The Blessing and Curse of Routine...

I love routine...it makes my life liveable...

My weekly routine goes like this (most of the time...)

Sunday: Morning Mass...sometimes three of them if I am working...load of laundry...12 o'clock football...change laundry...3 o'clock football...fold laundry...order Chinese food...write weekly menu...
Monday: Work...budget and bills for week...catch up with friends while Kevin is at class...make late supper...
Tuesday: Early morning meeting...work...home for random chores or projects...parish meeting hopping (Tuesday is everyone's favorite meeting night)...come home to hockey...
Wednesday: Work...work...work...home for a leftovers or frozen (originally from scratch mind you!)...faith formation night...possibly come home to hockey...
Thursday: Work...work...work...actually spend time with my husband...usually putting away Sunday's folded laundry...you guessed it, hockey...
Friday: Work...work...prep for weekend church work...spend time with my husband...usually sleeping or vegging in front of the TV...hopefully "What Not to Wear"...
Saturday: Wake up...morning errands...afternoon projects...dinner...maybe a date night...

And here is a rundown of my daily routine (most of the time...)

6:30 Wake up and push my sleeping husband into the shower
6:35 Take temperature
6:40 Roll out of body, sweep hair into rubber band, trip on a hanger, stumble into the kitchen
6:45 Make Kevin's oatmeal and lunch and pour his coffee
6:50 Kiss Kevin goodbye and attempt to pour my own coffee
7:00 (Yes it takes me 10 minutes to pour my coffee...) Turn on the TODAY show and begin stretching
7:15 Sit ups
7:25 Sit and drink coffee for a BLESSED five minutes!!!
7:30 Shower, dress, dig and search for my name badge, change clothes, find shoes
7:55 Leave for work
8:00-11:30 Work (meaning, follow up on projects, make phone calls, gab with the staff, listen to the Holy Spirit...)
11:30 Eat lunch early (or I'm crabby!!!)
12:00-4:00 Work (meaning, well you know what I mean!)
4:00 Go home...do MY chores before Kevin gets home...clean kitchen, write bills, start dinner, release and feed the hounds (the cats)...if I'm lucky, workout...
5:00 Kevin gets home, eat early (or I'm crabby!!!)
6:30 Typically meetings...rarely dinner with friends...
8:00 Home...crash on the couch...watch hockey or play video games...
9:00 Drink my tea
9:30 Bedtime routine which consists of finding a t-shirt, closing the closet doors (yes, I'm a little paranoid...) and crawling into bed...
9:31 I'm out...gone...fast asleep...won't wake 'till morning...

Why did I just regale you with my routines? Because routine is a beautiful thing...it is also a thing of great amusement and great frustration...out of my routine, I'm a little off-kilter...but too "on" my routine and I get frustated by the fact that it just "starts over"...I never get out of it!! The laundry never gets DONE!!! The dishes are never CLEAN!!! My menu is never SET!!! The budget is never BALANCED!!! Life is constantly moving and routine is just that...moving...planning...doing...

My point is, we have to shake it up a little bit!!! Sometimes we have to throw a wrench in our routine...sometimes you just have to toss the plans out the window and do something completely unexpected...otherwise all you are is your routine! :)