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Well, I'm not sure how well this is going to work throughout the year, but I'm giving this format a try. Guess I'll see if it becomes a rhythm I can stick to! I decided on Rhythm as my WOTY and thought that keeping a brief daily diary would help me see if those rhythm patterns would develop and settle into a groove over time. It may not be the most exciting blog post ever, but this is what the Rhythms of January looked like in my life.
Rhythm is my Word of The Year for 2024 because I realized I'd need to adjust my routines and work on my time management as I started a full time work schedule, and I couldn't be striving or fighting all the time - I need to establish a healthy, balanced rhythm to my days and weeks. And additionally, in the last part of 2023, I felt like God had really been speaking to me about the subject of Sabbath, and that he was inviting me to be more intentional about practicing and celebrating a Sabbath rhythm in my life. Here's my WOTY post to explain: WQ - Rhythm Inspires
January 1 - Is it wierd that it felt like sleeping in late to get up at 9am? Because that's about what time I got up to make coffee and start thinking about breakfast. And that was after staying up very late to ring in the New Year. Our son and his family stayed overnight after our little family party so we all had a big brunch of Maple Bacon Monkey Bread, Fried Cornmeal Mush, and Niejoashe Koake (New Year's Cookies - See my December Monthly Musing post for an explanation!). The New Year's Cookies didn't look so good because I let the oil get too hot, but I enjoyed them! After a nap and relax in the afternoon, hubby and I went for a walk at Blendon Woods and then dropped my car off for servicing tomorrow.
January 2 - Back to the rhythm of the work week! We had one of the cars serviced today so there was extra driving for me to do as hubby and I had to share one car. Tomorrow will be a repeat as we have the second car serviced. Looks like I will need to contact the business that did the last oil change to resolve a problem - like I have time to make more phone calls!
January 3 - The other car was serviced so another day of sharing a vehicle. Kind of a pain at work because my Teams app wasn't working and I really missed it. So handy to have simple questions answered quickly. Dinner + Discipleship in the evening is a welcome midweek rhythm!
January 4 - Well, an interesting day at work . . . the hard drive of my computer crashed, so half the day was taken up with getting a new computer and getting it up and running.
January 5 - Last day of being a part-timer! And a pretty routine day, nothing too special.
January 6 - Time to take all the Christmas decorations down! All done but boxing the tree. Made a meal plan for the coming week and did a stock-up grocery shop. Snow!
The very fact of snow is such an amazement. ~Roger Ebert
January 7 - Slept horribly, but got up early to go to worship team practice. I was on this week but Henry wasn't so we went to church in separate vehicles. Quick lunch and then a long nap - aaaah! Made dinner and a big pot of chili for later in the week. Boxed up the tree and vacuumed, still have the boxes of Christmas things to put back into the closet (if possible!). Henry started the hockey season so that will be part of our weekly rhythm for almsot three months.
January 8 - First day of the new job! Well, new hours at the job I've had for several months. It was a little strange leaving the house so early in the morning and then getting home with just enough time to grab a bite to eat and freshen up before heading out to chorus. So good to be back with the ladies singing barbershop after the break! But I was dead tired at the end of the day!
January 9 - Boy, it felt good to get home after work and just sit for the evening! Well, except I guess I didn't JUST sit . . . my husband needed a haircut so I did that, and I put in a load of laundry and tidied the kitchen a little bit after dinner. A birthday gift from my daughter was waiting for me when I got home too! I'd forgotten all about us browsing these t-shirts and laughing at them, and that she told me she was getting me one for my birthday so it was a fun surprise!
January 10 - When I got home from work, I had about ten minutes to get ready to go to church for Dinner + Discipleship. I commented to my husband that I'm really going to like Wednesdays because I don't have to concern myself with what's for dinner, but I'm not going to like having such a long, long day! Everything is a trade-off.
January 11 - Taught class in the morning and then went to work. It was nice to have a shorter day, but the lady that's been teaching me everything about the phones and accounts wasn't in so there was a bit more pressure. And so naturally that would be the day that I'd get some new-to-me situations to deal with that stressed me out and took a TON of time to deal with.
