1 hour ago
One of my goals for this year has been to develop a better morning routine.
I have had visions in my head of getting up before the kids, accomplishing my devotions and a ton of writing work before they even get out of bed, then graciously closing my laptop, giving my darling children a kiss, and going upstairs to make everyone a picture-perfect breakfast. I look adoringly at my troop while I drink a cup of hot coffee.
Yeah. That hasn't been going so well.
This is closer to what our mornings actually look like.
6:30 - The sun starts shining through the window, and wakes me up, but I am still exhausted from the night before. This isn't even just Georgie's fault - the three youngest and the dog all conspire to wake me up at least two or three times a night. I turn my head and try to go back to sleep.
6:40 - I hear little feet pounding around upstairs. I roll out of bed and call up the stairs, telling the kids to go read books in their room for a while. I stumble back to bed and fall asleep.
6:55 - More foot-pounding. I ignore.
7:02 - A child starts to come downstairs. I want fifteen more minutes of sleep. I remind them to stay upstairs and try to squeeze in a few more minutes.
7:10 - I realize it is futile to resist and get up. I brush my teeth and wash my face, put in my contacts.
7:20 - I go upstairs and make the kids breakfast, while reminding them they can't actually eat it until they make their beds and get dressed. Breakfast used to always be cereal, but then I realized the kids where a little calmer if I didn't hype them up on simple sugars first thing in the morning, so now sometimes I make them oatmeal. After I make them breakfast, I remind them to put their dishes in the dishwasher. I go back downstairs to fix my makeup and get dressed.
7:40 - I finish my makeup and go back upstairs. All the bowls are still on the table. I remind the kids to put them away again, and then tell them to go play while I drink some much-needed coffee.
7:50 - I sit and read or type or listen to a podcast and try to get motivated to actually start the day.
8:30-9:00 - Georgie wakes up. I make her a bottle and go downstairs for some snuggles.
9:30-10 - We actually start some sort of school.
Give or take 30 minute on all those time slots, and that's how our morning usually goes!
While I still think it would be wonderful if I could manage to get up before the kids and get some of my own stuff done before the day, our actual morning routine isn't completely terrible. I would like to be more productive, but there is a part of me that truly loves this slow start to our day. I'll probably continue to try to drag myself out of bed early, mainly because I would love to be able to squeeze in morning devotions on a regular basis, and I think that is something that truly would be worth making a change for. As it is, I do my daily devotions at night, which is also fine, but ideally I'd like to refocus my day right from the start.
Do you have morning routine? Do you wake up before your kids? HOW did you become disciplined enough to wake up before them (especially if you have early risers)?
"You are a type A personality, aren't you?" my doctor asked as I packed away the papers full of information I came to discuss with him.
"Yeah, I guess so," I replied. Everyone always pegged me as a type A, especially doctors, because I love to research subjects that are important to me, and I liked my house relatively clean. So I always just assumed that's what I was, a classic Type A.
It was only after I had kids that I began to consider that maybe "Type A" wasn't exactly a perfect description of my personality. I always viewed things like cooking and sewing as more art than science (not very Type-A), and I was never very into planning (also not Type-A). But after I had kids, I realized that I had a spontaneous, let's-just-do-something-fun today side, which is far more descriptive of a Type B than a Type A. During the baby and preschool years, I loved having my days mostly wide open, and being able to fill the hours with whatever struck my fancy.
I admit, as my kids grew older and homeschooling requirements grew more immediate, I mourned the loss of my newfound spontaneity. Because you can't really be spontaneous when you have a list of things to be done each day, can you?
But this is my second official year of homeschooling (sort-of third year, but Kindergarten is only part time in our house), and I have learned that I still do not like to have my days planned out. When I have a list of have-to's for each day, I feel the pressure and stress rising in my chest. If I don't feel the freedom to run errands, grocery shop, or just declare a spontaneous field trip day, homeschooling can quickly start to feel like house arrest to me.
So my solution? I don't daily plan our homeschool. Instead, I plan weekly.
In my homeschool planning pages, I have a spreadsheet that includes all the different subjects, and what lessons and pages should be done each week. I don't care how much we get done in any given day, as long as we do some school each day and get everything done that I have assigned for that week.
