starting tonight

It isn't a Monday or the first day of the year or even the first day of a month, but tonight seems like a good enough time to start on one--actually two--of my new habits.  As soon as I finish here, I am going to bed.  In bed by eleven?  That is early for me.  Tonight is a good night to start, though, because I am rather tired and don't have the energy to do much more. Typically, I would stay in my comfy arm chair reading blogs and surfing the 'net for another hour or two regardless of my exhaustion.  It is a sacrifice to give up the pleasure of being awake during such a quiet part of the day.  But, my family needs me to start the 'morrow better rested and I need it. 

As long as I am tackling the early bedtime habit, I figured I may as well toss in the smile-much-more habit, too.  They would seem to go together;  if one is well-rested, I would think that the joy is more awakened, the sense of humor a bit sharper and the ability to appreciate the pleasantries of a given day is more agile. 

For a concrete, I will start by aiming for an eleven o' clock bedtime and try to move towards a ten-thirty. (Ooooh, ten-thirty. That is going to be tough!)  The smiles, that is little harder to measure, but I'll practice it till my children start looking at me sidewise and asking what's wrong.  

Here's to Sleeping and Smiling in 2010!