I don’t know what it was, exactly, that made me feel so tired and out of control over the past few months, but I was. During that time I let a lot of my healthy practices slip away. I wasn’t sleeping well, and I’d wake up late and spend my spare minutes browsing my phone, then I’d rush the kids out the door and work all day, have an energy crash in the afternoon, eat whatever I wanted to give myself a boost, and convince myself that we were too busy for me to spend time exercising.
The first step in me feeling more like myself was to let go of the extras, to recall my priorities, and that helped a lot. It changed my attitude, which gave me the motivation to work on healthy habits again.
The second step was to establish a solid morning routine. I crave structure and boundaries, and I don’t have much (if any) time to myself during the weekdays so I knew I had to reclaim this time. I’ve been practicing this new morning routine for a couple of weeks now and it’s truly been revolutionary. But first, here’s what it looks like:
8:00 p.m.
The morning starts at night. I let myself check my phone once more for notifications before getting ready for bed, and then I plug it in to charge in the living room.
Also notable: I go to sleep when the kids do, around 8:30 or 9:00 p.m. I’d love to stay up an extra hour with David when they get a little older, but for now this is working to get us all the most sleep.
4:30 a.m.
My alarm goes off. I now use a simple little clock on my bedside table; I like how small it is because when the first alarm goes off I hold it in my hand. It has short snoozes, about 4 minutes, and I allow myself three.
4:45 a.m.
Out of bed. It’s really not that hard to get up because usually Liam has been nursing on and off for awhile (I had to start closing the cats out of our room at night because they were just too active for me). I go straight to make coffee and while it brews I feed the cats, put away dishes that have dried overnight, and get stuff ready to make breakfast.
5:00 a.m.
I am sitting in the oversized chair in the craft room with my coffee, doing my Bible study (right now I’m reading through this
). Sometimes Liam wakes up during this time and I will bring him to nurse and that way I can usually at least finish my study. If I finish what I’m reading or working on before thirty minutes are up, I will journal and/or pray.
5:30 a.m.
I read for pleasure for thirty minutes. Notice I haven’t looked at my phone once yet. Game changer! If Liam is awake at this point, I will still try to read but we will move to the kids’ room where he can play.
6:00 a.m.
It’s time to start getting ready for the day. I usually go in this order: make and eat breakfast, pack lunches, get dressed, do makeup, get Liam dressed, then finally get Meredith dressed. I do let myself check my phone at this point, and most days I’ll listen to a podcast while I get ready.
7:15 a.m.
We head to the car and I drop the kids at daycare before going to work.
Some notes:
- I’m 100% a morning person and I know waking before 5 isn’t going to happen for most people, but for me it’s totally worth it to start my day off right. I highly suggest figuring out some sort of morning routine that works for you.
- Having the structure of timing all planned out has really helped me. You might not be so rigid, but it keeps me on track.
- I feel such relief that every day I have dedicated Bible study and reading time. This is helping so much!
- Lately the kids have been sleeping till at least 6, and Meredith until around 6:30. They used to wake up around 5 or 5:30, so obviously that makes a difference.
- I do try to follow this routine on the weekends as well, but I tend to push everything back by an hour.
So tell me, do you have a morning routine? What does it look like? Any ideas or insights to share?
and listening to 
) but not much crafting. I did just place an order for prints from the Project Life app, and I’m excited to share those soon.