I don’t know why I’m doing this to myself, but I’ve been waking up every morning at 4:30.
Okay, two lies in that last sentence. I haven’t been waking up “every morning” at 4:30. I’ve done it three times total — twice last week, and then once again this morning. But I plan to start waking up every morning at 4:30, so there we go.
The second lie is that I don’t know why I’m doing it to myself. I do know why. I’m doing it, because evenings with kids are worthless. By the time I finish work (5ish), get dinner on the table (6ish), deal with the dinner dishes/clean up the kitchen/make sure backpacks are dealt with/tidy up the house to the extent I feel is reasonable for the day/set up my coffee for the next morning/put the kids to bed (8ish, or later if they’re being ridiculous) — by the time all that is finished, all I want to do is scroll my phone and not move. And of course, “just a check” turns into an hour, easily, and before I know it it’s 9:30 and my evening is gone with nothing to show for it.
So why not shift that unoccupied time to the morning? Why not just go to bed at 8:30 with the kids, get in the best possible 8 hours I can, and then wake up ready to actually tackle my to-do list?
Here’s what I did this morning:
- Made my coffee and said my prayers
- Wrote in my journal for 20 minutes
- Read my morning nonfiction/educational book, Mind in the Making, for 10 minutes
- Took a 2-mile walk
- Updated the theme on here and created a few pages (which still need actual populating)
I mean, look at all those heavy-hitters there! By the time that was all finished, the kids were up and it was time to get them off to school.
Oura, unfortunately, is very unhappy with me and only gave me a 74 rating on my sleep, but it certainly didn’t help that Theodora woke up screaming about leg pain at midnight. These kids, I tell you what. I’ve promised them ice cream if they go 5 days in a row without bothering me in the middle of the night. Ambrose is on board, but then gets VERY angry when his sisters wake me up. So I’ll have to figure out something special to do with him if he gets 5 in a row, because he actually is usually the one of the problem children, and has really been making an effort.
In other news, I have started listening to Bleak House. The first chapters were kind of boring AF, but now that I’m into the first-person narration (no idea how long it will last) it’s a lot more engaging.