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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Why I Get Up Early

Getting up just 30 minutes earlier than you do now will give you 3 and a half hours to get stuff done EVERY WEEK!! Looking at it that way helped me set my alarm a little earlier.

I can't tell you how many times people look at me like I am crazy when I tell them my alarm is set for 4:45AM. Then they typically ask WHY I would do such a thing. Here is my why.

The basic reason I get up before everyone else (please LORD let it be before anyone else!!) is to get things done. But it's not just any old things. I want to be awake and not groggy or grumpy when I see my family when they wake up. I need to be ready for the day to give them my best, my whole best, not my sleepy best.

There are more specific reasons but really, they are all to get things done. Some other things would likely suffer if I didn't do my thing in the wee hours.  Things like breakfast, kids would likely have cereal everyday or some other convenience breakfast and that is just not how I want them to start their day. Lunches similarly, hubby probably would not have what he needs to take for work and kids would be without a hot lunch in their thermos.  This might not SEEM like a big deal to many but for us it is important for many reasons. We do what we can to keep the kids healthy, part of that is managing what they eat. The budget would surely suffer if the kids and hubby didn't have a lunch from home everyday.

How you can do it too!

1. Have a morning and night routine

This helps the whole process, routines can help build habits. I'm going to share my routines soon. They really are what make the difference for me!

2. Go to bed and get up about the same time every day
I try to keep mine within a 15 minute window.


3. Have something you are getting up FOR.
 Something you want to accomplish. For me it's typically sending the kids and hubby off in the morning, maybe that isn't your thing. Is reading a book a month, working out, even a certain tv show you can't watch with the kids awake? All reason to get up earlier!

4. NO SNOOZING! Snooze is my frienemy! I love it and I hate it.
I still use it a couple times a week, those days that 9 minutes makes all the difference.


5. Enlist a friend! 
Chances are you aren't the only one that needs help to get going in the morning. A Good Morning text or phone call from a friend is a good way to be accountable. You can't call your friend if you are still asleep.

6. Start out right

Get dressed right away, make the bed, no temptation to climb back in bed, no cozy pajamas to keep me at a sleepy pace

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Making our House a Home

Since we moved in to our rental in November it hasn't felt like home, just a house. I realized that a LOT of that is my attitude. I've been feeling down. I can work on my attitude about our current situation, because I KNOW it's not permanent but it's not the only thing not working. I think the feeling like we are just treading water and not really making progress is what has had me feeling down. Time to make the most of the time we are here and try to refine what we can until our next project comes along.
Things like

~What we spend our time dealing with at home

~What we do with our free time

~How we spend money

None of those are a 1 time thing, or easy. It's going to be a process, and I need to get on it. I think the busyness will help my attitude too. Since it's not something I HAVE to do but something I am choosing to do, being a good steward of my time and our money is important to me.

It's not just about the cleaning and organizing, there are other things that make it feel homey and I haven't been doing them or setting a good example. Sharing my struggles to do better everyday.  Hopefully someone else can relate to all the crazy!

I'm going to focus on mornings first, since that is when our day starts. It needs to run smooth and be a happy time. I don't want to send hubby or kids out the door with anything but a happy heart. I'll share how our perfect morning would go soon!

Hope you will join me this year in making a house a home.

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Organize Friday 2015

I shared on Facebook that I was spending some of my free time in December purging stuff. I can not even tell you how much we got rid of! I set a goal of 1 grocery bag a day during the week. Easily met that goal through Christmas. After Christmas when the big kids were home we didn't do a whole lot of purging.

Now that we have less stuff  TO organize, I can get on with it in our "for now" place. Making it a home, even if it's temporary. I feel like clutter and unorganized messes just continue to grow without work. I want our home to be peaceful for all of us and that is not going to happen with boxes of stuff and piles all over like it is now.  There are some other reasons why we prefer an organized home.

It's less STRESS to just know where stuff is and not come home to a undone project over and over. There is already plenty of other things that are stressful, let's take this one out of the mix.
TIME, when you have less to look through or deal with on a daily basis you will have more time to do the stuff that really matters! Less to clean up. YAY! Have you ever been late because you couldn't find your keys, phone or shoes?! That is not something I ever want to deal with again.
Money can also be another life factor that is affected by clutter and an unorganized life. Knowing what you have, and where you have it will prevent buying duplicates. Being honest about what we need has already really helped me in avoiding more stuff in our home. Getting and staying organized won't necessarily make more space but it sure will make me think twice about buying something I am already on the fence about.
It just feels more peaceful when things aren't cluttered and hectic.
 Another BIG reason organization is key in a happy life for us?  If we are better organized in the small mundane things the more free time we will
have for the BIG important things in life!

I know I can't do it all in 1 week so I will be going back to my Friday Organization. That usually works for me, Friday's tend to be a mellow day around here. Having a plan to get it all done will hopefully help keep me on track! Excited to get started! I did something similar last year, well I planned to anyway. Then lots of overtime, bed rest, road trip, having a baby and selling a house happened. New house, new list. 

I am going to start with the area people will see first!

This week is the Front Porch!   

Since we moved in our porch has been like this...

SAD! Poor wreath :(

Some other areas I will be working on over the year, as long as we are here.

~Kids Drop Zone (in the garage)
~Laundry Area
~Adult Drop Zone/Entryway
~Coat Closet
~Gift Wrap Supplies
~Kitchen Cabinets
~Pantry
~Under Kitchen Sink
~Refrigerator/Freezer
~Home Management Binder
~Office Stuff
~Homework Cabinet
~Living Room Storage 
~My Clothes/Closet
~Nightstands/Dresser Tops
~Kid Clothes*
~Kid Closets*
~Kid Rooms*
~Kid Bathroom Shelves
~ Kid Bathroom Cabinet
~My Car
~Garage*
~Sports Stuff
~Electronics Stuff
 ~Craft Stuff
~Computer
~Phone
~Linens

*Multiple Weeks

That is more than 6 Months worth and I am hoping we won't be here that long!

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