{Fresh} Morning Routine Part 3

It starts the night before!

Remember, big things first! So what needs to be done at night for you to have a GOOD morning?

Write it down! Make a quick night routine. It doesn't have to be detailed or complicated! Maybe you don't even need a list, just set a time for 15-20 minutes and do what is most important to you that day.

Mine looks like this:

Tidy, because waking up to a mess bugs me.

Clothes, choose and lay them out. Including workout stuff
Breakfast Prep
Check Planner/ To do list

Prep Coffee (A MUST!)
Write in kids books (more on this soon)
Load Laundry, or at least have a load ready
Pack Lunches

Not always in that order, but usually.

The most important thing about nights?

~Go to bed on time, I swear I get days behind if I stay up even a little late.

It really doesn't have to be super detailed or long and drawn out. Just enough to make your mornings and the start of your day the best they can be!

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{Fresh} Morning Routine Part 2

Rise and SHINE 

I don't care how EFFECTIVE your routine is, or how many things you can cram into the time you set for yourself, if you are miserable doing it, then it's just not right.

 2 hours is what I can do in the morning. Most mornings our kids catch the bus right after 7 so getting up at 5 would be my 2 hours. This won't be the same for everyone, I am not saying you have to get up at 5. You decide how much time you need in the morning.

Maybe you aren't naturally a morning person? I am, a little.  I find that music in the morning helps me get going as does getting enough sleep (or as close as I can).

I don't know if there is any 1 way to make it work but these are some tips that I either use, or have used in the past and worked overall, maybe some will work for you too!

~Give yourself some grace. Every morning isn't going to go well, but don't give up!

Waking up early is HARD!

 ~Important things first. Prioritize your time. What is important to you will likely be different than what's important to others. Make this YOUR thing :) Getting those important things done first helps set the tone for a productive morning.

 ~I talked about enjoying the morning, not always easy I know. Try candles, diffuse some oil, good music, maybe a splurge type coffee creamer, open those curtains or get ready for the day first thing. I feel better if I'm put together. Do something that makes YOU feel accomplished or is a stress for you, pay bills, balance the checkbook and get it over with.

~Get up before your kids! This is no secret to getting stuff done in the morning. However, at our house it's also not really possible. So don't scrap the early bird stuff just because your kids get up early too! We implement quiet time in bedrooms, or getting dressed etc (more coming soon). that way I still have a teeny tiny bit of alone time. 

What are 1 or 2  things you do in the morning to feel good?

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{Fresh} Morning Routine

For sure my morning routine is NOT Fresh and hasn't been working for months,
maybe even a whole year or more! 

I've shared about mornings and how we do them. Except that was 2 houses and a baby ago. We really needed an overhaul. January is the perfect time. If I can get up when it's freezing  and dark out then it will just get easier as the mornings get lighter and warmer. Not sure how much it will change from what we were doing before, but we did have some changes that require some altering of our routine.

Quick list of reasons WHY we do morning routines. Key word is routine, not schedule!

 ~We have 4 kids
~Not a fan of being late

~My Sanity

~Calm and Happy Mornings

No one likes mornings where we are frazzled, stressed and rushing. Routines help me to make our mornings productive and peaceful.

I don't want it to come across as a mission to get MORE done,
but a mission to get what needs to be done, done BETTER.

How long does a routine take? Depends on what YOU choose! Super basic could be 20 minutes. I am going to give it 2 hours every morning and be intentional with every minute of it.

Just dedicating those 2 hours gives the rest of my day a super start. I get more done and feel better about things.

I can't tell you how much easier it is if you ENJOY your routine. 
If you hate what you do every morning, that is just going to be ROUGH! Mornings set the tone for the entire day. I have to constantly choose to be happy and thankful that I can do all this stuff and it makes the whole day better. I will share some more ideas about making it enjoyable soon.

  Part 1. What do I want to accomplish before the day really starts?

Knowing what I want/need to get done will help me make a plan. You in? What do you want your mornings to look like?
Part 2. Rise And SHINE
How I make mornings shine (as best I can)

Part 3. Night Prep
Make the most of your night to make your mornings work

Part 4. Kids Routine
Help to make their morning run smooth too!

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Morning Routine for busy Mom's

My routine hasn't changed much over the years, it works for me for the most part.

And NO way does this happen everyday. Anyone who says every morning runs this smooth is fibbing or has super powers. This is how my morning runs on a perfect day. Most days there is a varying amount that gets done, out of order some days and none of it on those bad days. Those are all ok with me. I just like to have a vision of what the perfect morning would be like. How can you work towards something if you don't know what it is. Right now, with a 3 month old it's really hit or miss on what happens in the morning.

That is my basic morning, I have a much more detailed list in my planner. But it's probably too detailed and specific to work for anyone else.

