We’re currently on the third year of homeschooling our three children and also on the second full year of all of us being home together all the time.
It is important to provide some background on this as it influences what I am going to explain to you. For the previous 15 years I was working long hours and weeks at an office. From at least 7am until 5pm or later and was barely home with my husband or our children. My husband, bless his heart, was and still is the most amazing stay-at-home dad. He spent his days chasing the kids around and taking care of our home.
Like with many others, when Covid started, I was sent to work from home. This was something I had always wanted for our family and it was like a prayer being answered. For over a year we adjusted to everyone being at home, we were already homeschool before this, so it was really just the adjustment to me being home all the time that everyone had to shift to.
After that first year of being home, I knew this was what I wanted for our family full time. Fast forward another year and I had changed careers to a company that was a permament work from home structure that allowed us to really settle into our new lifestyle.
But what that also came with was my own challenges in creating a morning routine that allowed me some quiet time to adjust into the day, wake up and be ready for my kids when they were awake. It took me a while to really understand that having an extra 30min to an hour each morning that is specifically for me, completely changed the way I felt throughout the rest of the day.
Ease Into The Day
When I wake up at 6am, I start up my coffee machine and do some stretches while it gets going. This helps to wake up my mind and body with gentle movements. I used to spend my mornings doing a hard work out before showering and heading into the office and quickly learned that I prefer to do my workouts in the afternoon before dinner. So my mornings now are dedicated to gentle movements that help to wake everything up without being a stress on my body.
After I stretch and my coffee is ready to go, I sit down with my warm cup and pull out my journal. Sometimes I just write all the thoughts I am having, other times I write down a prayer. It all depends on where my mind is that morning that drives what I write. I never try to write something specific, but allow my mind to really free-flow thoughts that need to come out onto paper.
By the time I am done with writing and my coffee is about empty, I pull out whatever book I am reading at the time and read a chapter or two. It’s not much, but these are all things that are important to me and give me a gentle introduction to every day. This way I am refreshed and ready to start work and then dive into out homeschool day.
What are your favorite things to do each morning? Have you implemented a morning routine? What works and does not work for you?
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