Wednesday, April 17, 2013

A discovery

This morning I made a horrible discovery.

Well I guess technically I made the discovery yesterday morning.  I woke up yesterday at 4:45.  I needed to pee.  Thanks fifth baby.  But once I was awake I had heartburn.  Then I had a few things on my mind and thought maybe if I jotted them on my to do list on my kindle that it would allow me to let it go and get back to sleep.  But alas, an hour later at 6:06 I was still awake and decided to just get up.  I promised myself a nap later.

See, I was excited about getting started on cleaning out our school room because we're transforming it into Kayd's bedroom.  Kayden, as a firstborn, is a little bit too much like his mama.  We need our alone time and our space of refuge.  Sharing a bedroom with your brothers and sister can make that hard to find.  I've struggled for a while considering that Kayd would probably do better with his own room because while *I* personally think our house is an adequate size for our family it can be hard to find space.  We homeschool here.  The kids and I are here nearly constantly through the week.  We have toys and school books and art supplies and the clothes that go with four children.  So I knew two things.  One, I NEEDED to be able to keep the bulk of our homeschooling stuff on the shelves in the school room and Kayd's desk needed to remain in there also.  Two, Kayden needed his own room.  I wouldn't normally say that a child NEEDS their own room.  I do think that in large part having your own room is a privilege and generally a want.  But I have the exact same personality and need for alone time.  I spent hours alone in my room as a child and so I do consider it a need for Kayden.  See the other three would be lost and despondent if I gave them all their own rooms.  They thrive on each others' company.  Kayden though has been sneaking away during their playtime to do his own thing upstairs in their bedroom.  Which is fine.  But I have a toy ban on their bedroom so I really cannot imagine what he's doing up there.

So I awoke yesterday with a plan of action for clearing the room of unnecessary clutter and couldn't get back to sleep.

Jay left early to go play basketball.  That's another conversation.  He lived through it so I guess it's ok.  So I was all alone in a quiet house at 6am.  Now my kids wake up anywhere between 6 and 7:30.  Sometimes they trickle down one at a time every fifteen minutes and others they wake up in bulk.  I decided to sort through the puzzles and kids games to pare them down.  I put on a show on netflix and began sorting.  At about 6:45 Colton came downstairs.  Thirty minutes later the other three joined us.  They helped me put together puzzles to see what was missing pieces.  It was a really nice way to start the day with my children.

Today I slept until my normalish 8:15.  I woke to my chocolate ice cream completely gone, unwashed strawberries being eaten by the two year old, and well it wasn't a nice way to start the day.

I discovered the benefit to waking up before the children.  In almost eight years of parenting I've NEVER seen any benefit to it but I get it now.  Of course if I'm going to make it a regular thing I'm going to have to go to bed at like nine at night but oh well.

2 comments:

  1. lol! I always tried to get my quiet time in the mornings before they got up for this reason!!! However the night owl in me usually won! Good luck in the efforts!

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  2. now youknowwhy i was almost always up before you girls.

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