Routines....

As school is coming to a close I'm thankful, thankful for another year at a job that I love and thankful for a chance to take a break.  Dealing with the students is wonderfully exhausting, being a teacher is an act of service, I am constantly bombarded with their needs and their wants and their problems while I'm at school.  Some of these needs, wants, and problems are purely academic ("What's my grade?" "What's the homework again?"), some are more personal.  I got a letter from a student thanking me because I'm the first adult female she's felt close to because of her issues with her mom, one student wrote me a thank you note because of my faith in her and my patience with her classmates.  This is all part of the job that I love and it is part of the routine of the school year.

During the school year, I get up around 5:30a, get dressed, feed the dogs, feed the cats, feed myself, get coffee, hop on FB for a little while, then leave for work around 6:30a.  Get to work where I have a set schedule of class, carefully orchestrated potty breaks, lunch, and down time all to the tune of a bell.  I'm usually home by 3:30p or 4p depending on tutoring and meetings where I can change, have a snack, walk the dogs, and start to plan/prepare dinner.  A few nights a week I go to the gym and whatever else needs to be done.  I tend to fall asleep anywhere between 9:30p and 10p because if I don't get my sleep fairly regularly I know I'll be a capital BIOTCH and there are a whole host of issues I could be subjected to (weight gain is one of them....ironically enough, but they've also linked bad sleep to anxiety, depression, diabetes, heart disease and  a lot of other nasty things...) But it's all part of the school year routine.

Now comes the summer when I have no routine, nothing to keep me really in line from day-to-day, and this becomes something of a drawback for summer.  With inconsistency, my eating habits take a nosedive.  I do not eat as regularly, I'm not as good about planning what I eat because I'm not under time constraints the way I am during the school year.  I'm a big fan of planning and organization but during the summer that seems to go by the wayside too.  I don't drink water at home the way I do at school (something I'm currently trying to fix....) and I tend to follow Bruno Mars' "Lazy Song".

My goal this summer is to at least plan and prepare meals during the summer the way I would during the school year, this means still making a menu for the week, still planning grocery shopping to a T (better for food AND budget...) and making sure I don't take Bruno's advice too often :-).

I lose my routines on the weekends too during the school year, but Monday is always right around the corner to bring me back.  Let's hope I can keep this summer under control and not let it run away with me :-).