Category: personal

morning routine
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?
June 3, 2015
LIGHT : may

The month of May has been so good to me as far as feeling lighter. It started out rough, but once I decided to change my attitude, refocus my priorities, and let some things go, everything turned around. Maybe partially coincidence, but I’m going with it!

spiritual

Recently I’ve benefitted a lot spiritually from my revamped morning routine, which I will be sharing more about next week. I now rarely miss my morning Bible study/prayer time and that makes a big difference. I just finished Beth Moore’s study “Stepping Up” about the Psalms of ascent. I really enjoyed it, and now I’m wondering what my next study will be. I am always working on praying more continually throughout my day and noticing the presence of God.

physical

After not exercising for a couple of months, I ran a 5k with a friend last weekend and I was pleased that at least that distance is still easy for me (although we ran quite slowly). I have a plan in mind for my fitness: run twice a week, yoga once a week, and super-slow strength training once a week. Here’s what I need to do to put that into practice: get some good headphones to run with (otherwise I will just skip the treadmill when the weather isn’t nice, which is often), research how to do super-slow strength training on my own, and find a yoga class to attend or figure out how to make it work for me at home.

emotional

Wow, so much better in this area. As long as I am getting decent sleep, I feel good. Meredith’s tantrums have really reduced lately, so obviously that helps, and I just read Love & Logic which gave me a good framework for discipline. There is still some uncertainty at work but I’ve been cross training and so I feel useful. Mostly, cutting back on my personal projects and saying no to new projects has helped me feel so much more in control and able to give attention to the things that need it (like my family). And actually, I have still been able to be quite productive on my own projects as well! I’ve been reading more, and finishing things, and keeping up with the blog and Project Life and none of it feels like a burden.

My current biggest emotional stressors are finances and getting enough sleep. Liam has been sick a lot lately (we are home sick today) so he doesn’t sleep well, and the kittens also disturb my sleep.

relationships

Our little family is in a good place right now. I’ve felt very connected to David recently, although more date nights are always welcome, and I still look forward to the day when the kids sleep in their own beds and we have some time together every night without them. One thing I want to work on is getting back in touch with my out-of-town best friends. We used to email and call regularly, but I let that go when I was so stressed.

creative

My creative life is going strong, and like I said above, it has actually benefitted from reducing the number of projects on my list. I finished my 2014 December album, am cross stitching for fun, keeping up with Project Life via the app, and I even took a second knitting class.

This month in the One Little Word class we were challenged to create cards with “I am” statements. I skipped the artsy part of the challenge (which was to use paint and mixed media to create the base of the cards) and just used some neutral patterned paper for mine, because I’m going for simple.

Here are my statements:

I am letting go of internal pressures + expectations for my sanity’s sake.

I am reading, knitting, cross-stitching, + blogging in my downtime.

I am still finding my footing with this whole motherhood thing.

I am slowly fitting running back into my life.

I am a work in progress. God’s not through with me yet (thankfully).

I am wondering what my job will look like a year from now.

I am loving: our new kitties, audiobooks, Birkenstocks, an extra cup of coffee each day.

I am realizing just how much I can’t do anything on my own.

I am oh so grateful for the good days, for family nearby, and my marriage.

And now it’s almost June and summer! I can’t say that I’m too excited about the oppressive heat and humidity that comes with it, but I do like the long days and reduced traffic. :)

May 29, 2015
on dancing

Recently we went out to eat as a family. (This in itself is worthy of documenting, but that’s not the story for today.)

Anyway, we were out to eat at a casual steakhouse, the kind where the servers wear little American flags sticking out of their back pockets, the floors are covered in crushed peanut shells, and there is country music playing nonstop, loud enough so that if a toddler decides to exercise his vocal chords no one will really notice.

It was a weeknight and the kids were both in good moods. Liam had never been happier, stuffing fistful after fistful of food in his mouth and shrieking with glee from time to time, as one does. Meredith was asking her usual thousand questions about anything and everything around us, when a specific song came on and all the servers began a line dance. It was halfhearted, obviously they were required to do it and it was an interruption to their work, but Meredith suddenly got quiet and just stared.

The song ended, the servers returned to their tables, and we went back to our steak and burgers.

A few minutes later, country music still blaring, I was focused on getting applesauce into Liam fast enough for his liking when I saw out of the corner of my eye that Meredith was standing in her seat and she – was she really? – yes, she was dancing.

I looked up at her and smiled in delighted encouragement, and she was immediately embarrassed. She stopped, crossed her arms, and pouted. And I thought, when did Meredith stop dancing? I haven’t seen her dance in ages. And then, when did she get so self-conscious about it?

When she was a toddler she danced anytime she heard music. Liam does the same thing now. It’s the most adorable bobbing and hand waving. The very definition of joy. But Meredith doesn’t dance anymore, and you know what? Neither do I.

I’ve never been big into dancing, but I do recall long road trips with my best friend as we drove from Texas to Kansas and back for college where car seat dancing played a big part in our staying awake. I think of New Year’s Eve celebrations with friends where dance parties broke out and I’ve never laughed harder or had more fun. I remember so many wedding receptions where I dragged David out on the floor with me, and even when he was on crutches I’d at least make him slow dance.

There’s something about dancing, isn’t there?

And now I realize with sadness that I hardly ever have music playing at home anymore. When I do turn on something to listen to, it’s privately, and usually it’s a book. No wonder we don’t dance.

