The Nightly Routine

As I'm thinking and writing about my struggles with developing good housekeeping habits, I'd like to mention that I had no trouble getting into a routine when The Boy was still The Baby.  I was a teacher before The Boy was born and I knew that children need  a certain amount of structure and routine in order to thrive.  Of course, when The Baby came along, my routine was based around Nursing and Naptime. I was highly motivated to develop a good routine for my precious baby.

After The Boy started school I did make sure we had good routines for getting up and off to school, afternoons, and bedtime routines for him.  I knew children need a certain amount of structure and routine in order to thrive.

The Professor is one of those people who is naturally very orderly, and he seems to thrive on structure and routine.

I guess I thought that structure and routine were great for babies and children or for people like The Professor, but not for me.

It has taken me a long time to finally realize that I need a certain amount of structure and routine in order to thrive.

Here's my Nightly Routine:

Clean Kitchen
Look at Calendar and make To Do list for the next day
Wash face/brush teeth
Set out clothes for the next day
Make magnesium supplement drink
In bed to finish my drink and read by 9 or 9:30

I resisted a nightly routine for a long time. In fact, I spent many nights up late on the computer until 11 or 12.  Then I'd just fall in to bed, sometimes without even putting on my pajamas. Foolish, foolish me.  The Professor finally convinced me to start shutting off the computer at 9 pm.  Just to make him happy, I did. I'd shut off the computer at 9 and head for the bedroom to read and drink my Natural Calm.* Then I began to realize that it wouldn't take me 5 minutes to do the face/teeth thing after I shut down the computer.  And so the nightly routine ball began to roll.

Now I generally start the nightly routine around 8:30 by making sure the kitchen is clean and washing up the supper dishes if I haven't done it already.  Most of the time I'm totally finished with the routine by 9.

*Natural Calm is the magnesium supplement that I take every night. It's a powder that dissolves in hot water that I sip as I read before bedtime. It really helps me get to sleep and get a good night's rest.