Good morning! How’s your morning going so far today? I “slept in” until 5:30 a.m. this morning.
I was in bed by 9:45 p.m., but when my alarm went off at 4:30 a.m. this morning, I could tell an extra hour of sleep would do my body good. Because I’m trying to do a much better job of giving myself grace these days, I set my alarm for 5:30 a.m. and went back to bed. And it felt so good.
Today’s assignment is about getting better sleep. I typically sleep really well. In fact, my husband jokes that it’s basically impossible to wake me up in the middle of the night if a child needs me and that he’s the one who always takes the night shift if a child is sick… which is somewhat accurate — at least the part about me being hard to wake up! 🙂
Unless I have some big something the following day and am feeling anxious or nervous about it, I sleep like a rock most nights. And I feel blessed that sleep is not an issue that I struggle with most of the time, because I know that many people do struggle with it.
That said, since committing to going to bed earlier, I’ve noticed that I’ve struggled to get to sleep at night. So I like the idea of being intentional about winding down at night in order to encourage restful sleep.
As I thought about it more, I realized that I actually do have a pretty solid Evening Routine/Before Bed Ritual — or whatever you want to call it. 🙂
My Current Bedtime Ritual
Here’s how it typically looks for me (note that I don’t always do all of these things, but I usually do most of these in this order):
::Do a quick clean up the kitchen/main living areas of the home — There’s something about waking up to a clean house in the morning that just feels SO good!
::Consult Google Calendar and write a to-do list for the following day.
::Wash face, take out my contacts, take pills/vitamins.
::Snuggle with my kiddos and send them off to bed. (Confession: I sometimes fall asleep right here — and then Jesse has to send them off to bed!)
::Make a cup of soothing tea and slather some essential oils or lotion on my feet.
::Turn off the electronics.
::Climb into bed. Chat with my hubby. Fall asleep.
The biggest thing for me is to start planning to go to bed at least an hour and a half before I actually plan to get in bed. It seems to take me that long to get everything done without feeling like I’m rushing through!
This Morning’s Report
- Got up at 5:30 a.m.
- Read my Bible and devotional books. Prayed over my day.
- Made some coffee, opened my laptop and answered emails & comments.
- Scheduled some posts — including this one asking for your input on my book.
- Jesse came back from the gym and got Kathrynne up. They made breakfast together, and then she started on her independent work. We decided to let Silas & Kaitlynn sleep in this morning as they both seemed like they could use the extra sleep. 🙂
- Finished this post.
- And now I’m off exercise and shower, start the laundry, make some breakfast for myself (I’m going to try the Trim Healthy Mama Pancakes this morning), and help the kids with their chores and start in on our homeschooling for the day. We’re getting a later start because I “slept in” but we have a quieter day today so I think it will work out. And here’s to hoping I get in bed by my actual bedtime of 9:00 p.m. tonight!
