Our Morning Routine That Changed Everything

Mornings are rough, especially with kids.  Add the dogs, cat, rabbits, and garden to the mix, and you have more pressure.  I have never been a morning person.  The night owl in me does not bode well for bright and chipper morning presence.  In other words, ‘I don’t do mornings’! It has taken me years, and I hate to admit this, to get our morning routine down.  Now, don’t think every morning goes without a hitch.  Even with a routine that works life still happens. On occasion, one of us still wakes up grumpy and this routine doesn’t shine as much.  I am sure you understand that!  However, I have a favorite part of the morning that I want to share because it has literally changed everything about the nightmare a morning can bring.nnI of course am the first one awake in the house.  Thanks to our rooster like dog who decides to bark or whine at the exact same time every single morning.  Even on the weekends or holidays….yay doggie.  Anyways, that super fluffy rooster is my alarm clock and magically no one else in my home seems to hear the fur ball.  Funny how that happens hugh?.  Once my feet hit the floor, I of course let the dogs outside.  We walk around our property and play a little frisbee.  It is important to get some of their energy out!  I love on them and bring them in.  As they drool all over my feet while packing the kids’ lunches; I go over in my head what else needs to be done before waking the kids.  If anything, I try to do that list first.  Things like, I don’t know…. getting myself ready.  LOL!  That is a whole different topic of how moms can even have time to get ready in the morning.  My watch is set to remind me that it is time to wake up the kids.  (What the heck did I do without my cell or watch to alarm me of the time?!) Without the reminder I sometimes get lost in whatever else I may be doing and then I get super behind.  We all know what kind of disaster that can be!nnNow it is time to wake the grumbly little monsters (aka. kids)!  I used to do the whole thing where you walk in the room and say, “Get up honey time for school!”…..talk about how that backfires!  First, I learned to never remind them they are headed to school before they are truly awake.  That only leads to the melt down disaster of, “I DONT WANT TO GO TO SCHOOL!!”, commence tears.  Yeah.  I don’t miss that at all.  Sometimes I would walk in the rooms and say so sweetly “Time to get up sweet boy/girl”.  For some reason that never worked either as they pretended to not hear me.  Then there were the mornings that I was behind and already in a mood myself and I would almost yell, “Get up or your gonna be late!  Come on! We have to go!”.   Um. You KNOW how that went.  Total explosion for us all!nnSo how do our mornings look now?  As I walk into each child’s room (I choose which kid to wake up first based on when I last heard them the night before.  If I know my little girl struggled getting to sleep, then I wake up her brother first or vice versa. I swear those few minutes of extra sleep help.), I sit on the bed with them and rub their arm/back and say “Hey sweet Name HERE, Can mom love on you this morning? It is time to get up and get ready for the day.”. It may take them a bit to respond or sometimes I repeat it. Then I wrap my arms around them and hold them for a while or sometimes if the morning is rough, I lay beside them with my arm around them.  I love on them and pray.  I may pray for just a few seconds, or I have been known to pray for 2 minutes when I feel it is needed. On occasion I pray out loud but most of the time I pray in my head.  Some are not to be talked to so early in the morning.  They then get up and get ready.  Like I said previously, this doesn’t fix all the morning disputes but wow, the difference in our lives since doing this has amazed me!  Not only am I getting that special moment to just be still and love on my child while talking to the Lord, but that child also gets that moment with you and God.  I can’t think of a better way to start a day!nnNow I know that no matter what the day brings, whether it be good or life altering, my child and I have shared that moment. It is a reminder that they are truly cared for and loved.  I hope it is a long time coming before we part ways to head to our Heavenly home, but this morning routine has at least helped me to have the comfort of that moment if I were to not see them again.  I hope if I am the one to go, then that moment will always be in their minds too.  Love on that precious blessing each morning!