Becoming Wiser

Jan. 7, 2007 - The Joy Box

YAY! Please change your bookmark to my NEW, Professionally-Designed blog: The Joy Box! http://www.joybox.typepad.com

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Aug. 10, 2006 - So, you want to be an Early Riser...

I would have to say that, all my life, I have struggled to have a regular morning "quiet time." In my school years, I always HAD to get up early, but getting up earlier than absolutely necessary was more than difficult. I did it sometimes, but it was always a short-lived phase. Besides, I was a night owl and I loved having LENGTHY journalling and Bible study sessions at night.

Then I got married and our family began to grow and it became of utmost importance to me to have this time ALONE. Before everyone else woke up was the only available option. I tried for YEARS to make this a comfortable habit. I prayed about it, enlisted accountability partners, and tried a whole host of other methods. Nothing produced lasting results.

But I think I have now developed enough of a habit that I can say it is a lifestyle change. I still go through phases of sleeping in (during our school breaks, etc.), but it's generally not a big deal to get back into my 5:30 wake-up routine. Here are a few tips that I've found helpful:

1) Pray about it. A Lot! It seriously took me about 5 years of earnest attempts to make waking up early feel normal. I tried off and on. I would go up to a month of getting up early. Then something would happen (I'd get sick or something), and I'd "make exceptions" and be sleeping in again for months. Up until last fall, I was NOT consistent.

2) Do NOT make exceptions for ANY REASON unless illness that leaves you flat on your back. I finally decided that I would be consistent NO MATTER WHAT. I allowed myself to go back to bed after half an hour if it really was a huge struggle. In fact, sometimes, on mornings when I'm really tired, I STILL doze off on the couch after I've prayed and done my Bible study. The key is, GET UP AT THE SAME TIME EVERY SINGLE DAY.

I just read an article about this. From what the article said, and I have found this to be true in my own life, when you are starting on this journey of developing an early-rising habit, do not worry too much about when you go to bed. Go to bed when you are tired. BUT, no matter WHEN you go to bed, how much or how few hours of sleep you get, set your alarm for the same time every morning and get up. Within a few days, your body should develop its own routine. I do not sleep the same amount of hours every night. Most people don't. Some days are more exhausting than others.

Have you ever noticed that, even when your children are up really, really late one night, they STILL get up relatively around the usual time the next morning? Our bodies like this balance of consistency and flexiblity.

You might need to play around a bit with the proper wake-up time. Obviously, you need to decide how much time you want to yourself before your family invades your space. But once you've figured on the time based on that information, you might need to experiment a little. For some reason, I had always had my mind set on 6:00AM. I tried and tried to make this my natural wake-up time. After a lot of frustration and some experimentation, I discovered that it's easier for me to get up at 5:30 than it is at 6:00. My brother once told me this has something to do with our sleeping patterns and the cycle of sleep. We sleep on a cycle of deep, deep sleep to lighter sleep that goes over and over throughout the night. I do not know if this is true or not. My brother's not a scientist or anything (though he knows a lot), so don't quote me on this. But I do know that adjusting your wake-up time by even 10 minutes can make a huge difference.

So if you decided to play around with the time, give yourself at least three days before you try a different time.

Once you have a set time, do not even make an exception on the weekends until this becomes normal. (I know. That sounds awful, but it felt SO good for me to accomplish this.)

I actually MISS this early morning time on the weekends now that I'm able to sleep in on Sunday without paying for it during the week. I feel MORE tired during the day (as though I OVER slept).

3) Get everything you need ready the night before. It helps me to get dressed immediately after getting out of bed. The movement gets my blood flowing. I don't necessarily put on what I'll wear that day, but maybe a pair of sweats and a t-shirt. Something easy. So I get the clothes ready the night before.

I also like to have a cup of green tea and a bowl of organic instant oatmeal. I'm not a huge advocate of those little oatmeal packets because of all the sugar, but it really helps me to stay awake and liven up early. I get up, get dressed, boil water for the tea and cereal. While the water's boiling, I go to the bathroom. By the time I get out, the water's boiling. So I pour it, then go sit down in the living room and do my prayer and Bible study while I enjoy my early breakfast. If we have bananas, I eat one of those, too. So, all of this I get ready the night before so I make as little noise as possible for the rest of the family.

