Make Over Your Mornings // An Update!

I mentioned the other day that one of my goals for June was to make over my mornings. Lately, I’ve been woken up every morning by one of my girls crying. I always want to get up early, but with my girls still not sleeping through the night, I always justified sleeping in. Being woken up by my girls crying was not setting my day up for success. I knew this, yet I still couldn’t get myself to get up before them.

When I saw that one of my favorite bloggers – Crystal Paine from Money Saving Mom – created a course called Make Over Your Mornings, I knew that this course was for me. Immediately, I started through the lesson plans in hopes of having more energy throughout the day, accomplishing more and being in a better mood towards my girls and my husband. While not sleeping much at night contributes to my crankiness (there are times when I am up TEN times or MORE in one night!!! I know….), another contributing factor was that I wasn’t making time for myself. I started every morning frantically and constantly felt like I was behind before I even began my day. If you feel like this, too, you are not alone!!!

The course isn’t necessarily about getting up early, it’s about making time for YOU and setting your day up for success. For me personally, that means waking up before my girls wake. For you, it might mean setting your day up for success by completing extra chores in the evening before you go to bed. Crystal’s course hits on ALL OF THIS!! I never really thought about how my evenings set the tone for the following day, but they do!!

I’ve read ahead on a good amount of the chapters but I’m only about three full days into the course. Here is a peak into my new morning routine that I enacted two days ago (I haven’t yet created my evening routine, but I’ll be working on that in the next few days!):

5:30 AM: Alarm goes off

This is early for me, but my girls are usually stirring by no later than 6:30. By 6:45/7, they are crying and ready to get up for the day. This used to be when I’d angrily head to their rooms, exhausted from the night before and behind on my day already. My mood was never good and truthfully I just wanted to get back into bed.

This attitude wasn’t fair to me or my girls, and something needed to change. So, for the past two days I’ve gotten up at 5:30 am to have some time for myself before the girls wake.

5:40 AM – 6:00 AM

Crystal advises setting specific, actionable goals that you want to accomplish in the mornings. For me, I head downstairs and have some coffee while checking my emails during this time. That’s goal #1 – drinking coffee and checking emails! Now that I can wake up early for 🙂

6:00 AM – 6:30 AM

Then, I either blog or workout. This hasn’t gone completely to plan as this morning my oldest was up at 6:00, but even still…it was SO nice to have already been awake when I went to her room rather than being annoyed at her for waking me up.

6:30 AM – 7:00 AM

This is when I get myself ready for the day. Yesterday, my morning routine went to schedule. To be up, caffeinated and dressed for the day before my girls were awake felt incredible!!! Today, like I said, my oldest was up earlier, but she went to the playroom while I continued about my morning.

If anything, Crystal’s course was the encouragement I needed to start getting up earlier. Again, the course isn’t about just waking up early. Maybe your day is hectic because you wake up to dishes everywhere and laundry that needs to be folded. A good way to make your morning smoother is to complete these chores the night before. Crystal will give you the motivation to do this! Every person and every family is different, it’s all about finding what works for you. For me, that does mean getting up earlier, but maybe for you that means being more organized the night before bed.

If you do feel like your days are more hectic than they should be, or if you aren’t being as productive as you want to be, or if you are just generally in a bad mood (this was me), I highly recommend Crystal’s course!!

If you purchase it, please feel free to send me an email if you want to chat!