Morning Routines

There are baby steps everywhere. Part of the Fly Lady's baby steps involves creating morning routines, in addition to the before bed routines I wrote about a couple weeks ago.

This is what is written in window crayon on our bathroom mirror (the ideal), but it's not what happens:

• Up @ 5
• Meds/Teeth
• Shower
• Dress to shoes (meaning, put your shoes on as a part of getting dressed)
• Make bed
• Swish&Swipe (Fly Lady terminology for wipe the countertops and quick scrub the toilet.)
• Reboot Laundry (Move it over, move it out, start a new load.)
• Dishwasher (Empty, fill, whatever needs to be done)
• Drink H2O/Breakfast
• Check calendar
• What's for dinner?
• Get kids up at 6:15

I'm still working on my morning routine. Right now, it is basically an automated response to my before bed routine. So, this is what actually happens:

My alarm goes off at 5. I snooze. My watch alarm goes off at 5:15. I snooze. I snooze. I snooze. It's dark outside. It's hard to wake up when it's dark outside. Finally, at six, or a smidge before, I jump out of bed (pull up the covers to "make the bed"), go shower/take meds/brush teeth, and throw on whatever clothes I set out the night before. By this time one or both of the children is awake, so I have to ignore them while I run downstairs and put Goldilock's oatmeal in the microwave, fill her milk cup, and set out some fresh fruit for her; I quickly check the calendar on the fridge to remind myself of what's going on today. Then I run back upstairs and change diapers/dress the kiddos with the clothes I set out for them. Then we come downstairs and Goldilocks and Baby Bear both eat. After Baby Bear is finished eating, he goes right into his carseat carrier with a toy to keep him busy. I get a cup of ice water and put it, along with any refrigerated items, into the car. While Goldilocks is captive in the high chair, I put shoes on her and I comb her hair. Depending on her tolerance level, I sometimes put it up in pigtails; other times I use a barrette to keep the hair out of her eyes. She goes straight from the high chair into the car, along with her milk cup. Baby Bear gets put in the car. We go. Any variation from this (i.e. letting Goldilocks down from her chair without putting her in the car) causes delay. About halfway to school I realize that I didn't eat breakfast and/or pack my lunch. Again. Crud.

Ta-da! Yeah, it's a routine, but it does not encompass everything I want it to. It's a little hectic sometimes, and, again, it only works because of what I do before bed to get ready for the morning. I somehow found a blog article by a Fly Lady follower entitled, "Your Morning Routine Should Make You Happy," and that got me to thinking about how I'm not unhappy with what's going on, but I'm not entirely happy with it either.

I'm pretty sure going to bed on time will make waking up earlier a little bit easier. Now that we have Sprung Forward, will it be even easier to get up earlier? I don't know yet because I've been in Spring Break mode, not doing any routines.

I'm going to revisit my morning routine and try to get up earlier (and go to bed on time--goal is by 9pm). I'd like to get a lawn watering schedule in place, and water the peach tree daily as a part of the morning routine, too. I'll let you know how it goes.

In the meantime, you should check out Fly Lady and her baby steps.