One thing you need to understand about me is I was obsessed with 'day in my life', 'get ready with me', etc vlogs when I was a small child, and that has influenced my internal monologue ever since.

That being said, my Sundays have been awfully busy this Summer, because my weekdays have been busy with my internship! I've gotten into prepping meals for Monday-Thursday (Thursday nights I make myself some sort of rice dish, and then I have the leftovers the next day). I had a bit of extra time today, so I thought it'd be fun to write down my routine :)

I wake up at 7:00 am to take my morning medication and then promptly fall back asleep and/or lay on my phone for at least another hour and a half. 7:00 is technically "sleeping in," since I get up at 6 for work, but it really is not sleeping in enough.

Once I'm actually out of bed, I toss my laundry into the washer and write up my grocery list. Around this time I also toss any expired food that may be lurking, but I try to buy light so that doesn't happen much.

The grocery store is just a 5 minute bike ride away, so I grab my backpack and wallet and head over there while my clothes are being washed. If I have a higher-than-average amount of produce to buy, I wait until the clothes are in the dryer, because that takes longer and the produce store is further away. But if that's the case, I try to get out of bed earlier; I like to get to the grocery store before the churchgoers, because they all come in a big wave and it makes biking in those parking lots a nightmare.

One upside to living in the middle of nowhere is groceries are actually pretty cheap. The produce market down the road has a whole container of spinach for only 95 cents, and bananas are 5 cents a pound. Crazy stuff! If this town wasn't such a pain in the ass to live in by every other metric it'd be nice, even.

At the store, I also try to pick up some sort of pastry for breakfast. Once groceries are bought and my laundry is in the dryer, it's time for meal prep.

First I have to wash any dishes that are still in the sink from last week. I also take butter out of the fridge and preheat the oven.

Banana bread comes first. I try to make banana bread once a week because it's easy and yummy and ensures I get breakfast in the mornings before work! I try to have a constantly rotating supply of overripe bananas on the counter for this purpose. My roommate doesn't like banana bread which rocks because it means it's all for me. >:)

While the bread is cooking, I start on whatever my lunch this week will be. I'm fine with eating the same thing for lunch monday-thursday which makes my life VERY easy. This week I made chicken tenders, roasted potatoes, and green beans, so I put the chicken tenders in a marinade to rest for a while while I washed dishes.

Banana bread done, chicken marinading, dishes so far washed- it's time to prepare cookies! I set the banana bread on the counter to cool off while I get the dough ready. I like having something sweet with every meal, and it's a lot cheaper to make my own than to buy them! Also baking is just a lot of fun.

The cookies take a few batches to be fully done, so between batches I cut up potatoes and prepare the seasoning mix for them. Once one batch of cookies is done, they rest for a few minutes before being transferred to a plate so I can reuse the pan. Fun fact my girlfriend hates, but I absolutely love raw cookie dough. She's worried I'll get salmonella or e-coli, and honestly if I were to get a foodborne illness I want it to be via cookie dough.

By this point my laundry is normally dry, so I just toss it in my bedroom for later. I'm in the cooking zone now...

Cookies done; I up the oven temperature, prepare my potatoes, put them in the oven. In the meantime I prepare the breadcrumbs for the chicken. Now I have downtime, since potatoes take a while to bake. More dishes to do!

I really hate doing dishes to be so honest, it is like my least favorite household chore. My hands cramp up really bad, and there's too many textures going on, even if I wear gloves. And sometimes I feel like I can never get the oily feeling off of a dish.... I can't wait to have a dishwasher someday.

Potatoes are done, so the chicken gets crumbed and seasoned, and the green beans get tossed in the microwave. I actually prefer frozen green beans most of the time, since they're more consistent!

Once the chicken is done, I portion out my lunches for the week and wash the last set of dishes. The cooking is officially done, and I can eat this week!

Once all the cooking is completely done, I wipe down all the counters, table, and stovetop with disinfectant wipes and take the trash out. Now the kitchen is done! No more kitchen!

In my bedroom, I put my laundry away and pick up any trash that ended up on the floor over the course of the week. I take any recycling out, too. Then I vacuum the floor and make my bed.

I shower, mostly to get out of my clothes that are almost certainly covered in various food substances, and get cozy. By this time it's normally around 2:00pm. Some weeks I have therapy next, some weeks I take a nap, some weeks I even remember to eat lunch around this time! I also try to update my monthly budget at least once a week too, and Sundays are great for that because I already got groceries which is the most variable part of my bills lol.

I very recently switched from a physical notebook to a spreadsheet for my budget and honestly I'm not sure why I didn't do it sooner. Writing things down helps me remember better, but there's way less room for error when the computer does calculations for me, and it's really nice to be able to see graphs of my spending over time.

By 6:30, I bike to a local Chinese place and get my weekly dumplings for takeout. I eat them while watching YouTube, playing a video game, or working on this very webbed site... perhaps, when you are reading this, I am even eating a dumpling right now. They're really good. I think they have pork in them but I honestly have no idea what else.

Then it's time for my nighttime routine, that is consistent almost daily... take my nighttime meds, brush my teeth, wash my hands, moisturize, etc... I play picross on my 3ds until my eyes are too tired to stay open. I've found its a nice alternative to scrolling on my phone for hours, since I get sleepy quicker and it requires more conscious thinking on my part.

I normally shoot for going to sleep around 11-11:30pm so I at least get 7 hours of rest, give or take. Then Sunday is over and I have another long shift to get to... thank you for reading this far and coming with me on my Sunday journey. This level of routine and self-reliance is something I'm still pretty new to and I am SOOOOO so so happy that my life is currently scheduled in such a way that i can maintain this routine more or less exactly every week. Big routine fan!!

♥ Jay