Things that don't bother me

I actually really don't like the kitchen in this rental.

1. Not closing the kitchen. 

I will often go to bed with a full sink and messy counter. I try to make sure the actual table is clean/clear/wiped but once in awhile that doesn't happen either. There is not a single wink of sleep lost over this. Dishes are the single easiest thing to remedy when I feel like it. When I'm working, it's actually relaxing to get up extra early and clean up the kitchen. When I'm not working, I don't get up early, but as long as there's space to make coffee and breakfast, the dishes get done eventually. 

2. My c-section scar.

I had a friend who got an infection in her scar because they did a poor job closing it. I worried about this a little, thinking maybe these army surgeons (the lowest in their medical school class, statistically) could've botched it. But it was just a c-section and every OB is trained to do one because they're pretty routine. I had no complications from it and it healed up really well and, looking back, a c-section is definitely easier in many ways (blinding pain for a few days and then I was good :). 

I do know moms who try to get rid of c-section scars. Honestly, it doesn't bother me at all. I always thought it would? It's not some "mark of pride" or whatever but instead it's just negligible to me. 

3. Piles of clothes everywhere.

Mostly this is because I do laundry and then I don't put it away. This doesn't bother me at all except that I often can't find things. However, I think we're all a little on the ADHD spectrum here because I feel like when our clothes are put in drawers, we forget about them? I hate sorting through drawers for a specific pair of, say, black leggings when I have 3 pairs and I can't find the ones I want. 

Anyway, the secret to 17 years of marriage is just making sure Scott has a stockpile of gym clothes and his uniform is clean and he can find it. Every other pile of clean clothes is fair game to be left wherever I feel like leaving it. (Scott will do laundry but I took it over 90% of it long ago because I don't like all my clothes going in the dryer and he doesn't know what is what.)

I do not leave dirty clothes on the floor though. There is one designated spot for dirty clothes and everything else lying around is clean. Believe it or not (Scott), I do have a system. 

One day in the last two weeks where there are not clothes everywhere. "Why don't I take pictures of my clothes?" Because I have to clean up the mess first.

What is something that does NOT bother you that drives everyone else around you crazy? I fit into the type A framework pretty easily in many regards and it's always shocking to others that I can let the dishes and the clothes go awry the way I do. 

What worked and what didn't.

With a new school year, comes new routines and changes. This isn't work related, but is a round-up of what's been working for me over the last two weeks.

1. I attempted to really get back into a solid routine last week. I didn't drink nearly as much caffeine, so that was good. I still ate a lot of candy so that was a pitfall but it's candy corn season and so there's not much I can do about that.

2. I have some sort of sinus infection that has settled in my ears. I'm taking a cocktail of whatever medicine I can find around the house and I will likely call to see if I can get an appointment this week. Trying to pop my ears isn't working, I've bought more Sudafed than Jesse Pinkman, and sleeping is becoming a challenge.

3. In terms of breakfast...I actually attempted to drink protein powder/milk again this week...thinking that if I left out of the peanut butter and the banana I'd be able to stomach it. Barely. I came to the conclusion that I would rather starve than have a chocolate protein drink. Like, being hungry and weak is preferable.
I'm thinking that I would be able to do vanilla with fruit/spinach at some point, but we have a ton of chocolate powder and I don't feel like spending $60 on vanilla. I found that I can eat a Clif bar in the morning and be okay until about lunch time (or at least snacktime at 10:30). This has, clearly, been a very traumatic process. Regular Clif bars don't have a ton of protein (9-11 grams) but they make protein bars that have 14 or 15 grams and those ones taste pretty good.

4. Before these last two weeks, I'd been going to classes at the gym...toning, lifting, cardio, kickboxing...and I really do want to incorporate those things back into my life. However, I also knew that I had to keep doing what I know works for me and shows results, especially during busy seasons. I kept at 20-30 minutes of Pilates a day for the last week and that felt good. I've been trying to do some yoga every Sunday too.

