A Single Middle-Aged Woman...

Back from vacation.  I woke up early, not 5 a.m. early, but before 8 a.m. almost every day while visiting my sister last week. I felt so... productive .  When I get up early, I feel so much more productive; probably because I am! :) Plus, with the summer months and going outside to work in the yard, or do fun things, it's so much cooler. I have a ton of summer projects to complete, so I'm going to make good use of early rising to get them done before 2 p.m. so I don't pass out from heat exhaustion. So, I'm how many weeks into this adventure, six or so? It's starting to feel natural...you know, to wake early, to desire  to wake early, and to go to bed early so I can wake early. Last night, around 10:30 or so, a friend of mine brought over some furniture she was selling to me, and my sister, but now not my sister because I'm keeping the hutch...tee hee, it matches my dining table perfectly.  Another story for another time, but I had driven back fro...

Short entry to introduce a method I am trying out. In several of my posts I have mentioned that I am sensitive to light and prefer to wake up when the sun is up.  In a previous post or two back, I mentioned a how a lamp was helping with that. Well, last night, I decided to not use my phone alarm, which by the way I've moved from the dresser across the room to my nightstand, but more on that in a minute.  I turned off the phone alarm and decided to see if I would wake to the light of the lamp alone.   The lamp is on a timer to come on at 5:30 a.m. and go off around 6:30, because the sun is rising about that time right now.  (It's late spring here in central Texas...just in case you're, you know, in Australia or some place south of the equator where its winter.) I reasoned that since my consistency with this "becoming an early riser" transformation is kicking in and it feels kind of natural now to wake before dawn, that if I could train my brain to wake to t...

Beached but not ditched. So, on the first Monday of summer vacation, I woke up at 5:30 a.m., thanks to the glow of the lamp I installed in my bedroom with a timer switch last Wednesday.  When it clicked on this past Thursday morning, I woke very easily as the light is a soft golden color, much like a slow sunrise. You see, I went to the beach this weekend, so rising early today was not my intention and I could have forced myself to go back to sleep but that would defeat the purpose of this transformation and when I do that, I generally feel sluggish the rest of the day anyway, so I'm up and at it.  I do have a patio to install after all, which is my main motivation for rising early in the summer.  But, once that's done, then what?  We shall see. At the beach this weekend, I woke Friday morning at 6:30 a.m. without an alarm!  There was light streaming in through the windows, so it was inevitable.  As I've mentioned in previous posts, I am sensitive to ...

I may be losing my resolve.  I got up and turned off the alarm at 5:15, headed back to bed and told Siri to set an alarm for 6:00 a.m., which the virtual obedient 'she' did.  45 minutes later, I'm still exhausted, turn it off and laid back down for 7 minutes, forgetting there was a snooze button.  I'm up now, but I worry I am wavering. I sure didn't get up at 5:15 over the weekend. The research I've read, research being maybe one scholarly article and the rest blogs and articles, say consistency is a key component to success in changing a life long habit.  On the contrary, I read an article or two last week that said it's in our DNA, which I posted about, and don't bother trying to change what's likely inherent in one's nature.  Maybe that works for some folks, but I have at least five more years of work ahead of me before I can retire and have the luxury of rising with the sun, which by slipping back into bed this morning, I did. It's so...

This shit is hard.  I totally did not adhere to the schedule this weekend. Friday night I was up late... Ray Wiley Hubbard concert at Gruene Hall. Saturday morning...slept until 9-ish (a.m., not p.m.) 😜 Saturday night...I worked at my 2nd job until 9 p.m.  Ate a late night snack and I think I went to bed around midnight.  Jeez...middle-age sometimers again...I forget exactly. Sunday morning...up before 9. Sunday evening...dinner out with my daughter, ignored the 9 pm alarm to begin my bedtime routine and instead stayed up late watching "Chernobyl."  That's some grim stuff there, but interesting all the same. Monday morning (Memorial Day holiday)...up again around 9 a.m. Monday evening...will likely be a little late starting my bedtime routine because the family is meeting for dinner to celebrate my daughter's 37th birthday, (she will be out of town on her actual birthday, so we're doing it early). A negative verbal exchange where my daughter, who is curr...

Faltering...that's how I describe this little exercise as I close out my second week...it has been two weeks, right?  I checked, yes. Another annoying symptom of middle-age...remembering, or the lack of, I should say.  I think it's not because I can't, it is because I have so many electronic tools at my fingertips nowadays, that I just don't HAVE to.  Once upon a time, I could recite all my family and friends phone numbers and birthdates without so much as glancing at a calendar or address book...oh, I knew their addresses too!  Not today; not without my phone or laptop and internet.  It's sad really, and reconcilable, but that's not what we're here for. Today, we talk sleep or the lack there of, and will I continue to falter, or hang tough? I'm not really sleep deprived.  I have been pretty faithful to being in bed right around 10 p.m., give or take 10 minutes.  I read a page or three and then lights out. I'm probably getting more sleep, or ...

One week in and so far so good. Granted, I stayed up late on Friday night, but Saturday night I was in bed by 9:30.  I also did not set the alarm on Saturday or Sunday morning, but was up before 9 a.m. both mornings, which means I slept almost 11 hours Saturday night! So, here's a dilemma...what do I do this summer when I'm off contract and I don't have to be a work every day and every night is essentially a weekend night?  Do I stick with my 10 p.m. bedtime, 5:15 a.m. morning alarm?    I have plans to build a patio, by myself might add, but in Texas, one cannot live long doing that in the afternoon, so maybe there's my answer...my motivation to rise early, work on the patio before the heat sets in...which in July is 10 a.m.  Yeah, no shit.  Already, this morning when I went out to cover up the 'whatever it's called that my chimes bang against,' so they wouldn't wake my neighbors, it felt too warm to me, for 5:30 a.m., that is.  So, July's going ...