4) Stretching can help. I have a short (5min.) stretching routine I HAVE to do two times a day for my back. I have sometimes done it before I sit on the couch. This also wakes me up and gets my blood flowing.

5) I must admit. It is not easy to develop this habit. There are still mornings where I feel like my eyes must be almost swollen shut and my whole body just vibrates in protest when I get out of bed. Just FORCE yourself to at least GET OUT OF BED. The second the alarm rings, just POP up and stand there for a few seconds. Slowly make your way to your clothes. Just force yourself to move. The more you move and just keep going, the less risk of going back to bed.

6) It also helps to have something you really look forward to incorporated into this time. I love checking my email, updating my blog, or looking on the SL forums while I eat my oatmeal. You might enjoy a cappuccino, hot chocolate, or other favorite drink. At the beginning of this practice, treat yourself to something during this time. It's an indulgence that will actually really pay off in the end. For me, spending some time on the couch checking email and surfing the Net requires minimal thought or effort. I take my laptop to the couch and read and surf while my body gets used to the idea of being up.

7) I will also admit that having a laptop has been a huge help. I can still get really cozy and comfortable on the couch while I do this stuff. It's not quite as abrupt as having to sit in an office chair or at the dining room table. (Obviously, this is NOT a requirement and is not possible for everyone. I'm just sharing my experience with you.)

8) I journal when I pray, so I do this on the computer as well. Before I had a laptop, I used to use a notebook, and I confess to falling asleep a few times. Sometimes, writing with a pen just took too much effort that early in the morning.

I also do an online Bible study. The one I'm working on right now has all the Scriptures on it and everything RIGHT THERE, so I'm not having to sit up straight and flip through a bunch of different books, etc.

Now that I'm used to this early morning thing, though, I don't think I'd have as much of a problem reading an actual book, writing, etc. Do what works for you.

9) I cannot stress enough how important it is to pray about this. I literally CRIED to God to help me with this. I often pray, before I go to sleep, that He would help me to wake up or at least to get out of bed. I talk to Him about what I'd like to discuss in the morning, etc. There have actually been times, as I'm mentally preparing myself for getting up the next morning, that I get so excited about it. Sometimes, I even wake up BEFORE the alarm on days when God and I are gonna be going real deep. My relationship with Christ has grown by leaps and bounds because of this time.

10) Another motivator for me is that it has been proven time and time again in this home, that if I DO NOT get up early and start my day off right with this quiet time, Mommy turns into a bear. The day just does NOT go smoothly. Seriously, it NEVER fails. It is GUARANTEED that if I miss this time, I will not have a good day. Guaranteed.

So now, when I'm tempted to stay in bed, I remind myself that I am choosing RIGHT NOW whether I'm going to have a good day or a bad day; whether I'm going to be a good mom or a bad mom.

11) It is also a help when I can have my quite time out on the porch. The fresh air invigorates me and I feel more....alive when I'm so close to nature.

12) As I mentioned earlier, I do not stress about what time I'm in bed. Sometimes, it's 11:30 (but too many nights of that would be too much). Generally, my body is good and ready to sleep by 10:30.

It most certainly helps to have a bedtime routine. For me, after I clean up from supper, I get my morning stuff ready. This kinda helps me to be motivated to get to bed on time, as well. Then I do the kids' bedtime routine. I read to them, etc. Snuggle a bit. Then I do a 15 min. exercise routine. Then I shower or bathe or whatever I need to do to keep my body presentable! Then I have about 1.5 hours of free time. I generally spend it with dh. Sometimes we're both just puttering around. Sometimes we visit. Sometimes we watch a movie. Whatever. It's never something that would hype me up too much before bed. Then, usually around 10 I start getting ready for bed. I ALWAYS read before I try to sleep,no matter WHAT time I'm in bed. I cannot wind down properly without this. Sometimes, I also have a cup of relaxing tea (Sleepytime, Tension Tamer, Chamomile, or Sweet Dreams).

