A Morning and Evening in the Life

Everyday Adventures

There’s been a lot of talk among different groups of friends and acquaintances about routines, lately. Getting up well, being productive, winding down. After the move my routines changed a bit out of necessity, and finding my new normal was a bit of a process.

Beginnings

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I remember a time when I only saw this side of 6 o’clock when I was still awake from the previous day…

My cell phone alarm goes off at the unholy hour of 5:45 am and I debate with myself whether or not I can sleep in another 10 minutes. There was a recent report circulating that getting up without hitting snooze makes it easier to get up in general, but try telling yourself when your husband is being all warm and snuggly and you know the world outside the covers is cold. But I get up, grab my clothes from the guest bedroom/adopted closet and try not to fall down stairs to go shower. Granted, that’ll change once the upstairs shower is installed (soon!) but it’s my reality for now.

This is my tiny getting-ready area of my office. The mirror was on the back of the closet door when we moved in and I squeeze my hair and makeup products in among my sewing supplies.

This is my tiny getting-ready area of my office. The mirror was on the back of the closet door when we moved in and I squeeze my hair and makeup products in among my sewing supplies.

While I’m getting ready for work I have to do things in a certain order or I will find myself, for instance, forgetting to put on deodorant or putting on only half my makeup. Forgetting things is such a big possibility in my mornings, that I had to start leaving my thyroid meds (the only one I take in the morning) on top of the fridge so I’ll see it when I go to grab my breakfast and lunch to pack up for the day.

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Judging by the odometer, this was a morning I stopped to get gas on my way to work. Happens every 4 days, now, instead of every 2 weeks.

Our local radio station in Thomasville plays some seriously old school music (think Johnny Mathis, Glen Campbell, and Barbara Streisand) and it makes for a nice and mellow start to my hour-long commute. Just past the county line it starts getting scratchy and I’ll either switch over to another low-talk oldies station or flip off the radio and dictate a post draft or project idea using an app on my phone. A friend suggested this as a way to reclaim some of the time it feels like I’m “losing” with the commute.

My journal, my planner are my life, it feels like.

My journal, my planner are my life, it feels like.

On Mondays, once I get to the office, I sit down with my planner and plot out my week. Other days I at least check it before getting started one whatever was left on my desk–if I don’t there’s a good chance I’ll forget something until it’s too late (like a phone meeting on the way home; oops!). I know a lot of people have moved to digital organizers and calendars on their phone, but there’s just something about writing everything down that works best for me.

Endings

A good evening routine, I think, is just as important for a good morning as getting up on time.

Even in summer a hot cup of tea was a welcome sleep signal for my internal clock.

Even in summer a hot cup of tea was a welcome sleep signal for my internal clock.

Bedtime is 11 o’clock but I’ve found that I need to start winding down at 10 in order to make that happen. I shut my computer down and brew a cup of tea to take up to bed with me–something I started doing about a year ago and it’s a wonderful little bedtime ritual. While the tea is brewing I’ll put together my overnight oats for the next morning, ensuring I don’t skip breakfast. I make up a big batch of the basic oat mixture and then just add my toppings and milk per portion each evening.

Organization is all about making it easier to live our lives instead of dealing with messes!

Organization is all about making it easier to live our lives instead of dealing with messes!

Once upstairs I pick out my outfit for the next day because I am seldom super coherent first thing in the morning. I recently got the upstairs “closet” arranged the way I like it–tops, bottoms, and dresses grouped together and organized by color–and it makes picking out an outfit that much easier. Then it’s just a matter of taking my medication and getting into bed with a book, magazine, or my Kindle so that I can further unwind before actually going to sleep.

Have you ever examined your morning and evening routines to see how they could better fit your day? Do you even have a routine?

Crafting the Ceremony: Wine Blending

Third Time Wife, Wedding Planning

It seems like the ring exchange is usually the last part of a ceremony before the presentation of the newly-wed couple. We’ve chosen to structure our ceremony a little differently, owing to some of the other rituals we want to include. The first of these is the unity ritual.

Unity candles and sand ceremonies are still probably the 2 main unity ritual options of today’s wedding ceremonies. But, like a lot of brides, I was looking for something a little different and more appropriate to our theme. I briefly considered a wine box but that didn’t really suit my idea of the perfect unity ritual (while some use locks, most of them involve hammering the box closed and that’s just way too jarring for me).

Then I remembered something I’d read in passing, several years ago, on the Adventures in Vineyard Land blog (now Schram Vineyards). They did a wine-blending ceremony: The Unity Wine Pour. I loved that idea, and decided it would be perfect for our ceremony unity ritual.

Of course, how to do it was the big question.

I mean, the mechanics are simple enough–pour two wines together and each drink from it, right?

But what wines, what do we pour into, who drinks first, do we drink together, etc. etc. etc.

Ideally I’d love to have a wine from each of our home states to blend together but Florida has pesky import laws that prevent individual wineries from shipping into the state without being part of an approved distributor network or some such. And, of course, the one Nebraska wine that I’ve tasted cannot ship here. Bother. That said, I still plan on stopping by the liquor store I frequent to see what they can get in and maybe even if we can do a sample tasting before committing. And if all else fails we’ll just go with a red and a white that’ll work–I just want to avoid blending something harsh. Not only would that be distasteful in practicality, it also wouldn’t be a great way to start off as husband and wife, right?

To blend the wine we’ll be pouring whatever wines we choose into a decanter. This decanter, in fact:

Susquehanna Glass Sonoma Pattern 64-ounce Classic Round Carafe | image via Overstock

Susquehanna Glass Sonoma Pattern 64-ounce Classic Round Carafe | image via Overstock

After a bit of a swirl together we’ll each pour the other a glass of the blended wine and we’ll toast each other.

Hand-cut Sonoma Grape Balloon Red Wine Glasses | image via Overstock

Hand-cut Sonoma Grape Balloon Red Wine Glasses | image via Overstock

My main concern with this ritual is the potential for getting red or rose wine on my dress. It’s almost enough to make me spray down my ensemble with Scotch Guard beforehand but, hey, I’ll live dangerously and skip that step. Probably.

Aside from which wines we’re using, we also still have to decide on a song to play for this part of the ceremony. I considered writing something for Friend-ficiant L to read while we do our thing, but figured it might be nice to give her a breather, too, after the vows, so a musical interlude it is. And to give our guests a clue at what’s going on, I’ve been looking up quotes and such that use grapes and vines as a metaphor for love, life, and relationships to include in the program. So far this one my Rumi is in the lead:

When grapes turn
to wine, they long for our ability to change

When stars wheel
around the North Pole,
they are longing for our growing consciousness

Wine got drunk with us
not the other way.
The body developed our of us not we from it.

We are bees,
and our body is a honeycomb.
We made
the body, cell by cell we made it.

–Rumi translated by Robert Bly

 After that we’ll return to our positions in front of Friend-ficiant L (the wine blending set-up will be at a separate table either off to the side or up at the top of the steps) for the last portion of our ceremony.