life

You know what one of my all-time-favourite marriage rituals is?
Listening to Rich, talking on the phone to our friends. 
He's very fond of talking on the phone, which makes him the polar opposite to me. I despise the phone. 90% of all phone calls that I happen to be around for are screened (i.e., not answered. It takes a very special, extraordinarily brave day for me to answer a ringing phone.).
However, I absolutely love listening to Rich talking on the phone. 

Despite having a very open and loving relationship, I never know 100% how he feels until I hear him talking to his family and friends on the phone.  
That's where he fully opens up, and tells them how he feels about his current situation. 

For the last two months, all he has been talking about is how fricking happy he is that we moved, and how much he loves our new home. 

I couldn't agree more. 

Since my last day in the life post happened about eight months ago when we still lived at our old place, I thought it's high time to give you a peek into my new routine. I'm not yet working at the hospital, so it's all about me-, Richard-, and animal-time!


I wake up at 7:30 every morning. My first act upon opening my eyes is reaching for my phone and checking what I missed throughout the night (I can't help it). After 10 minutes or so, I get up and make coffee. While the coffee is brewing, I go to the bathroom, and then check the temperature outside. Living on a farm, that's a vital ritual that we perform daily, to gauge how the day will unfold. 

Once the coffee is ready, I sit down on my desk. 
I absolutely LOVE this time of day. Even if I'm working, I always make enough time before work to have at least half an hour to drink my coffee in peace while reading my favourite websites, check my emails, and maybe even squeeze in a short blog post. 

If I have no work, that's the time where I get most of my writing done. 
I'm most productive in the morning, and my best writing time is usually between 8 and 10 am. 

I made myself an inspiration-wall next to my desk that's supposed to keep me motivated. 

The window frame on the top left reminds me of my 4 top professional aspirations. 
The gold frame on the top right is a quote from my 10 Minute Novelists group on FB: "Don't give up! One day, you'll be someone's favourite writer!"
The black frame below the window on the left contains my favourite motivational encouragement by Anne Lamott: "Oh my God, what if you wake up some day, and you're 65 or 75, and you never got your memoir or your novel written; or you didn't go swimming in warm pools and oceans all those years because your thighs were jiggly and you had a nice big comfortable tummy; or you were just so strung out on perfectionism and people-pleasing that you forgot to have a big juicy creative life, of imagination and radical silliness and staring off into space like when you were a kid?
It's going to break your heart. 
Don't let this happen."
The cork board on the bottom right contains a changing assortment of notes, pictures, and little titbits that inspire me. 
The canvas print on the bottom left is one of my fave pictures of Rich and me 💓

After my first writing period, I go outside to feed the horses and sheep, and let the dogs out. That usually happens between 9 and 10am, depending on how late we fed them the night before. 


After that's done, Rich and I have breakfast. We tend to go out for breakfast once or twice a week, and have it at home the rest of the time. 

After breakfast, I either write some more, do yoga, or we do chores like laundry, grocery shopping, picking up hay, or other farm-related stuff like cleaning out our rabbit cages. 

The afternoons are woefully unstructured. They tend to slip away, and half the time I can't tell you how that happened. 
Take yesterday as an example: Our neighbour came by for a chat, and invited us to come over for a glass of wine. We really like these neighbours, so we cheerfully accepted. Before you know it, it was 5 o'clock, and we headed back home to cook dinner. By the time that was done, it was past my productive time, so I watched a few episodes of Switched at Birth on Netflix, before attempting to write this blog post you're currently reading. 
I'm also working on a site for our farm where we can sell our animals, so that takes up some time as well.   

I spent a lot of time on this ol' desk. 

By 9:30 I'm usually ready for bed, where I read for half an hour or so before turning off the light. 

I love my days right now, but I know that they're numbered: Soon, I'll have to fit regular work hours in there somewhere again. How? I'm not sure yet - I'll keep you posted!


P.S. If you want to get more 'alternative facts', you should sign up for my newsletter. It's full of them.

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11 comments

  1. I love your framed roles/aspirations and may need to steal that idea for myself. :)
    I didn't work for six months last year and constantly found myself wondering how I had ever managed to find time to work at all.

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    1. I can very much relate to that! It's such a luxury, I really enjoy it. Alas, nothing lasts forever ;-)
      Go ahead and do your own inspiration wall! It's like a mood board for your life, and it helps me a LOT on those days when I want to give up, asking myself why I'm doing it. One look at the wall, and I'm reminded of my goals!

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  2. Hey Miriam,

    Haven't read your blog for a while, since I haven't been spending so much time on the blog or reading others'. But the area where you moved to looks amazing! And I absolutely love the new design of your blog!

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    1. Hi Anne, thanks! I finally bit the bullet and bought a design (this one: https://www.pipdig.co/shop/blogger-template-firefly/), and I'm so happy I did!
      We moved to Merritt, 3 hours north-east from Vancouver. It's a lot drier and sunnier than our old place, we love it here!
      A lot of bloggers have slowly faded away, it's too bad. Do you think you might get back into it, or have you moved on from blogging?

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    2. Yes, I've seen it as well. Some people just quit entirely. No, I definitely will get back in Blogging, I think this time, I figured out where I want to go with my blog and I'm having my blog redesigned by someone. So you're probably gonna see a lot more activity on my blog :)

      Always enjoy reading your blog and looking forward to more farm pictures!

      xoxo Anne
      http://lifeasarollingstone.blogspot.com

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  3. I agree with you, I loathe talking on the phone. Even when I was a teenager, my friends and/or boyfriend would call me and the only thing I could think was- "why do y'all do this to me?!"

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    1. Hahah, I know, right? It took me YEARS to bring myself to answer the phone at least occasionally, but most of the time I still let it go to voicemail or let my husband answer it. Texting and emailing are the best inventions ever, I'd much rather do that instead of phoning someone!

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  4. How lovely this chapter is for you and yours! It's great that you have neighbors you love. The animals all look so winter-wonderland-happy. You have all really made this place your own. Enjoy!

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    1. We are! It's a lovely spot, and seeing the animals enjoying themselves so much lifts us up every day. Bear is happier than he has ever been in his life! He jumps around like a puppy :-)

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  5. I could get so much creative work done living in a place like that!

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    Replies
    1. It is really inspiring. Which means, no excuses for not getting shiz done!

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