GOOD MORNING! I’ve wanted to write this post for a long time and as a busy mom and entrepreneur I just never found the time to get to it. Welcome to the 2020 Corona Apocalypse where everything has shifted and now I must make sure to hang on to a morning routine more than ever. Now with the whole family quarantined at home I have even less time for myself than I normally did. With all of my responsibilities the morning has always been my time to just give myself some space to center, organize, and get energized. Usually I wake up at 5:30 so that I can get at least an hour to myself before my kids wake up between 6:30 a.m. and 6:45 a.m.
- 5:30 a.m.: Wake up
- 5:45 a.m.: Gratitude & Writing affirmations
- 6:00 a.m.: Prep breakfast and lunch boxes
- 6:30 a.m.: Exercise (45 min)
- 7:15 a.m.: Check on kids, start laundry, or another quick chore
- 7:30 a.m.: Shower and get dressed
- 8:00 a.m.: Walk the kids to school
At the very beginning of this crisis on March 13th I started feeling sick and on Saturday March 14th I was tested for Corona virus due to having flu-like symptoms but testing negative for flu and strep. my whole family and I were officially put into quarantine for 14 days. We didn’t find out our negative results until 16 days later when we were all much better. But, during the time we were feeling sick the routine was really to rest as much as possible and focus on healing, in case this was CoVid-19. Safe to say, my morning routine went completely out the window as I had very little energy and just used what I had to help keep the kids in a routine with home school and try to keep the house in order as much as possible.
As I got into day 18 and 19 of social distancing and quarantine life my anxiety started to get the best of me. I was having a hard time focusing on anything because I was just feeling so overwhelmed. That’s when I realized I need my morning routine to ground me now more than ever. Today is day 21 and I’ve been waking up before 6 a.m. for the past 3 days which is a great start. Today I woke up a few minutes before my 5:45 a.m. alarm went off. Win!
Now, I’m just trying to come up with a morning routine that fits our, hopefully not too long-term and temporary, new normal. The last three mornings I have either gone out for a walk by myself or with one of the kids. Today I took both of the girls and we walked for over an hour. It was so much fun. They were miserable in the beginning complaining about being hungry and cold but then once I started giving them things to do it was much better. First we sang Scarlet’s new favorite song from Dinosaur Train together. Then, we started some bird watching. I love bird watching! The girls are not patient or quiet enough to do it well yet but they humored me and we got to see many more birds than we normally do. After they got tired of bird watching we sat on a big rock for their snack time and we got a close look a pair of geese that had started following us, from the water, as we walked around the lake. After snack we did some sprints up the bath. Scarlet enjoyed that the most! She’s a ball of energy but she isn’t as active as Rosalind is who will work on gymnastics moves all throughout the day at home. Next activity was to find flowers to take pictures of so we could do an art project later this afternoon. We found some great options and I can’t wait to use the watercolors with them. It’s been forever and a day since I did an art project.
I am feeling so happy and optimistic now. I got sun and exercise while being in nature with the kids. This has to become part of our morning routine together.
So here’s my new tentative schedule for my morning routine. And also I’ll my daily schedule with the kids.
- 5:30 a.m.: Ambitious wake up time
- 5:45 a.m.: Write affirmations
- 6:00 a.m.: Exercise & start laundry
- 6:45 a.m.: Set up the kids breakfast and prep for lunch, tidy up kitchen
- 7:00 a.m.: Write
- 8:00 a.m.: Read emails
- 8:15 a.m.: Morning walk with the kids
- 9:00 a.m.: Kids snack time
- 9:15 a.m.: Shower while kids watch PBS
- 10:15 a.m.: Circle time (word of the day, read two books, two open ended questions)
- 10:45 a.m.: First lesson
- 11:30 a.m.: Snack time
- 12:00 p.m.: gymnastics or play
- 1:00 p.m.: Continued School Work
- 2:00 p.m.: Lunch
- 3:00 p.m.: Art project
- 4:00 p.m.: Yoga
- 4:30 p.m.: School’s Out!
This is all in an ideal world. Let’s see how it goes.
How do you manage a busy lifestyle with family and kids? How are you keeping sane through this new normal we are living during the Covid-19 pandemic?
