Routines.

All through college, I longed for a set routine. Just as soon as I got used to one set of classes and alarm clocks, the semester changed and with it my schedule and routine. Grad school was the same, and internship almost killed me between internship, an after-school job, planning a wedding, and sharing joint custody of weekends with Alex, who was living in Birmingham at the time.

Now that I'm a grown-up with a grown-up job and grown-up responsibilities, I have at last found a set routine. Sort of.

Most of my days go like this...

5:50-- Alarm #1.
5:59-- Snooze #1.
6:00-- Alarm #2.
Turn on Home Improvement-- the only thing other than local news and infomercials on before 7 am-- and begin the process of getting ready. I have whittled this process down to as little time as possible by showering, packing my bag and lunch, and picking out my clothes before I go to bed. At 6:34, I'm rounding through the kitchen to grab my lunchbox and my usual breakfast to-go: peanut butter crackers or granola bar and water.

I clock in at DMS at 7:00. The latest I've been is 7:03 which is a pretty serious accomplishment for me.

At school, there's no such thing as a routine in the counselor's office. When I get to my office by 7:05, I usually have a student or two waiting on me, in need of a schedule change (most requests: denied) or a listening ear for a bully report. Before long, I'm paged to the office for a withdrawal or enrollment. Before the end of first period, I have usually met with at least one teacher and two students. If I find a moment when my office is clear, I file paperwork. We're being monitored this semester, so I have to be sure that every-- all 480+-- permanent record has exactly what it needs, from up-to-date blue slip to home language survey to birth certificate. The cycle repeats itself from period to period with an occasional exception: parent conference or phone call, sitting in on disciplinary action, or contacting DHR. And sometimes if I'm really lucky, I get to go in a classroom for guidance lessons.

This week when I asked a group of students what my job was, they replied, "You're the one that makes the schedules."

Exactly. That's why I went to graduate school: to learn how to make your schedules. Unfortunately, that kind of thing sucks up a lot of my time.

I say none of that to say that I'm super productive and efficient; in fact, I often can't finish one thing before something else comes up. I'm only saying that my schedule at school is chaotic on a good day.

But I love it. I love getting there at 7 am and getting so invested in my work that before I realize it, it's 6th period, and when I sit down-- or sometimes stand at the counter in the teacher's lounge-- for a quick lunch, I look at my phone to see that it's 1:45. If there wasn't for lots of snacking along the way, I'd starve to death over my daily half-eaten lunch.

I leave school between 4 and 5. If I leave closer to 4 than 5, I get home in time to change and go to spin at 5. If I leave closer to 5, I just assume that I've put in enough work for the day and go home and crash in front of a Gossip Girl rerun.

Alex's schedule has been pretty much as crazy as mine lately, so we usually get home around the same time. We cook dinner two or three times a week, and on other nights we have what my mom always called "Whatever You Can Find" nights. These usually look something like breakfast for dinner, PB & J, leftovers (a staple at my house growing up but something Alex is still grappling with) or the occasional outing to Subway or Domino's.

Alex has been playing basketball with a group of guys once a week, and Mom comes over on Wednesdays for Girls' Night: I cook, and we watch So You Think You Can Dance or catch up on my cousin Danielle's latest and greatest adventures as a contestant on Big Brother (she's in the Top 3! woop woop!).

At the end of the night, we try to fit in our quiet time right before bed. I know that I'm outing myself just by my phrasing: "try to fit in" isn't exactly the way we want our spiritual lives to work out, but that's something we're actively working on. I'm reading "Breaking Free" by Beth Moore (surprise!) and Alex is working through "Radical" by David Platt. I've read it before, so I know exactly what he means when he looks at me and says, "Well, I guess we need to pack our bags and move to China."

By 9:30, the bags and lunch boxes are packed and clothes laid out, and Alex catches up on sports blogs while I read (currently reading: Cleopatra, a Biography). And soon after that, it's lights out in the Ruggles home. Macy, of course, spends her time between 10:00 pm and 6:00 am vacillating between guarding the house and chasing her shadow. Sometimes I even wake up around 2:00 am to find her standing on my chest, just to make sure I'm still breathing. She's thoughtful that way.

Meanwhile, we make a pretty good pair when it comes to chores. Sure, Alex's standard of clean is what most people would classify as "just short of disgusting," but he is most helpful when asked. We tag team a lot of things: I cook, he cleans the kitchen. I do the laundry, he folds the cloths. I sweep, he vacuums. And so on.

On weekends, our routine has been pretty standard: get out of town. Not usually by choice, but because of weddings or ballgames or some other social event. I guess that's "by choice," technically, but what I mean is that we don't have some burning need to leave town. In fact, we often find ourselves wishing we had a weekend when we could just sleep in, play in our yard, get things done around the house, and just hang out. If we could get through wedding and football season, we may find one of those weekends... of course, by the end of football season, it'll be engagement party season and then the cycle starts over again with wedding season. I guess we'll just embrace that we are very blessed to have wonderful people in our life that keep our social calendar full.

So that's that. Friday night's routine changes from week to week: we either go to Birmingham to start the weekend festivities early, have supper club with "the gang," double date with other old, married folk, or have Date Night. And tonight's my favorite: Date Night.

Here's hoping your weekend is serendipitous.