Tag Archives: mornings

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Preschool Has Started With a Bang!

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This morning, I dropped EK and J off at preschool. Much to my surprise, and chagrin, they were so excited that I didn’t even get a goodbye hug! They just walked right in, threw their stuff down, and got started. I expected that to happen with EK, but I expected some trepidation from J. Well, no way. He waltzed right in there, dropped his bag on the ground (I had to hang it for him) and started playing. The kid knew where he was and what he wanted to do. And even though I’m a little sad he didn’t even want to hug me or anything, I am thrilled we won’t have any sadness. It makes a mama SO happy to know her kids are having fun and not crying.

The only thing that was a little crazy was getting out the door on time. To get to school on time, we should leave around 8:45. I think we pulled out of the driveway at 8:56. While it’s okay to be late the first day, that just isn’t going to fly every single time we go. Especially because I work at church on Thursday mornings, and I need to be getting things ready for the women’s service every Thursday around 8:30. Do the math on that one, folks. That’s leaving the house at 8:15. Can we handle it? Time will tell. 

 Our morning routine went a little like this…

7:15 – I hear J waking up a little on the monitor.
7:20 – My alarm goes off. (Snoozed. Big time.)
7:30 – I get up, because my other alarm (the baby) had gone off.
7:45 – My mom comes up the stairs (she’s leaving this am) and Hubby gets out of the shower, and D is done nursing. Pass the baby to Hubby, my mom starts making breakfast, I go down to get the kids. (An unrealistic view of what will happen most of the time… because Mom won’t be here.)
8:00 – Kids and I are in the shower (we skipped baths last night)
8:30 – Kids and I are clean, dressed, and having breakfast.
8:40 – I start my rush to grab things I didn’t prepare last night (not many, thankfully).
8:50 – Packing the kids in the car. J poops (duh), so he gets back out for a change.
8:56 – Pull out of the driveway.

Not too bad, Hsus. Not too bad. We were only a couple of minutes late; 15 minutes travel time allows for some traffic, which we blessedly didn’t have this morning. Usually, we don’t do showers in the morning, so that’ll take some time out. Also, I’m thinking about packing breakfasts or picking up smoothies on the way on Thursdays, since the kids will have 30 minutes of hanging out while I work before their school starts. That’s plenty of time to have a breakfast smoothie, right? Maybe we can handle it. 

This guy had the most peaceful morning nap he’s ever had.
 Any tips on making school mornings go more smoothly? That don’t happen to include getting up earlier? I’ve got a family of fairly late sleepers (for toddlers, anyway), and I don’t want to have to break that habit just yet.

mommyhood, my journey as a mother, women

My Journey as a Mother: Confessions of a Night Owl

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Y’all, having early-rising kids is hard.

That’s a statement that (if you know my kids well) would get me stoned by many. My kids rise between 7:00 and 8:00am. I know there are a LOT of you with kids that get up WAY earlier. But this is still a struggle for me a lot of days… because I’m just not a morning person. Now, if I can get up (after several alarm snoozes), take a shower, make myself breakfast and coffee, and have a while to myself, I’m not so bad. I mean, I taught school for 6 years and was fine by the time I got there. But that’s an hour or more after I woke up, and frankly, before that, I’m not worth seeing.

My kids, however, often get the blunt end of my morning crankiness. I try not to be mean or anything, but often I’m blase and awkwardly quiet – avoiding using my voice at all costs. They are chatterboxes, full of life and cuteness no matter what time it is, and I’m giving them 10% (unless you count the 90% of my strength it takes to change the inevitable poopy diapers and not choke).

I have heard from a lot of my stay-at-home mama friends recently that they’ve made resolutions to get up before their kids. The reasons are different for everyone: chores, quiet time, uninterrupted shower, breakfast with their husbands, working from home, or any combination of these. For me, it sounds great. It sounds like the perfect solution to not getting much alone time, needing a shower first thing to wake me up, and being able to ingest some caffeine before I had to speak out loud.

But in practice, it just isn’t going to work.

For one, my kids each get up at different times than the other kid and at different times every day. There’s almost no way I can plan on how to give myself thirty minutes or an hour without accidentally giving myself two hours or negative twenty minutes. I might have one up by 6:15, and one sleep till 8:00. I might have them both up between 7:15 and 7:30. On the rare occasion I need to be up to leave the house early, and don’t set an alarm, because the kids will definitely wake up, I will wake up all on my own around 8:05. Of course.

Secondly, if I knew I had a guaranteed hour (let’s just say I would), I’d probably be arguing with myself over a shower, a whole pot of coffee, two loads of laundry, a kitchen deep clean, and three new blog posts. And that list completely left out any quiet time in the Word before the rest of my world distracts me. See! Too many things vying for my attention before my people are even awake.

But at night, like right now as I write this (it’s 9:57pm) I’ve written several blog posts, done a load of laundry, and I have some one-on-one time with the Hubby planned. I’m not even tired yet! I mean, my pregnant body is sorta sick of standing up, but I’m not sleepy. I could probably keep going for several more hours, or until I lay my head down. I don’t have trouble falling asleep when I let myself rest. I just have trouble waking up, no matter how much sleep I’ve had. That’s got to be a problem, right?

The only exception to this weirdness about not waking up well is when I have a newborn. Somehow my hormones or my motherly instinct is jumping that first couple of months of my child’s life. It’s like my body knows I’d never be able to support a newborn unless I made a change. I can magically pop out of the bed when I hear the hungry cry of a baby, and after a quick pee, I’m rushing into the room, changing a diaper, whipping out my boobs, ready to nourish my child. That energetic waking goes away the first few nights of sleep I get uninterrupted. God forbid the sleep schedule should regress a little…

But most days, I man up. I don’t roll over and beg my late-night-working husband to do the morning routine instead. I love those little chatterboxes, and their ridiculously chipper morning attitudes, no matter what time it is. It’s tough, but so are a lot of things about being a mother. I’m sure I’ll do tougher things. But for now, my daily struggle of waking up in the morning, compounded by pregnancy and my night owl tendencies, will continue to be blown away by the morning blessings of my cuties, their smiles, their smells (am I right?!), their snuggles, and their relentless need for breakfast. I love those guys.

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