Mornings Are Crazy!

  I am a morning person.  I was born at around 6 a.m. on October 21st, 1969, and I've never looked back. I like mornings.

 That is a good thing because...mornings are crazy around here.

 I thought it would be fun to describe our morning routine:

6 a.m. I wake up, about.  I don't set an alarm. Lately I've been up closer to 5:30 a.m.  If that sounds very early, I agree.   I would prefer to sleep in until 6:30 or so but it rarely happens.  I go downstairs and spend some time praying and reading the Bible.  I usually write a couple of emails.  Sometimes I make muffins and pop them in the oven for breakfast.

6:30 a.m.:  I get Sarah up and nurse her.  This is a very peaceful time as the house is quiet and it is just me and my little baby.  I pray, read, or web surf. 

7 a.m. or so:  The boys get up. Sometimes they get up earlier.  Often the little girls get up.  Occasionally the big girls get up.   If Isaac has extra computer time, he plays a computer game for half an hour.

  When I am done nursing, I start tackling my morning to do list.  The kids do a lot of chores, but I need to empty the dishwasher of breakable objects, change Sarah's diaper, make a to do list for the day, take my morning meds and vitamins, and eat some yogurt.

7:30 a.m.:  Breakfast.  This is a very busy time.  We often have cold cereal.  Sometimes we have muffins, or fresh fruit, or oatmeal, or oven pancakes.  It depends partially on when I woke up and how tired I am.  Even cereal is a fair amount of work as I distribute vitamins, pour milk (we buy organic milk in heavy glass bottles) and clean up messes.  Usually I need to wake up at least one big girl.  Sarah is playing somewhere in the middle of all this.  At some point, she gets tired of playing alone and wants Mommy to carrry her around.

8:00 a.m.  Now the craziness REALLY hits.  This, my friends, is CHORE TIME.  6 kids.  6 lists of chores.  The big girls take care of chickens, clean the kitten litter box, swiff floors, etc. etc.  The boys also have 6 to 8 chores each. The little girls have fewer, but Angela is at THAT AGE when she is resistant to doing what she is supposed to do. So I have to pay close attention to her or she'll just dribble off into a corner and play instead of putting away the silverware and throwing clothes down the laundry chute. 

Most of the children also memorize Scripture verses at this time.  Now, you may wonder, do we have children who so relish memorizing Scripture that they bug me about it?  Ask me to do it?  Yearn for my help?  (The 4th through 6th children do not read yet so I have to work with them to memorize verses.)

The answer is, no.  Our children DO love to memorize verses because...they get a small candy treat after they do it.  Yep, we're all about sweets here.  However, they are learning the Word of God this way.  It works.

8:30 a.m.:  Kevin gets ready to leave and we spend a few minutes talking and praying together.  Once he is out the door, we are back to finishing up chores.

9 a.m.:  Ideally, we listen to the Bible on CD at this point, though I haven't been 100% consistent about this.  We have the entire Bible on CD, and are currently listening to 1 Kings.  After that, I do midline exercises with the boys.

 And that is the end of our habitual early morning routine.