What does your perfect Mommy morning look like? Ya know, other than sleeping in. Do you have a routine? If not, here are some tips on getting started!

1. Write down what MUST be done before it's time to go, detailed.

2. Figure out how long that will take you (then add 10-20 minutes just to be safe) 
If you have to leave by 8 and it's 90 minutes worth of work, you know what time that alarm needs to go off!

3.Write down the things you WANT to do in the mornings. Adjust your time to reflect those items.
If that leaves your alarm at an hour you just cannot accept, some of those want items can wait.
 OR
Try prepping some of those MUST do items the night before, leaving time in the morning for some of those WANT items!

4. Practice, refine and make it work.
For me it wasn't easy to just pop up at 4:45 one day. I slowly started moving it back about 30 minutes until I had it easier most days then moved it back again. 

I am going to share my weeknight prep list soon!

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Refining Mornings~ Kid Edition

Working on making home more home like is not a 1 Mama job, it takes team work. No one wants to be on my team in the mornings! I think we can all wake up a little unmotivated. Sharing what we are working on for the kids to make this place Home.

In an ideal world the kids CHORE PACKS would resolve much of the pokeyness we have in the morning. But in reality, I think I am the only one that has picked them up in months!  They may need some updating.

This week I am going to work on finishing up our morning plans and tweaking the routine to see if we can all get back on track!

 To make mornings run smoother we have our Good Morning Basket. I got out of the habit of encouraging it's use and keeping it stocked. That has been reimplemented! It is a little different now, here it is with our regular daily vitamins, kids devotional and the newly added DoTerra OnGuard beadlets. We have been healthy for a good while (until last week) and I want to get us and keep us that way!

Sometimes in the mornings I get a little busy with the baby, making breakfast, vetoing outfits (REALLY hoping this can be a thing of the past soon) prepping lunches and dinner and drinking my 3rd cup of coffee. I recently added these little notebooks and added a reminder to myself in my nightly to do's about leaving them a note in the morning. I wish I could say I had the brains in the morning to tell them each individually something for the day and remember important stuff. I don't, and I want their days to start out super. I wish I had a little note to start my day off better.

They fit perfect in the basket!

This is how our perfect morning for our kids would go (starting with not being up super early)
It's not identical for each kiddo, some shower at night.

~Get Dressed
 (and put dirty clothes in bin)
~Make Bed
Just put books on shelf and pull up blankets, we don't expect perfect
~Tidy Room  
Picking up MOST of the mess, 1 type of toy out is fine. All of them out? Not so much.
~Good Morning
This is all in the Good Morning Basket. Vitamins, Notebook, Devotional and Breakfast
~Pack Lunch
I make their thermos stuff, they choose the rest. 2 snacks, fruit or veggie and cheese or yogurt.
~Brush Hair and Teeth
This is the part that takes them the longest each morning! 
~Back Pack
Make sure they have what they need for the day

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2nd Day Hair

Well now that I have been DOING my hair everyday for a week, I am learning to love 2nd day hair. My style is put together but not perfect. Nothing super fancy, more like messy but intentional.

My favorite thing for day 2 right now is this thang!

It looks weird but I love it. It's used to make a bun. I think they are called bun donuts. Its squishy and kind of rough so it grips my hair. I make a pony tail, put this on and pull it all the way to the ends then roll it down and keep tucking the ends in as I go. It's not perfect but I am not going for perfect so it works just right for me. I have some pieces that fall out and I leave my bangs out. It takes just a few minutes but it looks like I intentionally did my hair. I have added a bow or flower most days to help tuck in strays but I don't need any pins to keep it up all day!

My next favorite is twisted/braided bangs with headband and low messy bun. kinda like this

but with bangs like this

And mine never looks this good, much more imperfect but I do not care as long as it stays all day!

And even a ponytail and the braided bangs look better than JUST a ponytail. My hair is pretty short right now so I have limited options but happy I am putting the effort in!

I pretty much HAVE to do a bun of some sort because I sleep with my hair pulled back and no matter what there is a crease in it. So if I don't want to straighten it AGAIN (NO time for that) then the crease has to be hidden! I am taking full advantage of the cold weather and wearing the cute knit hats once in a while too!

What is your favorite 2nd day hair style? Websites or blogs you love with tutorials?

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Hair/Makeup part 2

One of my personal goals I shared here was getting put together more often. 

For me makeup CAN take forever, I was able to scale it back. Checking out all those 5 minute makeup challenges on Youtube. It's amazing what some of those girls can do in 5 minutes! And they have some great multitasking resources!

But for me I think the easiest way to get makeup done faster is to have less to "fix"!  I figured if I can get my skin better I can do less to it in the mornings. Makes sense right?

I have super dry skin and occasionally break out. SO thought that would be a thing of the past once I was in my 30's! I'm ok dealing with wrinkles but BOTH, no way.

