Asher’s allowed out of his room at 8am. By this time I have breakfast on the table and we sit together, say our breakfast benediction, and eat our breakfast while reading our Bible story for the day. Sounds pretty ideal, right? Well it’s definitely not perfect but it’s so much better than it was. You see, our mornings didn’t always look like this. They were ruled by our toddler and television. Here’s what a general morning looked like in our home.
6:30am Awoken by yelling toddler
Crawl out of bed. Grab said yelling toddler so he doesn’t wake his brother.
Stumble to the kitchen where we grab a Perfect Bar from the fridge.
Plop toddler on the couch, turn on Daniel Tiger and head to make my coffee.
Plop myself on the couch with coffee in hand, trying to wake up while scrolling Instagram.
This, combined with a newborn and a husband that travelled for work, quickly led to feelings of overwhelm and burn out.
I knew that something needed to change if I ever wanted to feel like I was thriving at this thing called motherhood. So we dreamed up what our ideal morning would look like and got to work making it a reality.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing. And even today there are mornings that go better than others. But I’m proud to say that the boys and I sit together at the table at 8am for breakfast and before that, I have a (somewhat) quiet morning to myself to read, journal, pray, write, etc. And the best part? TV is no where to be found in our morning routine. In fact, it’s nowhere to be found in our living space at all. (Read more about why we chose to take the TV out of our living room here).
Now our mornings look something like this.
5/6am wake for the day
Make coffee in silence
Drink coffee while reading my bible, a book, or journaling. Or all 3.
6:30/7am toddler wakes
Potty, Perfect Bar and back to bed.
He eats his bar in bed.
7:30ish allowed out of his bed to play in his room until his light turns green (we use the Hatch light and absolutely love it. You can read more about how we implemented the light here)
7:45am I make breakfast for the boys. Asher usually isn’t too hungry since he just ate a bar but I offer him something anyway since we like to sit at the table together for our breakfast benediction and bible reading
8am light turns green and he’s allowed out of his room. His brother is usually still sleeping so we go in and wake him
8-8:30am breakfast at the table then off to play
Not every morning goes perfect but this is the expectation we set and that we stick to as much as possible.
There are mornings that Asher doesn’t want to stay in his room and so those mornings he gets put back in his crib (a huge perk to keeping the crib and a toddler who doesn’t climb out of it). There are mornings that Solomon wakes up before 8 and at 1 years old he doesn’t understand the concept of staying in his room til a light turns green. He will usually just play in his crib anyway so I let him hang til he gets fussy and is clearly ready to get out. But there are other mornings that work out beautifully. I start the day from a place of peace and rest. I get to enjoy my cup of coffee while it’s still hot and even take a shower in silence. These mornings are fuel for my soul.
Getting here was hard work but what’s harder is trying to be a good wife and mother when your overcome with overwhelm.
So we put in the work and created a morning routine that sets us up for more success and less overwhelm. My hope and prayer is that this encourages and empowers you to create a culture within your home that makes you feel alive and full. If there’s anything that I didn’t share here that you have questions about please let me know. I’m happy to help in any way that I can.
[…] Nowadays, he usually wakes around 6:30am and yells for me. I take him to go pee and then put him back in his crib where he reads or plays with his baby doll until his light turns green. It’s not seamless and usually I have to go in there a couple of times to hand him something and every so often I’ll let him out of his crib around 7:30 so he can play around in his room til his light turns green at 8am. Even though I may be in and out of his room a few times, it still give me the ability to have a few moments to myself and even get breakfast ready and on the table before he’s out of his room. Then we’re able to sit down to eat together while reciting our breakfast benediction and reading our bible story for the day. It’s a routine that took much diligence and patience. Breakfast time didn’t always look like this though. If you want to read more about how we transformed our breakfast routine you can read about that here. […]