Friday Five

From Reverandmother - we are two souls with one mind these days it seems, since she writes what I have been thinking:

As many of you know, I have been experimenting with some severely curtailed Internet usage. I realized that I had gotten into some bad habits, which got me thinking about habits in general. I understand that a habits/random facts meme has already been going around. In the hopes that it hasn't hit too many of us yet, be as lighthearted or as serious as you'd like with the following:

1. Have you ever successfully quit a bad habit, or gotten a good habit established? Tell us about how you did it.
Lately, we've been thinking alot about bedtime here. We have gotten a good routine going with our son, based on one of those little charts with stickers. He loves stuff like that. However, my husband and I can't seem to establish one for OURSELVES. I start to bed, and walk by a sink of dirty dishes and think "I'll just throw those in the dishwasher" and an hour later, I'm folding a third load of laundry, having gotten a second wind. Or we'll watch a TV show on DVD, since it's shorter than a movie and we can to bed earlier, and then we'll watch another one and then one more and then... And, yes, that is us surfing the internet at 12:27 am.

2. "If only there were a 12-step program for buttery cinnamon toast lovers!"

3. Share one of your healthy "obsessions" with us. I love to walk. I walk every day, whenever I can. Even with this wholesome habit, I'm already a couple dozen pounds over a really healthy weight. If I didn't have this habit, I can't imagine...I guess they'd have to move me around with a crane.

4. Share the habit of a spouse, friend or loved one that drives you C-R-A-Z-Y.
Without thinking even a little I can say "answering your cell phone when I'm talking to you!" Or pretty much most cell phone behavior - phones that go off during meetings, obnoxious rings and talking while driving (although Im guilty of this one sometimes). Lately, I've added one other phone irritation -- getting the same message from the same person at all of my phone numbers. Unless you are taking my son to the hospital or you want me to do your father's funeral tomorrow, there is just no reason for that.

5. "I'd love to get into the habit of going to bed at 10:00 every single night. No matter how many interesting Battlestar Gallactica DVDs or sinks full of dishes there are in the house."

Bonus: What is one small action you might take immediately to make #5 a reality?
We're basing our current bedtime experiment on some guy's steps for waking up earlier (cant remember where I read this now) but we are setting our alarm for 6:00 and plan to actually get out of bed at 6:30 every day. The guy (who WAS that guy?) suggests you do this every day (although he suggests 5! and 5:15! GACK!) , even on days off and that you get enough sleep, not as you might think by having a regular bedtime, but by going to bed whenever your body is tired. Since my body most likes 8 hours of sleep every night, I'm hoping that eventually I'll start to have a regular bedtime at 10 pm. BTW, we've done it since Wednesday and so far we are 2 for 3, which is not all that great. But habits of deep laze die hard, evidently.

Bonus 2: Try it, and let us know how it goes in a future post!
Just try to get me to NOT talk about it...


As always, let us know in comments if you play. Even better, get in the habit of posting a direct link to your blog entry in your comment, using the following formulation:
what you want the link to say goes here
For a complete how-to, click here.