Thank you so much for your kind words on last night’s post. I hope to get to respond to each one personally, but until then, know that you blessed, uplifted, and encouraged me so very much!
It’s the last day of our Rise & Shine Challenge (since I skipped the weekend posts!). Can you believe it??
This challenge has been good for me and I’ve definitely learned from it. One of the things I think I may have taken away from it is that 4:30 a.m. is too early for me to consistently get up. I know that my body needs at least 7 hours of sleep every night and I’ve made it a big priority to get that amount of sleep (or more!) at least 5-6 nights per week.
But that means I have to go to bed by 9 p.m. and I’m finding that’s really hard to consistently make happen at this season of life. So I may just need to re-arrange some things in the schedule and shoot for 5:30 a.m. instead. That seems to be a better time for me so I think I’m going to stick with 5:30 a.m. for the next few weeks and then re-evaluate.
In addition, I learned that it’s hard to break bad habits. Slipping over the summer and letting myself go to bed so late and then get up late was a difficult habit to break. And it encouraged me to be more intentional about not slipping into bad habits like that again.
I’m thrilled that I feel like this challenge has been the jump start I needed to get back into the early-to-bed, early-to-rise mode. Overall, I’ve been much more productive, feeling more rested, and remembering why I used to love getting up early so much!
Today’s Rise & Shine Challenge Assignment
Today’s challenge is to focus on bringing back the fun into your mornings. This is such a good reminder — and something I need to work on as I tend to be more of a focused mom than a fun mom.
Some ideas I had were:
- Starting the morning with lively music.
- Watching a short YouTube clip in the morning that makes us all laugh.
- Cracking a joke or teasing a family member about something (provided they enjoy being teased!)
- Singing while we do our morning chores.
- Being intentional about smiling more.
- Planning a special breakfast.
What would you add to my list?
This Morning’s Report
- Got up at 5:30 a.m.
- Read my Bible, prayed, read a few devotions from two other books.
- Made some coffee, checked email, and scheduled some posts and Facebook posts. Answered more comments and emails.
- Write a few posts for today. Then, I exercised, showered, and got dressed.
- Switched the laundry and took the big pile of clean laundry out to the living room couch to fold later this morning.
- And then it was time to start in on our homeschooling for the day!
Amy R says
I am glad you are listening to your body! Nothing has ever been as intricately designed as the human body, and so many times if we will just listen to it, we would be so much better off. I’m not saying not to push yourself to do more or be better, but your body is very good at letting you know when you have gone beyond its natural God-given limits!
Su says
I think it’s great that you’re doing this and posting about it. Do you remember a while back when you wrote about “Eat that/the Frog”? I say that in my head each morning that I don’t want to get up….most days. …eat that frog–just do it(the hardest/worst)thing first and get it over with early. Getting out of bed is hard sometimes; however, once I’m up it isn’t difficult. I appreciate all your honest and encouraging posts. thx
Linda says
Starting in early August I wake up an extra 5-10 minutes each day, so by the start of school I am up by 6:00.
shannon says
I would be curious how you find your funny youtube videos to watch. Seems like so many are not appropriate for younger kids….
Maria says
The Holderness Family has a lot that makes my kids laugh (the link’s for “Do you want to have some broccoli?”); there’s some ‘iffy’ things here and there (the mom is bleeped out on one word in this video), though most of the videos are family-friendly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWoumR-jUcQ
You can also just type in a kids’ character to find videos. I found this one searching in Muppets (I love Beaker, so that’s why this was what I picked)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnT7pT6zCcA
Quinn says
Thanks for sharing. Thats fun!
heidi says
so sorry Crystal, my phone wouldn’t post my entire comment, switched to laptop…. My husband gets up at 4:30 and wants me to get up with him. I usually end up back to sleep from 5:30 til 7:30 and then I’m sluggish and missing that quiet time. It really does take discipline to get to bed early, especially with teenagers staying up… thanks for the encouragement!
heidi says
(oops, dumb smart phone
heidi says
I am so with you on the 4:30 thing
Siobhan says
Thanks so much! This challenge has helped get me out of an unproductive night time rut. I’ve started going to bed earlier and waking up earlier as I realized I’m more productive in the morning. Thanks so much for sharing your journey. You’ve inspired me 🙂