A New Morning Routine

Today was the second full day of school for my kids.

As I've mentioned earlier, I stayed up after work and packed their lunches a few days last week, to get back into the swing of things. Staying up later of course means I sleep later. I used to really hate that, because I wanted to be able to wake up earlier and get stuff done around the house and be awake when people got home and all that. Well, it just never really worked well.  if I did drag myself out of bed early I'd be grumpy, and also end up being tired and grumpy when packing lunches and getting girls up for school.  I have a lot of not-so-pleasant memories from last school year mornings.

So, these last couple of days, we've done things differently... well ok *I* have, and the rest of the folks living here just kind of went along with it cause they don't have a choice. Yesterday, being the first real day of school, and since Christopher had to be at work at 6am, I had to stay up and get everyone off to school. Since we don't have extra money for their meal accounts right now, I had packed their lunches, but realized they'd need a good breakfast as well, especially since they weren't used to being up so early.

So, while everyone was still asleep, I baked a can of biscuits. They're the cheap tiny kind, but they are better than nothing.  Then I sliced some tomatoes from the garden.  I made some jelly biscuits and the rest tomato biscuits and put them on a plate for everyone. I also packed several for Christopher's breakfast since he'd not have time to eat. He also had a small bottle of orange juice that I got a good deal on 6 packs on clearance. When the girls got up, they also had their biscuits and their orange juice after they got ready to go. They really seemed thrilled with it and thanked me, told me they loved me and headed off to the bus.  Zoe didn't even throw a fit!

So, today, I got off work at 3:15am as normal, checked email one last time, then gathered my dirty dishes and  turned off all the lights and headed to the kitchen. I packed lunches, tidied up, did some laundry, walked the dogs, sat out on the back porch under the patio lights and listened to the very early morning sounds, then came in to watch some BBC America On Demand. I have to get the older girls up at 6am or they'll sleep through any alarms and miss the bus.  One of their schools is all the way across town so that's very not good, so I stay up and make sure they catch it.  But this morning, instead of just waking them up in a grumpy manner and heading to bed like I used to,  I woke them up and started frying eggs. Certainly not a big breakfast, but it's a wonder what a bottle or orange juice and two fried eggs can do for you first thing in the morning.  I had a plate of them as well. The girls  again were thrilled and sat and ate and watched the show about two guys touring England and drinking beer and laughing a lot. Fun show. Then off they went.

Now, at this point, I could have gone on to bed, but honestly, I was still very awake especially after eating, so I stayed up to finish watching my show.  Then out staggered Christopher 10 minutes before he normally would get Zoe up, and wondered what smelled so good. Haha!  So, I made him a fried egg and bologna sandwich and fried up an egg and a slice of bologna for Zoe as well. They both had bottles of juice too. They had plenty of time to get ready, she even brushed her teeth and made her bed, and I put her hair in a pretty pony tail. Then they sat and ate and had their juice while we watched another episode of the show. When it was time for them to go (he drives Zoe to school on days he doesn't go in at 6am), Zoe gave me a big hug and kiss, and then Christopher gave me a big hug and said how nice it was to be able to do this and sure hoped every morning could be like that.

And I figure, well whynot. I was always so disappointed that I don't really get a chance to eat dinner with the family since it's usually done around the time I start work (doesn't matter when I start cooking it, it always seems to get done when work starts - weird).  And of course we never have lunch together even on our off days cause everyone's off doing their things. But whynot have breakfast together.  It's not all together since R and F leave half an hour before Zoe even wakes up, but I personally get to spend time with all of them for breakfast, and yes it is nice. No morning news show, just something travel or food related is nice. I love the Travel Channel shows.  Nothing stressful or depressing before the day starts.

So, here it is, over 5 hours since I got off work, and I'm still awake... but not for long. My eyelids are certainly getting heavy. So I am off to bed, but I am listing some breakfast foods on the grocery list for this weekend. No more poptarts for my kids. Breakfast is of course supposed to be the most important meal of the day, but I've always based my menu and grocery list around dinners.  I need to think just as much about breakfast.

You know... my Mom always did.  I knew that if Mom was home (she often worked early mornings when I was a teenager), then there'd be something yummy for breakfast.  In fact even if she had already left for work, sometimes there would still be half a pan of biscuits and some sausage patties left on the stove. And oh Lord if we were visiting and staying the night.... MMMMmmmm the table full of food would be amazing. Platters of bacon and eggs, sausage and biscuits and gravy and fresh sliced tomatoes, juice, and fruit.

While I don't want to add to the cholesterol that's probably building in my kids' arteries already, I do want them to have  good memories and a good breakfast.  So, that's going to be a new routine and a new habit to work on. I think it makes it easier to go to sleep knowing that I sent my whole family off with a smile and a kiss and a good start to the day.