Good Morning, Vietnam!

Periodically, for my own later amusement I like to document what my morning routines are like at our house here on the blog. I do this because I love routine and I hate mornings. And while the routine keeps changing over and over again, those mornings keep coming every SINGLE day ( I, suppose, thankfully...but whatever.). And so I will hold fast to the current routine until it inevitably has to change in a month or two. But because I love each new routine ( to its inevitable death) I will give it its due diligence here:

In the morning, I wake up between 6:30 and 7 to Tabitha calling out in half-wakefulness for "maaaaaammmma". I, being a really amazing mother, ignore her in the hopes that she will go back to sleep. If she doesn't than I stick the baby monitor under my pillow to muffle the sounds of her playing her "bedtime bear" ( a bear who sings a creepy song about a candle when you press its foot) over and over. I do this because I'm an AWESOME mom who doesn't want to just TURN OFF the monitor completely. I'm so attentive.

Finally, somewhere around 7:12 I will finally climb out of bed and go into Tabitha's room to release her from her crib prison. Not because I want to, but because I know that Ransom's amazing clock is going to turn green in one minute and he will RUN out of his room announcing "MY LIGHT TURNED ON!!!!" at top volume. Why do we set his clock to turn on at 7:13? Your guess is as good as mine, but clearly we don't have OCD tendencies or this would bother us all.

Then my children sit on the couch and watch their coveted 40 minutes of screen time for the day. It is a glorious and most-important 40 minutes of the day. In that time I do the following:
Make breakfast for my kids ( oatmeal and local honey 365 days a year!!!!!!! THIS NEVER CHANGES SO HELP US!! ) and coffee for myself. This is when I take vitamins and also do my oil pulling.

I then head to the couch for about 25 minutes ( at this point) of mostly uninterrupted Bible time. My kids are usually sitting at the table eating oatmeal as slowly as possible watching Little Bear, Daniel Tiger, Veggie Tales or the horribly loud and yet I still allow it Micky Mouse Club Road-rally. ( It is great that you can see the tv in the living room from our dining room table. I hope this always remains the same, otherwise the routine will have to change yet again....sigh)

Recently I found that if I put in headphones and turn the volume low enough so I can hear my children if they need me, but loud enough to mostly drown out the sounds of mickey mouse, then I can listen to praise music and it helps me focus on my Bible reading more than, say, Bob the Tomato and Little Bear and friends. My current jam is the Bethel Praise Music Pandora Station. I love Pandora more than, something where I've actually picked the music, because in a FEW SMALL TIMES in my life I like to be surprised. I just keep my Quiet Time supplies on the edge of the couch because I'm tidy like that. And I'm also lazy and I don't like to get up once I've sat down ( unless I'm doing a fitbit challenge in which case I'll run around the house a few times between each praise song. jk. or not). My current supplies, headphones, pen, $2 notebook for writing down prayers, Bible, and prayer card for 2015.

After my time asking God to help me live through today; it's basically 8am and I start pushing Ransom along in his slow oatmeal eating ways. I get out my kids clothes and Ransom gets dressed in the living room or in Tabitha's room while I get her dressed-because HE DOES NOT LIKE TO BE ALONE EVER EVER EVER AND AMEN. ( I remember going through this stage as a kid too, but boy is it difficult on the Mom end!). We head out the door from preschool at around 8:20 with my half-drunk coffee in tow. If I'm running that day then I usually grab a Zone protein bar and eat half of it before my run and then the other half after ( I am not a food in the morning person AT ALL! I've SO tried because I know its the most important meal of the day, but oh how I hate it. )
if its not a running day then I'll usually eat something along these lines when I get home from dropping off Ransom: Ezekiel Bread toasted with my faaaaavorite Trader Joes Peanut Butter on top with little Banana slices for sweetness.

And then the rest of the day begins, you know that part of the day that cannot be planned for and that usually ends up with you  going to Target, misjudging a parking spot and completely denting in the front of your brand-new mini van. *sigh*