Bedtime is Important

As an unmarried person, bedtime was not a big deal.  You're tired, you brush your teeth, you crawl into bed, you go to sleep, end of story.  Getting married has reintroduced both Ben and I to something probably neither of us has done since we were kids: deliberately having a fairly set time and routine for going to bed.

It started because we were missing blessing book entries.  Now, one or two missing entries is something that just happens now and again; but when you miss a whole week, that's a lot of little important events and blessings we're going to regret missing a few months down the line (and a few years even more!).  The problem was, by the time we got Grandma all settled in bed and brushed our teeth and got our pajamas on and climbed into bed ourselves, we were hitting the light and going straight to sleep.  Do not pass go, do not collect $200.

We also weren't sleeping very peacefully and our blessing book wasn't getting probably attended to.

About a week ago, we began deliberately starting bedtime stuff for Grandma at 9:00 (evening pill time).  She is then in bed by 10, which gives us an hour before our stated goal of 11 for lights-out.  For a long time, Ben had always drunk chamomile tea before bed because it was a substitute for the late-night snack that had been keeping him awake with an upset stomach; but he'd gotten out of the habit recently.  I'm not too fond of chamomile, but peppermint tea has been something for a long time that I'll drink when things are really busy and I'm getting a stomachache from being busy, so it's built up some kind of trigger in my brain.  When I sit quietly and drink it I feel very calm and relaxed.  Weird, but true.  So every evening, we turn the tea kettle on as Grandma's doing her evening routine, and after she's in bed, we take two cups of tea into our bedroom, put our pajamas on, climb into bed, and write in the blessing book.  That usually only takes a little while, so then we read together or do something else fairly quiet for a little while until it gets to be 11, then we brush our teeth and turn out the lights and go to sleep.

And we have been sleeping very peacefully, even with the several wakeup calls (usually about every three hours).  Between that and our walks in the morning, it suddenly feels much more peaceful and homelike around here.  And that is very nice.