January 31, 2013 Oy! These new habits are KILLIN' me!

I've been a bit under the weather for the last couple of days and haven't kept up with things as much as I should.  I was even home by 9:00 after dancing tonight which just never happens!!  After cleaning sandboxes and watching a little tv, I was all set to make it an early night (at least it was early for me) when I wandered into the kitchen to shut off the lights and realized that I needed to set up the coffee pot for tomorrow.  As one thing always does lead to another, I noticed that I needed to grind some more beans and since I was already in the kitchen and had to wait for the beans to grind, I may as well make tomorrow's breakfast after all, right?  Which of course, led to cleaning up the kitchen afterwards. 

So much for my nice, relaxed, ready for bed mood!  Now I'm wide awake so I might as well do my nightly post which I was ready to allow myself to skip tonight in the interests of getting to bed early.  But since that isn't happening anyway now that I've made breakfast for tomorrow, set up the coffee pot, cleaned up the kitchen and washed the cats' plates...  Well,  you get the picture.  But my point is, I've created these habits over the last few months and now, I just can't seem to skip them, no matter how much permission I might give myself! 

I'd read that it takes a month to make a habit.  But they didn't say anything about how, once you've made it, you're stuck with it!  Granted, these really are good habits for me to have established, but now, my darned self refuses to cut me even the tiniest bit of slack!  Even this morning, I set myself a reminder to get up early so I could wash my hair and made today's food last night.  Would you believe I was too efficient and got out of the house ten minutes early???   This efficiency stuff is downright insidious.  It creeps into your life and before you know it, you're all organized and ahead of the game all the time!  If this keeps up, I'll be going to the gym 5 times a week, dancing 4, getting up at the crack of dawn to do exercises, jumping on the Wii Fit every chance I get and reviewing line dances in my living room!  People are going to start asking what I did with Sheri! 

I'm even starting to get twitchy when there is stuff on my counters!  I am compelled to put everything away instead of letting it sit around for a day or two!  Even the cats are starting to get worried.  I don't leave all of that wonderful stuff around for them to drag through the house.  Tonight when I got home, I discovered that, out of desperation, Toby had opened up a kitchen cupboard and started pulling plastic containers out!  Poor guy couldn't find his toys so he had to improvise!  (little does he know, they're put neatly away in a gift bag stashed behind one of his trees!)  It's getting to the point where the only thing they recognize about me is cuddle time, and the way things are going, they're going to be dodging my feet more often than not very soon!  I really cannot wait to try out the Wii Fit now that Heather figured out how to get everything hooked into my TV.  This one is supposed to have new, extra special stuff on it too!  And the best part is, I don't have to share it or wait my turn like I did the last one that was in my house!  I just have to teach Toby and Dylan not to lie on the step thingie when I'm trying to exercise! 

Tomorrow night, while the kids are having game night with their friends, I will be Wii Fitting and working on the line dance Candy will be teaching in March.  I started looking through the step sheet tonight and the dance I learned on the cruise just a couple of weeks ago was only vaguely familiar.  Thankfully, the one she taught tonight, and which we flash mobbed, came back a lot more easily!  But I think if I walk it a few times, it will start to be familiar again! 

Egad!  The idea of jumping up and down instead of sitting and relaxing is getting me all excited.  This making habits stuff is clearly getting out of hand.  But at this rate, I will be bathing suit ready long before the next cruise.  Is that really a bad thing? 

My gratitudes tonight are:
1. I am grateful for my new habits.
2. I am grateful for reminders from my friends to slow down, relax and let go of stressful things.
3. I am grateful for my dance friends and fellow "cruisers".  (although, frankly, that makes us sound like a box of disposable training pants!)
4. I am grateful for my son-in-law who brought me aloe vera body butter for my poor, burnt cleavage!
5. I am grateful for the warm, soft bed that is waiting for me to crawl into and snuggle with my kitties.

Love and light.