Sometimes I think about how my kids will describe me later on, what kind of mother I was. It might be (I hope it is) something like this: she always had chocolate in her purse and a craft in progress. She kept the house very neat but let us make our messes. She was almost always up for a walk around the neighborhood or a trip to the park. You can bet she’d bring her book. She left the physical games for Daddy and didn’t tend to get down on the floor to play, but she taught me to cook and to knit and came to every performance and game.

What I want to add to that description is: she laughed a lot. She was carefree and unselfconscious and she loved to turn on music while she cooked and if she felt like dancing right there in the kitchen, she did it.

That night, after we came home from the restaurant, we turned on music. Meredith learned the robot (amazing). We did awkward bobbing and hand waving which was definitely not as cute as when Liam does it. We stayed up too late but man, we haven’t had that much fun on a weeknight in way too long.

Here’s to having more dance parties. To music that makes you want to move. To staying up late sometimes and just having fun.

May 26, 2015
around here // unusual week

Around here it’s been a weird week because Liam was sick for five straight days. On Sunday night he got a fever of 105 which was causing just a little bit of internal panic but we managed to get it down pretty quickly with meds and a cool bath. At urgent care that morning they had claimed it was just a virus so we never did go back to the doctor. Each day his fever was slightly lower until finally yesterday it didn’t come back. In addition to that he has a particularly heinous cough, but nothing overly concerning.

Monday my mom was able to watch Liam, then I was home with him during the day on Tuesday and worked an evening shift in Pre-op, then I was home with him Wednesday and Thursday. David was out of town on a fishing trip (bad timing for my coworkers who probably got the worst end of the deal) but my in-laws were awesome about giving me a break in the evenings.

I’ve really enjoyed the special time with Liam, but it’s been a bit exhausting! There has been a lot of holding him, playing on the floor, running interference between him and the cats, watching Mother Goose Club, and peekaboo.

I did manage to get him to nap in the bed a few times (as opposed to my lap or the car) and I was able to FINISH my December album from 2014 which was a huge accomplishment for me. Now I’m completely caught up with scrapbooking projects, and to celebrate I cleaned up my crafting table and did a little decluttering of supplies. Feels so good! (Also, I pre-ordered Ali Edwards’ Week in the Life kit so hopefully by the time that happens late in the summer I’ll be ready to start a new project!)

I also did some work on my cross stitch sampler this week. I’m actually almost done with the house now, but this is the most recent pic I have. I’m definitely behind on the stitchalong, but I’m still making progress!

I got to do a lot of reading this week – finished two books! The Light Between Oceans for book club, which I am still kind of mad at for messing with my emotions so much, and Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin. I think I could dedicate a blog post to each and every chapter of that one (and I was tempted to!) but for now I’ll just say that I found it incredibly motivating and practically helpful. I do intend to make some concrete changes to solidify some healthy habits and I will share my action plan with you when I get it worked out.

This weekend I’m running a 5k, having a delayed family dinner for Mother’s Day, and meeting for book club. I have Monday off work so we are deciding if we should try to go on an adventure, although it is supposed to rain. We shall see!

May 22, 2015
around here

Around here I’ve been running really low on energy. I just want to go to sleep every afternoon and I struggle to make it through the evenings. I’m not sure whether to attribute it to the food I’m eating, low blood counts (I wasn’t able to donate blood recently due to anemia), or just bad sleep. Maybe a combination. My step count is abysmal and cooking is nonexistent. Most of my healthy habits have lapsed and although I’m not happy about that, I also can’t muster the enthusiasm to make big life changes, even though I know they’d give me more energy.

So I’ve been reading Gretchen Rubin’s Better Than Before which is about habit formation, and I’m looking to make some small changes to my routine that may potentially have a big payout. The last few days I’ve started with my morning routine and it’s making a big difference in the rest of my day.

Around here I’ve been all over the place for work. I’m a fairly competent pre-op and radiation nurse now, I’d say. I still have my infusion patients. And I travel to the medical center about once a week. I got new clogs that make being on my feet much more bearable.

Around here the kittens remain adorable and fun, but I’m having trouble fully litter-training them. They use the litter box most often, but they also don’t. (Actually it’s just one of them in particular.) We have two boxes that I keep clean. I don’t know much about cats so I’m not sure what to do.

Around here I’ve slowed down on my cross stitching, but have still made a little progress. I’m in more of a reading phase lately, and I’m tending to pick up a book in my spare time. My library queue is a little out of control so that motivates me; I hate returning books unread and I hate racking up fines. Also, I’ve added reading for pleasure to my morning routine and it’s been amazing! I hope to share more about this soon.

Around here I’m brainstorming seven fairly healthy + easy dinner ideas that we can eat every week, inspired by Miranda. So far I’ve got: tacos, egg salad, taco chicken bowls, meatballs, and breakfast. What else should I add?

Around here Meredith and I went to our first movie in the theater together. We saw “Home” and it was super cute. Her tantrums have improved a lot over the past few weeks, but haven’t gone away altogether. When one comes, I still don’t have much patience so I’m working on that. But for the most part she has been incredibly fun and adorable lately.

Liam is in the cutest stage right now and I just want to squeeze him all the time. He’s not perfect though! He’s a hitter and a thrower and is very messy and loud.

Around here it’s been raining nonstop and my poor husband got caught in a storm with a broken window on his truck so he got soaked. We finally got it into the shop to get fixed, which needed to happen because he’s going out of town next week.

Today I’m working on my weekend plans: I want to get in the habit of having my weekend to-do list prioritized and planned on Friday, as well as my grocery list made. We don’t have any social commitments this weekend other than church small group, but it’s supposed to keep raining and David has to work again so I’ll have to get creative to keep those kiddos entertained.

Happy Friday! What’s going on in your world?

May 15, 2015