Why didn’t someone send me some kind of warning that this was a bad idea?! I mean putting this strict schedule upon myself, my husband and my kids right away with no warm up… It was like the equivalent of jumping into a krump routine with out stretching first. Or attempting a back flip when you’ve never even cartwheeled. Let me start from the beginning of how this all went down.
So I got this God given idea on how to organize my mornings and evenings better. You see, I think I am neither a morning nor evening person. I know you don’t hear of a person like this often… actually I don’t think there’s a single person I’ve heard of that is like this. I’m so special… “non enthusiastic yay”.
So I tend to wake up in a haze and pretty much like I’m drunk. I literally will always slip on my (hard word) laminate floors as I stumble down the stairs. I’m not even aware enough to make myself a fresh cup of coffee. I always drink from the French Press that’s been sitting there over night with day old coffee. I never make a fresh pot of coffee until I finish the old one to the last drop.
As for evenings, I blame my antidepressants. A side effect after taking them is that you instantly become drowsy; it’s why they recommend taking them at night. So my bright idea was to get a box from the Dollar Store that would serve as my three year old’s morning/evening box.
Last night I packed this box with Esperanza’s choice of outfit for the morning with a pair of undies. I included a morning snack, (an almond butter sandwich, which I snuck in after she fell asleep), as well as her choice of story book and toy for her to play with in the morning. This is so she can occupy herself in her room as I slowly get up and functional. In the morning she’s meant to change out of her pyjamas and into her morning clothes. She’ll then put the pyjamas into the box so it’s ready for the evening once again. The box also has her pull-ups for the night time so changing sheets in the morning is no longer a priority.
This actually worked out really well this morning. She got herself dressed and ate her sandwich while playing in her room. Then she came into my room an hour later ready to start the day. However I was still not ready for the day. But I never back down from a challenge so as planned I got up and left my husband to sleep in while I got the kids down stairs.
My initial plan was that I would have a cup of coffee while my kids had yogurt and then I would make them some scrambled eggs. This did not happen. We got down stairs, I made my cup of coffee and got distracted emptying HALF of the dish washer. I then found myself on the couch minutes later under a blanket, sipping coffee while on my phone.
The time that I spent on my phone was meant to be the time my kids would also take to watch a television show. But I was so tired that I couldn’t take the noise, so I just left the television off. I then some how convinced my three year old to go tidy her bedroom and I put the baby in her crib to be entertained by her sister.
Everything wasn’t on schedule but it seemed to be going smoothly. I felt so proud that I started posting an update on my facebook page of my “morning win”… I think I should have knocked on wood before hitting the “post” button. Immediately following my post the baby started screaming. Then my three year old came down stairs demanding I find her water bottle, (she keeps misplacing it yet somehow I must be the one that knows where it went). I finally exploded on her to go look for it herself… it was 10:45am at this point and my thinking was that Jesiah had slept in long enough.
I started screaming my husband’s name and down he came to my rescue. Bless the Lord, he stayed on task and is currently making burgers for lunch. You ladies gotta get you a man like this. My eyes are now half shut and I am hoping this post I am writing is not in piglatin.
Luckily I’ve gotten some great feedback on all of this, from those I would deem “mature mamas”. One of them being a past youth leader of mine from church, Marcia. Marcia has three kids ages two to five. She said, “Strict routine is never achievable! Maybe pick one thing to adjust (… like the morning box idea!) and then build on those new habits… I feel like a failure and get overwhelmed if I make too many changes at once”.
And that’s exactly how I felt after this crazy morning. So I’m going to implement this morning/evening box idea as a great start. And tomorrow I’m going to add on another idea that will be a part of our routine. Stay tuned and keep my family in your thoughts and prayers.
