Getting Up Early

This post showed up in my Facebook feed this morning as I drank my coffee and scrolled through the new stuff people had to say. I started composing a post to share this article there, but it was getting a bit long-winded, so I figured I'd bring it over here instead. I miss blogging regularly, and I find myself "writing" posts in my head all the time, but they rarely make it here. Maybe I'll change that. Anyway, here's the post:

http://dirtandboogers.com/how-every-mom-can-have-happy-mornings/

Everything this post points out is so true for me. I mentioned before that I like quiet, and truth is, it's hard to come by these days. I love my kids and I wouldn't trade them and this life for anything, but the noise is nonstop! Naptime is nice, but it's not every day that I can get everyone sleeping at the same time, and Aaron doesn't end up going to sleep most of the time. I guess he's outgrowing naptime, which is sad. Very sad. Like really, VERY SAD. As of right now, I still have him lay down at naptime and he lays there quietly for an hour or so. Sometimes he falls asleep, sometimes he doesn't, but it's quiet time nonetheless. 

I love to sleep. But I also love some quiet time for myself. At this point in my life, I'm thinking I'm just going to have to learn to like getting up early, for the sole purpose of quiet. Like this blogger said, my attitude is much better when I have half an hour to myself before anyone else gets up. I just need to wake up quietly, and as I said before, Aaron never stops talking. So if he's up, it's not quiet. 

I'm not talking about getting up super early, because at this point I'm still up two or three (or four or five) times a night. But if I could make myself get up at say, 6:30, I'd have at least an hour alone! (Or just with Oliver and he's pretty quiet) I'd be a lot happier when Aaron gets up and we all know that would be good. I HATE feeling dread when I hear him get out of bed and I think having my own quiet time beforehand would really help guard against that. 

Another thing is, if I get up early-ish all week, I could sleep til 7:30 or 8 on the weekend and feel like I was getting to sleep in. It's all in your head, right?! I try to keep everything as quiet as possible on the weekend mornings so that Jacob can sleep in, and in all honestly, I struggle with a bit of bitterness in that area at times. Because I never, ever really get to sleep in. Jacob works super hard all week and I want him to be able to sleep in on the weekends, but it is hard because sometimes I do just want a break. And please don't comment that he should let me sleep in. The feminists can shoot me but I'm a firm believer in taking care of one's man and letting him sleep in (which he really loves to do) is just one of the ways I can do that. Kinda like I try to keep the house clean so he doesn't feel like he has to clean when he gets home from work. But, I digress.... So, I'm thinking, if I would be disciplined enough to get up at 6:30 during the week, sleeping til 8 on the weekend would feel special. 

This is definetly something I'll have to work on, as getting up early does NOT come natural to me, but I really feel like if would be beneficial to everyone in my family if I could get in this habit. And if something I can do will make my family better, that's something I need to work on. Catch y'all later. 😁