Quiet Riot

"Une Riot Iz An Ugly Zink" - Inspector Kemp

"Americans have always been able to handle austerity and even adversity. Prosperity is what is doing us in." - James Reston

I joined the Riot 4 Austerity a few months ago in an attempt to provide myself with some concrete goals to reach for as I try to live a more sustainable life. Recently, R4A has asked each its members to write up a "Day in the Life of a Rioter". So grab some No-Doze and a can of Red Bull and I'll tell you all about it.

5:30 AM - Alarm goes off, I hit snooze.

5:39 AM - Alarm goes off, I hit snooze and nudge hubby.

5:48 AM - Alarm goes off, I nudge snooze and hit hubby.

5:49 AM - Hubby gets in shower.

5:50 AM - Guilt forces me out of bed, and into the chilly morning of our house where it is now a brisk 55 degrees. Brrrr. I haul my cold butt downstairs and make coffee, (toss the old filter and grounds in the compost bucket and grab a fresh, unbleached filter to use).

5:55 AM - Head back upstairs, shake out yesterday's jeans, pick out a clean shirt and brush my teeth. Pee, possibly poo and take my meds too.

6:00 AM - Hop in the shower, depending on the day I may or may not shampoo my short hair.

6:05 AM - Get dressed and finish my morning ablutions with a little toner and some makeup.

Wow, we're only to 6:00 AM and I'm already so bored that I'm considering watching SportsNet with hubby. I can't believe you're still reading this. You're a better person than I am. So, as not to keep you hanging....

6:10 AM - Head downstairs, pour a cup of coffee for me, one for hubby and pour the rest in a carafe so I can shut off the coffee pot. Kiss hubby goodbye as he heads off to work.

6:15 AM - Feed and water the dog and let her out to poo. Turn on laptop, check email and update eco-blog.

7:00 AM - The kids start to wake up. Turn on cartoons till their moods improve and get them their cocoas and breakfasts.

7:30 AM - Eat my breakfast.

8:00 AM - Wrangle the kids into their clothes, pack their snacks, and get them ready to go to preschool.

9:00 AM - Head out for preschool, driving through morning traffic. Run a couple errands on my way back home, stopping for a latte if I have some spare cash. At home, do a load of laundry in our front-loader, maybe do a little cleaning while groovin' to my iPod and possibly start dinner in the crockpot.

12:00 PM - Go pickup kids from preschool and head back home. Make everyone lunch and play inside with the kids or, better yet, take them for a nature walk.

2:00 PM - Rest time for kiddos, work time for me. Print out new orders and shipping labels. Hop online to pay bills, answer more emails and do some mindless surfing and some research for tomorrow's blog entry.

3:30 PM - Rest time is over and the kids are excited to go get the mail, hoping for a card or letter, but settling for an LL Bean Catalog and an offer from American Express. Hang out some more or play outside.

5:00 PM - Finish up dinner, set the table (with cloth napkins, of course), toss all the toys back in the playroom, scrape the playdough off the floor and unstick the lollipop from the television.

6:00 PM - Eat dinner.

6:30 PM - Wrap up leftovers, clear plates and load dishwasher.

7:00 PM - Depending on the day, it might be bath time for kiddos which will give me a chance to scrub off the marker and pen ink (where DID she get that pen anyhow?!?!).

8:00 PM - Put the kiddos to bed and grab a nice, cold, hard cider. Relax on couch with hubby, watching Dirty Jobs, Man vs. Wild, Survivor or "Must See TV".

10:00 PM - Go to bed

Well, that's my day, folks. Of course, along the way I recycle, try to limit my purchases and pay very close attention to packaging. I buy my electricity from a windfarm and write letters to my representatives. It's hard to say when, exactly, these things get done, but they always do.

As you can see, it's definitely not the life of Paris or Britney. It's boring, repetitive and chock full of mundane chores. Basically, it's like your life.

It's not glamorous but we're not living in a van down by the river either. I do all the same things that other stay-at-home moms all around the US do, I just do them a little differently. There is a happy medium between excess and suffering. And if we don't start working together to find it, we may all find ourselves quickly shifting from the former to the latter.