My Morning Routine
It is the beginning of February, which means I have been doing my routine for a month now and I am still loving it. Over the years my morning “routines” or lack of one has changed a lot. There were many years when the only structure or schedule to my morning depended on the precious baby in the crib next to my bed, and if that is where you are don’t envy this “free time” I am going to be talking about, enjoy those priceless times of every minute revolving around your baby (I would gladly give up my morning routine for that)!
But now my kids are getting bigger, they usually sleep a little later, they play in their rooms together until I come to them so that has given me some time I can take in the morning as “me time” if I choose. I say “if I choose” because until I came up with my little “morning routine” I would sometimes just waste the time lying in bed, not wanting to get up, being lazy…now in my defense I did have a pretty good excuse, for much of 2014 I was either pregnant or recovering from a miscarriage (physically) or just grieving emotionally which I will admit made it just so hard to get out of bed some mornings.
But now my kids are getting bigger, they usually sleep a little later, they play in their rooms together until I come to them so that has given me some time I can take in the morning as “me time” if I choose. I say “if I choose” because until I came up with my little “morning routine” I would sometimes just waste the time lying in bed, not wanting to get up, being lazy…now in my defense I did have a pretty good excuse, for much of 2014 I was either pregnant or recovering from a miscarriage (physically) or just grieving emotionally which I will admit made it just so hard to get out of bed some mornings.
After I had my second loss (Nov. 19th was when I delivered him) I told myself I would give myself the month of December “off”, I didn't try to get back into exercising, I didn't try to plan to get up at any certain time (just whenever the kids woke me up over the monitors), I didn't make lists of things that needed to get done, I just did whatever I could do, some days I was productive or busy with the kids and their activities, other days the hurt was just too much and all I could do was sit on the couch or in my bed and cuddle and read stories with my kids (we didn't get a whole lot of school done during that time either besides my oldest who is very independent with her work).
I knew I needed to act together for the new year, and I knew it was going to have to start with my mornings, I was torn because I have always gone back and forth over the years on: should I use “me time”for exercising, or should I use “me time” for reading devotions or studying the bible. Both are important to me, so I had to choose both.
I am not a morning person naturally, so getting up, even just SITTING up in bed at like 6:30 or 7:00 requires discipline for myself. I keep devotional books, bible, bible study books, my journal and laptop all within reach of my bed so start my morning by sitting up and grabbing one of those. Luckily I have a wonderful husband who brings me a small glass of iced coffee in the morning before he leaves for work, somedays that's the only thing that has motivated me to open my eyes! So I do devotion time/quiet time/reading/writing for about half hour to 45 min. then I get up and either do a 20 min Pilates or yoga dvd, or I do about 30 min on the elliptical (I alternate days). Then I greet the children, shower, give them breakfast (yes so sometimes we don't eat breakfast until 9 or so, which may seem late for some of you, but, hey, thats one of the beauties of homeschooling, we can be flexible and make our own schedule), get ready if we are going somewhere that day. So there ya go, that has become my little morning routine every week day.
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