5. I had to stop the Wal-Mart grocery pre-ordering. The reason is actually really simple: I hate the produce at Wal-Mart. I feel like it's so inferior to what I can get elsewhere. Maybe this is just a Colorado thing? The commissary, and even Safeway, has produce that tastes and looks good and lasts too. Plus, I love buying salad mixes and the Great Value brand is awful. I'm saving on the actual trip through the store, but I'm ending up with things I don't want to eat, so what's the point? Wal-Mart isn't really cheaper...just not having to block out two hours to grocery shop was nice.

6. I almost threw away my Erin Condren planner. I even bought a new little $7 one from Target because I was all FRESH START!!! and then I realized I actually kind of liked my EC planner and, even though fresh starts in January aren't really my thing, I'm going to keep getting EC planners in January because I really do love them. There's a reason I came back to the brand after trying a few others over the last few years. They are SO sturdy and that paper quality can't be matched by anything else I've tried.

7. I've been trying the charcoal bar from Beauty Counter and then using my clarifying toner and dual intensive treatment over top of it. I LOVE the charcoal bar. I don't have dry skin on my face (only on my hands) and it leaves my face squeaky clean and ready for toner. It's completely worth every penny.

That's kind of the overview of what I've been trying lately and how it's been working. It's been a super weird summer in many ways and this next year will look different than the last few for us but we've got some changes on the horizon and that, I think, is a good thing.

(I can provide links for anything above that you may be interested in.)

My terrible, horrible, no good, very bad reading habits

Realizing that I was even thinking about writing this post lit a fire under me, so I knocked out three of these over the weekend. Just saying. 

I can't even make this up.

This is how many books I'm currently in the middle of and I just need to finish one (or two, ideally) like right now, because I'm waiting on two very-much-desired holds to come in via the Kindle from the library. That'll put me at 8 current books if I don't get going here...

I'll explain:

Raymie Nightingale. This was from the book order and I grabbed it to pre-read, thinking it'd be a contender for a read aloud. A DiCamillo book is usually a winner in some way or another. It turned into my blow-drying read: I read it while I blow-dry my hair. It's not terrible, but it's not that great, in my opinion. I see the value in it, as a middle-grade book; there's a lot of value actually. But I just am not loving it enough to cruise through it. I do a few chapters a day.

In the Woods. This sat in my car for a week because it was going to be my "I need to get my tire fixed and will need something to read for at least an hour while I wait"-book. I'm scared because I didn't like Tana French's second book (The Likeness) in this series, so I wanted to give myself a do-or-die situation with this one, to really give it a chance. Now I've only got a week to finish it and I'm like 1/6 of the way in. Sigh.

Ashes. This has been my before-bed read. A couple of chapters a night. Slowly but surely. I've been waiting for it to be released since 2011 and there's a sense of I-don't-want-this-series-to-end happening here.

The Mothers. My current audiobook. I like it. But I get distracted with podcasts SO easily. I have one or two that come out each weekday and those always take precedent over an audiobook.

The Girl Who Lied. I downloaded this for a dollar a few months ago when I didn't have anything to read, got a few chapters in, and liked it well enough, but I own it and library books always take precedent over books I own. It's just sitting there, waiting for all other options to be exhausted.

The Family Jewels. I had preordered this Rose Gardner book 6 months in advance. When it showed up, I read a little bit and then stopped because I need to conserve and preserve: the next one doesn't come out until April. I just need to read it already but I need to finish all of these library books first...

In addition to all of that, I like to pick my way through The Happiness Project again each winter, and Angi sent me a gorgeous two-volume edition of all the Little House books for my birthday. So I'd love to re-read that right now.

I really do believe I make things more difficult than they have to be, like times a million. It reminds me of Michael and the deer-hunting story.

What are your reading habits? Less abnormal than mine, I'm guessing?

Why I stopped checking my work email at home.

I actually put this practice into place and had been mulling it over for a few weeks, and then Gretchen Rubin did a podcast episode about it. So I knew this was justifiable and I probably need to tell everyone about it in order to hold myself accountable. 

