New Home = New Routine

Ryan and I have been in our new home for eleven weeks now. I can't even believe it, because it absolutely feels like we have always been here, and Kokomo has always been home. That's a gift, I suppose, because I lived in Marion for sixteen years, and I know it's not always a smooth transition to uproot and feel so completely at home in a new place.

People ask us if we're feeling settled yet, and I'm happy to say yes. All the boxes are unpacked, everything has found a home, and while we are the Shaffers and therefore never exempt from projects of some sort, we are also officially settled.

I think the most surprising thing for me, other than the fact that I feel like this has always been home, is the utter upending of our entire schedule.

I did not expect this.

This month marks one year since I left WBCL and began a new life as a wife, writer, and speaker, and I felt like prior to the move, Ryan and I had settled into a nice routine. Ever the OCD scheduler girl that I am, I had created a good balance of writing work, homemaking work, and relationship fostering. I established boundaries and knew what I expected of myself in the different facets of my life.

To be truthful, I thought all that would continue, mostly uninterrupted, once the boxes were unpacked. After all, the only thing that changed was our location. It's not like either of us changed jobs or we got a pet or had a baby. I could see how any of those things could dramatically change a schedule. But a mere move? No way!

Except...yes way.

Ryan and I talked about this the other day, and he said he feels it too: everything is different now. Every routine that we have plodded through for the last three and a half years looks completely different. Little things that we didn't anticipate have created the need for a new normal.

Please don't misunderstand; we are in no way complaining about it. It's not even remotely a hardship. It's just surprising.

We have always gotten ready in the morning in separate bathrooms, but our new house has a bathroom right off the master bedroom, so we wanted to get in the habit of getting ready in the same space. But there is only one sink and no additional counter space, so I ended up changing my station to a dresser in our bedroom, just outside the bathroom door. It's strange to me how that one little habit of getting ready in the same space has changed everything about how we get ready in the morning. {And truthfully, it has probably been the hardest adjustment. Now that is just crazy!}

Knocking out a commute has changed our morning routine, our lunch routine, and our evening routine in beautiful ways, but also in ways that make everything else about those times of the day look different. We usually eat lunch together, which means I stop my own work earlier before lunchtime so I can cook for us. I stop working earlier in the afternoon so I can get a head start on dinner. Our morning devotions are not nearly so rushed. Our twice-daily phone call during an extended commute has been knocked out entirely.

Different is beautiful, but also so surprising.

I feel like I'm just now getting the hang of the new normal. Just now beginning to understand how to lay out each day so it is a mix of productive and relaxing. We're revamping our date nights, our workouts, our church involvement, and even our grocery shopping, to fit a new home, a new town, and a new schedule.

Beautiful chaos. A welcome surprise.