Luxury in the Morning

If I hadn't been up by 7 this morning, I would not have had nearly two whole hours of peace and quiet before the kids got up. I would not have had a short devotion and some space to think about it. I would not have had an unrushed shower, and I wouldn't have had time to slip a sweet, fresh-raspberry-strewn bread pudding into the oven -- made with my own homemade bread and eggs from my chickens. My morning chores would still be undone, and I wouldn't be relaxing here, in my room, with the windows and blinds thrown open, the sunshine streaming in over the green lawn and flower garden, and the birds exuberantly singing just outside.

I live in the lap of luxury, and I would have missed it if I hadn't been up on time.

Ideally, I'd be up well before seven, I'd be up before the sun. 5am or so. I know many, many admirable people who consider 7am an indulgent sleep-in.

So I could deal with the ideal, or I could deal with the real. By this stage in my life, I am beginning to know the difference, and I'm learning that perfectionistic attitudes get people stuck in a pit, sooner or later. So let's talk about what is real, and what is enjoyable, and live the best life in the best way for each of us. Blessings!

Ongoing Challenge #3 Moey -- Bed by Eleven, Up by Seven

Yeah, okay, I realize that to most people living in the "real world" -- who have to get up and be out the door by 7am and are dropping like flies well before 11pm, this sounds like some sort of holiday. Yeah, but. I'm not going to make excuses or anything, but I have never, ever, ever, ever been an early-to-bed, early-to-rise person. I've been early-to-rise when I had to (school, work, taking kids to school, etc.) but even then: bedtime, I struggle with. I just seem to be constructed for third shift. LOL. And, I am nursing a baby, who I have to wake up to feed, or I lose my milk (already lost it, went to formula, baby got diaper rash, went back to nursing and trying to feed more often during the night.)

All that to say, that for me, the getting up is not the hard part -- the going to bed is the difficult bit. There is always the "one last thing" that needs done, or it is finally QUIET in the house (six kids, homeschooled, home all day every day, hello), or I am in the middle of a book or whatever. Whatever.

The thing is, I keep totally screwing up my plans with either being exhausted from not enough sleep, or not getting the stuff done that I need to, before I am buried under the stuff that I have to do when the kids are up and about. Today was a day like that. I got up early, but I was so tired, I just felt horrible, so I handed the baby over for some big-kid babysitting and went back to bed for a bit. We had planned to go to the library, but after my nap, by the time we got out the door, it was almost lunch time and nothing on my list had been done yet. So today, besides all the normal kid care, the only things on my list for today that got done, were: go to Aldi, and go to the library. BUMMER!

I had gardening to do, needed to clean out the fridge, cook up a few more aging items, clean the kitchen windows (trust me, this needs done), and other junk like that. But all my time was taken up just putting out fires all day long, and I was behind all day. I hate that!

So, I will be in bed by 11. Every night. I will get up by 7. Every morning. I will need some kind of motivation and help to do that. LOL.

I mentioned that I went to Aldi: I bought $16.89 worth of groceries: 10lbs flour, 5 gall milk, 4lbs bananas, 3lbs onions, hamburger buns, and a very nice cantaloupe. With only $25/wk to spend at the store (the rest coming from the pantry/freezer), that was a big chunk of change for not very much stuff. I will try to post the figuring I did to come up with those amounts, tomorrow; I just wanted to be sure to write down that I spent $$ and what I bought today.

Now I have 10 minutes before bed, and have a couple more things to do, so good night!