Hey look it’s one of my semi-annual posts! I’m feeling pretty great about it, thanks for asking. A few weeks ago my husband referred to “my old blog” and I was a little sad when I realized he meant this one. It’s not old, just a little neglected, ok??? If you’ve been following this blog for any length of time, you may notice a pattern. I stop things and sometimes I start them back up again. This is actually improvement because I used to just stop things and be disappointed in myself and then never start again. This has happened in the last few months again. I stopped doing my early morning routine and things fell into chaos.
Miracle Morning
One of the most transformational changes our family has made in the last year was getting up before our kids. My early mornings was largely inspired by the concept of a Miracle Morning. I had already been waking up and doing morning pages, so this is only a slight variation on that. Earlier this year, that meant I was actually waking up at 5:30 ON PURPOSE. My toddler had started waking up earlier, at 6, and so I had become so desperate for my ‘me’ time that it became worth it for me to wake up that early. I’m telling you, it changed my attitude as a parent. I went from feeling irritated with my kids for taking up “my” time during the day, to having my day start with quiet, reading, journaling, exercise, and when they woke up I no longer felt like I was being cheated out of being a person.
It was a huge win for me to make that change. I spent years having a bad attitude before I got desperate enough to change things. Our family life runs much more smoothly now particularly in the morning. I have never been a “morning person” but the time has become precious enough to me that I was looking forward to it! It certainly makes for earlier evenings — I’ll get into bed at 9:30. Some nights that means that I’m only awake 30 minutes longer than my oldest, but it’s ok because I’ll have that time in the morning again.
We made some changes the last few weeks and I fell off the early-morning wagon for a bit. But I’m back, slowly, and that’s what counts! Not quitting entirely, but getting back at it again. Like this blog. I’m still at it, and I’m still at slowly chipping away at my goals. I’ll write more about that later.
This image describes me perfectly. I’m not an early bird or a night owl. Since being married the fact that I am neither and need a lot of sleep has caused some frustration between us. Willy always wants to set his alarm to a time that involves a 6 in the front. This idea has infuriated me because I’m the girl who sleeps until the very last possible minute and doesn’t snooze the alarm because if-i-don’t-get-out-of-bed-this-second-I-will-be-seriously-late. It’s hard to be late when on mat leave, though. And it’s hard to sleep in with kids, too. But because my husband insists on getting up early in the morning, I told him the early bird gets the worm and the worm is our toddler! I don’t even remember when it was that he started letting me sleep in a bit extra and he manages the morning with our first. This was especially wonderful when I was up in the night a few times with the baby.
Guys, it’s been life changing! It’s changed my devotional time because I don’t have all those brain interruptions happening. I’ve already cleaned out the cobwebs of my head and I’ve gotten into a head space that does not involve my phone. I have Do Not Disturb mode on my phone anyway so I’m not notified of any messages or any activity happening that would take my attention.