This has been really freeing for me, and allows me to still play with our weekly schedules a little bit. If I realize we have no food left in the house, we might go grocery shopping and only do two subjects that day - then the next day we'll catch back up. If math lessons are humming along really well, we might do two or three lessons in one day and give ourselves a couple days off of math the rest of the week to focus on history instead.
(Or freedom to gather chicken eggs with friends? Just trying to make the pictures work here.)
So far, this weekly planning has been working much better for our family and my personality than daily planning would. I imagine some adjustments will be needed as the kids get bigger and their workload increases, but even then, I remember handling my own schoolwork much the same way when I was homeschooled. If I felt like doubling up on a few subjects and giving myself a lighter workload the next day, that's what I did.
So I don't know if I'd technically be a Type A or Type B, but I know as far as daily planning goes, as long as the weekly work gets done, anything goes. I love that I can still make homeschooling work with the side of my personality that loves freedom in my schedule.
Do any of you daily plan (in homeschooling or just in life)? Would you consider yourself a Type B or Type A personality?
I didn't realize when I started this prompt series that one of the first subjects would end up being such a touchy one, at least when a person has my angle on it.
I've never celebrated Halloween.
Growing up, we always went to "harvest festivals" sometime during the month of October, but we avoided events on the actual day, holed up in our home with pizza and a movie. We never got Trick-or-Treaters because we lived in such a rural area. None of my friends really celebrated Halloween either.
As I became an adult, I not only never felt the need to celebrate it, but I also actively campaigned against it (you long-timers on here might remember a strongly worded blog post back in the day). As a Christian, I didn't feel good about Halloween, and for a long time I had a hard time understanding other Christians who had no qualms about the holiday.
I like to think I've grown quite a bit in my understanding of Christian liberty over the years. (Read Romans 14-15:6 - that whole thing.) I get now that a lot of Christians view Halloween as just an innocent kids' holiday, an opportunity to make memories and meet the neighbors, and they have freedom to celebrate it. The Holy Spirit convicts us in different ways on these non-essential issues, and that's okay! It's not something to argue about, or think less of anyone over, no matter which side you stand on.
As I've come to recognize that Halloween most likely falls under the umbrella of Christian liberty, and as I've had children who I've had to explain this whole issue to, it's forced me to further iron out my reasons for not celebrating Halloween. I get that a lot of holidays could have pagan origins or connections, and I'm not one to abandon Christmas because pagans a long time ago worshipped trees or something - so the pagan origins of Halloween are a factor for me (because it's so strongly rooted in paganism), but not necessarily a reason by itself anymore. We still live in a fallen world, and sin still contaminates everything; evil, neutral, and good. So why do I still choose not to celebrate it (besides having sensitive kids who wouldn't be into it anyway)?
First let me lay a little groundwork for my personal reasoning - as Christians, we know that Jesus came to give us life, eternal life, life more abundantly!
The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
John 10:10
He came to free us from the consequences of our sin when we trust inHim to save us, to take our punishment, to defeat death by rising again!
So the bottom line for me is this: if all that is true and Jesus came to give us life, I just don't have a desire to focus on a holiday that, at it's root, glorifies everything to do with death.
The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
John 10:10
He came to free us from the consequences of our sin when we trust inHim to save us, to take our punishment, to defeat death by rising again!
So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O Death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?”
O Hades, where is your victory?”
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:54-56
When I talk to my kids about why we don't celebrate Halloween, that is what I say. I say that some people believe in Jesus and think Halloween is fun, but for our family, we want to focus on light and life, because that is what Jesus gives us. So far, they get it, and we just do our own thing on October 31st! (This year I think we are actually going to celebrate Reformation Day, at my kids' request, since it also falls on October 31st.)
To finish this off, I'd just like to say if you love Jesus and enjoy the innocent parts of Halloween, I'm not here to argue or persuade you to give it up. Like I said, I believe this is a non-essential issue that each Christian should prayerfully determine their own stance on, and I'm fine if you disagree with my take on Halloween. I know there are even a lot of Christians that use it as an opportunity for evangelism, which I think is wonderful and needed. I won't judge you, and I hope you won't read into anything I said either. But that's how I handle Halloween.
---
Next up...well, I'm skipping meal-planning and daily-daily planning, because I don't do either of those things well, so next will probably be an update on my littlest lady! She just turned eleven months old, which means birthday planning is in full swing!
(The colors out there are just gorgeous right now! Seriously, the in-real-life colors look just like this.)
