Bloggers tend to share their success stories. Completed projects with beautiful or useful results. After all, don’t we all want to put our best out there for others? But what about failures? When it comes to crafts or construction, I’ll dismantle and try again until I get the results I’m going for. It’s just what I do. Trust me, I’m far from perfect. And I completely own up to not being perfect. Especially to my kids who need to learn it’s ok to fail but it’s not ok to give up. So here it is, I was a Make Over Your Mornings dropout. Yep, a short course that in a few minutes a day is designed to help improve my mornings and not make me feel so stressed. But things went haywire, for me and my accountability partners, and the course fell by the wayside as we all went back into survival mode. Here’s the story and what I learned. Don’t worry, I’m not giving up!
Not Naturally Organized
I don’t consider myself to be a naturally organized person. People often think I am, but I’m really a scatterbrain. Ironically, I really enjoy the process of getting stuff organized. Calculating the space needed, making it functional and beautiful. But, I don’t tend to stay organized no matter how much effort I put into something.
Years ago I used a planner religiously. I had a great system for keeping track of things I needed when away from home. Everything was always written down. I was on top of everything.
I was also working full time in a corporate job and had no kids. When JuneBug came into the mix, I was still working her first year so I maintained my regular organization processes. We had a tiny apartment, one car, and only enough in our budget to adhere to a strict budget.
Once IronFish completed grad school, his new job moved us to another state. Instead of putting JuneBug into daycare, I was able to stay home with her. We planned on after a few months, me looking for a job. But, around that time is when we realized we would soon have 2 children under 2.
I thought staying home would be easier.
In a way, it was. But in another way, it became a lot harder. And a lot messier.
I didn’t parlay my organized schedule into being a SAHM. Going with the flow or winging it seemed to be working and I was happy with that. Have kids, will travel… The girls just came with me whatever we were doing. They napped in their car seats and had regular playdates and kid activities.
As they got bigger, school came into the mix, as did O-Man. And, I’ve never gotten a good grasp on keeping on top of all the activities, assignments, appointments, and my own working schedule.
Make Over Your Mornings
Over the years, I’ve talked with my friends and know I’m not alone in this feeling of overwhelm. Hitting the ground running first thing in the morning but not knowing the path is a recipe for disaster.
Since relaunching my blog, I’ve been trying to use my time in the mornings better. The first time around I did everything at night or when O-Man napped. Now, I’m just too exhausted to think much after dinner. Is this part of getting older?
The days when I get an okay night’s sleep (because I usually don’t sleep well at all) and get up to work on the blog, I actually get a lot accomplished. This really does surprise me because I am so not a morning person!
Today, I started over in the Make Over Your Mornings Course, partially because I’ve been awake since 4 am! But mainly because I need to. I need to take control of what I can so I can let other things go when I can’t be in control. I need to reduce stress and the always frazzled feeling.
Day One of the course is to set up an evening routine. I’ve done that and it includes time to crochet or knit. Time for me to decompress my mind.
I honestly don’t remember how far I got last time or much about it. But, I do know I’ve been trying to make my bed and empty the dishwasher before I leave for work. Doing those two things have made me feel so much better when I get home from work.
The girls do the dishes after dinner each night. But, they never dry dishes! So, if they lay the washed but still wet dishes out, they hardly ever put them away. When I empty the dishwasher, even if I leave the still wet things on a towel to dry, they get put away when the girls do the dishes. We’re all happier with this arrangement.
Despite my mother wanting me to make my bed every morning, I’ve never been very consistent with it. But, once again, when I walk into my room to change my clothes after work, I feel so much better seeing a made bed than a messy one.
Join Me
If the Make Over Your Mornings course is baby steps to getting my morning together, I’m still crawling. But I’m determined to eventually be able to “run” through my mornings and feel accomplished before I even leave the house.
Who wants to join me? Just click on the image above (affiliate) and get ready for better mornings in your household.
***Feel free to read about my first attempt also!
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