An Elegant Routine

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We all have routines. I have a routine for Monday thru Friday then I have a different routine for Saturday and Sunday. During my work week I get up around 5:45 and put on my exercise clothes and do a brisk walk on my treadmill for 45 minutes. I then stretch, use my arm weights and then check the blog and post my entry for the day (which is only on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays).




photo credit Micheile Henderson







I run my bathwater, read my bible, and pray. I love this morning routine. No one is awake. I finish getting ready and then wake up my daughter. I head to work, spend the day working at the office, and then come home to make dinner (I have a dinner rotation list). I check my daughter’s homework, review home notes, sign her agenda, then eat dinner.


I always set my table with dishes (see my entry here for my table setting). No paper plates here. I clean up then it’s bath-time for my daughter and piano practicing for me. She finishes bathing, gets ready for bed and we say prayers. I then get ready for bed (see my post here about dressing for bed) and watch a little of the Barefoot Contessa or Martha Stewart.

                                                    Photo by Erol Ahmed on Unsplash


This is my routine. Nothing fancy but I love it! It works for my family. I read this recently… Life’s fretfulness is transcended. The different and the novel are sweet, but regularity and repetition are also teachers… And if you have no ceremony, no habits, which may be opulent or may be simple but are exact and rigorous and familiar, how can you reach toward the actuality of faith, or even a moral life, except vaguely? The patterns of our lives reveal us. Our habits measure us. Our battles with our habits speak of dreams yet to become real. -Mary Oliver



I adore this quote. Sometimes I get teased for being so routine but they are necessary. Because I have set the tone in our home my daughter is obedient to the routine. She knows to get clothes ready for school the night before. She knows to floss and brush her teeth. She even knows that mommy is going to the grocery store every weekend with her list and I will be picking up fresh flowers for our home and my office.



                        

                        photo credit Vika Fleisher 
       


But as I said, I love it. Create a routine for your life that is beautiful and fitting. I believe that with elegance there is also order. Routines can be elegant. Just make sure it is….