Last year I started a 31 Days Of Writing project, even though I had a baby due at the beginning of November. I wrote about Memory Keeping (you can read all those posts here), and I definitely didn't get to all the posts I had planned because I was in pain and huge and Georgie arrived before the end of the month!
This year we are moving before the end of the month, but I'm still going to try another October writing project, because the trees and the cool air and the candles and the hot drinks make my inner self scream "Pull out that laptop and write!".
I saw this little image floating around Instagram the other day, and I thought, why not? Let's do this (except I'm writing here instead of on Instagram)! It'll give me an easy way to scratch the writing itch.
I've missed the first few days (you're not missing much - my answers to how I handle those first two are "Um...I don't?"), but I think there are some good subjects coming up. I reserve the right to skip any days that are too busy or for which I have nothing to say.
However, PLEASE let me know if there are any subjects on this list that you are especially curious to hear my thoughts on!
It'll help me know what to prioritize when I get writing time.
First up - tomorrow you get to read my take on Halloween, which would probably be a highly requested one anyway, because if you've been around a while you might have noticed we don't celebrate it. (For you super-long-time blog readers, I've mellowed out about this subject in more recent years, don't worry). Check back in tomorrow if you want, and please do tell me what else on the list sounds most interesting!
Back to our Seattle trip!
Sunday
After finding out our whale-watching tour was cancelled a few days before we were supposed to leave, we scrambled and scheduled a different whale-watching tour for Sunday. I was glad we could find another one, because whale-watching was an expected highlight for us - we just don't get a chance to see ocean life in our land-locked state, and we didn't want to miss our chance!
When we arrived, we asked the rental car guy if native Seattlans would roll their eyes at the tourists pointing at the whales. Where we live, the tourists always stop traffic for elk, and it's so annoying because we see them often enough to not stop anymore. He assured us that seeing a whale was still pretty cool, even for people who live there.
(This was the water in the wake behind out boat - look at that color!)
(I wish I had a better lens - orcas!)
(You can kind of see the baby in this one!)
We loved the whale-watching trip! We saw 15+ different orcas, all part of an orca family in the Puget Sound. We learned that different sub-species (ecotypes) of orcas will not breed with each other, because each ecotype has it's own culture and traditions that the mother orcas pass down. They could identify all the orcas by the white patches on their backs. The mothers lead the groups, and the male orcas will stay with their moms throughout their life, because the mother orcas have more social connections and can help them find a lady orca (ha!). We learned so much from the naturalist onboard, and I interrogated her about her career path because I have a certain marine-life-obsessed little boy at home who would love that job.
We also saw a bunch of seals and young bald eagles, which was cool too!
We went with the Puget Sound Express, and though they were a little pricier, they were one of the only tour companies that left from a suburb of Seattle, and we were only gone a half day. I was just glad we got to go after our other tour was cancelled!
When we got back we went over to Gas Works, which is a park they made out of an old industrial area. Why don't they do this in every city? It was so cool!
Monday
On Monday we said goodbye to our great little lake cottage, our spider friend, and the Market (I just had to go back one more time).
We went by the market one more time and bought some loose-leaf tea, but we got a little lost on our way back to the car and stumbled upon Seattle gum wall! I may have had hard time finishing my breakfast after that. Blech!
After our Market stop, we had just enough time to ride the ferry over to Bainbridge Island for a quick lunch and walk, before we rode the ferry back to catch our plane!
I have to tell you, I was really impressed with the ferries. You could hardly tell you were on a boat unless you went to the passenger decks. I don't know much about engineering, but I feel like the ferries were a pretty amazing feat!
Overall, I really enjoyed Seattle! One of the guys working at the Market told us that Seattle and our city feel pretty similar to him, and I could certainly see that. The mountains and friendliness of the city definitely reminded me of home, but the fish market, whales, campfires all over the place, abundant greenery, and lakes and water everywhere were beautiful and different. If I couldn't live where I live, Seattle might be my next choice! I loved it.
Goodbye Seattle!
Derek and I hit double digits in our marriage this year! When we were first married, we dreamed of taking a trip to Europe for our tenth anniversary. I'm not really sure what we were thinking, because even with our original "plan" for kids (the Lord was just laughing at us), we would have been smack dab in the middle of baby years. And what do you know, despite having more babies faster than we originally thought, the baby years is exactly the stage we are still in! Sorry, Callie-from-the-past, but there is no way I'm flying off to Europe with five little kids at home, even if we could afford it (which we can't).
