Money Saving Mom®

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!

How was your morning? What ideas do you have for adding more fun into your mornings? What have you learned from this challenge?

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Did you enjoy your weekend? We had a busy day on Saturday with lots of projects to accomplish, but our Sunday afternoon and evening was spent just totally relaxing and hanging out… which was such a nice change of pace after a very full week last week.

The interesting thing was that, even though I had told myself I could sleep in as late as I wanted to, I woke up both mornings by 7:30 a.m.! This might seem really “late” to those of you who always get up by 5 a.m. on the weekends, but I was excited because I fully expected that I’d sleep in until 8:30 a.m. as I often do on weekends. But nope, I think my body is starting to fully embrace this early to bed, early to rise thing again! 🙂

Today’s Rise & Shine Assignment

Today’s assignment is to really make your morning ritual a habit. Because I’ve been getting up and doing practically the same routine for years, it is very ingrained in me as a habit.

It looks a little different every morning, but it’s very rare for me to not start my day with Bible reading, writing in my Blessings journal, reading at least a few pages from a book, and praying over my day. It’s amazing how this refuels my tank and starts my day off well!

Now, some of you might be reading this and thinking, that’s a great idea to start your day off with some quiet reading, prayer, and reflection, but that would never work for me because my kids get up so early. Or, they’ll get up as soon as I wake up, no matter what time it is!

If you’re feeling like that, I encourage you not to be discouraged! Here are a few suggestions:

• Have your child get to watch a special movie or show during that time. Just plan on it so you don’t feel guilty.
• Let your child play an educational app for an allotted amount of time.
• Have your child go back to their bedroom with a special basket of toys and let them know they can play quietly and come out when the timer goes off.
• Have the child snuggle with you if you’re sitting and reading/having devotions.

I’m sure some others have some great suggestions here that I didn’t list. I’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions on this topic, too!

This Morning’s Report

• Got up at 5:30 a.m. I’m still hoping to start consistently getting up at 4:30 a.m., but I’m really happy that I’m at least consistently getting up by 5:30 a.m. *and* getting 7 or more hours of sleep every night. That’s a big accomplishment for me right now!
• Headed downstairs and made coffee. Did a quick clean of a few things in the kitchen.
• Brought the laundry downstairs from the upstairs hampers and started a load of laundry.
• Straightened our room and bathroom.
• Sat down with my cup of coffee and read my Bible, read a chapter from a devotional book, wrote in my Blessings Journal, and prayed over my day.
• Answered emails and comments. Scheduled some posts. Sent a few project emails out to my team members.
• Placed an order on Amazon. Updated and scheduled some posts on Pinterest.
• Got the kids up and around and started on their morning routines. Switched the laundry from the washer to the dryer and started another load. Made sure the kids did their chores correctly.
• The kids ate breakfast with Jesse while I finished up a little more computer work.
• Taught Silas Kindergarten while the girls got started on their morning school. {I’m loving getting to teach Kindergarten again! This is such a fun grade to teach… especially because Silas is usually always eager and excited to do school!}
• I made myself a bowl of oatmeal with a little chocolate and almond butter mixed in (yum!) and then sat down to help the girls with their school.
• We finally finished our morning homeschooling, had a quick lunch, I started the dishwasher, and then Jesse took the kids to swim practice and I got a chance to sit down and do some more blogging work and write this post.
• I have a few more projects to wrap up this afternoon and then I’m going to exercise, finally get in a shower, and tackle a mountain of laundry. And then we’re off to have dinner with friends tonight!

How was your morning this morning? What are your suggestions for having a good morning routine or quiet time even if you have early risers?

We made it to Day 5! Are you still hanging in there and making progress?

I have definitely made progress this week… I haven’t had a perfect record this week of getting up at 4:30 a.m. every morning as I’d planned. But I am encouraged by the progress I’ve made.

Last night and this morning, I didn’t do so well, though. But it was for a good reason!

I had a chapter of my book due to turn into my editor by last night. When 9 p.m. rolled around, it still needed some more work. So I stayed up for an extra two hours to finish it.

Gratefully, I knew today was going to be a pretty quiet day with a short to-do list, so I was able to sleep in to make up for my late night last night.

I guess it kind of makes me feel better to confess I got up at 7:15 a.m. this morning when I read today’s email and assignment on Early Rising Isn’t For Everyone. 🙂

I’d also say that early rising is not for every season or every single day. Like last night, when I had a project that needed to be completed, I was good with giving myself grace and just re-arranging my schedule.

That’s life, isn’t it?

Starting My Day Off Well

One thing I’ve tried to make a habit of is starting my day with a few of the same things — no matter what time I get up. These are things that recharge my soul, refresh my spirit, and just plain get me ready to face the day.

For me, that’s writing in my Blessings Journal, reading a few chapters from the Bible, praying for the day (I often pray through my day — all the projects, the opportunities, and the potentially difficult or stressful things.), reading a chapter from my current devotional/inspirational book, and exercising.

It’s amazing how much of a difference it makes when I start my day with these things. If I get up later and don’t have a lot of time in the mornings, I will often just condense the time — maybe only read one chapter, skip the devotional reading, and pray while I’m running on the treadmill.

Taking 30 to 45 minutes every day to start my day in this way has made such a major impact on my life… and helps me start the day with the right focus and perspective.

This Morning’s Report

• Got up at 7:15 a.m.
• Made coffee. Read my Bible and devotional books. Prayed over my day.
• Opened the laptop, answered emails, answered comments, and scheduled some posts. Got sucked into reading something online… and then wished I hadn’t because it was upsetting!  🙁
• Did a quick pick up of the main living areas of the home (I didn’t get this done last night like I usually try to.)
• Started some laundry, and got the kids up and helped them get ready for the morning. There was some whining and complaining going on because some people didn’t want to have eggs again and instead wanted oatmeal or cereal — but our bulk order of oatmeal and cereal hasn’t arrived yet from Amazon, so we had a good opportunity to talk about gratitude and contentment. And I tried to keep my cool when I wanted to be frustrated at the lack of good attitudes so early in the day. I was mostly successful.
• While the kids were finishing up their morning routines, I quickly exercised, showered, and dressed.
• And then it was time to start our day!

How was your morning? How do you start your day in a way that refreshes you? I’d love to hear!