13) Also, I have a schedule for our whole day (school days). This is a huge motivator as well. It never fails that, when I DON'T get up early, the rest of the schedule is completely out of whack for the whole day, even if I try to make up for it somehow by eliminating an activity or something. I get up at 5:30, the rest of the family is up at 7:00. If I don't get up early, breakfast is late, breakfast cleanup runs too late, we don't get all our morning chores done, the house is in shambles and we're all flustered by the time we have to start school at 8:45. I really think that having a schedule to stick to throughout the day is a KEY factor in being motivated to get up early.

I think that's all I can think of for now. Hopefully, some of these tips can be useful to you and you can begin to have success with your early-rising goal!

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Aug. 4, 2006 - End of Week 2

A whole week of full school days! Wow. It was so fun. We still haven't added in math. I'm trying to ease in and I'm very glad I decided to it this way. I'm EXHAUSTED by the end of the day, but it's a good exhaustion!

Maya's FINALLY saying her "r"s properly! This is a huge breakthrough! She'll be 5 in November, so I was starting to wonder how long it was going to go on. She just OUT OF THE BLUE started saying them properly from the time she woke up yesterday, and she has continued.

We went on a field trip yesterday. We got pictures done at Wal-Mart, then we met some friends at a park. We hadn't seen them in a LONG time because they moved. So it was fun for all.

Gabrielle is enjoying science. So am I. We made a model of the earth and moon today to scale, to show how far away from us the moon actually is. WOW! It's neat to see it in that perspective.

I am LOVING the Lord's Table weight loss study. I feel so motivated and I feel like I've finally started to breakthrough. I bought a scale yesterday. I haven't ever had one and I've been afraid to weigh myself. So I now know that I want to/ need to lose between 10-15lbs. That's doable! This study is making the journey so rewarding. www.settingcaptivesfree.com

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Aug. 1, 2006 - Blessing Time Day 6

I am just so thankful that God inspired me to do this Blessing Time every day. The kids are really getting into it. Yesterday, we collected a whole bag of garbage at the park. The kids were actually disappointed when it was time to go, so we'll go back again today with a new bag. They were so surprised by all the garbage and felt really good that they were cleaning it up for other people to enjoy the park more. I am noticing a SLIGHT change in them - thinking of others a little more. This is wonderfully encouraging to me.

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Jul. 26, 2006 - THIS IS WHY WE HOMESCHOOL!!!! Yay Day 3!

Well, as some of you may know, I have incorporated a half hour of Blessing Time in our day. The first day, we sent a letter to our sponsered child in the Dominican Republic. The second day, we made a list of all the possiblities for future Blessing Times. Today, we had what I hope to be the first of EXCITING blessing adventures!

There is a lady who works at one of the local grocery stores. I don't know her name, so we'll call her D. D is the most pleasant service person I've met in years. Over the course of the last year or so, we've managed to make small talk enough times that she knows the names of my dc, she knows dh had a hernia surgery earlier this year, and we know we live in the same neighborhood, etc. We've casually chatted about vacations, etc.

ANYWAY, she is always so cheerful and goes the extra mile. She seems very grandmotherly. She talks to me like a daughter, in a way, and we don't know each other's names.

Well, I love this lady dearly. She makes me feel like maybe this town isn't so impersonal and un-family oriented. I feel like there's still hope for society after our grocery shopping trips because of HER.

So today we made banana bread and I wrote out a card for her describing the above. The kids all added their own names and stickers. I happen to know where she lives because it's around the corner from our house and I saw her and her dh on the porch last summer.

So, we walked over there this afternoon. We happened to arrive at her house the exact same time she got home from work. She was pleased to see "little visitors" at her door, and when she saw the card and banana bread (the girls gave them to her) she looked at me with that "I'm so surprised and don't know how to react to someone being so nice" look and said, "WHAT are you doing?" to me. I told her "I'm teaching my children to give." She basically chatted with the kids, gave them each a cookie to feed to the bunnies who were on her lawn and opened the card in the meantime. It seemed like she was SO pleased, but really, really unsure about what to make of it all. I LOVED IT! I can't wait to do this kinda thing again. THIS IS WHAT HOMESCHOOLING IS ALL ABOUT!!

I don't care if nothing ever comes of this (that we can see), but I love what my kids are learning and experiencing, and I love knowing that we just made a difference in someone's life today. And it only took HALF AN HOUR!

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