Setting aside the abstract benefits of creating savoring time early in the day, here are some reflections on the more mundane pluses and minuses of early rising we experienced this week.
Pros:
* The positive reaction from the girls. Some quotes from E this week include "I love this cuddle time. Can we do this every morning?" and "Wow - I actually WANT to practice my violin in the morning." Little sister A doesn't verbalize it so clearly but she is naturally inclined to early rising, so she seems to be in her element.
* So far, making their own lunches appears to translate into eating everything they pack (as promised by their Montessori teachers). Cuts down on waste and makes for a better school day, I suspect.
* Getting to school early means ample parking spaces and A gets to snag the bread making station in her classroom, which is a perennial favorite and apparently a hot commodity.
* No rushing out the door. No harping on them that we will be late. I suspect they hated that as much as I did.
* Afternoons are more relaxed and I don't have to interrupt their play with neighborhood friends to nag them about music practice or other responsibilities.
Cons:
* Fatigue. By day 4, I'm tired. While we've been pretty successful at getting the girls to bed early, I haven't been asleep before 11:00 yet.
* Loss of evening reading time. I love to read in bed at night. Now I'm too tired. I either have to get in bed much earlier or figure out how to find reading time during the day.
* Dave's schedule this week hasn't meshed with this plan as well as we had hoped. It was a busy hospital week for him and he had to leave the house by 7:30. So he really only had time for exercise, breakfast making and eating with the girls. I suspect there wasn't much savoring going on for him. He successfully advocated for no procedures scheduled before 9:00, so even most "hospital weeks" won't be like that in the future - we hope. And at least we got to have breakfast with him! On our old schedule, he would have been out of the house before we came down for breakfast.
Any thoughts on how to manage evening time and getting my weary body in bed earlier?
Nope. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm on a similar schedule, at least during the week. I'm up at 5:45 M/W/F to go swimming and 6:10 the other days. By the time I have everything done at night [kids in bed, kitchen cleaned up, lunches made], it's 10:00, and I need to unwind, but I'm far too tired to read. It's usually the 10:00 news and my Jon Stewart fix.
If you can find the time during the day to read, I say grab it if you can. You have "some" newfound freedom that you should enjoy. That's one of my guilty pleasures that I look forward to in two years.