These are the reasons why I stopped checking my work email at home AND I deleted the app for it from my phone:

1. I'm not on-call. This is the biggest reason. I work 7:45am-3:45pm. I am not obligated to anything other than that. I spend time most weekends grading papers or writing plans. Or in the morning before work, grading papers. Or at night, grading papers. All teachers do these things and I'm okay with that to an extent. It can't all get done at school; there's not enough time. But I am not going to be on-call for parent questions or updates about what's happening the next day from coworkers/admin during my off hours. There is nothing that can't wait until the next morning.
Sometimes I do allow myself to check my work email on Monday when I wake up and check my regular email, just because it's nice to know what I'm walking into.

2. It was giving me anxiety. So I would get these emails in the evening. And then I would fret. And I would worry. And I would commiserate and complain with coworkers via text. And it would literally overtake my evening (not that I was doing anything other than watching Jane the Virgin, but still). I don't need that kind of pressure. In this case, ignorance is bliss. I can't do anything about it at 7pm anyway.

3. Weekends are for things unrelated to work. They just are. It didn't bother me quite so much when Scott was deployed and I spent a lot of time doing schoolwork on the weekends and was okay with that. Last year, it wasn't an issue anyway. This year is...different. Something had to be done in order for me to maintain sanity. Therefore, I stopped checking work email at home around the end of October.

4. Most people don't reply on the weekend anyway. Not because they have a personal policy against it (hello there), but because they're just busy with other things. So, me doing business on the weekend wasn't actually getting me anywhere.

What about you? Are you willing to *work* on the weekends?

Planner Problems

I'm on my third planner for 2016. That is, I bought a planner last December, to start in January. Got sick of it by February. Bought a new one in March. Got annoyed with it in August and bought a new one.

Yes, that is a planner, on top of a planner, on top of a planner. 

I even wrote a whole post on why I switched from a day to day planner to a monthly planner (it was $5 from Target) and why I didn't believe in those "$60 planners" anymore, and then the html wasn't working on the post when I previewed it so it got pushed to the back of the queue and eventually deleted.

The upshot was that my days are pretty regimented and I have them "planned" at school with a lesson plan book and I didn't need an hour by hour planner because that was overkill.

I actually switched to Google calendar for most of the summer because:
1. I didn't need to find a pen in order to write something down.
2. It provided reminders.

Then I realized I kind of hate technology and it doesn't provide the same level of satisfaction to use Google calendar. There was no way to mark things complete. You either did it or you didn't. Reminders I have set from July are still there, recorded. In order to move past things, you just have to delete them or ignore them.

No, that wasn't going to work. I need to cross things out.

Then I realized that habit is habit and a planner was a good thing. That was when I started looking for a new paper planner.

I found myself on erincondren.com with one of those "$60 planners" (which are $70 for some reason now) in my shopping cart.

I knew that wasn't going to work out. I could buy a lot with the $70+shipping that I'd spend on an EC planner.

Something about fall signaled that I needed a new planner and a fresh start, so I set off for Target and bought my fresh start for $9.

This was the last one at my Target...$9, hard plastic cover (double cover on the front) front and back. It seems durable enough. It's just navy and white on the inside. No cutesy stuff. 

Tell me. What do you think about planners?

Planners and purses are two things I spend way too much time thinking about. 

Seasonal Goals Link-up

I started writing this post last night and then the internet went out. This morning, I spent an hour on the phone with CenturyLink, killed a snake, and then the internet came back on for like 20 minutes. Then it went out again and I'm stuck here all day waiting for the repair person to show up. We'll see if they actually do. 
I'm going to post this while I have a connection. Thoughts and prayers while I survive this first-world problem, please. 
I'm kidding. I'm going to go back to my book after I hit publish.

This was my list of things I wanted to accomplish in June. I'm a month by month person; setting goals for a whole season would be setting myself up for failure.

Halfway through the month, let's review...

