🌿 HELLO ME DIARY: Why do I say “rhythm” instead of “routine”?
HELLO ME DIARY
Why do I say “rhythm” instead of “routine”?
Rhythm:
a strong, regular, and repeated pattern of sound, movement, or time.
You’ll notice that I almost never call our day to day order a routine or a schedule.
I talk about our rhythm.
That’s not an accident.
routine:
a regular sequence of actions or a FIXED program
that you do the SAME WAY OVER AND OVER.
schedule:
a plan or list that shows what tasks, events, or activities WILL HAPPEN
and at what SPECIFIC TIME.
For a long time, I thought I needed a better routine. A better schedule. A better system.
Something that would finally make our days predictable enough that I could actually stay on top of everything.
And then I finally accepted I have four kids and a lot of animals. And they all come with even more chaos. 
I eventually realized that our house will never really do predictable.
Someone wakes up sick.
Someone forgets they need something at the last minute.
Someone has an appointment.
Someone needs a ride.
The toddler has decided today’s carefully planned schedule is personally offensive, especially if it requires being in the car seat for more than a mile.
The goats need hooves trimmed or decide to kid as I am headed out the door on a busy day.
The laundry multiplies.
Dinner happens somewhere in the general vicinity of when dinner was supposed to happen.
And sometimes life just… life’s.
So I stopped trying to make our days fit inside a rigid schedule.
Instead, I started thinking about the things we naturally come back to.
Not necessarily at exactly the same time.
Not necessarily in exactly the same order.
But the familiar rhythm underneath all the chaos.
I remembered reading, The Chopin Metaphor, in a writing class year ago.
A composer, Frédéric Chopin, known for his flexible rhythm approach to musical timing was later beautifully described through a tree: The trunk of a tree stands rooted and firm, while the branches and leaves sway freely in the breeze.
And something about that image stuck with me.
The trunk doesn’t have to move for the branches to move.
That’s what I want for our family.
A strong enough foundation that life can bend us without breaking us.
A routine can make you feel like you’ve failed when you don’t complete it.
A schedule can make a day feel like it’s already gone wrong after the first missed alarm. 
But rhythm?
Rhythm leaves room for life.
It lets the day, or the branches of our life, bend without completely breaking.
And I think that’s a kinder way of life.
I don’t need a perfectly scheduled life.
I need a life with enough rhythm that, when everything inevitably goes sideways, I know how to find my way back.
Our life is a rhythm 
Because we’re not trying to control every minute.
We’re just trying to keep moving together.
We’re building a beautiful life between coffee and chaos, not waiting for the chaos to disappear before we start living it.
Do you have a routine, a schedule, a rhythm…
or are you currently just free-styling your way through motherhood with caffeine?
Until next time…
Keep building a beautiful life between coffee & chaos,
💛 Tiffany
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