No learning curves ahead.

While working on my bachelor's degree years ago I took an introductory course in psychology. Of course it was a requirement to graduate but the course seemed interesting enough. The professor was actually a clinical psychologist that specialized in behavior modification for patients with schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, and severe anxiety. She dabbled a little in learning disabilities in adults as well. Ok. The one item I learned and took away from the course is that a person can learn something (making it rote) simply by "touching" it 7 times. You hear it, you see it, you read it, you write it, read it, and hear it again. This actually helped me the rest of my educational career. I created a learning and study routine that enabled me to essentially memorize the information being taught to me using this formula. Of course I forgot most of what I learned back then and honestly couldn't recite the preamble of our constitution or tell you what all ten of the Bill of Rights are now but when I needed to know it, I did.

Where is this going, you ask? Huck said something to me the other day about changing old habits and replacing them with new. I think it was you have to do the new habit 21 times in order for it to become a habit. My new habit is remembering to shut the bathroom door when I am done using it. This is Huck's request and not something I do consistently since he isn't here most days so it's been hard. I do remember to do it before I leave the house or go to bed. I don't always remember to do it while I am home. Why am I trying to change this habit of leaving the bathroom door open? My dog Sunshine is a garbage picker and my other dog Annie eats whatever is taken out of said garbage. 

Sunshine will root out the discarded cardboard tube from toilet paper. Annie eats this whole. Sunshine will sniff out and shred paper items whether it be tissue, toilet paper, or old receipts. Annie then eats the soggy wads left behind. Sunshine sucks the used cotton off Q-tips. Annie eats the sticks the cotton end used to be stuck to. Sunshine pulls out each individual cotton pad I use to remove my make up and leaves them scattered around. Annie sucks them up like marshmallows. There isn't a used fabric softener sheet, cotton ball, Q-tip, paper item of any kind, dental floss, hair pulled out of a brush, or toilet paper tube in this house that is safe from Sunshine's destruction or Annie's insatiable hoover-ish appetite. So I'm in training to close the bathroom door. This has been fun. I lapse from time to time and that's ok. I can't beat myself up every time I forget to shut the bathroom door. Adjust and move forward, right? Learning takes time.