Making New Habits, and Tweaking the Old

• Who can find a virtuous woman? her price is far above rubies
• She looketh well to the ways of her household
• She maketh herself coverings of tapestry, her clothing is silk and purple
• She rises while it is yet night

So, here we are on Day 22 of Making New Habits--looking well to the ways of our household--and I decided that I was tired of this one, I've done my 21 days of posting on facebook, nobody but me really cares, so I could just quit making my bed and be done with this one and no one would be the wiser....

JUST KIDDING!

Yes, it's Day 22, and yes, I will quit posting pictures of my bed every day on facebook--but I love, love, love the way my room looks when the bed is made.  I like having not just the bed made, but the extra "frou-frou" of the matching pillows--it takes less than a minute of my time to put them on in the morning and take them off at night--well worth it when it having it done makes me smile every time I walk past the door.  Nothing else may get done for the rest of the day, but at least this much of the morning has gone well and I've accomplished something, however small.  

Getting dressed to shoes every day, though, is kicking my behind! As is the getting to bed at a decent hour.  Two things that I've noticed, though:

1. I feel better when I get dressed in "real" clothes--more capable, somehow, and more productive.  I had gotten in a bad habit of "saving" my better things--even everyday things--for when I needed to go somewhere.  Don't get me wrong, if I'm about to tackle scrubbing the toilet and the tub or some major deep cleaning task, I don't want to be wearing my church clothes, or anything really nice--no shirtwaist and pearls--but even if all I'm doing is laundry and cooking and washing dishes and those other myriad little things that fill our days, I can still look nice.  Last week my cyber friend Jane mentioned in the comments that she finds it easier to get up and dressed when she wears clothes that loves and that she feels good in, and I have to agree.    
2. Delisa at Dances With Yarn and Nan at Moms the Word both pointed out the necessity for a good evening routine to adjust to the earlier bedtime that I mentioned needing--and this is one that's been really hard for me.  As in--I don't have a bedtime routine for myself--or at least not one that works!  The rest of the family goes to bed fairly early,so I'm nearly always the last one up.  I usually end up falling asleep in the recliner, then when I wake up enough to creep back to the bedroom, I don't want to wake anyone, so I tiptoe around, struggling out of my clothes, fumbling in the dark for something to sleep in, and usually fall groggily into bed with unwashed face and unbrushed teeth. Yuck. Not attractive, and not restful, either, 'cause I'm getting my sleep in fits and starts and wild dreams and trying to wake myself up enough to get up and go to bed...you get the picture.  

So what am I doing about these two observations? 

Well for the first one, I'm dressing just a little bit better most days.  I did a much-needed root touch-up and hair trimming.  I've been trying just a little harder with some of those little grooming items that can go by the way-side sometimes--like plucking and moisturizing and smoothing my calloused heels. Nothing that anyone else would notice, but some things that I'd been letting slide just a bit too often lately.  Oh, and one more biggie...

I replaced my grubby-but-oh-so-comfortable tennis shoes...

with these!

Aren't they cute? They do come with a pair of extra laces in white in case I decide to tone it down--but why not give a bright touch to these dreary winter mornings? They may not be "tapestry..." or "silk and purple" (although hot pink is sort of close to purple) but I think they're definitely in the spirit of tapestry, silk, and purple.

I know it may not seem like much, but you have to understand--I don't do cute shoes these days. I have a wide foot with a high instep, and am very hard to fit. (My husband says, very affectionately, that I have Flintstone feet). On top of that, I had a really bad bout of plantar fasciitis(sp) a couple of years ago, so any shoe I wear has to have decent support.  And since I'm not a spring chicken nor a small person, either, I tend to wear mostly flats or low heels, so that means cute is usually out. When I go to the shoe store, I browse for my size first, and then look at it to see if it's anything I could bring myself to wear.  Some of my past tennis shoes have actually been from the boys department, because it was the only place I could find some wide enough.  I had held onto this last pair of tennis shoes for six years, cause they fit, and they were so comfortable, two things that are near and dear to my heart.

 So now you know why I'm so happy to show you this picture when I say--this is Day 15 for (attempting) to get dressed to shoes in a timely manner every day. 

As far as the second item--if I want this night-time routine to work, I need to be able to get undressed, wash my face, brush my teeth, and change into something more comfortable a least a little while before bedtime--and that "something more comfortable" needs to be something I'm not ashamed or embarrassed to be seen in.  I'm not much of a fancy lingerie wear-er, although I have a couple a decent things. I tend to be hot-natured, and as any middle-aged (or older) gal can tell you, night time is the worst time to break out in the sweats. (You younger gals just wait.) So I tend to sleep in things like oversized t-shirts.  They're so comfortable. Worn to with-in an inch of their existence and soft. But hardly attractive, or for that matter, useful for anything other than dust rags. Especially the one with the stains on it that I also wear when I color my hair. Ahem. 

So do I really want to sleep in something that's nothing more than a glorified dust-rag?

As I contemplated my (lack of) a nightly routine, I realized I had fallen into the same trap with my night time clothes as I had done with my day time clothes.  Right before Christmas I finally broke down and bought myself a new flannel robe for these chilly winter evenings, and I think I bought a new nightgown the year before that. But besides those two things, I honestly can't remember when I bought myself something especially for night wear.    

.  And what about...

...those horrible slippers? The ones I like to call my "fuzzy slippers" except that there's no "fuzzy" left on the inside because they're twelve years old. I bought them to wear to the hospital when I was going to have a surgical procedure done, and they were the only ones I could find that were wide enough for my Flintstone feet.  They're too long for me, and they have no padding left in the bottom, and I realized a couple of nights ago that when I wear them, I don't walk, I shuffle.  Like an old person.  And old person who shuffles. 

So, what is a virtuous woman to do?

1. Continue to make the bed every day.  If it ain't broke, don't fix it.  This one is working well.
2. Continue the effort to get up (and stay up, not go back to bed after my husband leaves for work) and get dressed in real clothes, down to shoes, including hair and minimal make-up, every day. (in a timely manner) I may be having a forced schedule change soon which will solve this problem, but in order for that to work, I have to get more sleep, which leads right up to...
3. Work on my night time routine--make an effort to get un-dressed, washed, brushed, etc, and into night time clothes before everyone else goes to bed, and to bed my 11 p.m. or earlier (This should be much earlier, but I'm trying to be realistic at this point) which means I need to inventory my wardrobe, checking to see what else I have that needs replacing (like slippers), repairing, or just discarding.
And for the newest habit...
4. Pick one area of the house to start working on--which for me probably needs to be my extra bedroom, which is our office/library/extra clothes/junk room.  I need to do just one thing--work on one pile, or sort through one box, or straighten one shelf--every day.

You can read the other parts of this series here:

Establishing New Habits For the New Year

Make New Friends (Habits), But Keep the Old

Making New Habits--Sometimes Success and Failure Go Hand in Hand

Making New Habits--Sometimes You Just Gotta Go With the Flow

This post is linked to:

Make Your Home Sing Monday at Moms the Word

Titus 2sday at the Time-Warp Wife

Tackle It Tuesday at 5 Minutes for Mom

Works for Me Wednesday at We are THAT Family

Until next time...