1. Actually work on my ebook. This was a New Year's Resolution. It's time to get on that. I'm setting a timer for 20 minutes a day and I must work the entire 20 minutes and I'll keep going if I'm making progress.  ---I've worked on it more days than not, so that's good. Progress is better than perfection. 

2. Read 10 books in June. I did it one month last year. I can do it again. ---I'm at about 6 or 7 done.

3. I have a list of TV shows to chip away at. I already crossed one off by catching up on the end of this past season of New Girl yesterday.  ----Nope. Of all the things to not be succeeding at, right? I've been watching True Blood because it's oddly comforting. Oh well. 

4. Find some more furnishings and such for the house. I need a nice armchair and some odds and ends. ---Hey, I got an armchair! My mom bought it for me (us) as an anniversary gift. I kind of want to get another one and am debating a run back to Homegoods this weekend. 

If odds and ends means "new shoes", then I also got some odds and ends. Still working on this I guess. 

5. Continue organizing the basement. ---Uhh no. But I did chip away at landscaping and cleaning up outside so that is a huge win. 

Linking up with Steph!

Type B Teaching

You all know that I generally hate round-ups of teaching tips and, let's face it, most of the "funny" ones aren't actually funny. Memes are generally kind of 2013 at this point, right?

This article I read was different and it made me realize some interesting personality quirks about myself.

A teacher friend posted this on Facebook and, I must say, I am a Type B teacher. 95% of the way. My class is NEVER messy. I'm pretty picky about surfaces being cleared off by the end of the day and things being organized. But, other than that, I am Type B all the way.

For example, if you read the article, this is where I align...

I usually toss markers in the trash as I'm teaching, because they don't work and I usually let out a frustrated "grrr" while the kids chuckle. For Valentine's Day, a kid bought me a pack of multicolor Expos. There is no greater gift to a teacher. Schools barely supply those things. I buy my own at the beginning of each year when they're on sale.

Only about one weekend a month will I get it together and grade all the papers and do all the paperwork. Usually right before midterms or report cards are due.  The last week of school, I was bringing home paperwork each night because I wasn't done. I've really been pushing it to the limit this year.

Oh the copy quotas. It took almost two years in this district for me to get used to it. I never had a copy quota before I came to Colorado. Last year, I ran out of my first semester copies on October 10th and the semester wasn't over until December 18th-ish. It was bare bones for two months there.

I will save the 6 things I need to do on my prep until the last 6 minutes of my prep. Always.

I think that, the longer I teach, the worse my time management gets.

I've not figured out the pencil struggle yet. I HAVE realized that it's because each class is so different; what works for one will NOT work for another. I have to readjust each year. My greatest frustration was that I didn't figure it out this year.

The kids rarely notice anything, but they will notice if the date hasn't been changed the second the walk into the classroom.

This is exactly what my desk looks like all day long, but it will be completely cleared by 3:45.

"Stuff I'm Ignoring"? Yes.

Confiscated toys/things? Yes. I keep them in a ziploc bag in my bottom drawer though. 

Memo(s) with acronyms? Yes.

4 beverages? At least.

Examples of my Type B-ness:

The 5% of non-Type B comes in here though...some things I'm really particular about:

My bulletin boards are always seasonally appropriate.

I don't believe in teaching in flip-flops or Ugg boots.

There will never, ever (ever) be debris all over my floor. At the end of each day, I make up some kind of formula from the date and have the kids pick up that many pieces of trash each before they can pack up. For example, May 17 would be 7-1=6, so pick up 6 pieces of trash.  

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What do you think? Are you Type A or Type B? In the past, in my everyday life, I would've classified myself as Type A. Now, I see myself as more Type B and just being Type A about a few things (floor and car cleanliness and clutter). 

Helping yourself (when it comes to social media)

I've been limiting my social media presence lately. Aside from this blog, I've never been into posting daily happenings on the various platforms. But here are some changes I made to help ME in the last month. The overarching reason has to do with the comparison trap and wasting time online, but I do go into detail below.

