Of tired mornings and thankfulness for coffee...

The morning dawns a new day.  I wake to my alarm, but just barely.  Today is one of the few blessed mornings where all the kids stay sleeping long enough for me to have a 45-minute stretch of alone quiet time. 

I can barely keep my eyes open to read the daily chapter from the book our church is going through as part of a 40 Days of Love series.

I'm not kidding.  I am THAT tired.  I don't think I have ever had such a hard time trying to stay awake to read something.  My eyes kept crossing, and I struggled to focus on the page.  My morning prayers are echos, "Give me strength.  Keep me awake.  Help me to be patient through the tired."

I should be working -- I have a file to proof that's due by mid-day Pacific time (thank the Lord for contracts with companies based on the West coast!).  Instead, I pour my coffee and turn to blogs for a bit of inspiration for the day.  I love this blog, with the music playing in the background and for once today I plug in the headphones and listen instead of hitting mute and my heart feels for a change instead of staying numb in the exhaustion, and even though the posts are long, I read to the very end because her words always resonate deep down in those hard places.

One by one, the kids wake up and join me.  This quiet time for myself (and my coffee!) have done its work, and I am ready to get into the busy-ness of the day.  I call on His strength, and as always, He provides.

Going out in the rain...with kids...

Murphy's Law of Running Errands with Children: on a day when you absolutely have to leave the house for some type of errand, ie. doctor's appointment, groceries because your cupboards are bare or you forgot an important ingredient, library because your books or videos are overdue, any other essential errand that needs to be run, guaranteed, it will be pouring rain.

I can name probably at least three situations in the last two months where I've had to leave the house with all three kids, and it has been pouring rain.  I'm pretty sure the examples I listed were the exact reasons as well.  Doctor's appointment, essential groceries, and library books being overdue. 

Case in point, today, yet again, I had plans to head out to the library this morning with the kiddos (not as essential of a visit because I returned the videos earlier this week and the books aren't due till next week), but the kids always like having videos in the house instead of always watching TV (and I don't mind being a little more selective in their entertainment choices).  Of course, it is raining. 

And is it ever raining.  The kind of rain where I'm going to get really annoyed at how slowly my kids get into the van because even though they have umbrellas and can just hop in with relative dryness, my umbrella is broken, and I'll have to stand there with my backside out in the elements whilst I buckle them all into their seats.  Ick.  Time to rethink the white t-shirt I picked out to wear this morning.

And of course, I was lazy last night and didn't put out the garbage and recycling.  I said to myself, "Oh, I'll just do it in the morning."  Boy was that dumb.  Now I have to go put it out in the rain.  *sigh*  That's what I get for procrastinating...

Hello Mornings

I've been doing a new thing with my mornings.  It's called the Hello Mornings challenge, and basically, you make a point of waking up early, and you do morning quiet time, plan your day, and theoretically, exercise before everyone else gets up.  Given the early hour that my children wake, this means I have to get up by 5:45 just to fit in my Bible study and make a quick list of what we're going to do in the day.  At this stage in life, exercise is just not going to happen.  That would mean I'd have to get up by 5:00, and since I'm still waking up once or twice with Nathan in the night, that is an unrealistic goal.  As it is, 5:45 is pretty rough.

I've done pretty well with the 5:45 so far.  Some mornings, I actually get 20 min to half an hour before any of the kids get up.  Other mornings, one or more are up about 5 min after the alarm, and one morning, Reuben and Kaylee decided to get up at 5:30, even before the alarm went off -- not sure what happened that day.

In just two short weeks of doing this, I've now come to really appreciate the few minutes of quiet that I get before everyone else wakes up.  It helps me to feel more intentional about my day and not just reacting in the moments.

Of course, with Reuben starting school tomorrow, morning routines will change yet again.  But hopefully, if I can stick with getting up early, it will be a fairly smooth transition.

Oh life and it's seasons...