Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Instituting A New Rule

I'm not here to bore you with another diatribe about how I'm struggling in my day to day life, working hard to keep my head above water & get just the normal daily stuff done...  

I'm here to tell you about my brilliant plan to fix it all!  

Hehe...not quite.  But I have instituted a new rule.  Recently I've been sick & tired of feeling so tired.  I had been to the doctor & had a whole gamut of blood tests run (you'll have to forgive me for being a hypochondriac; considering our recent family history I just needed some peace of mind, you know?).  Anyway, it turns out that I am healthy - no anemia, no Lupus, no nothing.  Thank God.  But that means nothing other than my horrible schedule & sometimes horrible eating habits could be the cause of my weariness.  Hmmm.  While I was mulling this over I thought through my commitments, my daily chores, my stuff & decided that there was one rule I MUST begin to follow.

I call it my 9/10 o'clock rule.  And it applies to every night of the week, Sunday through Thursday.  If I am away from home, at 9:00 P.M. I have to hit the road & get home.  Whatever I am doing, at 10:00 P.M. I have to set it down & start getting ready for bed.  Nothing in my life is so urgent or so important that it cannot wait until the next day.  Whatever is in my hand at 10 o'clock is going to be put down & that is just that.  The goal is to be snuggled under the covers reading or talking with Mike or just going to sleep by 10:15.  That way, when the alarm goes off at 4:50 A.M. I'll be less likely to cuss & moan & cry.  Hopefully I'll be rested enough to thank God for the gift of another day.

I've followed the rule successfully for three nights now.  I have been able to get up with Mike, see him out the door, & not go back to bed.  I had gotten into a frightful habit of snuggling down for another 45 minutes of sleep but it was just awful because I had to wake up again - it was like suffering through two mornings!  With that extra 45 minutes I have time to get ready for work without getting hives from the hurry & I also have time to read my Bible & do some studying.  This is a very good thing.

This morning I snuggled up under a blanket Mom gave me for Christmas
& read another chapter in the book I'm reading about Heaven.
It was just the encouragement I needed for the new day!
"There is not one inch in the entire area of our human life about which Christ,
who is sovereign of all, does not cry out, "Mine!"
Abraham Kuyper
With my new rule in place I have discovered that I arrive at work with a calmer, more alert spirit.  I hope that the greater amount of rest will help me deal with my early morning grumpies.  I'm sure my coworkers share this same hope!

And my day just got better when I got to partake of these beauties!
Oh, how I love sweet summer fruit!

And just for giggles I thought I would show you this handsome guy.  I found him on our car yesterday.  The pic doesn't really do him justice because this spider literally glowed a yellowish/greenish fluorescent color.  And get a look at those legs!  I don't know, he just looked really mean to me.  *shudder*

The only thing I don't love about summer - the bugs!
What are some of your little tricks to help you stay rested?  Do you stay up extra late & then sleep in?  Do you go to bed early & get up early?  Are you a nap-taker?  

6 comments:

Mrs.T said...

I like your 9/10 rule and think I will try to follow it myself. I have a goal to be in bed by 9:30 every night, but it just doesn't happen. Our getting-up time varies according to what location Mr. T is working at. Currently he gets up around 4:30. Ideally he would like to be in bed by nine, but that seldom works out with our lifestyle. I find that if I stay in bed just a few more minutes after he gets up, it helps me feel rested enough to get through a day without napping. (We have an agreement that if I stay there later than 4:50 he will come and wake me up.) That way, I can get up, get a shower, get dressed and get the bed made and see him off -- all nice and early, with plenty of time to read my Bible and have a good time of prayer.

This is a wonderful new rule you're instituting. Thanks for sharing it!

Debbie Moore said...

Such good thoughts! Hope you keep it up. Rest does a body good! I really think God is honored when we take care of His temple.

Stew 1 said...

A regular schedule should definitely help the fatigue. And the extra time in the morning does pace the day so much better. I am going to reinstitue that this year...:)

Mary Ann said...

Mrs. T, you guys are early risers too, huh? I hope we can really get into a routine of getting to bed earlier so the mornings aren't so very painful. And I think it's important to be up & see our husbands off to work :-)
Debbie, I agree that rest does a body good. I am way to quick to sacrifice rest & it's a habit I'm going to break! And you're right, God wants me to be taking better care of His temple. I'm trying to make that more of a focus.
Stew1, you have kept such a busy schedule for so long; I'm super glad you have the summer to chill a bit :-)

Alejandra said...

I really love this. I need to come up with something similar in my life as I tend to have very little discipline at night. Brava to you!

Mary Ann said...

Thanks, Alejandra! The rule worked really well for me the first week but this week I've been very undisciplined about applying it. A work in progress, for sure!