The Sweet Taste of Solidity

I've finally got myself on some semblance of a daily routine.  I've got 3 alarms that get me up in the morning, and each has its own intention:

6:45 - "Turn me off immediately and go back to sleep.  I'm just here to let you know you're about to have to start waking up soon."

7:00 - "Stay awake long enough to check and make sure I am in fact the 7:00 alarm and not the 7:15 alarm.  Once you find that it's really and truly 7:00, go back to sleep."

7:15 - "You may have to actually get up now.  Wake up your wife and ask if she needs 5 more minutes of sleep.  If so, set the alarm for 7:20 and check your facebook on your phone.  If not, start making her coffee."

...Then I pretty much keep repeating that last step until 7:30, which is the latest we can possibly wake up and still get her off to work on time.

After she leaves for work at 7:45, I eat breakfast and do an hour of mental workout, then an hour of physical workout.

- Mental workouts consist of logic games, memorization techniques, creative outlets and learning new skills.
 - Physical workouts consist of 15 minutes of yoga, 30 minutes of weights, and 15 minutes of tai chi.

I usually finish all that around 10.  Then bible study and quiet meditation usually takes me to 11.  I spend the next hour doing various household tasks like laundry, emptying the litter box, etc.  Lately I've been spending this time packing boxes for Arlington.

I start making Glennda lunch at noon, because her lunch break is at 12:30.  We eat lunch together, and then she leaves around 1:15.  If I have anything to finish up, I'll do it here.  Otherwise, I start into all my unfinished semi-recreational tasks.

(Right now I'm tailoring a bunch of misfit and hand-me-down clothes to make them more awesome.  I'm taking in a pair of Glennda's pants so I can wear them.  Other times I'll take Bear for a walk, work on one of the stories I'm writing or just paint.  Or record myself painting and make a YouTube video out of it.)

I'll leave for work at 3:45 and when I come home at 9:45 Glennda and I will relax while watching our recorded shows.  Then she falls asleep and I read whatever book I'm going through until about 10:30 or 11.

So that's what my weekday looks like.  All this to say, I've finally been following this pattern long enough to call it a certifiable habit.  And it feels great.  I read somewhere that if you write down your routine and read it back to yourself, it helps to solidify it in your brain as fact.  So this journal entry is kind of just the last brick in the road to the routine-led day for which I've been striving for a couple years.

Ecclesiastes 10:18

-R.