My Morning Routine

Since we're not doing anything exciting enough to post about, I thought I'd describe my morning routine, just for the sake of documenting it.


My morning routine is the product of a long process of evolution. Back when I had only one child, it was easy for me to roll out of bed and start my day whenever he happened to wake up, which was (and still is) around 6:45am. Then I realized that this left me with little time to do important things, like take a shower, so I woke up a little earlier so I could get a head start on the day before he woke up.  Whenever I found a new thing I wanted to do, I would set my alarm a little earlier so I could get it done before wake up time. 


This habit became all the more important with the addition of another child because with so little time during the day to get important things done, getting up early became a necessity for me. Since Ben was born, I've tweaked my morning schedule here and there until I came up with the perfect fit for me, which I will describe below. 


My morning routine has some rules: 
1) I don't check email before quiet time, because once I do, I find myself wasting a lot of time on the Internet, which defeats the purpose of waking up before dawn. 
2) Kids are not allowed out of their room before 7:00am. If someone has to go potty at 6:30am, I take him quickly, and then tell him "It's still nighttime" (which I can get away with now since it's still a bit dark out) and put him back to bed with some books until 7:00am.
3) Morning routine does not apply on the weekend


Here's the schedule:
5:25am - Alarm sounds and I will my eyelids to open, even though all I want to do at that moment is to roll over and go back to sleep
5:30 - Run/walk on treadmill for 20 minutes
5:50 - Get shower, do hair, get dressed
6:15 - Start quiet time: prayer, daily Bible reading, and Bible study chapter if I have time 
6:45 - Get ready for the morning - check email, let the dog out and feed him, start breakfast, make coffee
7:00 - Get boys up and start the day


Lately I've been working on making sure that my mood and happiness is not dependent on my morning routine being completed in a smooth and orderly fashion. There are some mornings that don't go according to "my" schedule, and those are times that I find myself acting annoyed and impatient at Mark at the boys, simply because it is part of my nature (that I have to constantly ask God for help with and fight against) to bristle against change of plans. 


This morning is such an example: I had a late night at a Mom's Night Out and didn't get into bed until 10:30pm (which is late for me), so I let myself "sleep in" this morning until 6:25am. I basically only had enough time to get a shower before a certain little person started yelling at 6:40am that he had to go pee and poo, which turned out to be a twenty-minute ordeal. Before I knew it, it was time to start breakfast and start the day, which left no time for my quiet time. I found myself being rude to my husband and being short with Tommy because I was annoyed at both of them (and not for any rational reason) because I couldn't have "my" time that I thought I so desperately needed. Trust me, the irony of my bad attitude resulting because I couldn't have my quiet time with God was not lost on me. So while Tommy was still on the potty, I brewed myself a cup of coffee, said a quick but earnest prayer asking God to give me grace to be patient and kind to my family, and my attitude made a U-turn from annoyed to cheerful in just five minutes.


So while I'm learning to hold to my routine loosely, this is what my mornings usually look like. It has been my morning routine (minus the extra 20 minutes for treadmill that I just added about two months ago) for about a year now and it's working really well for me. And while I'm learning that it's not necessary, I do like having time to myself in the morning to get my head in the right place and get ready for the day.