1. I deleted Instagram from my phone in May.
It was not bringing me joy. It was bringing me comparison as I *enjoyed* my 25 minute lunch break each day. And it was stealing all my joy, actually. So until they invent a "hide" function for IG, it'll be gone for a bit. I don't want to unfollow. I don't want to block. I want to "hide".
I'll probably bring it back this summer. Maybe.

2. I blocked notifications from The Balanced Life Sisterhood group on Facebook.
So much of my newsfeed was from this group. I love Pilates. I like the point of the group, but I couldn't relate to 90% of it. The topics usually fall into two categories: how to best do Pilates after a c-section OR how do I get back on track after a workout/food-related setback (and maybe my compassion meter is just running low at this point, but I don't understand how every.single.weekend seems to equal a setback...like do what you want on the weekend, but saying you need a fresh start every Monday is a vicious cycle).

Sure, the group offers encouragement and people post motivational quotes and tips. But the motivation I need is Yes, Kristin. You can find that rattlesnake and shoot it. You can do this.
Or 7 more months of deployment? You can do that too! 
Or I know you can take care of mowing down 35 acres of field this summer. Seriously. You got this.
Plumbing? You can do plumbing too!

That's what I need to hear. And that's what Scott tells me often because he knows I need to hear it. And that's what matters to me right now. Having the issues of others I don't actually know,  however valid, thrown at me when I have so much on my plate isn't what I need right now. Especially when I can't relate at all.

If anyone knows of a group titled Wives living in locations where they don't belong, but they do it because they love their husbands, let me know.

3. I still don't have Facebook on my phone.
This is a blessing.
I spend maybe 5-15 minutes a day scrolling through my newsfeed and it's not really interesting to me at this point.

4. I don't remember my Twitter password so I haven't been using it anyway.
I'm serious.

Is there a tip or trick you use to help yourself get the most out of social media?

Are you a Maximizer or a Satisficer?

Remodeling this house has taught me a lot about myself.

Gretchen Rubin said something in her podcast a few weeks ago that really struck me: Are you a maximizer or a satisficer?  You can read an article on the subject here but, in short, a maximizer must examine every choice from every angle in order to be sure the best decision is being made.  A satisficer will make a decision as soon as they find the need is met.

This can apply to almost anything and I can see traits of both types of decision-making in myself.
Gretchen gives the example of the wedding dress in the article I linked above.  I, for example, tried on about 3 wedding dresses, and went with the one I originally assumed I was going to get.  I felt no need to try on all the dresses I could find.  I was satisfied and I think this comes from knowing that there will always be something perfect out there that I didn't choose. I loved my wedding dress. If given an infinite amount of time, could I have found a better one? Maybe. But I only had about 2 weeks to make a decision. Wedding dresses need to be ordered quite far in advance.

Putting all of your time, energy, and money into finding that perfect something is draining. You're better off just being satisfied with a good choice instead of seeking out something that may not exist. This also goes back to "time is money" and I'm willing to pay for convenience and just suck it up once in awhile.

So, a maximizer devotes a great deal of time and energy to making perfect choices.  A satisficer just really likes to get things done.  I used to be a maximizer.  I grew up with maximizer parents so I naturally became one too.  There's nothing wrong with being a maximizer.  It's just tiring. Buying a car would take months. Buying a desktop computer back in 1997 took years.  I just naturally took on those maximizer characteristics and brought that into my marriage. I wanted to find the perfect towels, the perfect rug, the perfect pillows. And then I noticed I would always see something I liked more somewhere else when I wasn't looking for it.  Better pillows at Homegoods after I'd JUST bought them at Target, the perfect rug at a friend's house, etc.

Scott is a satisficer. After a few years of marriage, he has turned me into one too. I can't say when this happened exactly, but it was probably when we moved to Missouri and walked into a Toyota dealership in Kansas City and walked out with a new truck 3 hours later.

Scott is a satisficer to the umpteenth degree.  He knows how to fix things, solve problems, and get things done as quickly as possible.  Remodeling this house has been the biggest lesson in how important it is to just get over myself and be a satisficer.

