Sunday 11 October 2015

Habit.

Here is the schedule for our day, seven days a week:

Get up - Farmer 6.20am, me 7.00am after cup of tea in bed.
Breakfast 7am to 8am - porridge cooked by farmer, papers to read over breakfast, collected by farmer from local newsagent at 6.45am.  (no papers on Sundays).
8am The farmer walks round his estate with Tess.
Various activites during the morning - often I meet friends for coffee/scone etc.   Farmer does jobs around the farm.
12.30pm.  Lunch - our main meal of the day - almost always a cooked meal.
1.30pm.  Take Tess for a walk for around half an hour (me) 
4.00pm.  The Farmer takes Tess around his estate again.   I begin to
prepare tea (usually sandwiches) so that we can sit down together at just after 5pm to watch 'Pointless' over our tea.   Tess has hers at the same time.
We do a variety of things during the evening, mostly trying to fit in an hour's Rummikub (a game we both enjoy playing) and we almost always go to bed sometime between 10.00 and 10.30pm.
Even if we go out to friends in the evening, or friends come round to our house we still wind the evening up about that time, because most of our friends are in the same line of business and need to rise early.

We do have set appointments which go on the calendar at the start of each month - Physiotherapist, Hairdresser, Exercise class (for me) and Walking Groups, Auction Markets (for the farmer).  My weekly order for food is delivered, having been ordered on line, at the same time each week.

Does all this sound boring?    Maybe it does to some folk reading it, but to us it makes for an ordered life and one which gives us scope to enjoy life and to make adjustments as and when necessary with the minimum of fuss.  People coming to stay are easily accommodated into the routine.

Yes, I admit - we are creatures of habit.  Are you?

17 comments:

Gwil W said...

I'm intrigued by your game.
Never heard of it. Maybe
google has it. I will look.

Joanne Noragon said...

I used to play Rummycube with mom and the children. I'd forgotten about it.

jinxxxygirl said...

i dare say i'am a creature of habit.... for some things but not all... like you there are flexible times in my day...

We wake at varied times.... I've found that to be one of the joys of 'retirement'... Some mornings i rise early.. with the birds and have my coffee and read the blogs i like to read in the quiet predawn hours... Jinx is happy for the early feeding time... :) Other mornings ... especially when its chilly...i stay in bed and snuggle with hubby.... after all neither one of us has to go to work... But no matter how it plays out i'am always the first one out of bed...

Make my coffee .... and linger over it still in my pajamas... something else i relish since not working... Hubby hops out of bed into his clothes.. grabs a glass of milk, takes his pills and gets busy doing what ever he has planned for the day... I'm just not built that way... i need to 'linger'...lol

I'm finally dressed and ready to go between 8am and 9am... and start working on whatever project on the house we have going for the day... Sometimes we stop for lunch and others we work thru and then stop for an early supper... We usually are finished working on the house by the time we have supper... then shower and call it a day... By 7pm we snuggled on the couch watching TV...I like to sketch and draw while watching TV too.... We've been taking nearly every Sunday off... so we can do something else besides working on the house... :) I don't think your days sound boring Pat... theres something very comforting about a schedule.. Hugs! deb

A Heron's View said...

We do not have a schedule or even a daily routine.
We both ditched the timetables many, many years ago, long before we ever met.
As a couple we live life to the full in an easy going style, eating when we are hungry, drinking when we feel like doing so. Rising from the bed at no particular time, sometimes I'm up before dawn and return for another snooze a couple of hours later.
Going to bed is any time between 11.30 p.m and 3.30 a.m depending on how good the book is, for we are both avid readers.
The only time that our non - routine changes is when we have visitors staying overnight and then only slightly :)
To each their own is my motto.

The History Anorak said...

Weekdays we have a routine. Weekends - anything could happen!

Wilma said...

