There are exceptions, of course.
But generally speaking, I read a devotional out loud to Mr. FG (New Morning Mercies). I do not pay attention that well when someone reads to me, so it works better if I’m the reader.
Then one of us prays (we alternate days).
After that, we either go for a walk together or I go for a walk with podcasts in my earbuds and he goes for a run (we alternate days with that too!).
Three mornings a week, I do a weights workout after the walk. Then comes a shower (usually cold, or at least cool) and breakfast.
After that, I share the day’s blog post on Facebook and I send out the link to my email subscribers.
Once we get past that point in my morning, things really do not have a routine because my days vary. I have morning class once a week, my girls or I might have appointments, I might go help someone, I might study for my college class, I might have errands to run…very few days are exactly like another.
I get up somewhere between 4:45 and 5:30. Before anything else, I shuffle into the kitchen to turn on the electric kettle to heat water for coffee. Then I go close the doors to the younger kids’ rooms. They sleep relatively close to the kitchen, and I reeeeally don’t want to wake them up.
After that I go into my bathroom to get dressed in the clothes I left in there the night before, because my husband is always still asleep at this time. Make coffee, drink coffee while messing around online. Sometimes I write something for my blog, but usually I just read other people’s things.
By 6 a.m. on school days and 7 a.m. on non-school-days, I’m in the kitchen, unloading the dishwasher, feeding dogs, making my breakfast/kids’ breakfast, and starting any of the many kitchen tasks I inevitably have on the docket for the day. I almost always start a load of laundry around this time, too.
In the summer, I used to take the dogs for a walk down our dirt road when the sun came up around 5:45. It comes up too late now to do that, and I really miss it. I sometimes go on weekends with the kids if they get up pretty early, but it’s definitely not the same as my beloved solo walk. Definitely not as quiet, in any case. 🙂
I get up between 5:30-6 each morning start my coffee and prepare my son’s juice(it’s a 6 year tradition…he is 9) Then I take my pills, pour my coffee, and grab my iPad and head to the couch to peruse all of my favorite blogs and read the news. My husband is on a work trip to South Korea so he usually Facetimes us around 7am because it is then 9pm there. After breakfast, we start our homeschool day around 9 and then the rest of our day varies.
**What podcasts do you love? I just began listening to them on my walks and when I am doing dishes and I love it!
Wow, you and Kristin are both early risers!
Lately, I am really digging Sawbones, which is a podcast about misguided medical history. The hosts are so fun and entertaining, and I love hearing about medical topics.
I’m also listening to every episode of The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, but that’s just every other week.
I’ve got The Crystal Paine Show, How to Money, and Before Breakfast in my rotation too.
“The Moth” is a really good podcast!
These days I’m so tired I roll out of bed at 6:50, get myself dressed, make coffee, get my son up and dressed, and head out to be at work at 8. He goes with me thankfully and breakfast at school is at 8:30 so he usually eats there (sometimes he likes a prebreakfast snack on the way!) If I’m up early enough I can do dishes quickly but I’m in a perpetually tired time of life so my evenings are usually more productive.
My mourning routine looks so much different, but I am in a different stage of life. 6am I am up and in the shower. After I get out I softly wake up my two kids by turning the lights on. They need some time to “really” wake up. I then go back and get my hair and makeup done for the day. After some coaxing, the kids get up and get dressed. We all go downstairs together and I remind them of their pet chores. Our one cat is so annoying in the morning, she jumps up on the counter and knocks anything in her path down until I get her wet food!
Then I start getting our food ready for the day. I add the instant coffee and collagen to my to go cup and ice/water to the kids water bottles. I ask my daughter what she wants to eat while I crack 5 eggs (2 for me and 3 for my son) We love eggs! She usually eats a frozen pancake or waffle. I then go into reminder mode. Do you have your laptop packed? Did you brush your teeth? Did you put deodorant on? The list goes on an on. We then head out the door for the day and I pray the garage door is not open, because the opener in my van doesn’t work and I have to go inside to shut it!!
Some mornings my husband is home, but he just sits at the table half asleep while I run like a chicken!