I learned that when in Lowe's and Scott asks me what carpeting I like, I should just pick one because that means he's willing to replace the bedroom carpet, like today, and I want a new carpet and anything would be better than the carpet that is already there.

When Scott says, "Hey, let's go pick out countertops today", I don't hem and haw around about it.  I show him what I like, he shows me what he likes, and we make a decision.  Because I wanted new countertops in an almost desperate kinda way.

Therefore, a few weeks ago, we started talking about what projects I (Kristin) would like to accomplish on the house over the next month.  I said my priority was the guest bedroom floor because I use the guest bedroom (previously known as the unicorn room) as an office space and a Pilates space and I really, really can't deal with the carpet anymore and we have the laminate already bought and waiting to be installed.

He said he'd rather do the tile on the entryway floor first because that's what people see when they walk into the house.

Any cosmetic change to this house is, in my opinion, a necessary one, so I wasn't going to deter him.

The day after he returned from his deployment we went to Lowe's and he told me to pick out a tile.  He was silently offering to dedicate the weekend to laying and grouting tile (with my help, of course) and I was not going to let this opportunity escape.  I'd never even glanced at tile before.  But I walked up and down the aisle at Lowe's at 8am on a Saturday and picked out one I liked.  He liked it too.  We bought it.  We had glass/ceramic accent tile (backsplash material) already at home so we matched them up as closely as possible.  We chose a gray porcelain and I absolutely adore it. It will go in both bathrooms too.

By Saturday afternoon, the tile had been laid and then we grouted it on Sunday night.

This is a terrible picture.  Better ones to follow.

Often times, people really seem to question my decision to live way out here, in this house that needed so much work.  Co-workers, friends, family...I get the side-eye a lot when I mention where we live and how much land we have, etc. I usually explain it by saying that we lived in urban developments for 5 years and Scott wanted land and you can't find land in town and we're remodeling the house and it's nice and quiet out there.  That's all completely true, but the real reason I'm okay with all this is because Scott is 100% a satisficer.  But that would take a lot longer to explain and I'd probably get some weird looks.

You probably see this question coming, but....are you a maximizer or a satisficer?

A fun deployment craft

"Fun" shouldn't be in the same sentence with "deployment".  But "craft" shouldn't be in any post title on this blog anyway, so it's just a sentence (err...fragment) of things that don't belong together.

Anyway.

Best candle ever

I like to mark time.  I like to make progress.  It's something I require myself to do.  You saw how I highlight my Pilates calendar.  I've done that with many other gym calendars too.  Currently, in my planner, I'm counting down the days left of school and the days of the deployment, simultaneously.  In fact, I have so many numbers on the pages of my Simplified Planner that I have to color-code them.  This might be my only OCD-like tendency.  If you look in my closet, you'll know I am not plagued by OCD.

When I countdown the time of deployments, I count up.  To me, this makes a huge difference.  Sure, I could count down.  But then I'm left with nothing.  If I count up, I can see this giant reminder of just how far I've come.

For deployment #1, I just crossed days off a calendar.  Meh.


For deployment #2, I did a giant construction paper chain and I numbered the days.  

This time, I bought a bunch of ribbon.

The downside is that I can't write on it as easily, so I didn't bother.  But the upside is that I can save it and stuff it into a mason jar or something and display it as a reminder of how far we've come (and our pain and suffering and all).

TGIF.  (That's becoming my new motto.)

How much caffeine do you drink?

I should preface with the fact that I initially wanted to give up caffeine this week.  I didn't.  I'm already giving up ice cream and maybe that's enough sacrifice for an entire lifetime.  

Take a minute and think about your caffeine consumption. I'm genuinely curious about where I fall on the scale.  Do you drink a lot of caffeine?

Mine is specifically in the form of coffee.  I usually only drink decaf green teas and I'm not a soda drinker. I try to get at least 100 oz. of water a day, so I tell myself that balances out the caffeine. Coffee is a tricky little addiction though. 

