Order in the House

It’s somehow already the end of January, and I feel as if I’m coming out of a cloud. Quite literally, since after numerous days of heavy snow crusting the earth, a warm-up is bringing on the snow’s evaporation, resulting in a foggy white sky. The sun’s supposed to make an appearance today. Apparently yesterday Chicago got a brief moment of sunshine, because as I was texting a friend, she informed me, “Omg the sun just came out here. Finally.” It’s big news this time of year.

Seriously, it was a rough several weeks between December and now. It’s always chaos for our family during winter break with the kids being home, Christmas shopping, and—to add to the mix—our eldest daughter’s birthday. She turned the milestone age of twelve! Unfortunately, however, our youngest got the stomach flu right at that time, which put the brakes on our plans. No family birthday party, no Christmas Eve. We did make it to Christmas Day at my in-laws’ house, but then soon after we got another round of the flu just in time for New Year’s. I didn’t mind how much stay-at-homeness we ended up with due to illness, but that was because I didn’t know what would happen next.

The kids were supposed to go back to school, but we got slammed with an old-fashioned winter whiteout. The kind we reminisce about, the kind where us Gen X-ers/geriatric Millennials are likely to say, “Back when we were kids, we used to get so much snow! The piles along the streets from the plows would be taller than we were!” Last year, I lamented when our youngest daughter got a snowball kit as a gift, and she was barely able to use it. This year made up for that! The kids had a three-day week at school, then the Friday got cancelled due to heavy snow. It was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and then the following Tuesday school was called off due to frigid temperatures. They went to school for three more days. Weekend off, attended on Monday. Then another day off because of a dangerous ice storm. There was no routine, no order, which makes me feel wacky! (Insert wacky emoji here.)

I decided this year I’m implementing more structure into my life. I’ve taken on a bunch of extracurriculars, things outside of home and family and work that I enjoy but need to figure out how to handle along with everything else. Back when I was in community college I also worked at a jewelry store, served at a restaurant, hosted one night at a different restaurant, acted in local theater productions, and still found time to write and hang out with my friends. This time of my life feels similar to that, but I’m middle-aged now and can’t keep everything straight like I used to, especially now I juggle my kids’ schedules, too. So I sat down and wrote out a seven-step Monday-through-Friday plan, including waking before the kids to get some time for myself, exercising, writing, working, balancing family and household responsibilities, attending meetings, and ending with going to bed at a reasonable hour.

And how’s that going? you ask, eyebrow cocked.

Honestly? Not bad! How have I never done this before—make a plan? I was never the kind to keep a daily planner. Somehow in the past I was able to successfully navigate multitasking, but I just can’t manage it the way I used to. Plotting my day into zones is truly helping. At least so far!

Has every day gone exactly right? Nope. Have I dropped the ball? You bet. Do mid-day appointments and school early release days and dreary skies get in the way? Sure. But overall I feel more in charge, more productive regardless of whether I get it all done. And I think that’s the main thing, the sense of knowing each day I have accomplished some of what I set out to do, both personally and professionally, in the way I choose, rather than putting out fires as they combust.

The notion of carving out order in my life may not resonate with everyone. Most people I know have some sort of built-in routine to their lives based firstly on their careers, but I never took a straight path, and that’s what ended up working for our family. I’m also acutely aware that it is a privilege to have a certain amount of control over your daily life. I don’t know if it’ll stick, either. The routine might just recede like the snow pulling back from the curb as it melts. Like swearing this year I’m going to do dry January or clean out the basement. But if I want to achieve everything I want out of life, I have to try.

As I write this, the sun’s not out yet, but the day’s not over. Check back with me later.