So, we improvised, signed up for the Frontier Airlines credit card solely in order to get the two free domestic tickets, and we chose Seattle! I have a few blogging buddies from Seattle or the Pacific Northwest, so I had a vision of the area in my head already, but I have never been anywhere on the West Coast at all. I was excited to check it out!
Friday
We flew in on Friday evening, just as it was starting to get dark. I've always thought my state was one of the prettiest from the air (I still do), but I must say, Washington is definitely in the running now too. Look!
We picked up our rental car, and the guy talked Derek into splurging for the luxury car (it wasn't hard). We always regretted that we didn't rent a really cool vintage car to drive away in on our wedding day, so getting the luxury car for our anniversary trip was fun. I'm not a car person, but all I know is that it smelled good, talked to us when we got lost, and went from zero to sixty pretty darn quick.
We set off in search of our lodgings. We decided to try something different this time and rent an AirBnB - partly for the experience, partly because the hotels in Seattle were more expensive than we thought they would be. Derek and I were a little worried as we drove through a not-great part of town, in the dark, looking for our lakeside cottage.
We finally found it, and the owners stopped by to welcome us! They showed us around, and we immediately decided the AirBnB was the best idea. Not only was it adorable (click here for pictures), but outside the owners had a fire pit set up, and they had a dock/shed thing with kayaks and paddle boards to use on the lake. Derek and I were wishing we had thought to bring out swimsuits so we could have tried it out! They even left a bottle of wine in the kitchen for us with a note that said "Happy Anniversary!" (we cooked with the wine). It was great!
Saturday
The next morning we got a better look at the lake and our little cottage, and it was even better than we thought. It was like a secret garden back there!
The last picture requires explanation. There were a bunch of these spiders everywhere near the lake. I have no idea what kind of spider they are, or if they bite (it's better if I don't know), but this particular spider built a web across our walkway every single day we were there. Derek had to brush it away several times. I almost felt bad for it by the third time we destroyed it's web. It's just a little spider trying to get some food! I called him our little spider friend. The very last day it finally got the hint and built it's web on a bush instead, and I got to watch it capture a gnat for it's breakfast.
We started off our trip by checking out Pike Place Market, because I feel like you can't even say you've experienced Seattle without going to the market.
All I can say is I love the Market. If I lived in Seattle, I would be over there all the time! There was so much there, we visited a couple times, and I still feel like we didn't even get to see it all. A few observations:
-The flowers! They smelled so good, and it was an interesting counter-point to all the food smells. Derek bought me this bouquet for $10, and it felt like a steal! Where we live, a bouquet like that would cost at least double.
-We ate pastries at Piroshky Piroshky, and after trying a cream-cheese pastry called Oscar's Star, and the cardamom cinnamon bread, I think I like their subtle breads better than the super-sweet pastries.
-We got to see the guys who throw fish around and sing, and while I was highly amused, my introverted side was cringing, because I couldn't imagine working there unless you were a strong extrovert. It was cool to watch though!
-We bought tea at MarketSpice, and oh my goodness. I'm drinking it every night at home now, and it is so good. I got the Spicy Seattle Chai, and the Caramel Rose Rooibus tea.
-I took a picture in front of the original Starbucks, but we did not actually get coffee there. We got coffee at Storyville, and the view up there is wonderful.
-We ate mac and cheese at Beecher's, and I can see why people say it's the best mac and cheese they've ever had.
-I bought books at one of the several bookstores in the Market (of course). I snagged two books in "The Railway Series" by Rev. W. Awdry, which is the book series that Thomas the Train was based on. They are so cute!
-I kept looking at all the buildings, trying to figure out where Frasier Crane's apartment would be.
After the Market, we drove out to Snoqualmie Falls! We originally thought it was going to be a little hike to reach the falls, but you can walk right up to it. I wish we could get closer, but I get why they don't let you. The falls were gorgeous!
I might have brought my tripod so we could get a couple decent pictures together on this trip.
After our adventure in the forest (at home we have woods - this was a forest), we went back to the cottage and Derek cooked me a very delicious dinner and dessert with the chardonnay our hosts gave us!
This post is getting long, so stay tuned for Seattle Part Two - including whale watching!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
