I'm Back!

Okay, so I haven't done so well with this whole blogging thing.  But one of my many New Years' goals (I don't like to call them resolutions), is to become a regular blogger.  You know--like-posting regularly.  So I am here today to say that I am back with renewed determination to rekindle my blog.  Yay!

I have a whole list of New Year's Goals this year, but the theme that runs consistently throughout all of them, is this desire to get in the habit of certain routines.  I am a creature of habit, personally.  My eldest son, "Winter", is very much the same.  Winter needs a lot of structured routines, and I am realizing that I have a lot of those same basic needs.  So this year's theme is ROUTINE.

Routines are important for many reasons.  It takes some of the chaos out of life, children like the predictable nature of a routine and function better.  A lot of the research I pulled in preparation for this New Year's goals talked about children and routines, but I think that even adults need routines; pets certainly like to be fed on a routine-basis, and isn't this whole world built upon routines (weather cycle, seasonal-cycle, orbitational cycle, etc.)?  So, I put forth that routines are important for all life, and for you, too.

It can be hard to get in the habit of those new routines though.  I made routines for everything (I made up charts for myself, and routine-charts for Winter that utilized a pec/image system), routines for the chores, routines for the meal-planning, routines for homeschool, and routines for the kids.  I have a routine in place for my garden, and a very specific system (which I will go into more detail about as garden-season approaches).  I have routines for my writing, and routines for the childrens' personal hygiene.  Okay, so this may be a bit extreme for most folks, but you get the idea.

All of these routines serve one purpose for me:  they organize my time, to allow me to be as productive as possible.  In this way I can make the most of my days.