Landing on Both Feet

Today we really started off on the wrong foot.
As if Monday Morning isn’t challenging enough on its own, add to it a kid with insomnia, a kid who shares a bedroom with said insomniac, and a toddler who woke up at 12:30 am to inexplicably cry for an hour. Pretty much a recipe for a disastrous morning.
But I was determined not to let it break me.
I like to get an early start on the day, if possible. I let the kids sleep as late as they need to, but once they’re up I like to get things rolling. The kids have a morning routine chart on their door that lists things to be done by 9:30:
– Get Dressed
– Make Bed
– Eat Breakfast
– Brush Hair and Teeth
– Say Morning Prayers
– Unload Dishwasher
– Music practice
It’s not an unreasonable list, especially when they are usually up by 7:00 or 7:30. By 11:00 today, they had eaten breakfast and were half dressed. That’s it. It was just one of those mornings.
I was determined not to let it break me.
At 11:15, I made lunch, which was punctuated with an argument with The Muse about the fact that I wasn’t going to make her a smoothie after I’d just prepared something else. Finally I told her to make it herself, which she did. She made one for Dolittle as well, which took about 25 minutes. We read through the “Family Virtues Guide” chapter on Purposefulness (definitely needed that) while we ate, and by the time they were done, it was 12:15. I had to work at 1:00, BoyWonder was clearly in need of a nap, and other than the virtue lesson, we hadn’t done a lick of anything schoolish (or even peripherally educational) yet. So I asked The Muse to read to Dolittle while I put BoyWonder down. That took way longer than usual, so by the time I came downstairs it was 12:52. Seven minutes before my work time. Crap.
Maybe I was going to let it break me.
No, dagnabit. Not today. I whipped through Dolittle’s reading lesson, and got The Muse to start her violin practice. Then I worked for an hour.
And then, somehow, the rest of the afternoon all fell into place. I got to play some fun writing and math games with Dolittle, and helped The Muse study her Greek and Latin root words. I worked for another hour while the kids read and then watched a fun math video, and The Muse did her math lesson without any complaints.
The day didn’t break me after all.
It may not have been on my timeline, and I certainly wouldn’t choose to have the morning wasted on a daily basis, but we got our plan for the day accomplished. And I’m proud because I resisted nagging more than I needed to. It’s easy for me to get frustrated when the morning gets SO out of whack, but today I focused on being flexible, purposeful, and on empowering the kids to aspire to the goals both they and I set for the day. And it all turned out OK. So we started on the wrong foot, but wound up landing on both feet.
Plus, during the time the kids were taking WAY too long to get dressed this morning, I went on esurance.com and saved us $400 a year on our car insurance. There’s always a silver lining. J

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Annie writes about life, motherhood, world issues, beautiful places, and anything else that tickles her brain. On good days, she enjoys juggling life with her husband and homeschooling her children. On bad days, she binges on chocolate chips and dreams of traveling the world alone.

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