Blessings from the week volume 8

Fall has arrived this week.  I'm in jeans and sweatshirts instead of shorts and sandals.  Normally I grouch about that because I love warm weather & summer so much. 

But I'm good with it this year.  More than good.  Blessed.

1.  Seasons changing 

I love summer more than winter.  But I also love the trees changing and drinking hot tea snuggled under a blanket.  Those things are much more appropriate for cool weather.

Are you pulling out your winter clothes yet?  I'm thinking about it.

2.  Hay Bales

I don't know why but I love hay bales in a freshly cut pasture.  My kids think I am weird when I stop to take a photo.  Just another reason that I love living in the country.

3.  Parallel parking

Megan is SO close to getting her license.  We set up the cones this week in the yard and she's had a couple of parallel parking practice sessions.  I can't wait for this girl to pass her test.

4.  Pumpkins

The garden is about done for this year.  Let me rephrase that.  I am about done with the garden for the year.  But we got some really nice pumpkins.  A few to carve & a few to cook up for pie, muffins & other yummy goodies.

5.  Quick visits

Michael, Rebekah & Cecily made a quick visit on Monday evening.  We haven't seen them for a few weeks so it was good to be together even if it was just for a few hours.  Cecily has grown a bunch! Sorry for the dark picture but I was too busy snuggling to go get my good camera.

I'm choosing joy as I count my blessings!  What blessings are you counting this week?

How I changed my mornings to be awesome

Links in this post may be affiliate links--just in case you wanted to know.

Since early August, I’ve (been forced) to change into a morning person since my brain has been wide awake at 6 a.m. no matter what time I go to bed. 

How crazy is that?  So if I want to use my mornings well I cannot stay up late.  Being up late robs me of being productive or happy the next day.

Strategies for NOT working too late

1. Set a bed time.  10:30 p.m. is what I shoot for but 10 would be even better.
2. Set an alarm on my phone.  Not to get up.  To go to bed. 
3. Start my bedtime routine earlier.  When my eyes get tired I take out my contacts and that signals my brain to start getting sleepy. 

How do I spend my time when its quiet?

Also in August, I started to think about our daily routine and decided that it needed revamping.  There were things slipping through the cracks.  I had some personal goals & family goals to work on. 

Surely there was a way to use these early morning hours productively. 

There was. 

I've followed Crystal Paine on www.MoneySavingMom.com for years. She is a sweet Christian woman who runs an awesome blog, business & home schools her kids. When she came out with an on-line class in August called Make Over Your Morning, I knew I needed what she had to say. (affiliate link).

For years my morning schedule has worked great.  However, that was when I NEEDED to make breakfast for the kids and be the task master of their mornings.  As they have grown older and can be more responsible for their time, I've found that I like a more leisurely start to my mornings.  

It's wonderful sipping my tea in my pjs before I take a shower.  I like doing my quiet time in the dark before crawling out of bed.  That is the freedom of homeschooling I guess.  We can shift the structure of our day to suit the needs of the season that we are in at the moment.

This fall's schedule is WAY different because Megan started taking classes at a local college 3 days a week.  That means an hour round-trip for me Monday, Wednesday & Friday’s until she gets her license(can't come soon enough).  I'm glad she has this opportunity but it seriously eats into my work time at home.

morning routine transformed

So getting up early and getting started on the day really has helped with that transition.  But I wanted to be intentional about my "quiet" work time while the kids were still sleeping.  So here is my new morning routine.

• 6 am wake up & do quiet time(in bed).  It lets me ease in to the day. Just being real here
• 6:30ish writing/blog tasks with my hot mug of tea(of course)
• 7:30ish grab pre-made breakfasts, go over my to-do list & check to see if everyone is up.  I also grade papers while I eat, if I didn't get it done the afternoon before.  That way I'm not holding up school progress.  This has happened too many times in the past!
• 8 am clean kitchen & hop in shower
• Listen to kids quote Bible Quizzing verses & do a little more school and then go drop Megan at class.

The course does NOT say you need to get up early or become a morning person.

What Make Over Your Mornings does cover

• how to break down big overwhelming goals in to small achievable steps
• how to set priorities
• looking at WHY organizing our time is important
• how to create realistic to-do lists
• how to set routines
• what to do when we fail.  

Make Over Your Mornings has helped me to reform my night owl ways in just 14 lessons.  The lessons were pretty short(15 minutes or less) so they were very doable each day.  My biggest take away so far is that I need to set my priorities and then build a schedule to get the most important things done first. 

Any day where I can start the day with my priorities in mind and have a routine in place to get things checked of my to do list is bound to be AWESOME!  This course has really helped me become a more productive blogger, home school teacher and mom.

If you are looking for a way to reset your mornings, then I highly recommend checking out the 14-day course Make Over Your Mornings!

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