Scheduling, routines and living life

I wrote back in January about learning how to live intentionally. I’m finding that I need to continue to learn this more and more in all areas of my life.

A few months after writing that post Paul changed departments at the grocery store he works at. With that change come a shift change, and he now works afternoon shifts, usually starting anywhere from 12:30 to 2:30 in the afternoon and getting home between 9:00 to 11:00pm. It has taken us a bit to get use to this schedule. I thought getting use to his ever changing weekly schedule was hard enough, but after doing that for two years, we are quite use to it. We only know our schedule about a week and a half out, and his weekend days are constantly changing. When that started 2 years ago we decided to go to a 4 day school week, and it’s worked out just fine.

So now, for the past 4 months we have been getting use to our days starting a bit later, ending a bit later and schooling starting a bit later. Obviously we aren’t doing any schooling right now, but still adjusting to the different wake up time and bed times has had its difficulties. Yes, I know, our bedtimes and morning times didn’t need to change just because my husbands did. But I am a SAHM, we are a homeschooling family, one of the main reasons we chose those things is so we can spend time together as a family. So if my husbands schedule has changed, what good is it if our schedule doesn’t change too? Why should we miss time together with him if we don’t have to? So it’s been a no-brainer that our schedule was going to change when his did.

But this change was hard. I just never felt like I could get solid on my feet. I always felt rushed, like I wasn’t accomplishing things and constantly playing catch up with all areas of my life. I was getting so frustrated because I just couldn’t figure out why this schedule change was so hard to adjust to when the other schedule change two years ago wasn’t this hard. I was praying about it, seeking the Lord and talking with Paul when it became clear what the problem was. I wasn’t being scheduled enough.

Yes, first of all anyone who really knows me knows how odd it is for me to say that, since I can be so very scheduled at times (though that has changed recently 😉 ). But what was happening is that I wasn’t getting up at a specific time everyone morning. Since he doesn’t start until late afternoon, we would sleep in to whenever our bodies woke us up and then try and start our day and do things together. Well it’s no wonder that if I tried to get in my quiet time with the Lord, some sort of exercise, breakfast and a shower before we do something as a family I was running late and feeling rushed. Yes, I know, I could probably move doing my exercise to after Paul leaves, or something like that, but that doesn’t work for me so good. I’ll just talk myself out of doing any kind of exercise at all, which is exactly what’s been happening for quite a while. Something had to give, I wasn’t getting done the things I needed to in the mornings, and because of that I felt like I was constantly being rushed. So for this past week I’ve been setting my alarm and trying to get up around the same time every work day (albeit later than the time we use get up when he worked morning shifts). It’s been working out so much better. I’m getting the things done in the morning that I need to, and yet still having time to do things with Paul before he leaves. Then after he leaves I can work, do lessons with the kids and any other things like that I need to do.

I don’t know why I didn’t think about this before now. I just never thought about it, but the main thing that was getting us up early in the morning was Paul’s work schedule, really. And when that schedule changed, and we didn’t have to be up early for him to get to work, I just let things slide. Not having that scheduled time in the morning, a distinct time to wake up, so I could get my morning routine done, is what was causing all my issues.

Now things are going much better. I have a set time I get up and get my morning started. Right now I’m still allowing the kids to sleep as late as they want, but that will change soon. 😉 I’m feeling more and more use to this schedule and not feeling rushed at all. I still get to sleep in on our ‘weekends’ when things aren’t nearly as scheduled for us.

So I’m learning how to be scheduled and routined (yes, I just made up a word) without having a strict schedule and routine. 😉 Our days off and the hours Paul works still changes every week, but we are getting adjusted to it. And though it’s afternoon shift, at least it’s pretty much the same hours every work day which really helps. I still pray for the day that he gets moved to a day shift schedule again, but since that might not happen for a couple of years, I’m glad I’m learning how to live on an afternoon schedule.