In case it wasn’t obvious over the past 8ish (?!?!) years of me writing on this blog, I’m not a go-with-the-flow person—I’m going to ask what’s going on with the flow, where the flow is going, and most importantly, what’s the parking situation? (There’s a running joke with my friend and me that we won’t go anywhere if we can’t figure out where to park.)

I like routines, and you can pry my planner from my cold, dead hands. Meanwhile, Josh is a fairly go-with-the-flow kind of person, which I guess is a good balance to my strong desire for structure.

Me having a routine isn’t anything new; I’ve been like this for probably all of my life. I like knowing what’s going on, what’s happening next, and how early ahead of time I should start worrying about something. (Even with Prozac, you always gotta make some time for worry.)

But I’ve found that since this calendar year started, I’ve been craving my routines and schedules. Maybe it’s because it’s the only thing I can really control. The world is gonna world, and there’s no way I could ever control the rising gas prices, but I can sure as heck decide what I do with my own time.

Josh’s work schedule changed back in the fall, so I’m home by myself during the week at night. This was an adjustment for us and some trial and error when it came to dinners (he needs dinners that can travel well in a lunch box), and it messed with my sleep schedule for a bit because I wasn’t used to him coming home after I went to bed.

That’s when I started to make a weekday routine for myself:

• Mondays: run at my parents’ on their treadmill (or if the weather is bad, I stay home and ride the stationary bike and catch up on a new episode of my shows)
• Tuesdays: every other week, I have my dog rescue IT meeting, but if not, then it’s time I can read after work or run quick errands if needed
• Wednesdays: dance class! Or if it gets cancelled, I ride the stationary bike (or when the weather gets nice, go for a walk)
• Thursdays: run at my parents’ on their treadmill
• Friday: this used to be “date night” with my parents (our weekly dinner out got moved to Saturday nights), so now I try to make this night special for myself, either with new episodes of my shows and a glass of wine or making plans with friends

I have a running list in the Notes app on my phone of shows I want to watch, organized by streaming platform. These are typically shows I know Josh wouldn’t want to watch with me, so they’re a bit of a treat to watch one or two before I go to bed. These shows, either ones I’m currently watching, want to watch, or have watched, include The Pitt, Cross (season 2), Vladimir, Love Story, Paradise, Scarpetta, Veep, Heated Rivarly, and Tony & Ziva.

Since Josh and I eat our lunches together now, I lost my usual lunchtime reading, so for the past few weeks, I’ve been getting up an hour early in the morning to make my breakfast and read for at least 20 minutes. And so far, so good. There have been a few mornings where I’ve skipped it—like this morning because we got home late last night from seeing Project Hail Mary at the movies—but I’m trying really hard to stick with it.

There’s also another reason this year for schedules: bringing Miss Cannoli home!

I grew up having pets—we always had one cat and at least one dog in the house—so I know what day-to-day should look like with having a pet—meals, bathroom trips, play time, etc. Josh grew up with a dog, so he was familiar with daily pet care as well, just not with a seven-pound kitty.

It took us about a week to get into a pretty decent schedule with Cannoli, mostly regarding her meals and play time (since she can use the litter box whenever she wants). Since I work from home, I can give Cannoli her breakfast, dinner, and nighttime snacks, while Josh takes care of her lunchtime snacks. Josh will play with her in the morning after his breakfast and when he gets home from work before midnight, while I try to play with her after I have my dinner or around 7:00 pm. Now that we’ve had her home with us for over two months, it’s like second nature for us, and Cannoli, too.

I had a case of the winter blues these past few months—we got about 20+ inches of snow between two different storms in a month which finally melted a few weeks ago—but New England does its best during the spring when we can get all four seasons in a week. And don’t even get me started about allergy season in May. Acknowledging the winter blues and creating a routine for myself helped a bit, and I’m also looking forward to the late spring into summer, which includes my birthday, our week-long vacation to Cape Cod, and our annual trips to Maine.

So, for now, you’ll find me running on the treadmill and watching season 3 of Chicago Fire or with a book on the couch with a random women’s basketball game on during March Madness or playing with Cannoli so she’ll stop meowing for attention.