Yesterday, I made time to do things that I find unpleasant. I picked two of these things and knocked them out right away in the morning. I pressed and loaded a quilt on the frame. I then had time to quilt one row on it! The second was I dusted the house. I really don’t like doing that. I felt so good when I had done them. It only took a little bit of time. I spend a lot of time thinking about how I really didn’t want to do those things! Our brains can be so bizarre because I wasted so much time and energy!

So today, first thing I am choosing: to clean my bathroom once the coffee is done. The second thing will be to machine sew a binding I prepped yesterday. I dread the bathroom. It is just a nasty job and can make my joints ache. But when it is done, I will be elated!

I came to the conclusion that I need to get back into a more disciplined life. It is easy to get lazy about routines and disciplines during a pandemic but that is the time I need it the most! I want to get into a daily exercise routine because I don’t like doing it, so I put it off. Then I obsess about needing to exercise and then I don’t and then I feel guilty. The body feels physically weak and poorly and the cycle continues. So I am setting up a time of day as the time to exercise and it is 5 pm. That’s when I am done with my day job and its a perfect time of day to get my body moving after a day of a ton of sitting. In the winter, it is cold outside and dark in the mornings so I like to work out in the evening to get my blood pumping after a long dark day. It will change to morning during the short summer due to the heat that will be in the garage gym.

I am also trying something different with my coffee ritual. I usually drink it early in the morning with breakfast all within 15 minutes of when I get up. Today I am trying to be up for an hour or longer, then eat breakfast and then drink my coffee. It is an experiment to see if it helps my blood sugars and to get me off my butt and moving about in the morning. Otherwise, if left to my own devices I would sit in my chair and drink coffee while doom scrolling on my phone all while cocooned under two quilts. I will let you know how it all works.

It has been nearly a year since my tightly perfected routine has been smashed by the pandemic. We are both home more. I am working from home and everything has been totally out of sync. I was sitting in the moonlight streaming through the window to my chair from a very bright moon this morning that gave way to a very pale but clear sunrise. It was so clear that the temps are plummeting to below zero. I was contemplating all of this as the light changed. I am going to get back into a routine that is suited for how life is right now versus the willy nilly way I feel I have been living for the past year. I am finishing up my post breakfast coffee and off to do the nagging unpleasant chores so I can get to the the things I enjoy today. Exercise is getting more “routine” already and I am going to focus on meal planning for the weekly grocery shop. Off we go, into the wide open weekend. The changing of the light signaled it is time for me to change, too.

Vicki