We are semi-retired and have done freelance work for the last 20 years so both of us have worked at home except when we had to travel to remote parts of Alaska for a specific contract. We are both night owls, so our schedule tends to be go to bed at 1 or 2 am and get up at about 10 am. I am a terrible insomniac so on especially bad nights where I don’t get to sleep until 5 or 6 am, I might stay in bed until noon. We record the morning news and watch the first 20 minutes or so of that together, until they switch to non-news pieces like celebrity interviews. Then we get to work on our individual projects until one of us is hungry; we don’t eat breakfast so usually we eat about 3, which is our main meal. Some time after lunch we take the dog for a romp. We have a huge fenced yard but we try to take him out to a new place for new smells. We got the right dog for us because when he sees a dog he smells and then comes back and stands with us; he is not a socializer either, I would guess because he was kept chained up and alone for hours in his earlier life so never learned to be with his own kind. So, two hermit owners and a hermit dog…I think we traveled so very much in our early years, often in small planes and helicopters, to remote areas where we sometimes had to sleep on the floor of a clinic or the one cell jail in a tiny community, that our very peaceful life suits us just fine in this season of our lives. You all sound like your mornings are so busy!
I get up at 455 am.
Take pups out. Check out the moon!
Feed cat and dog.
Shower.
Eat breakfast. Frosted mini wheats with bananas or blueberries.
Finish getting ready.
Grab my lunch which is packed the night before , MASK, lanyard and keys and head out the door at 550 am.
I wake up at 5am. I drink a glass of water quickly while my dog is going for his pee, and I start the kettle. I then take him downstairs for his breakfast and by the time the is done, so is the kettle. I have my tea and breakfast, usually read a chapter of a book, and then get dressed and take my dog for a walk, 30-45 mins. When I get back, I do my workout in the basement. About once a week I will take the day off from the workout, and maybe read more instead or have a bath. After the workout is done I stretch for 15 mins, jump in the shower, and start work by 8. I will be returning to the office soon and my routine will get a shake up, but with working from home since covid, that has been my routine the last year and half. We do the same 7 days a week, except maybe try to get my dog to sleep till 6 on the weekends!
The alarm goes off at 6:00, then I do two 5-minute snoozes which take me to 6:10. Then I take a shower and get ready for work, and leave for work at 7:00. (A few days lately have involved dropping my high school son off at school before I go to work … lots of school bus problems lately!)
Since it’s the school year now (which bumps everything up by 20 minutes) our alarm goes off at 5:15, we snooze once and I get out of bed at 5:25 and get in the shower. Get dressed. If I’m wearing something with pockets (and no kids are awake yet) I’ll plug in my earbuds and turn on my Bible in One Year app on my phone while I feed the cats, look at my planner, put away any clean dishes, and get breakfast ready. Our whole family eats breakfast together at 6:40. Then I help get the kiddos ready so we can take the oldest to school by 7:45.
Wow everyone gets up so early over the pond!! The alarm goes off at 7am, snooze for 10 minutes then up, shower, get dressed, eat breakfast with DH and DS, then off to work at 8:15am. DH has a later start so he deals with the dishwasher and making the bed thankfully – I’m soooo bad at loading and unloading the dishwasher and making the bed according to him. I have perfected my ineptitude at both tasks over the 23 years we have been married so much so tgat if he’s away for the night I struggle to remember to actually make the bed. 🙂 🙂
I know, right? So many early risers in this group!
I think this is the most fascinating blog post ever, Kristen! I apparently am just really interested in people’s morning routines. So many people do so much early in the day! Here’s mine:
My cat, Phoebe starts patting me in the face between 6 and 6:15 usually. So we and her sister Monica get up and we sneak out of the bedroom. (My husband is a late(r) sleeper). I start the hot water kettle and get their breakfast. The I get my “office” ready for the day by moving my laptop, journal and planner from their “home” to the dining room table. I make my mocha (instant coffee and hot chocolate) and read a devotional and then journal for about half an hour – 45 minutes. By the the hubs is up and we read the local paper and some others online. Then I look through my planner and get to work on the to-do list for my clients. The sooner i start, the sooner I can play!