day in the life: quarantine edition

The first thing I do in the morning is make my bed and get ready. I feel so much less productive if I don't get ready in the morning, so I think its a crucial part of doing online school during quarantine. If I don't, I feel significantly less motivated and end up just sitting and doing nothing.

Then I come downstairs and make my breakfast. Today I had oatmeal with dark chocolate chips and almond butter and a vanilla chai latte. I've been trying to drink tea instead of coffee to lessen the amount of caffeine I drink. I looked up how much caffeine was in a cup of tea versus a cup of coffee and I was so shocked. There was at most forty-seven milligrams of caffeine in a cup of tea versus about 95 milligrams in a cup of coffee. That's nearly half the amount. I will still drink coffee a few times a week because I love it so much and miss it already. I really just want to attempt to lower my stress and cortisol levels, especially because the end of the semester gives me enough stress as it is, I don't need anything else adding to it, and coffee can definitely do that. I was trying to drink Earl Grey every morning, but if any of you are tea drinkers, you know that Earl Grey has basically no taste whatsoever, so I always ended up just drinking coffee too. Then I started making chai lattes with K-cups I have for the keurig and I have been loving them. They are so cozy and delicious, and give me enough energy in the morning to get started on the day and on my school work.

After making my chai and my oatmeal, I did my Bible reading. I am currently doing the She Reads Truth study on the book of Acts. I personally think that reading your Bible every morning is very important. Not only do I find that I feel so much more anxious and irritable during the day if I don't read in the morning, but its also so important to be constantly in the Word to learn about God and form a deeper relationship with Him. I am planning on making a post all about how I study the Bible soon, so keep an eye out for that if you need some tips to improve your Jesus time or to get started. 

After reading my Bible, I planned out the week. I usually do this on Sundays, but I had a lot to get done this past Sunday, and quite frankly just didn't want to worry about planning everything out yet. During this time I usually look online and see what all is due this week and put those assignments/exams/quizzes in my planner. I then make out a to-do list for the day so I know what all I have to get done. If I have a really busy week I will make a to-do list for every day just to feel more organized and to make sure I plan when I'm going to do things so I don't end up leaving all my big assignments for one day. This week is fairly slow, though, so I only made a list for Monday. A little tip for your planner: have different colors assigned for different classes. After a couple weeks you will get used to them and automatically know which color represents the work for which class. If I didn't do this I think I would feel so much more unorganized even though I put it all in my planner. I also use different symbols for things. For example, in the picture below assignments with a square around them are due that day, but assignments with a cloud-looking-thing around them are things that are happening on that day. 

After I planned out the day, I started working on some assignments and watching the lectures for my Monday classes and taking notes on them. 

Then I took a little lunch break and watched some YouTube. My lunch this day was some wedding soup and a piece of bread and I watched Carrie Rad. I started watching her recently and absolutely love her and her videos. They are all so peaceful and always about stuff that I'm interested in. She does a lot of baking, traveling, and gardening which are three things I love and really want to start getting into more. I'm planning on making a post soon about my favorite YouTube channels to watch so keep your eye out for that post too. 

Then I did a little more school work and then took a break to water my plants and do some yoga. I've been trying to do yoga everyday, whether that be a power yoga practice or a more chill and relaxing one. I've been doing online classes on this YouTube channel. She has a lot of different classes and I'm excited to add more of them into my routine. I've been feeling so good and so much stronger than I was before, even than when I was going to the gym for my workouts. 

After yoga I do some more homework and try to finish that up by five at the latest. I like to give myself time at night to just chill and relax, but if I have an exam or something coming up soon I may study some during the night while we watch tv. In the evening, my parents and I will take a walk if it's nice outside, eat dinner, and then watch tv. We watch Survivor on Wednesday nights, but on the other nights we've been watching One Tree Hill on Hulu and we're obsessed. 

Then I'll go to bed around 10:30, put Lavender and Cedarwood in my essential oil diffuser, and read for a little bit to wind down. This week I was reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis and I highly recommend it.