I feel as though I’ve lost a month. It slipped through a gaping flu, withered on either side of the holidays, and then got swallowed up by days on a train, stroller-ing around “Bisneyland” and days back.
With winter break over after today, tomorrow we’ll drop from 4 to 3. Friday will be the first real day of just 2 as the little one and I embark on stay-at-home-ness. And then it’s the weekend.
I’ve been sliding into this new realm. The days of the week can become meaningless easily. My calendar that overlapped with color-coded priority for ages routinely has “No Events Today.” Which leads to me missing the single event I do have and no showing my haircut…
I’m learning how deeply I’ve relied on routine and ritual to allow myself to layer on “too much” for “so long.” It created the ability for a highly-functional auto-pilot life. One that I am looking forward to discovering. I want to be present and aware in ways I didn’t have space for. I’m choosing to slow down and see and feel.
Here’s to trying new things.
plumdirt 
May you “see and feel” well! (A hope and a prayer also for myself)
And a good one at that.
I hope you’re feeling better! I think you hit on something with the idea of routine. When I first retired, I found myself missing the routine of work — I think because I had worked in a school and we were so scheduled. It took some time to make a new routine — and I think that is so necessary when we feel days slipping away. Hang in there!
Thank you! Did your routine evolve through living it or did you intentionally set one up to “try it on” and tweak as you went?
It was a little bit of both — but I found that if I worked too hard at it, it didn’t work. It sort of happened on its own. Small things became a daily pattern and they became part of the routine — waking up and walking around the yard was followed by breakfast, which was then followed by some light housekeeping, which was then followed by some reading or writing time . . . The day just started to fill in, and there were adjustments, like when I started working in a box store nursery. The evening also has it’s own routine: some television, an 8:00-ish snack, some more TV… making plans for tomorrow. 🙂
And if you toss in a 3 year old… 😉
We’re finding early morning routine and leaving mid morning flexible before catching lunch-nap-sister-park-dinner-craft-bath+books+bed.
For me it’s fitting in the cyclical chores without taking over any free time for fun. I can see how house wives with small children really didn’t do anything else back in the day as their expectations of a “kept house” and the societal allowance for less spousal support on parenting and household… I’m grateful to live now.