January 12 - Much easier day at work, but so tired when I got home! Spent a little of my birthday money on the way getting some nice Isotoner gloves that I've been wanting.
January 13 - Lazier day for me than I'd planned. Hub went to work for most the day. I did some housework and planned our menu for the coming week, but couldn't summon up energy to go shopping or to do any bigger tasks.
January 14 - slept in a little since I wasn't on worship team this week. Stopped after church to pick up my groceries, had a quick lunch and then a nap. Harrison and crew came over late afternoon and we put on the football game while I made dinner - chicken fried steak - and spent a relaxed evening together.
January 15 - Found out my mentor at work was sick and would be off for the rest of the week, so work was busier than I expected, especially since only two of us were answering phones. It was also a VERY cold day. Only had time for a quick bite of dinner before I headed out for chorus. A very fun and producctive rehearsal and we finished early, partly because of the cold and everyone wanted to get home and get warm!
January 16 - After a long day at work, I headed straight to Granville instead of home. Hubby and I had a meeting with a financial advisor in order to finish setting up our current retirement investments. Grabbed takeout on the way home for dinner, and once home I also had to get my chili made for Wednesday's chili cookoff.
January 17 - Another long day at work, but I broke it up by taking a longer lunch so I could hurry home and get the chili warming in a crockpot. Good thing I did because I was delayed leaving work, so hubby grabbed the crockpot and took it over to the church. I followed as soon as I got home from work. Dinner + Discipleship was different because of the chili/soup cookoff rather than our usual sit-down dinner. All the chilis and soups were very good, so I was very proud and happy to find out that mine received the most votes, and apparently I'm a Chli Champion! It was all a fundraiser for the youth that are going on a missions trip this summer.
January 18 - felt good to have a slightly more relaxed morning at home so I could teach the writing class. I made sure to be ready to leave for work as soon as class was over, and it was a good workday too. Learned a couple new things as I got help sorting out something I had been confused about the day before. After work had to swing by and pick up a prescription. Enjoyed planned leftovers for dinner and had a much-needed nap after dinner!
January 19 - I really need to leave the house just a little bit earlier, especially on snow days. Grrr. Work was fine, although my computer randomly decided to die and although it DID come back on with no ill effects, it took a LOT longer than it should have to reboot and caused a minor panic. In the evening I tried to get everything ready for my day trip on Saturday, shower, and get to bed earlier. I don't think I got to bed much earlier though, honestly.
January 20 - Got up early and got ready as quickly as I could so I could hit the road to Louisville. It had snowed overnight so I decided I would aim to be there in time for the second workshop session and if I missed the first, so be it. The roads weren't horrible, but it was slow going for the first hour or so because there was snow and slush and thankfully I wasn't the only person driving more slowly than usual. Had a wonderful day with my SVC friends attending some workshops, and performing in the evening. I would have liked to stay for the SVC get-together later in the evening, but I had a three-and-a-half hour drive home. I made one extra stop on the way home to just stretch out and close my eyes for about 10 minutes, and got home just before 2am.
January 21 - So glad I had said this was the one week I'd rather not be on worship team even though I'd be in town! I was tired and needed to sleep a little later in the morning. The church service was amazing though. We didn't get together with the kids because they'd been sick. Had a very long nap in the afternoon. Went out for pizza and to do the grocery shopping in the evening.
January 22 - Just an average day, but I was starting to feel a bit nervous about my upcoming oral surgery. Glad I checked my email at lunchtime, because I found out chorus rehearsal had been cancelled. This worked out well for me, because I had a little bit of time to stop at the store on the way home and pick up a couple of grocery items I'd forgotten, and I could actually sit down to eat dinner without rushing out!
January 23 - got up at our usual time and hubs drove me to the dentist. The implant procedure went very well, and although they checked four different sites to find a vein, there was only one failed stick before they got the anesthetic IV into me! I call that a win! Once hubby got me home and settled into bed with my meds and an ice pack, and instructions that I was to text him when I changed my gauze and took my next set of meds, he went to work for the rest of the day and I mostly slept the rest of the day. A disruption to the workweek rhythm but nice to just lay low.
