I have always been one for my rituals, routines, daily plans. I still wake up at 4:37 each morning, even though I’m home with Little Man, but after 6 years of that wake-up time, it’s ingrained in me. My mornings used to consist of wake up, shower, brush teeth, hop back into bed next to Squatch (while he was still sleeping) for our together time, check the daily emails and news/weather, make lunch for work, then leave by 6:09 to make it to the train to the city.

Now, I don’t have the alarms going off anymore (I always had 3, just to let me know where I was at in my routine), but that 4:37 internal alarm clock is still there. I wake up, and within 2 minutes, Little Man is stirring, looking to nurse again, so we cuddle and he nurses (taking a bottle now while I nurse my poor, bitten, and bloody nipples), and he goes back to sleep. When he rolls over to Squatch, it’s “me time.” I either just grab my phone to check the email and daily news, or I may grab the laptop to do so, plus get working on the blog; writing down whatever thoughts popped into my head overnight. I’ve got a good list of posts ready to go. I’ll fall back asleep around 5 or 5:15, and sleep until Little Man wakes up between 6:30 and 7:30. He is truly the best alarm clock!

If Little Man is up early, he goes out into the kitchen with Squatch while I hop in the shower. If he’s up later, we just start our day. Breakfast is always half a mashed up banana, and I will pair it with either a BeechNut fruit or vegetable. Weekends we do a real breakfast, so Little man will get some sausage or bacon with a bit of egg, in addition to his banana. After breakfast, and he’s dressed, we go out for a little walk (this is new this week, so we are still building it into the routine). Little Man loves to hike up the steep driveway to the mailbox and help Mummy put up the red flag when she’s got a letter to mail to one of her friends. Some days we will walk down the road and see what the fiber internet guys are up to and some days we just wander around the yard.

The dump is open for the summer hours now, so if it’s Monday, Wednesday, or Friday morning, I will take his car seat out of the car and buckle it into the UTV, and we will go down the trails to the dump! We don’t go to the dump each morning it’s open, it depends on our trash situation, and we don’t generate a ton of trash. Most of it is Little Man’s dirty diapers. It rained overnight, so we did not stop at the little dog beach on our way back from the dump; the ground was too wet to wander around and have the UTV on it. Little Man LOVES his trail rides. He likes to go FAST!

Wednesdays are laundry days, so before we go to the dump, laundry is washed and hung to dry. I try to get it in the machine before we start breakfast, so by the time we’re done eating, I can throw the unmentionables into the dryer and bring up the small basket to hang on the porch. Little Man “helps” by rearranging what I’ve hung, so it dries better. Squatch does his own laundry on Sundays, so it is just Little Man and Mummy’s laundry that gets done on Wednesdays. Towels are a separate load, and they go in the dryer. I wash the sheets every other week, but am planning on doing them every week, once we get into our own place again.

After our morning walk, it’s snack time and then nap time. Today, when I was down in the basement with the laundry, I saw the box of peaches I wrote about last week. To be honest, I completely forgot about them! Well, not today; today’s snack was a delicious peach. Little Man was not a big fan, but I sure enjoyed it. I have not had such a delicious, ripe peach in ages. Once I got him down for his nap, I ran to the basement to pop the towels in the dryer, and grabbed a second peach for myself!

Little Man will nap for 1-2 hours for his morning nap. I take that time to either nap with him (if he’s up at 6:30, I’m usually curled up with him) or I am working on the blog or letter writing. Once he’s up, it’s lunchtime and then we play. When it is not super hot out, we will go out on the porch (thank the Lord for baby gates), and I just let Little Man run around, looking through the posts of the porch to see the plants below, inspecting all of the chairs, trying to figure out how the gates work (PLEASE, PLEASE, for the love of God, PLEASE do not figure them out like you’ve figured out how to open the front door. I’m so grateful the screen door locks.), and just being a curious little guy.

Afternoon nap is at 4 (another 1-2 hours), and then it’s dinner time when Squatch gets in around 6:30. Bedtime is between 8 and 8:30, depending on when Little Man wakes up from his afternoon nap. If he sleeps for 3 hours for the morning, there is no afternoon nap, but bedtime is earlier. I have not been the best at getting him into a bedtime routing, but he knows when he sees Mummy go into the bedroom, take her vitamins, and put on her jammies, that it’s his turn to get a clean butt and put on his jammies (jammy-jams, as we refer to his ones). Then, it’s prayers and nighttime songs, and Little Man is asleep, and Mummy most likely is, too.

On Saturday mornings, we sit down and plan the next week. We check our food list against what we have in the fridge, freezer, and pantry, and then drive into town to do our shopping. I prefer to shop at the Piggly Wiggly, but if there are other needs (like baby food, which the Pig doesn’t carry), we will go to WalMart instead. I am one of those people who organizes the shopping list by department, so we are not running all over the place looking for what is written down next. It also makes the shopping go so much faster! We are getting better at not deviating from the list, and as we really tighten up the budget, it will be so important we only get what we absolutely need. I organize the cart as we put the groceries in, so when it is time to check out, everything goes on the belt accordingly, and in the order it should be bagged. I do bring my own bags to the store, and my little cooler basket always amazes the checker and bagger. While I prefer to have an actual employee ring up my purchase, I do love self checkout, so I can bag everything quickly and correctly. This is what I LOVE about Aldi; they just put everything into the basket and you bag everything the way you want it. Once we get home, everything is put away, and we can get on with our day.

You may notice that I did not mention cleaning and other similar chores in my daily plan; they get done as needed, and there is a cleaning lady that my mother has hired to come in every other week. I just sweep or do a light vacuum when it is needed, and I always wipe down the kitchen counters. I also prefer to hand wash my dishes as they are used. We just don’t have enough for me to justify using the dishwasher each day, and I’m not going to let the dishes sit in there until it’s full and ready to run.

Rituals, routines, whatever you call them, they are so incredibly important to my sanity and to me actually getting things done. If you are looking to reduce your stress and anxiety, look at your days and see where you could start to introduce your own little routines or rituals. You will definitely not regret it.