I have an early start - I wake up and usually get up before the sun, by 5:30 at the latest. I try to be quiet so that my husband can sleep longer since he is not the "lark" that I am. Our building crew arrives at 6:00am and are on site until noon 6 days a week. I bring a cup of coffee to Dennis in bed about the time the crew arrives. We each prepare our own breakfast and lunch, although sometimes I make lunch for both of us. I prepare dinner about 5 days a week and Dennis does the other days. The person who cooks is exempt from kitchen cleanup! We spend most of our time right here at home, but make the long trip to the nearest village for shopping (food and construction materials) and picking up payroll for the crew at least once a week. The trip takes nearly half a day. And we have excursions farther afield once or twice a month. At present, while we have construction going on, we feel that one of us must be here all the time to keep an eye on things since we are acting as own contractors. I spend a lot of time with the work crew because I did the design for the construction and know all the details. Dennis takes care of all things electrical; he designed and orchestrated the installation of our solar power system. Things should loosen up for us in the new year. This retirement is hard work!

Devon said...

Gosh, that schedule sounds wonderful...I live by a schedule or I don't get everything done that I need to accomplish. I work full time, so workdays is: up by 5:15a, on the elliptical for 40 min. Shower and dress, very quick breakfast. Off to work at 7:15a. Usually home from work at 6:15p, dinner and dishes. Visit with family at table. To bed by 9:30p.
Weekends up by 7a. linger over tea and computer until 8a, breakfast then walk about 1 hour. Laundry, gardening, grocery shopping and any errands that come up or need doing, clean house.

I love how you have fun with friends scheduled into your days. I've spoken to my work colleagues and they all have schedules like me, very little time spent with friends as by the time they work, do chores/errands and spend home time with family, there isn't much left to put into friendships. I wonder if this is a regional problem or more worldwide?

Barbara said...

I don't think your schedule sounds boring at all. Although I love reading/hearing about other people's little routines and rituals (I think I'm just kind of nosy)
Personally, I find some sense of comfort in a schedule, and I would probably plan everything a little too strictly. Living on a farm you always have to allow for the unexpected...and the weather.

Rachel Phillips said...

I believe habits should be reviewed from time to time so that they don't develop into ruts.

John Going Gently said...

Habits are there for a reason......routine ........i love it

Mac n' Janet said...

Not boring if it works for you. After years of having to get up early for work we now sleep in till at least 8am, it's heaven.

angryparsnip said...

Whatever works for you then it is right.
Plus you have the extras to change up the day, Sunday walks, movie out, lunch with friends.

Although I don't travel to work I still keep up a routine. Not up at 6:30 anymore but I have to feed the dogs give the insulin shots and eye drops and pills. So much of my day revolves around the different hours of Square Ones meds.

I do the important work, bills and doctor appointments, market early in the day. So if I get tired I can rest in the afternoon. The afternoon it is my time to work at my art and the garden.

cheers, parsnip

thelma said...

Not a routine person, early riser, very quiet though because LS is an owl, whilst I'm a lark. Computers are good for early people we can dabble around on them reading etc. The day will be filled with the usual jumble of things house wise, and then there is knitting, patchwork and spinning to fill in the odd spots.

thelma said...
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Heather said...

We have a routine too - I find it makes life easier, but if we have to be flexible and do something on a different day I am totally lost and don't know what day of the week it is. It reminds me of an old lady who lived near my mother - she would stop passers by at her gate and ask them: 'Be it Friday night or Saturday night'. I'm not quite there yet, but close!

The Weaver of Grass said...

Hope I don't get as bad as Heather's old lady!! But thinking about it it does help to keep track of the days if you have a schedule.
Thanks for visiting.

Bovey Belle said...

Fairly habitual here too - certainly come 9 p.m. many nights we are yawning and ready for bed, even more so after a Malvern weekend when we are up at really silly o'clock. It takes us till Wednesday to catch up!

The day time isn't so regimented now I have my little business, so we are often out of a morning, and if it's an auction, it can be all day, so I am always chasing my tail to catch up with housework and gardening. Love it though. Never a dull moment.