January 24 - going back to work wasn't too bad, but I was weak and slightly woozy. Could have been fallout from the surgery and meds, could have been because I hadn't eaten much. It was fine though, and pain was manageable. Hubby did not fare so well and was feeling pretty poorly by the afternoon, and came home with flu symptoms, so we both took the night off from church and stayed home to rest and eat soup for dinner. So much for the Wednesday evening routine!
January 25 - hubby stayed home sick today and I just kind of struggled through myself. Good thing I had class to teach in the morning because if I'd had to drive to work early and be there all day I don't know how I would have managed. Still fighting off a cold or something so a rather blah day.
January 26 - felt a little more normal today, though tired. Napped when I got home and then had a light dinner of soup and cheese toast. Roasted a brined turkey breast for tomorrow's dinner, and got to bed before midnight, despite the nap!
January 27 - relaxed Saturday at home. I still haven't been able to motivate myself to get a whole lot of housework done on Saturdays like I think I should, but to be fair, I was still recovering from bronchitis or something similar this week and it sapped my energy. Made a nice dinner of the turkey breast, tidied the kitchen, did laundry and grocery shopping, and ended the day with a very nice hot bubble bath. Haven't done that for a long time!
January 28 - a rainy Sunday. We napped for a bit after lunch, and then Harrison and crew came in the afternoon. We watched football together, and Veronica helped me bake a cake. Ordered bbq for dinner and enjoyed a video call from Kennady as she is on her trip to California.
January 29 - I actually felt like I had a good handle on my rhythm as far as work went today! But I was tired - not sleepy so much as exhausted - and kept going back and forth over whether I should go to chorus in the evening or not. In the end I decided not to, because I coughed a lot in the afternoon and on the way home, and knew I wouldn't be able to sing. Plus if I was coughing it was sure to make others uncomfortable. Stayed home and had a little nap and tried to have a relaxing evening.
January 30 - I was so happy to have a really smooth morning routine and be out the door to work in good time . . . and then there were four accidents in about a two to three mile stretch of the highway, and traffic was painfully slow. Result being I was almost half an hour late for work. My rhythm was definitely interrupted! On the plus side, I did not feel any real stress about it, either because I was late or because I was stuck in heavy traffic. I realized there was nothing I could do to change it so I just rolled with it. That sounds more like the "old" relaxed me! Other than that, the day was uneventful. Oh, I enjoyed chatting with my friend while on my drive home! We'd had a regular weekly phone call for many months, with a few interruptions for vacations and illnesses, but we've had trouble establishing a new regular day once I started working longer hours. Hopefully we'll find a new rhythm for that valuable connection!
January 31 - I had my follow-up appointment with the oral surgeon first thing this morning, which went quickly, so still made it to work by nine. I got home from work in pretty good time and we were glad to be back to our Wednesday evening rhythm of Dinner + Discipleship. And this evening I need to finish my other Wednesday evening rhythm, which is making sure my lesson is ready to go for tomorrow's class.
I kept this record as a sort of daily diary, writing a couple lines each evening to summarize the day. As I reviewed it and added a few photos today, I tried to see patterns developing and if I was trending towards improvement in managing time and balance. I think my morning routine is getting pretty efficient, and I know how much time I need to get ready. I'd like to try getting out the door five to ten minutes earlier in hopes of taking a less stressful route to work but I don't know if that will be a worthwhile tradeoff or not. I guess I won't know until I try it! I'm also getting more consistent with getting to bed on time and being able to get good sleep, but there's still room for improvement (and hopefully for a few minutes more of restful sleep!) there! What I really need now is a good rhythm for working on my blog hobby!
As you can see, there wasn't anything big and exciting on my calendar in January, and I don't have anything big planned for next month either. But that's okay, because a good stretch of ordinary and low-key is helping me settle into a routine, and a well-established routine will be easier to get back to when there are big exciting events to add excitement to the rhythm of my life.
What's Been On My Calendar? #WBOYC
This post is linked at What's Been On Your Calendar #WBOYC hosted by Deb's World.
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