Alright - so I literally just brain dumped on a melancholy day with that last post and wow. So many of you really resonated with it! So Here I am again to further explain a couple things. What the difference is (in my brain) between a routine and a rhythm.
Wether faith and Gods unchanging character matter when it comes to routines and rhythms.
I can't remember where I first heard about rhythm being a thing for anything outside of music... it was probably a podcast. It was fascinating to me and I won't say life changing but for sure life affecting.
Routine to me is having a schedule. A set time and place for everything during my day.
I've tried cleaning schedules. Monday is living room. Tuesday is bathroom. Wednesday is bedroom. Thursday is back deck (why does that get trashed so quickly??) Kitchen is everyday...
Nope. I couldn't stick to it.
I've tried to do block scheduling - I will put breakfast down for the kids, start laundry, clean up breakfast prep and get dressed between the hours of 7 and 8. I will go out and feed animals, start homeschool between 8 and 9. Etc. Didn't work for me.
I've tried a myriad of other things to get a scheduled daily routine down since I had my first child 5 years ago. Nothing has ever stuck. Because you know what isn't routine? The first 5 years of a child's life. Naps are constantly changing. As soon as I thought I figured out the pattern of sleep it changes. Then they get a little older and suddenly I can't start homeschool at 9am because we have a swimming lesson or something one day a week at 9am and then that throws off the whole day.
"Start over when the sun rises" yeah thats fine till the next interruption. The next time someone pops in unannounced for a visit. The next vacation. 3 day weekend. Grandparents offer to take the kiddos for a day of grandparent fun.
See? Theres always a distraction. A disruption to my set schedule.
I hated constantly feeling like I was a failure when I didn't get the living room vacuumed on a Monday or meals prepped on a Sunday (even though we still had remnants from last weeks meals prepped because surprise dinner invite pushed the planned meals back a day.. see? nothing stays as I scheduled it!).
There are certain things that need to get done every week. Laundry. Meal prep yes. Vacuuming yes. School yes. extra curricular lessons yes.
And also things that pop up.
Last minute dinner invites. Spontaneous days with grandparents. The weather turns out to be beautiful so we don't want to stay inside and go to a park instead.
Enter rhythm. I have certain things that happen every week at the same time. Take church for example. You will find me every Saturday morning (more on that if you're interested later. No I'm not Jewish) at church. Thats a set checkpoint in my week. Vacuuming? Thats not a set point.
I swing from checkpoint to checkpoint during my week - theres one every other day or so - and leave the rest open and flexible. Sometimes we do homeschool at 9am. Sometimes it's not till 6pm. But things get done. Instead of focusing on meal prep MUST be done on a Sunday, I have a goal for it to be Sunday but if we still have a lot of leftovers when the weekend rolls around then I push it off. Meal prep is a rhythm in my life. Something that needs to be done but not on a certain day or at a certain time.
My days have kind of a swinging feeling to them, a gentle up and down from one thing to the next. From one day to the next. Never knowing *exactly* what we'll find but having a decent idea.
This may seem chaotic to some people. I have dear loved ones that thrive on a set schedule. They know exactly what everyday will look like. I don't understand them. They don't understand me. And in this instance, that is OK! There are some things where "you do you boo" is perfectly OK. We are all different parts of the same bigger picture.
"14For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many parts, yet one body." - 1 Corinthians 12:14-20
Now that verst is talking about spiritual gifts yes, but I think it applies here. I'm glad not everyone lives life on rhythm. I'm happy for some that live on set schedule. I'm glad for those of us that do live on rhythm. I am speaking as a stay at home mom hobby farm-ist but I know office workers that live on schedule and I know office workers that live on rhythm. Either one works.
Now how does the unchanging nature of God fit in? Well. I had swung my way over to this blog post and now I'm going to swing my way over to my youngest baby who... yup you guessed it. Is changing her sleeping times just when I thought I had it all down. We'll talk about God next time I can swing past this blog. Keep learning, all!
