I cherish my early mornings. Those minutes before the kids’ wake-up clock turns green are all mine. They help me stay sane. Here’s a window into my “early to rise” mornings — or a week’s worth of them, anyway — and what you can find me doing at 5:40 a.m. as I try to hold all the pieces together. This is not a tale of heroism. In fact, it might be a tale of foolishness. Though I bristle when I hear myself use the word “busy” to describe my life, here I am… busy.
Monday: Drinking coffee. Grading papers.
Every weekend, I bring home a stack of middle school math papers, and I think to myself: “You’ll grade these.” Some weekends, I find a chunk of time to do it. This past weekend, I didn’t. Oops.
Tuesday: In the pool.
I love swimming before school. I never swam competitively, but I look forward to my time alone in the pool and the ensuing smell of chlorine. It reminds me that for a few minutes of the day it was just me and the water.
Wednesday: Drinking coffee. Prepping dinner.
I have oodles more energy in the morning than I do after a day of teaching, so if I can come home to a dinner that is all ready for us — and use the energy I have left to play with kiddos — I am in heaven. Especially if it is slow cooker turkey quinoa chili.
Thursday: Drinking coffee. Reading about school bullying laws.
That plate that is a little too full? That would be the grad school class I am taking this fall. I do not have time in my workday to do my school work, so this is where it fits.
Friday: On a treadmill.
In the “how we parent and stay ourselves” division of time and labor, Tuesday and Friday mornings are mine to be off duty from the kids while my husband is “on call.” On good days, I use that “early to rise” time to work out.
Saturday: Making a grocery list (and, you guessed it — drinking coffee!)
Family dinners are important to me, and I like to make sure we have what we need on hand.
Sunday: Snuggling with my daughter.
Usually, she sleeps until a little past six. Other days, she’s early to rise and ready to take the world by storm. Generally, she wakes up her brother if we let her cry, so I’ll take the extra cuddles now while she’s little. Now if I could just get someone to bring me my coffee…
![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://bostonmoms.com/lifestyle/early-to-rise-a-window-into-my-life-at-540-a-m/&media=https://bostonmoms.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/attractive-bar-barista-296888.jpg&description=Here’s a window into my "early to rise" mornings, and what you can find me doing at 5:40 a.m. as I try to hold all the pieces together.){kind=link}