A few weeks ago, I had a job interview first thing in the morning and I was a nervous wreck for 3 days leading up to it.  I decided coffee was the last thing I needed, even though I had gotten up at 5am, so I could get ready with time to spare.  I haven't skipped coffee in the morning in a very long time.  Like probably since the beginning of January. I usually have one 6-8 oz. cup and maybe half of a another one and then I sip green tea on my way to school.  

On this day of no coffee, the gross feeling hit me around 10am.  Kind of just like fatigue.  By the afternoon I was ready to fall asleep but I'm usually ready to fall asleep by 2:00pm anyway.  I don't get any fresh air during the day, so I could probably have taken a walk or something and been fine.  But then, by the time I got home, my head was pounding.  However, I knew caffeine would likely keep me up that night.  So I drank some more water, took a Tylenol, and did a Pilates workout.  I went to bed around 9:30 and woke up at 5am again to get ready for school and I felt fabulous.  I actually contemplated giving up caffeine for a week to see what it does to me...but coffee is such a comfort when I have to get up so early in the morning. Once or twice a week (okay, sometimes more) I stop at Starbucks.  I happened to try a flat white from Starbucks (a recommendation from Scott) and it was okay.  I mean, I didn't notice a huge difference between that and an Americano, except that it costs $2 more. Coffeeshop coffee is also a major guilty pleasure for me, as you know. 

Speaking of, I've decided to stop using my reusable K-Cup for awhile and just buy K-Cups.  I made a Dunkin Donuts run and stocked up.  This is the dumbest reason ever for my decision: I'm lazy.  K-cups are easier.  I'm tired of driving the miles to TJ's to buy good coffee every couple of weeks (and remembering to do so because you don't want to run out of coffee) and then grinding it and cleaning the reusable filters.  Again, I'm lazy.  But in a world where I have to manage and take care of everything around me, it's the little things that make the days more pleasant.

So, how much caffeine do you consume?  
I might try the caffeine fast this summer.  Maybe.  

How I drink 100 oz. of water a day

1.  I drink 20 oz. before I leave the house in the morning.  From when I get up until I walk out the door, I make sure my water bottle has been emptied.  I'll fill it up again in case I get thirsty on my commute, but I usually take caffeine-free hot tea to school with me.

2.  I try to drink another 20 oz. before 10:15.  Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't, but I always finish it before lunchtime at 12:30.

3.  I drink another 20 oz. before I leave school at 3:45.  That's 60 oz. down.  I fill up the bottle before I leave school and...

4.  Drink it on the way home.  That's 80 oz.

5.  Once I'm home, I generally drink another bottle or two by the end of the night.  That leaves me at 100-120 oz. for the day.

Now, I didn't always used to be this way, but last spring I got the idea that I should make sure I drink more water (probably something about clearing up my skin), so I started doing just that.  To begin with, I don't drink stuff other than water.  I drink coffee in the morning, caffeine-free tea throughout the day, and the occasional wine or something at night, but other than that it's just water.  No soda or juice or anything.  And yeah, I do run to the bathroom a million times a day, but that's okay.  I've made it work with my schedule at school and, honestly, that just means taking a bathroom break on each break I get; something most teachers do anyway.

My advice to someone who would like to drink more water:

1.  Buy a water bottle you love.  You'll be so enamored with the novelty of it that you'll automatically drink more water.

2.  Try to drink 20 oz (or a bottleful) by 9am (or before you leave the house in the morning).  It'll start your day off in a much more refreshed way and even if everything else conspires against you (traffic, deadlines, hunger, bad hair day, etc), you'll at least have done that.

I've gotten so used to drinking a lot of water that I don't know what to do without my water bottle.  It feels ridiculous but it's like a security blanket.  You know how you can get "hangry"?  I think "thangry" is a real thing too.  Like, if I forget a water bottle and, for some reason, don't have an extra in the car, I will stop and buy a bottle of water that I refill throughout the day.

So, how much water do you drink everyday?