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Thursday, April 08, 2004

the first part of my day

Courtesy of Diarist.net:

What is the first hour of your day like? Does what happens then have an effect on the rest of your day?

I am blessed to be able to be a stay-at-home homeschooling mom, so the first part of my day sometimes varies, but here's as close to a "typical" one as I can get.

• 5:00 a.m. T's alarm goes off. He shuts it off and then lies in bed snuggling with me (which generally also includes groping on his part, not to be too graphic...) while I try to simultaneously be glad that I have such a loving husband AND avoid waking fully. Eventually T gets up to get ready for work, sometimes has to ask me which laundry basket has the clean t-shirts, and then comes in just before he leaves to give me a kiss goodbye. Again with the mingled attempts at enthusiasm and unconsciousness.
• 7:00 or so Between seven and seven-thirty, C wakes up and comes crawling into my bed with me. Sometimes she goes back to sleep but usually she lies there and sings songs, pets my face, hugs me, pets my hair, and tries to converse with me, while I again try to seem cheerful when really all I want to do is sleep ... a ... few ... more ... minutes. Also, this whole time I feel awful because this is such a sweet moment, and I should really and truly be enjoying it and savoring it, and in a way I do, but definitely not as much as I should. At some point I become (regretfully) fully awake, kiss C all over her face, climb out of bed (to C's immense joy), pull on some clothes, make the bed (oh, spreading up those blankets when they're still warm from my sleeping self is so difficult! I just want to burrow back in...), and go out to the front room. Then I fix C's breakfast and turn on the computer to check the email, read my comics (For Better Or Worse, Rose Is Rose, 9 Chickweed Lane, Luann, Agnes, Get Fuzzy, Barkeater Lake, and Pearls Before Swine) and any diaries/journals which may have been updated by that time (with an actual occasional squeal of glee if I see that porktornado, mom-on-roof or sundry have updated). LT doesn't generally stumble out of bed until 9-ish. He sleeps like a teenager. Then he has breakfast and we head to the schoolroom for the rest of the morning.
  
  

As far as an effect on my day -- yes, frequently the first few hours of the morning do have a serious impact on the rest of my day. If I get up promptly (sometimes even with T, but not usually) and start housework, it's appalling to look at the clock at 8:00, when I have done so much already, and realize that I'd still be at least trying to sleep on an ordinary day. Now ask me if this changes the time I get up the next day and I'll honestly tell you that no, it doesn't, because I am the slackest of slackers. It does feel good afterward if I get right up and get to it -- although it feels much better during if I don't. And of course if the kids wake up and they're having a rare day when they're whining and sniping at each other, oh yes, it does make the entire rest of the day seem very rocky, unless I do a quick self-attitude-adjustment and get all cheerful instead of snapping and yelling -- usually IF I do that it'll turn their moods around. Again, ask me how often this happens the way it should. Or don't.

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