Routine In My Days

Good afternoon!

Just for fun here's a picture of Spazz getting her nails done. 

It's almost time to wake hubby to go to work at 6:00. 
It's a routine. On days that he works a night shift, he goes to lay down and sleep from 3:00pm -5:00pm. It's the part of my night shift days when I get caught up on things that I might have let slide so that I could spend more time enjoying him. Routine. I like that.

Today was anything but routine. 
For the last 3 weeks I've been waking at 6:30am and getting chores done; laundry on Saturday; sheets changed on Sunday; floors mopped on Tuesday. And so on. Getting my routine on.

Well today is Tuesday and the floors did not get mopped until after 1:00pm. It made me cranky. I know it shouldn't have because [really]  it's just mopping, but I really like to have that kind of stuff done in the morning so that I can pursue other activities (like this blog) later in the day and not have to worry about getting the necessary work done because it's already been taken care of.

While mopping this afternoon I decided that I've read enough different blog posts telling me the great things I can accomplish if I get up at 5:00am. (I believe there's even a book). I WILL NOT be waking at 5:00am. 6:30 seems like a good time to me. If it's a day shift day, I'll get my chores done while hubby is getting his workout done. If it's a night shift day, they'll be done while hubby is sleeping. The only downside to this is that I'll end up having to cook breakfast twice on night shift days. 

I've come to learn that routine is good for me. I try to be easy going when things don't go as planned but it doesn't always work. I mean, I really, really try but I get really, really cranky. Sorry. 

When we made our first move, it was my first time being a full-time homemaker and I made a weekly schedule to ensure that I was getting all the chores done instead of realizing that it's been 2 weeks since the sheets have been changed. 

This time I've made a new schedule but it also includes days that I work on me. Days that I exfoliate my face -because I don't want to accidently do that everyday- also, mask days to prevent me from exfoliating and masking on the same day. It's not on my schedule yet, but I also have days that I work on my distance learning course.

Obviously, the daily chores are not here. Wipe counters, sweep, regular laundry, etc.

It all equals out to be a pretty comprehensive weekly routine. Yep, I even list the days i'm going to wash my hair. I'm even about to tackle meal planning so even more of my day is planned. And there will be no trying to decide what's for supper. WIN!

On days when I'm not feeling as if I'm going to get much done I make my list and scratch shit off as I get it done. Even that is starting to become routine - not because I'm lazy and don't think I'll accomplish anything if I don't make a list - just because then I can see everything that needs to be done. Right there in front of me.

Maybe this makes me a little crazy...my schedule is all done in brightly coloured markers and I like to make my lists neat  and colourful (if I'm ambitious). This is a little thing that makes me feel more motivated.

I'll keep you all updated on how I feel about living my life waking at 6:30 am.

I want to know... Do you prefer routine or chaos? or somewhere in between? What do you do to ensure you stick to your routine? What's you favorite way to handle chaos?