Kids sometimes make me question my sanity.
I used to be able to wake up and just get things done. I showered, got dressed, put on my makeup, made myself some eggs…ahh. It sounds so easy.
Now, I wake up with kids jumping on me, I stumble downstairs to pour some cereal for everyone, I’m grabbing one kid while wiping the other one’s nose…sound familiar?
It’s so easy for the whole morning to get caught up in just managing instead of doing.
And thus–
*insert dramatic angel singing here!*
–the MORNING CHART was born.
Actually, the chart I use is a morning/afternoon/evening chart, but the morning chart is our real rhythm. Every morning we get up and the morning chart gets done. The kids know to expect it and (until recently, when my four year old decided to be persnickety) it goes off without hitch every morning.
(We also started preschool, which throws a wrench in there every Tuesday and Thursday morning…I’m still working on that. The real answer is to get up earlier but I hate that, so…I’ll update you later on what I figure out.)
But the majority of the time: morning chart.
The order I use isn’t what’s on the chart specifically, since that’s more of a running to do list/ideal order of things. Here’s our usual order:
- Breakfast
- Dishes to Sink
- Get Dressed
- Make Beds
- Brush Teeth
- Calendar
- Scriptures
- Prayer
And then the kids are free to go play until I’m all ready and it’s time for afternoon chart (although, we never call it that). We almost always get the kids through at least one chore for the day.
Our calendar time is really important to me. Not only does it teach my kids days of the week, etc, but it keeps me remembering what day it is! Staying home with kids isn’t great for my memory, honestly, so I need all the help I can get! We also use the time to review weather, if it’s changed.
We picked up the calendar thing at Target in the dollar section, and I added some Velcro dots to the back of the day/month/number pieces to make it easy on and off . Originally, it wanted you to tuck the separate pieces into slots, which always bent or just dropped the pieces…I mean, dollar section, I don’t have very high expectations. Anyway. Love me my organizing.
But back to actually getting through the day.
Having this chart has seriously helped me feel better about our mornings. Instead of scrambling, I’m going into it with a plan.
Do our afternoons and evenings go so smoothly? Eh. Rarely. Especially post-move…I’ve been so busy keeping kids distracted with TV so I can unpack that I haven’t been keeping up with those…sigh. We all need improvement somewhere, right?
But our mornings are fairly stress free. Thank goodness.
So if your mornings are insane, make a plan. It doesn’t have to be this one, obviously, but write up what you need/want to get done and start enforcing a rhythm. I don’t set specific times for things, but you might. You might include flossing and mouthwash if your kids are older, or personal prayers and scripture time for them. Do what works for you!
Here’s my morning chart word doc if you’d like to use it…I think it’s editable? It should be, once you save it to your computer. If it’s not, shoot me a message and I’ll get on that.
What do you do to get into a rhythm? What helps you stay sane in the mornings? Comment below!
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