discombobulated

You know the more I thought about the matter of routine the more I realised how much a lack of it had been affecting me over the last week.

Coming back from holiday on a Monday rather than a Sunday threw me to start off with, then a little thing I know but my washing got done on a Tuesday rather than Wednesday. But Wednesday I started the first of a run of lunch covers at the other kindergarten in town so different routines & children although for both Weds and Thurs I was working with at least one if not two teachers I'd worked with at AWK!

Thursday morning life turned upside down when I was woken by Phyllis falling in the hallway and as it turns out fracturing her hip. She's away 'down the line' in Whangarei as our hospital doesn't stretch to orthopaedic surgery. So I've taken on the mantle of her P.A. and being information central...

So this means not only is my 'usual' routine of last year out the window but I haven't even got hers to anchor me to a day in the week (she's writing a sermon so it must be Tuesday evening) or week in the month (it was Golden Age today so that makes it the 3rd Tuesday of the month).

Rudolph Steiner had a lot to say about the importance of routine, within the day, week and year. Especially he felt this was so in the realms of education and working with adults with special needs - when working at Garvald I don't know that I ever really quite 'got it'. I could understand it from a theoretical point of view but for me as a staff member my own life was so lacking in consistency due to shift work I didn't live it in such a way that it was meaningful (that irony was not lost on us at the time I can assure you!). But the last few days have really made me think about it and how routine enables me to cope with things, and when I have to think about the things I usually just do because it is ....day because they haven't happened/happened on a different day it has meant coping with the unexpected has been that much more overwhelming.

I probably didn't help my own cause in that case by doing my washing today, a day 'early' again - as Wednesdays used to be my day off it was the best day to get it done. I have to work tomorrow as I did last Wednesday, oh my poor befuddled braincells! However on Thursday I will collect my milk delivery and another part of my life will fall back into it's normal pattern (last Thursday having been chaos and I forgot). It has been almost with a sense of relief over the last few days that I've made up the next batch of rosemary hair rinse, a batch of toothpowder, a jar of yoghurt, another tub full of fruit and nut mix, and a big pot of soup frozen in portions for packed lunches. Just normal every day type activities that give definition to where I am in the week and month.

I suppose in this bid to regain some normality of routine back into life it means I'd better do the cleaning tomorrow afternoon once I'm back from work. Normally the home help would be here doing that but she can't go to a home if her client is in hospital (bummer... I must admit I do like having a home help do the floors and bathroom!), then if nothing else at least it will feel like a Wednesday in that the house will smell clean!

At least the uncertainty over whether I'd be going away or not on Thursday has been sorted and I'll just be at home over the weekend, which I am extremely grateful for. Given when put on the spot today I struggled to think through a problem that should've been a doddle I don't think I'm really in the right headspace yet for thinking beyond anything beyond domestic arrangements! Fingers crossed though the carpet will come soon and then at least I can get the house back to looking more like normal again, for my sanity's sake let alone Phyllis' safety!