For the last few mornings, I’ve felt that I could have won the “Grumpy Mom” award. It seems that I am so focused on getting everyone up and dressed, breakfast on the table, lunches packed and all of us out of the door on time, that I am short-tempered and joyless. I decided yesterday that I needed to evaluate what was causing this and see if I could remedy the situation. Here’s what I came up with.
- Go to bed on time. I may as well begin with a difficult one! I will feel more rested if I make myself go to bed at 10:00 P.M.
- Get up on time. I am normally a morning person and get out of bed right when my alarm goes off, but I have been struggling with that lately (maybe due to not following number 1).
- Make time for prayer and Bible reading before everyone else is up. Some mornings allow more time for this than others (see number 2), but I need to spend a few minutes getting myself in tune with God before dealing with others.
- Do as much as possible for preparing breakfast and packing lunches the night before. Again, this is something that I already practice to an extent, but I think if I will do even more in this area (like having breakfast ingredients out on the counter and setting the table), it will help me get a better start.
- Set a positive tone by turning on some music. This will be a new habit for me to form, but I hope to start working on it.
- Start each girls’ day with a smile and a hug. Let their first image of me be a happy one. My husband might enjoy this, too!
- Relax!! Which is worse – having the girls occasionally be tardy to school or letting them only recall memories of their mother pushing them out the door and into the car every morning?
I started on some of these ideas today and things went a bit better. (I’ll confess – it helped that the girls were using their one day a month to buy lunch, so I only had to pack it for my husband!) How do you get your day started smoothly and joyfully? I’ll take all the help I can get!!This post is linked to What I Learned This Week hosted by Musings of a Housewife.photo courtesy public domain pictures
OK – were you watching me in my kitchen this morning??? I definitely deserved the "grumpy mom" award today.
Thanks for the challenge!
I carried the "grumpy mom" banner all last week! I totally agree w/your suggestions. I have been doing much better this week – going to bed on time and getting up on time really helps me. I'm going to try playing music.
Boy can I relate. I am NOT a morning person, so getting up and orchestrating the chaos is really taxing. Your suggestions are ones I try to do too.
We actually turn the radio to the local yocals. They usually banter back and forth as they roll through the weather, school lunch menus and any local or national news items. We usually find plenty to laugh at alng with them. Plus, hearing the weather several times helps the kids know how to dress without me having to tell them.
oh, grumpy mom days are in abundance around this time of year, tired, stressed holidays looming…we should start a club.