Proverbs 31:15 "She gets up while it is still night; she provides food for her family "
Early to bed; early to rise...This is something I've been desiring to do for quite some time. I believe God placed this desire on my heart. Go to bed earlier and wake up earlier. The hardest part for me is getting my children on the same schedule. I'd love to go from being a Night Owl to an Early Bird. I would love to wake up each morning sometime between 4am and 6am. (I'll shoot for 6am first and see how that goes). Ideally, it would be nice to wake up, do my devotions, exercise, shower, make breakfast for the family and then wake the kids up.
I've been reading a few articles online which offered some great tips on how to accomplish waking up early and going to bed at a reasonable hour in the evening for those of us (like me) who are accustomed to being a night owl. Here is a list of tips I've accumulated from different readings:
1. Set your alarm clock far enough away from the bed that you have to physically get out of bed to shut it off & NEVER use the snooze button.
2. Gradually go into an earlier sleep/wake up schedule. Wake up 5-15mins earlier everyday and go to sleep 5-15mins earlier every evening until you reach your desired wake up time.
3. Go directly into another room after getting out of bed to shut off the alarm to resist the temptation to get back in bed.
4. Set goals for waking up early. (For example; mine will be to do my devotions and exercise)
5. Avoid eating before bed. Only light snacks 2hrs before bed, but no later.
6. Drink only water before bed and not enough that will wake you during the night to pee. (This will avoid caffeine or sugar in other drinks that can keep you awake).
7. Keep away from looking at screens (TV, phone, computer, etc) at least an hour before bed. Bright screen can stimulate brain activity and therefore make it harder for the brain to go to sleep.
8. Read before bed. Reading is a great way to relax and prepare the body for sleep.
9. Keep at it. It is believed that it takes 21-30 days for a person to form a habit.
10. Tell someone and keep track of your progress.(I'm posting this on here to help keep me accountable) and I will mark down the days I successfully wake up early to motivate me.
I'll keep you posted on how this goes.
I needed to make a project to-do list so I wouldn't forget all of these fun ideas I have! :-) These are all the ideas I've come across that I want to do. You can be looking for these posts as I complete them. :-)
- Sew the boys their hooded blankets (Yes, I haven't finished their blankets yet).
- Try baking cinnamon rolls using the Amish White Bread recipe
- Sew a new ironing board cover
Sew a baby blanket for my best friend's sister (she'd due in July...yay; I love babies!)
- Paint 2 - 16x20 pieces of artwork to hang in our bedroom
- Create a Money/Chore Chart for the Piggy Banks (I'll explain this in detail later).
- Make a new family closet (in progress now)
Make a devotional spot/reading area in our bedroom
Tin can soap dispenser http://fun.kyti.me/index.php/2011/06/tin-can-soap-dispenser/
Casserole Carrier http://2littlehooligans.blogspot.com/2010/10/casserole-carrier-tutorial.html
Felt - no sew game sheet http://kimboscrafts.blogspot.com/2011/07/hopscotch.html
Sew Trinity a summer dress
And I think that will be enough to keep me busy for now. :-) Stay tuned...
Well yesterday was an adventure indeed. After the mess with Ginger and Joshua, I was putting together a dessert I made. Homemade jello topped with homemade whipped cream (yum!). Well I put the remaining whipped cream back in the frig and heard a "clunk" when I shut the door. I cautiously opened the door to see what had caused the noise and the bowl with the whipped cream fell onto the floor splashing whipped cream on myself, my foot, and the inside of the frig. Thankfully it wasn't that hard to clean up.
The kids were enjoying the nice weather outside and covered in sidewalk chalk. We went out to Joann Fabrics to pick up a few items for crafts and one of the employees commented on how cute their "messiness" was. haha We came back home and I was relaxing with Joey in the living room. The older three snuck out into the backyard with John and his uncle as they were digging the deep ditches to lay down the drainage pipes for our gutters.There were huge mounds of dirt in the backyard which all three of the older kids decided to play in. :-) Trinity, of course, was in a diaper only (not sure what she did with her clothes) and her hands were covered in dirt, as was much of the rest of her body.
I found this to be quite funny and went to grab my camera. By the time I made it outside, John had sent the kids back in the house so he and his uncle could continue working. So unfortunately I have no pictures to share of them playing in the dirt. :-) I made all the kids strip down when they came inside and head straight to the bath tub. I gave them a bubble bath and let them "soak" for a while. Hey it works with dirty dishes right? lol
So all three kids came out squeaky clean. Right about then my husband and his uncle came in the house and tracked big clumps of dirt all through the house! My kitchen floor had a layer of mud tracks all over, my sinks were splattered with mud speckles from them cleaning up for dinner and the carpet on the stairs had mud tracked on them. I was so thankful I decided NOT to rent the carpet cleaner this week because I will definitely be using it soon! :-)
After the kids were in bed, my husband and I were downstairs watching a movie together. I heard one of the kids calling for us and asked my husband to check on them while I changed Joey's diaper. Brenden (our oldest) still wears a diaper to bed to prevent him from wetting the bed even though he is potty trained through the day. Well I heard my husband asking Brenden why he did "that." Curious to know what "that" was I went up to investigate. Brenden had apparently pooped in his diaper and then took his diaper off since it was "ucky" and sat on his mattress. Ugh! So while John showered Brenden, I scrubbed the mattress. Thankfully there was no poop on the carpet or anything else in the room; just where he sat down. We think he might have had some "runny" bowels and couldn't get to the bathroom in time.
Thankfully after that the messes for the day ended. To be honest, I really wasn't even that bothered by any of the messes. If you learn to accept that messes are an everyday occurrence and that your house will probably never stay clean longer than a few hours (or day at most..haha), then your stress level will be greatly reduced and you will learn to laugh more, get frustrated less and just enjoy life. It took me awhile to learn that lesson, but in almost 6 1/2 years of marriage and 4 kids later, I've finally learn to not let the "little" things bother me as much. :-)
This morning I woke up fully prepared to play catch up from this weekends "festivities" but was disappointed when an aura visual impairment, which later led to a migraine, prevented me from doing much of what I wanted to accomplish by now. So here it is; three o'clock in the afternoon and I'm just now getting to the point where I can look at a computer screen again and all I've managed to get accomplished is feeding the kids & hubby lunch and put the car mats back in the van before it started to rain.
Hopefully the rest of today will go smoother and I can report a more productive day this evening. :-)
