Okay. I tried something new yesterday and it didn’t really work for me. I didn’t like it. What is it, you ask?  . . . . . . I strayed from my normal morning routine.  (-GASP-).

To back track a bit, on my trip to Florida with the girls, I confessed my rigid daily Mon-Fri routine. As I said it aloud, I realized how crazy I sounded. So. . . .

Yesterday: The middle one missed the bus, so I had to venture out (in sweats without a shower and, more importantly, coffee) into rush hour traffic to take the always-tired, sleep-til-the-last-minute teenager to school. Since my routine was already askew, I just went with it and deliberately didn’t do the following in my usual routine: my usual laundry rotation (move load from washer to dryer, put new load in washer), fold the newly dried load, clean up the breakfast remains, and unload and load the dishwasher.

What did I do?  I did make my bed (I can’t let that go), got my paying job work done, did eventually go swimming at 1:00pm and then took my shower (finally!).

Oh, I forgot to mention that I didn’t make the scrumptous dinner I had planned either – I just wasn’t into it (and, that is weird). Everyone had to fend for themselves.

I was going with it……

Then. . . . . I woke up this morning and the dishes were still there, the laundry was still there (and growing) and the downstairs was a mess. Now, I had multiple loads of laundry to fold, the huge mess in the kitchen to clean up (including new breakfast dishes) and the downstairs to straighten. What did straying from my rigid routine get me?  Bigger messes that took longer to clean up.

My experiment didn’t work. This winging it thing only works for me when I’m on vacation (yes, there is vacation-jenni and real-world-jenni). Real-world-jenni needs routines to keep her sane – that’s all there is to it.

I’m glad we finally got that straightened out!