Good Monday Morning!

Confession: I love a good Monday morning.  I usually wake up with a little spring in my step at a fresh new week ahead of me and the possibility that it holds.  It's like mini re-start each week.  A fresh start.  New thoughts and ideas to explore and while I really look forward to it now, it wasn't always so.   I used to dread Mondays and mornings in general.  A few key changes made all the difference and I hope these ideas help support you in supporting your family and yourself as you grow new ideas.

5 Ways to Make Your Mornings Stress-Free

1. Wake up earlier.  I know, this is the last thing you want to hear, that's why I came out of the gates with it.  But honestly, this makes the biggest difference.  Whether it's waking up the whole family 15 minutes earlier (we've done this) or just yourself an hour earlier (also done this) it makes a HUGE difference.  I don't wake up an hour earlier every single morning, the goal is to do that 2-3 times a week.  This simply allows me an hour of quiet in the morning to do the little nagging things that just never quite get checked off the to-list.  Meal plan, online grocery shop and sign up the kids for the next season of sports.  Not glamorous, I know, but helpful.  I often work in some quiet meditation in this hour as well and it's a lifesaver.  I never want to get out of bed on the mornings I've committed to wake up, but I am ALWAYS so happy I did 15 minutes into it. 

2. Lay out your clothes the night before!  If you want to get crazy, you can do it by the week like I do, but at a bare minimum, do it the night before.  This allows for you to realize that that layering shirt you need to go under that sweater is wadded up in the bottom of the dirty clothes hamper.  It gives you the chance to either get it washed, or choose something else.  I love doing it by the week, right after I've folded all the laundry, I hang up a week's worth of clothes.  At first, this was a bit more time-consuming than I had hoped it would be, but with just a few weeks practice, I've come to love doing it.  I no longer spend 20 minutes determining what I want to wear, then realize that my pants are dirty.  It's a total lifesaver.  My kids are working on just getting things laid out the night before because if I had a quarter for every fit that's been thrown when basketball shorts are missing, well, I'd be one wealthy mom.

3. Pack lunches the night before.  If your kids take their lunch to school, have them pack it the night before.  Again, this allows you room for error.  If their favorite dessert isn't available, it's much easier to process through it at night, then in those early morning minutes when you've got to get out the door. 

4. Make your bed & have your kids make theirs too.  I find accomplishing a simple, mundane task early in the day sets my day up for more accomplishments.  There is a whole methodology behind this that I won't take a deep dive into right now, but it's effective. Basically, your brain steps through making the bed, feels good about the accomplishment and seeks out more things to accomplish.  On the back end, at the end of the day, when you're ragged and tired, it is soothing to return to a made bed and it's a simple reminder that while your day might not have unfolded as you'd have liked, you did accomplish something.

5. Be okay when it all goes hay-wire.  Some mornings are just rotten.  Some mornings you're not just crying over spilt milk, but also sassy teenagers or a baby that didn't sleep, or you've spent the night cleaning up throw up or pulled an all-nighter to get that project done.  Some mornings, hair doesn't get combed just right and socks are itching in their shoes and breakfast is a sticky-sryupy mess.  Some mornings it just all goes wrong.  On these mornings, instead of raising your voice and trying to push hard on the deadline,  just throw in the towel.  Take your time.  Drop the kids off 30-minutes late.  At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter if you're morning goes south, what matters is that it doesn't seep over into your whole day going south, which we all know can happen to fast!