Just like I am a sucker for makeup, it's the same for skin products. I think I have tried everything! Some things that seems to work well for other people gave me such a bad chemical burn! I decided I need to find a more natural, less chemical (and expensive) way to deal with things!

I kept seeing people going on about OIL CLEANSING METHOD. At first I was like, yeah right this just sounds INSANE because of all the other products that say oil free, and talk about oil like its horrible. But I was kind of desperate, so I tried it. And after the first week where I swear my skin was WORSE, it got SO much better. Not only is my skin feel and look better, it is SO much less expensive to make these products myself! Now maybe I can afford some GOOD wrinkle cream too lol. There are SO many different options depending on your skin type. But all can be made for a fraction of the price of commercial stuff!

I also use witch hazel sometimes as a toner. I got these amazing pumps that are fast and easy to use with the cotton pads. And only $0.55!

And if THAT didn't make you think I was crazy, this might.  I also got back on board with NOT WASHING MY HAIR. Yup, sounds wrong doesn't it? But I was doing it before and don't know how I got off track but I am paying for it now. I am sure most of us have heard how bad the commercial shampoos are and how much better the natural, no sulfate ones are for us. The issue I have is the good ones are spendy. I started just mixing baking soda and water. 1 Tablespoon baking soda for each cup of water, I mix it in a big jug ahead of time. I use just a little, maybe a 1/4C at a time for my shoulder length hair rub it in well and rinse SUPER SUPER well. Some people use apple cider vinegar on the ends to "condition" them. I just use a little coconut oil on my ends, and I use a leave in conditioner that I LOVE (and won't give up even though I am sure it's not ideal) a couple times a week. My hair is SO much better when I use this method. I don't have to "wash" it everyday because I am not using chemicals to strip my hair, that makes your scalp freak and make extra oil to compensate.. vicious cycle I tell ya.
 It takes my scalp about 10 days of me being good for it to stop over producing and heal. Once that 10 days (of every 3rd day wearing a hat) are over I have super hair, shiny too! Super hair that dries faster, super hair that costs me next to nothing to keep up with and no more frizz! Not going back to commercial shampoo, no matter what it claims it can do or how it smells!

Between these 2 things I think I cut about 5 more minutes off my morning routine! And help with the budget a little bit too.

What "crunchy" methods do you use and love? I am all for trying new natural stuff !

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Hair, makeup and clothes

Since one of my goals is to put myself together more often I have to find a way to do it faster than I do now! I do my hair maybe every other day now and I do my makeup every few days. I have about 20 minutes to do it ALL in the morning, hair, makeup and get dressed!

Hair feels like the thing that takes the most time so the first thing I did to help with the time was cut my hair SHORT (for me anyway) I cut about 14" off and that alone has made it SO much faster to do my hair, no more blow drying for an hour and no more ponytail everyday! Pinterest (of course right?) has a ton of cute ways to do shorter hair that don't take a lot of time. 

This site is my favorite! She has lots of cute ideas that aren't overly perfect. I don't have time for perfect in the morning. I also spent a little time on Youtube, I don't use it often but I can see I could replace my Pinterest time with YouTube easily. I liked all of THESE too!

I have been setting out the hair stuff I will need the night before so I am not as tempted to just do a ponytail. Planning ahead is going to be the only way I can get hair and makeup done in 20 minutes! I also have been planning on setting out my clothes for the next day as part of my bedtime routine. I need a full length mirror, the 20 trips to the kids bathroom to use the mirror takes a lot of time!

Makeup is one of my weaknesses!  I just really like it. I have a few different brands/styles of the same color of eyeshadow. WHY?! No idea, sometimes I just can't help it! So I decided to go through and limit my choices to the few colors I am likely to use everyday anyway and get the clutter out of my
 "everyday" pile of makeup! I figure that will make it easier if I don't have too many
choices and can keep the others out of the way!

This is my eyeshadow stash, AFTER I went through it all and got rid of about half. This is still too many choices for everyday. So I kept out just the few I feel like I use the most down to this

I use everything in this drawer pretty much everyday. I had SO much other stuff in there taking up room and making it cluttered and hard to get to the stuff I actually use!

I also saw on Youtube there were a TON of "5 minute makeup". I seriously need to practice! It's crazy what some of them can do in 5 minutes! What I decided to do is use multitasking and basic stuff, tinted chapstick, tinted moisturizer or BB cream.. whatever it's called.
And basic eye makeup, no liquid eyeliner or anything time consuming! Pretty sure it will take more than 5 minutes still but less than it was!

I will have another post soon, on 2nd day hair, speedy makeup (I hope!) and my favorite outfit blogs!

And another on better skin and better hair! Less expensive for both and all natural! Y'all might think I am a nutter after reading that one though :)

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