There is an art to the morning routine. The ability to get two adults and two children exercised, fed, dressed, cleaned up, lunches packed, beds made, teethed brushed, hair done, and out the door in a matter of hours.
Over the past couple of weeks—following our big back-to-school-and-starting-kindergarten transition—we have our morning routine down pat. It looks a little something like this:
5:40 am: Alarm #1 goes off. Hit snooze.
5:45 am: Alarm #2 goes off. Hit off.
5:49 am: Snooze for alarm #1 goes off. Hit off. Roll out of bed. Brush teeth, put in contacts, change into exercise clothes.
5:57 am: Leave for 6:00 am exercise class.
6:06 am: Arrive to 6:00 am exercise class.
7:00 am: Leave exercise class.
7:08 am: Arrive at home. Wake up L. Get L dressed. Pick out a different outfit for J (No, you cannot wear gym shorts and a t-shirt to school). Get J dressed and have him make his bed. Brush two sets of kids teeth. Gel in J’s hair. Brush L’s hair and put it in a ponytail (even though I know she’ll eventually pull it out).
7:20 am: Get breakfast for J and L (Options: cereal, oatmeal, or chocolate—Nutella—toast).
7:22 am: While kids eat, make lunch for J and for me. Remind kids every minutes to “hurry and eat”…and feeling bad about that because you know it’s not actually as healthy to eat quickly.
7:30 am: Help L get shoes and socks on. She leaves for daycare with Daddy.
7:31 am: Set piano music out for J. Finish making lunches while monitoring his practicing, which involves multiple shouts (Good job! Now do it again!) and trips to the music room to sit with him and demonstrate the correct rhythm, notes, and fingerings. Put lunch box and backpack by the front door.
7:45 am: Have J put on his shoes, backpack, and grab his lunch box.
7:48 am: Walk to the bus stop.
7:53 am: Bus arrives. Watch J bolt across the street and up the bus’s stairs. Wave good-bye as the bus leaves.
8:00 am: Arrive back home. Get showered, dressed, hair done, make-up done.
8:40 am: Work. And coffee. Lots of coffee.
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I am still amazed how you handle all these even after I saw how you do some of these closely when they were younger…! Thanks again for starting the new series- this will be my weekly encouragement when I enter into the motherhood next year!
I hear you! Wish I could say it gets easier as they age. Here’s my schedule:
5:45am Up, start laundry, empty dishwasher, stretch
6:30am (or at least most days) get daughter up, check email, start coffee
7:10 Get hubby up and have family breakfast
7:30 Dress for next thing, make bed, etc.
7:40 Ask daughter about day, if has everything she needs, try to hurry her along
7:50 am Wave as daughter drives off
I had heard that, JoAnn—better get used to this schedule, but there will be some variation of it for the next 18 years 🙂 ~Kimberly
And I am SO excited for you, Megumi! I will definitely keep this series going 🙂 ~Kimberly
I would love (and appreciate) a future blog post about a musician parent helping your child to learn music. Do you have someone else teach your child piano? How do you combat power struggles? At what age did you have your kiddo start piano?
Sounds almost identical to my 4 person mornings, only that I’m the one out the door early with the first child. How do we do it!?
@Victoria I have no idea! I ask myself that same question every morning 🙂 ~Kimberly
What a great idea, Julie! I’ll will add that to my blog post idea list 🙂 Thanks!!! ~Kimberly
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