EARLY MORNING

 I have lived a whole life before my family gets out of bed.

I mean, maybe not a whole life, but MOST OF ONE. I have been setting my tiny little coffee pot (not to be confused with the big family coffee pot) to brew at 5:05 am. When my alarm goes off at 5:15, and I brush my teeth and stumble into the living room, coffee is ready for me to drink while I do the Wordle and play Connections. After my coffee (just one cup or I am so jumpy by the time everyone else wakes up that they think I am in a bad mood when I am just emphatic), I clean the boys' bathroom and exercise for about 45 minutes (cardio, weights, abs, etc). Next, I clean the upstairs bathrooms (I NEED to wipe down all three bathrooms with bleach spray, windex, and a seasonal Mrs. Meyers cleaner EVERY SINGLE DAY. Once a week, I also clean floors and tubs) and then go for a 23-minute walk with Dorothy.We get home around 7, which only gives her 30 minutes to get ready for school. This is time I use to loosely supervise everyone's grooming and breakfast routine, break up various fistfights, start the process of making myself look human, find Ben's phone/AirPods/other phone/keys, etc (usually just ONE item on that list) and tidy up all the bedrooms. After Dorothy leaves, I commit to getting myself dressed in earnest while Jack plays with Minnie. The big boys leave before 8, when Coop takes over Minnie duty, and I clean up breakfast, gather all of the dirty clothes that remain on bedroom floors and in common spaces (WHAT THE HELL, GUYS?) even though Ben and I have asked everyone more than once to gather their dirty clothes, but whatever. I also have to take Minnie to the potty and get her dressed, make sure she and I have all of our peripherals, etc. But! Three hours after I wake up, everyone has left our tidy little house, and we are usually all dressed in outside clothes. IT IS AMAZING. How long can this efficiency last, I wonder?

Things that make this sort of work:

Early bedtimes for all (hard to manage my own early bedtime with a teenager's curfew, but we are making it work)

All lunches prepped the night before (need I say more? Ben and I even pack our lunches, and if I am planning to be home with Minnie, I make sure we both have food ready to go as well because nothing makes coming home hangry better than a pre-made meal).

All activity bags laid out the night before stocked with snacks, water bottles, etc.

All kid clothes laid out the night before (this is on, them, obvs, but they've been doing a good job so far)

Struggles:

Getting UP. That alarm is a real bummer, and I think cold weather is going to make it worse.

Limiting myself to just one coffee.

GOING TO BED EARLY when my kid is not home

Things I love:

Having a clean house before I leave it

Being fully exercised by 7 am-- SO satisfying

Being dressed before preschool-- I have wasted many hours of childcare doing my hair and makeup alone.

We have kind of a rolling start this year, which is also working on our favor. Last week, the kids had 4 days of school and no activities. This week, they have a full week of school and plus also, hockey, diving, the fall high school play, and speech team has begun. Next week, all of these things happen, and Dorothy starts dance team. We have a second to get our bearings before another layer of responsibility pops up, and this so far working really well.

But, I mean, yes. It IS a lot.

Also, the sky is just impossibly pretty here: