Mornings

Tomorrow will be the end of our 3rd week of the new school year and tomorrow I will post my week in review to show what the girls have learned this week. However, tonight I want to post something I have learned this year that has made my life so much better as not just a homeschooler, but a wife and mother as well.

I have always had a problem with staying up late and not getting up till mid morning. It has eaten away many wonderfully planned school days and countless activities, both of mine and the girls. Because of our late start, we would rush to start our day and never get past the basics before it was time to pack it up and put it away for the day. I longed for more time to get things done around the house and I'll be honest I wasn't telling myself the truth when I said I would get it done after the kids went to bed. Because they were sleeping in as well, they were staying up late with me!

Then I found a wonderful web site called inspired to action and a plan they had called Maximize Your Mornings. In this group, you sign up for either a text, tweet or facebook group and you keep each other accountable for getting up in the morning, having quiet time with God and exercise. It was hard when I first signed up. I wasn't this jolly person that you wanted to be with, but over the weeks I began to see how much more I was getting done by getting up so early. I also saw that I was rubbing off on my family!

My husband has never been a morning person. He never wanted me to get up with him before work because he liked to roll out of bed, put his clothes on and grab something to eat on his way to work. Things started to change however when I started waking up earlier in the morning. I didn't wake him up, but I did make his coffee, cook him a hot breakfast and even put a lunch and snacks together for him. He started liking his wife getting up earlier! But even more than having a hot fresh cup of coffe and home cooked meal, he liked having a few minutes to speak to his wife. Now, he get's up early as well. We still have the coffee and hot breakfast, but now we even get to have a Bible study together in the morning. Talk about a blessing!

My children are also getting up earlier now. No more school days starting at noon, they start these days no later than 8:30. And we are getting more subjects in than ever before. Science is no longer just a quick read through and history is something we actually get to do hands on projects in now. The girls are happier than they have ever been and we are finishing our day early enough that they now have time to do extra things that they want to do like piano, nature study, art. And Mom? Yes, she now has time to do more things she wants to do.

Tuesday of this week, after the girls finished their studies, I was able to start a jean skirt that I have been wanting to make. Winter is coming up soon and I was down to just two jean skirts. So I pulled out my sewing machine and started piecing together my fabric and creating something for myself, something that I haven't done in years. Today I was able to finish my project and I feel so accomplished. I know that I no longer have an excuse to not being able to get everything done, I just need to make sure I go to bed on time and get up in the morning.

If you struggle with getting up, I encourage you to try inspired to action and see if maximizing YOUR mornings doesn't make a huge difference in your homeschooling day.