Home Binders - Part Three

This is an ongoing series about home management binders, and how they can work for you and your family.  You can find my previous posts below:

Part One

Part Two

Mornings.  They certainly are difficult, aren’t they?  I know that I would love to be able to sleep in and then leisurely get up, have a cup of coffee, read the paper (online), catch up on my e-mail.  Unfortunately, that is not the real world for me.  And I have suspicion that it isn’t for you either, at least if you have young children, which I do.

Last fall I stumbled upon a lovely challenge which I have spoken about here before.  It is called the Hello Mornings challenge.  The whole purpose of this challenge is to wake up before your kids.  Then allow yourself time for quiet time, planning time, and exercise.  It is a nice thought, right?  Waking before your kids and having some quiet time to plan out your day.

Well, my kids are early risers.  Extremely early.  Especially when the sun is shining at 4:45am.  So back in January, I made the decision to really take this into my own hands.  Now, I wake up at an ungodly hour, 4am.  Oh, it was difficult at first, and it still is most days.  However, on the days that I am unable to wake up early and have time to myself, my days tend to fall apart.  There are many personal things that I want to get done that I can’t.  As soon as my kids are up, they are ready for breakfast, ready for the day, ready for some type of activity.  On the days that I am not excited to get up, I immediately start reciting Proverbs 31:15 “She gets up while it is still night; she provides food for her family and portions for her female servants.”  While I don’t have any female servants -even though I could use them, it does encourage me to get out of bed to spend some quiet time reflecting on the day ahead.

I typically will get up, make some coffee and sit down with my Bible, journal, and gratitude journal.  Yes, I have a lot of journals in my house.  I will read the Bible, journal for a bit, and then turn to my planning for the day (which I will talk about more next week).  I haven't quite mastered the exercise in the morning bit.  I am not big on exercise to begin with, so trying to do it in the morning while I am still somewhat dead to the world...not really happening :-)

Getting up early is extremely hard, however, it is good for me personally.  I have more energy when my kids get up, strange I know.  I am ready to start the day with them, instead of fumbling about while I try to wake up and having my kids running me ragged before I can even think straight.  Not everyone needs to get up as early as me.  This is the time that works for me (although not always for my husband!), and that is why I do it.  I am sure when my kids start sleeping later, I will adjust my time to a later time, they are just 4 and 22 months right now of course, and they still nap during the day J

Do you wake up early to be awake and accomplish tasks before your family is awake?  Is this something that you struggle with?  If it is, and is something that you want to foster in your daily schedule, you should look into Hello Mornings.  They will have another challenge in the fall.  If you are looking to start this habit now, and would like some accountability, please e-mail me at hello@townsend-house.com  I figure if I am up super early in the morning, there is no reason I can’t say hello to someone else who is attempting to wake up at that point!

Remember to enter my giveaway for a Healthy Surprise snack box here!


I am linking up to Mommy Solutions!