Rut Buster! Weekend edition

Makeover

Ruts look different for everyone, but they feel the same for all of us. Suddenly everything -- even stuff you normally love -- has a pall over it, and life seems desperately drab and uninspired. In moments like this, sometimes a cure is just a a shot in the arm of something out-of-the-ordinary away. And you don't have to get extreme and book a skydiving appointment. Little, creative tweaks in your perspective and routine can change just about everything:

  • Let the kids decide what's for dinner. You're tired of menu-planning anyway, so why not? Make dinner together with one kid chopping, another stirring, another setting the table. If their picks are totally unhealthy, just roll with it. In an otherwise healthy diet, no one's growth will be stunted from having ice cream for dinner once, and it will make the evening stand out as a truly special occasion.

  • Make a vegetable bouquet. Why not pair chard leaves, as big and wide as palm fronds, with round, voluptuous dahlias? Or match feathery dill with your favorite blooms? Or just place a bowl of grape tomatoes on the dining room table for a shock of red? Walk through the produce aisle and see what colors and shapes appeal to you most and then get creative.

  • Forgive someone. Carrying around a grudge is like walking through life with a sack of potatoes strapped to your back. And the worst part is, if someone hurt you, you don't even the score by staying angry. You're only hurting yourself. Lighten your load by finding it in your heart to forgive.

  • Read a different newspaper. If you usually grab the liberal, socially-minded paper, pick up a more conservative financially-focused one. Go international by reading a paper from another country (English-speaking might make it easier unless you're a polyglot) or just read one based out of another city.

  • Tie a scarf around your head. I dare you to get all Grace Kelly on your trip to the grocery store and to wear a big ole pair of sunglasses, too. Nothing like a little taste of glamour on a Sunday afternoon to make you feel alive again...

  • Don't set the alarm. If there are early morning responsibilities to attend to, try to swap with someone else (you can get them back next weekend). Sometimes a tired point of view is just because you're, well, tired. Do your mind and body a favor by sleeping in.

What else do you do to get out of a rut?

Photo Credit: Getty Images