Morning Routine

This past week was spent trying to get back into the daily routine. Having Steve and the kids home, Christmas, doing fun things was all great but now everyone is back to work and school.

My concentration has been on re-establishing my morning routine. My morning routine consists of:

Making the bed
Shower
Devotional time
Swish/Swipe bathrooms
Unload dishwasher
Reload dishwasher (if dishes were left from the previous night-has been happening way
too much!)
Get laundry going ( I do two loads a day)
Help Emily get dressed
Some dinner prep if needed
Go over to-do list
Do a 2 minute Hot Spot cleanup (per FlyLady)
Oh yeah, I eat breakfast somewhere in there!

If I can finish all that by 10:00 AM, I'm doing pretty well. That sets the tone for the rest of the day. Then I can get to the detailed cleaning items. I wish I could have most of it done prior to that, but it seems like the earlier I get up, Emily wakes up just as early. Plus, I have to make sure that laziness doesn't creep in. I can easily get distracted with the computer, a book, the newspaper, just about anything. It pretty much is a constant thinking on my part to say "yes" to the Lord's will for me - doing my duties. I recently ran across a quote from St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. It said:

The first end I propose in our daily work is to do the will of God,
secondly, to do it in the manner he wills it; and thirdly, to do it because it is his will.

Holly Pierlot talks about that idea in her book, A Mother's Rule of Life. That's why I really like her book and would recommend it to anyone who's looking for meaning in doing their daily duties.

I think I got off on a tangent. Back to what I had been saying, I can get easily distracted from what I should be doing. So, for me, trying to get my morning routine down pat does a long way in getting much more done throughout the day!

Emily has been learning to be my helper. She helps me unload the dishwasher, load and unload the washing machine/dryer, and helps make the beds. I hope to train her better than I did with Kathryn and Ryan in doing chores.

This is planning to be a busy weekend. I'm taking Ryan to go shopping for a birthday present for a little friend of his. Tomorrow is the birthday party. He also has a baseball tryout tomorrow. I don't know why 6 year olds have to try out but that's the way it's done in this league. Also, Kathryn and Ryan's school is participating in a basketball tournament so everyone has been encouraged to attend and show school spirit. We like to show spirit so we'll be going.

If I have time (hahaha), I have some movies that I rented that I'd like to watch. One is St. Rita. I rented this from the church library and it looks good. I don't know about St. Rita, so it will be nice to see what's she's all about. My other movie is Eight Below. I must have heard something good about it at one time because I had it on my Netflix queue forever. Now that I'm reading the description about it, I don't know if I'll make it through the movie! It says that some Antarctic scientists have to leave their sled dogs behind amid a cruel winter to fend for themselves. I have a feeling I'll be crying and feeling so sad for these dogs! We'll see if I can watch it.

Well, for someone who doesn't have much time, I'd better end this post and get going!