Routine

Doesn't life seem a little better when you have a "groove"?  Or maybe that is just my type A personality.  I do love adventure and new experiences (however planning an adventure is one of the best parts for me).  But I also love have a schedule.  The over the past week and a half it seems like Arthur and I have found our groove for our time in the evenings.  It seems like during the winter we struggle more with consistency.  However we haven't had any activities in the evenings lately because of taking a break for the holidays so we have had time at home.  Arthur is preparing for a ski trip which has been motivational to start a training program before hitting the slopes.  When we get home in the evening the first thing we do is work out together.  It sure is wonderful to have a workout buddy.  Afterwards is kitchen time-- dinner prep, clean up, packing lunches.  Then we may spend about an hour or so watching TV or on the computer.  Once 9pm hits then we are in "no screen" time for an hour before bed.  Supposedly turning off all screens an hour before bed time will help you sleep better.  We both are blessed with the ability to sleep like rocks but it doesn't seem like a bad habit to get into.  I must admit that I am worse about following this rule than Arthur.  However, I have found that I am not wasting time with mindless internet surfing but have to make choices about how I use my screen time during the evening.  We spend our no screen time snuggled on the couch reading books or doing our quiet time.  And we are always in bed by 10pm since we aren't in the middle of a TV show on Netflix that we can't pull ourselves away from until 10:30 or so.
We didn't sit down and decide that a change needed to happen in our schedule but after a week or so we both love it.  Before I would get home from work and try to get motivate to do something-- should I start dinner, work out, tidy up, etc-- but now when we get home we change clothes and head to the basement to exercise.  No questions asked.  The other night I felt very energetic and I wasn't sure why but I realized it was because I love routine.  I love that I didn't have to waste energy trying to talk myself into doing what I needed to do since it wasn't optional in my head anymore.  I also find it interesting now that once it hits 10pm we hop right off the couch to climb in bed.  After reading for an hour I don't want to stay up any more to read a few extra pages.  We are also waking up a little more refreshed in the mornings too.  While it is 8:57pm so I better wrap this post up since my husband will be up in a few minutes to check to make sure the laptop is off.  Omnia Vincit Amor.