Christa, Day 53 and Day 54: Routines and Ritual, I Have 'Em Covered

Day 53 is all about routines... have I even mentioned I am pro routine?

Create morning and evening routines. A great way to simplify your life is to create routines at the start and end of your day. Read more on morning routines and evening routines.

When you work and you have a child, morning and evening routines are a must.

There's the a.m. routine: I shower and dress, then ready P.'s breakfast. Next, I wake her, and set her right down to eat and drink. Eventually the potty will come first, but not yet. While she dines, I do my hair and makeup, then get her things ready if I've forgotten to lay them out the night before. At that point, I might sit and read while she watches some little cartoon, or we'll try a little German. Then she's gives the potty a go, gets dressed, and we're off.

There's also the p.m. (aka bedtime) routine: P. may have a bath or not, but at some point, jams are put on, vitamins are taken, and teeth are brushed and flossed. After which I read one story, her papa reads one story, and then it's lights out. Unless she "needs" some toy or another and her papa is willing to fetch it. Sometimes he holds for a while if she's feeling insecure, but mostly she falls asleep with little or no fuss. For which I'm grateful.

Do I have my own nighttime routine? Not so much, but there's a list of things I do at night and it seldom changes. Tuesdays and Thursdays are Tedd's days to have alone time, and on those days I do aerobics in the kitchen instead of riding the stationary bike in the family room. The end.

Day 54's simplification idea strikes me as only applicable to a niche group of people who both feel driven to write and also find consider writing a relaxation activity rather than a work activity:

Create a morning writing ritual. If you enjoy writing, like I do, make it a peaceful, productive ritual. Article here.

This assumes you like writing. I like writing, true. On the other hand, I write all day at work, I blog about life, I manage some social media for myself and others, and the last thing I want to do in the a.m. when I'm facing a long day of writing stuff for other people is to wake up extra early to write. I think about writing more fiction, and I want to. I do. But the fact is that I'm kind of swamped by life right now.

Fiction will wait. Sleep, not so much. Time with my toddler, not so much. Someday I'll run out of silly home projects and the P. will want to do anything but spend time with me, and that's when I'll sit down and write stories. Maybe take a class (something I'd like to do but don't have the money for at the mo'.)

I do have a morning ritual, though. For the past few weeks, inspired by some item in the 72 Ideas list though I can't remember which, I've been waking up 20 minutes early to read. This morning, I put on lots of warm layers, poured myself a cup of coffee and then another, and sat down with Game of Thrones. By the time my small period of reading is up, I'm nearly fully awake and just about ready to hit the showers. It's a nice peaceful start to my day - an effortless gift I give myself. Writing, on the other hand, would be work. And while I am a morning person in general, I'd rather the first thing I do each day be relaxing.

And speaking of relaxing, I'll be taking a few days off - as in off the computer - so you won't be hearing from me again until at least Monday!