The Morning Routine

As The Boy and The Professor have gotten back into their school/teaching routines, I have also gotten back into my own routine here at The House.  One of my goals for this year was to re-commit to my housekeeping routine and I have to say that I'm chugging right along on this.  I have to be quite strict with myself once I'm home alone again during the day because I have the tendency to waste lots of time browsing the Infinite Store of Knowledge that is the internet.  So far I've really been able to stick to my morning and evening routines which are really the backbone of all my housekeeping. The weekly stuff, the decluttering 15 minutes a day a la' Flylady, has all sort of fallen into place over the last few months.

I know that there are plenty of other mothers out there with more children at home, who do a lot more than I do during the day, plus homeschooling. I love those other mothers. I admire them. I read their blogs with a thankful heart. They are contributing so much to their families and communities. My contribution is much, much smaller.  But, it is my responsibility to contribute to my family what I can.

Here's my usual Morning Routine:

Up by 6:30 at the latest. I usually end up getting up around 6:20.
Cook breakfast for us all, make lunch for The Boy.
The Boy and The Professor leave for their schools about 7:15. (The Professor walks The Boy to school every morning before he walks to The College.)
Have COFFEE :)
Make the bed.
Shower and dress for the day.
Wash up the breakfast dishes and straighten up the kitchen.
Put in a load of laundry.
Sit down to check e-mail and Facebook and download a podcast to listen to while I'm doing my major project of the day.

This is a very simple routine, but believe me when I tell you it has taken me YEARS to figure out that getting up early, and doing a few simple but necessary things really does set the tone for a productive day.  Yes, I have to write down on my list "Make the bed" every day.  I have learned from sad experience that if it is to get done I must Write. It. Down.

Now, I love FlyLady and you can tell that I use her system to help me, but you can also tell, if you know anything about FlyLady, that she recommends making the bed as soon as you get out of it and getting dressed etc. before everybody else gets up.  I don't do it that way. Maybe it would be better if I did. I don't know. This is working for me and has been for a while now, so I'm not going to tweak it right now.

This morning I finished my coffee about 7:35 and I was through with my Morning Routine and sitting at the computer checking e-mail by 8:04.  In the not too distant past, I might take my coffee into the den, before doing anything else, "just to check e-mail" and find myself at noon, still sitting here in my bathrobe, with nothing accomplished around my house and feeling like a failure. It has taken me a long time to learn that the discipline of routine really does open the door to freedom.