Diary
Monday
My freshly minted five-year-old, A, wakes me up by crawling into bed at 7:15 a.m. (his birthday was last week). It’s Family Day up in Canada, so the kids have no daycare. Alas, rehearsal stops for no holiday! My husband takes A downstairs to play while he runs on the treadmill, and I get ready for the day. I shower, make breakfast, and wake up our two-year old, H by 8:15 a.m. We eat breakfast together, and I help A practice his reading and writing before packing my lunch and leaving for rehearsal by 9:30 a.m.
Since it’s a statutory holiday, my husband is home with the kids and does the lion’s share of the work getting them dressed and ready for the day.
I’m currently directing a new play that will tour to junior high and high schools next month, and we’re at the start of our second week of rehearsal. My husband brings the kids by for lunch. He goes to get a coffee and take a break while I eat with the kiddos. We have a picnic on the floor in the rehearsal hall, and they chat with me about their morning while we eat. After lunch, we play a rousing game of chase around the stage, where A makes up increasingly complicated rules to ensure that I don’t catch him, and H is happy to play along.
They want to stay for a bit of rehearsal, so they stick around for about forty-five minutes to watch us work and ask some questions—truly one of the highlights of working in TYA is how willing everyone is to accommodate young people in the space.
After rehearsal, I stay to try to catch up on emails and other work that I would have done during a non-rehearsal week. I head home to relieve my husband. I intend to keep the kids inside, but they’ve been cooped up too long, so we end up dividing and conquering. A to joins my husband and the dog on a walk to the local dog park. H sticks around to help me bake cookies (he loves working the mixer), make dinner, and meal prep for the week ahead.
We eat together, and then it’s bedtime routine. Bath, playtime, books and sleep by 8:30 p.m. This leaves me enough time to read my book and sneak in a thirty-minute dog walk. There’s a winter storm blowing in, and it’s cold. I come home, pack lunch for the next few days, then settle in for more quality time with my book and bedtime by midnight.
Tuesday
We wake up before the kids today, and I get in a little stretch before showering and meeting the family for breakfast that my husband prepared. I am on daycare duty this morning, dropping the kids off by 9:00 a.m. and heading to work to catch up on email. We rely on our car in the winter (we cycle in the summer!), but everything is close by. It’s only a five-minute drive to daycare, followed by an eight-minute drive to the office.
Since we are in good rehearsal shape (knock on wood), I’ve switched to shorter rehearsal days this week—one of the perks of being the director is setting your own schedule. We rehearse 11:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m., and I have to take a meeting over lunch. I also receive a mid-day email that is significant and I suspect will shift the course of my week.
After work, I pick up the kids. I drop A off at home and receive a snack for H. We drive to his gymnastics class (about ten minutes in traffic), which helps him blow off steam from his entirely indoor day at daycare. It’s -20 degrees Celsius and snowing—too cold for the kids to go outside!
We come home to a warm family dinner. I play with the kiddos while my husband washes up, and then we head upstairs for bedtime routine. The kids fall asleep late tonight, and I have to scrape myself out of A’s bed. I manage to squeeze in a run on the treadmill—which really helps me process the events of the day—before taking a shower and heading to bed.
Wednesday
H is the first one up this morning at about 6:45 a.m. He joins me in bed, and we snuggle and read books while my husband showers. I get ready while the boys play, and we all eat breakfast together around 8:00 a.m. My husband handles drop-off today, so I stay back and walk the dog before heading in to work. I arrive early enough to get some desk work done before rehearsal and a production meeting.
I am able to head home at 4:30 p.m. to walk the dog and prepare dinner. The boys arrive home at 5:00 p.m., and we chat about our days before sitting down to eat at 5:30 p.m. A has Beaver Scouts tonight, which he loves. It’s a parent drop-off activity, but since he’s the youngest in his troupe, I stick around. I chat with another parent who stays behind, and we reflect on the power of child-led play. They’re doing “target practice” with two-liter pop bottles and blocks, and the troupe leader intentionally gives them quite a bit of freedom. Beavers is a late night, so we get home at 8:00 p.m. and wind down for sleep by 8:45 p.m. I have work to do tonight: a little bit of office catchup, a lot of prep for the next show I’m directing (a freelance gig), and a few loose ends for another contract I’m juggling. I also finally have a chance to consult with my husband about yesterday’s significant email. I’m with my laptop until midnight.
