Are you ready for Tip #2? Todays tip is: Get ready for your day the night before. Spend a little bit of time at night to plan and prepare for what lays ahead for you and your family tomorrow. Put out your clothes and the clothes of those members of your family that are too young to do this for themselves. I encourage you to consider making your older children do this for themselves - but have them prepare the night before just as you do. Pack any backpacks and/or sports bags. Look over the calendar to see if there is anything extra that needs your consideration. Maybe you need to make lunch to send with the kids? Whatever you can do the night before to make the morning go smoother will be well worth the effort.
While you are giving tomorrow some extra consideration, why not try writing down three things that would make you feel great if you can get them accomplished tomorrow? Put that list in your purse, or type it into your phone.
Look forward to "seeing" you back here tomorrow. Be sure to send your friends by too!
Countdown: 99 days remaining in 2011 - how are you spending those days?
The Tale of Two Households:
The alarm goes off at 6:00 and Mom reaches over and presses snooze. Ten minutes later she presses snooze again. The 3rd time the phone does its annoying blarring, jolting her out of these brief sleeps, Mom decides its time to get moving. Getting out of bed and heading down the hall to wake up the first batch of children, she turns on the bedroom light only to hear little B cry out "It's TOO bright, shut it off!!" to which Mom retorts "No, get up now and hurry up, its already 6:30!" Little B continues to whine, covering her face with her hands, bumping into the wall on her way to the doorway. Mom continues down the stairways to the bigger kids room. Thankful to find that one of the two boys are already in the shower, she turns that bedroom light on and demands that Boy K get upstairs and eat his breakfast. Mom now stops in the laundry room to select the clothes from the piles of clean clothing sitting on top of the washer and dryer. As usual, she cannot find matching socks for all of her children - despite the fact that there is literally two full baskets of unmatched socks sitting on the floor (waiting for somebody to do something with). Once she finally has what is going to be worn today, she heads back upstairs and into the shower. After the shower is complete, she puts on her robe and goes back into the kitchen where she finds that 2 of her children are still sitting at the table. "Come on, you guys! We don't have time for this! You are going to make me late for work" The two children she addressed resume eating . . . slowly. Mom takes out the bread and peanut butter and jelly and begins making the lunches. By the time she has everything ready for lunch, her hair is already starting to dry and Mom hates when her bangs dry all funny like that! Ugh. She wets back down part of her hair and then blow dries her hair. Calling for the youngest, little M, she puts him into the bath and just showers him down really quickly. She puts his clothes on, including that pair of socks she spent five full minutes trying to match, and then helps brush his teeth. One of her middle children, boy D, comes to her while she is still in the bathroom with little M and tells her that she is supposed to sign this math paper that I got an "F" on. "What?!?", Mom replied, "Why did you get an F? Oh, never mind. You will have to talk to Dad and I after I get home from work today. Give me the paper." After signing the form, Mom heads back downstairs to check on the boys' progress. As usual, Boy E is still in the shower, even though Mom has told him that the showers taken in the morning need to be quick. Knocking on the bathroom door, Mom instructs him to get out quickly as his brother still needs a shower. . .
OR
The alarm goes off at 6:00 and Mom reaches over, shuts the alarm off and gets out of bed. She showers and gets dressed in the clothes that she hung in the bathroom the night before and then dries her hair. She then goes into the kids room and gently stirs them, instructing them that it is time to wake up. A few minutes later, her sleepy faced children are sitting at the breakfast table. Mom goes to the front room while they are eating and she reads her morning devotions and prays for a good day. The two bigger boys that have a bedroom in the basement are more or less self-reliant and they take turns showering and getting ready with the clothes that they had gotten ready last night. After breakfast, mom helps the little ones put on the outfits that she had laid out the night before. She then takes the already prepared lunches out of the refridgerator and places them in the appropriate backpacks, which are lined up by the front door. She shakes her head when she gets to boy D's backpack as she recalls that last night he told her about a math paper that needed to be signed because he got an "F". She talked things over with her husband last night and they determined that they would each devote a little more time each day to review his math facts with him. . . .
Which way would you like to start your day?!?! :-)
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