31 Things: Days 2 & 3

Here are the next two stories from my 31 Things class. Neither too heart wrenching or detailed, but little slices of my life at the moment. 

Story 2: Morning

I’ve never been a morning person. Morning time is a wonderful thing. A wonderful thing for sleeping. I love my sleep so much and never function that well off of less than 8 hours of it. As I get older, and there feel like there are fewer and fewer hours in the day, that 8 hours per night has become a thing of the past. But when I do get in that full night’s sleep. Oh! I am one happy girl.

I’m sure I’ve always been this way – in fact I know I was because my Mom always tells me how much of a drag it was getting me up in the morning. I was the night owl and would stay up late with the adults, but then there were the mornings.  Well, mornings always came too quickly.

As recently as February 2012, I was the late bird at work. I would take my time sleeping in in the morning. Get up, get the kids ready, take them to daycare and then get into the office around 9. I did this for four years. But while the sleeping in was great, the getting home at 6 every night was not so good. I always had to rush to feed the kiddos, Steve and me. We ended up eating garbage because I didn’t have the time to make us a healthy meal. I spent little time with the kiddos before they needed to be off to bed. I didn’t really know it at the time, but it just wasn’t working for us.

In February I started a new job and at that time decided to make a life decision. I realized that in order for our family to function better, I needed to be home earlier. The only way that was going to happen, because, you know, I’m a working mom, was to head into the office earlier. Steve and I talked it over and decided that it would probably work. He takes the kiddos to daycare and I pick them up. I’m off to work while the munchkins are still sleeping and he can stay out and work a bit longer if he needs to. I can hit the grocery store on the way home with them if I need to. We can start dinner and then head to the park for a little while. I can enjoy my evenings with my children because we’re not rushed through dinner, bath and bed. And then…there’s even some time for Steve and I. That – we really needed. 

Now, mornings still suck. When my alarm goes off at 5:45 AM I want to throw it across the room. But over these last few months the getting up has been easier and easier. I’ve even found that I’m up earlier on the weekends. Glorious! I get the dishes done, drink a cup of coffee and read my book.  Sometimes all before the rest of the family gets up. I probably go to bed a little earlier at night. We’re definitely not watching as much TV because when it’s bed time for this girl it’s lights out. But there’s something to be said for that too. It’s all just good stuff.

Who knew that making this change would be so good for us? I’m just glad I did.    

Story 3: Read

What are you favorite past times? What do you like to do in your free time? Aren't those two of the most common questions asked? Either on job interviews or other nonsensical "tell me about yourself” questionnaires.

I always say "reading." It may sound boring but it's the honest truth.

I read. All the time. Any chance I get.

I don't read to be able to quote snooty passages from classics. I don't read to learn about myself or do something about myself (although I’ll admit that that happens sometimes.)  I read to get lost in another world. I read to take my mind off the stressors in my life. I read to put myself in a better place to be a better wife, a better mother, a better friend.

I also know that this is how I’ve always been, I have always been a reader. My Mom and Dad joke that I was reading War and Peace by age five (haven’t read that novel to this day – maybe I should crack it open). I know I read early in life. Go Dog Go was my favorite and is now one of go-to books to read to my kiddos. When other kids were playing video games or tearing up the neighborhood on their bicycles, my place would have always been wrapped up on the couch with a good book.

Today I worry that my children won’t love to read as much as I do. We have loads and loads of books in the house, picture books and chapter books, fiction and non-fiction, squeaky bath toy books and those meant to stay on dry land. Allyson loves her books, but she’s still at the age where she wants (needs) me to read to her. We’re working through identifying letters (she knows them all – upper and lower case), making word sounds and then sounding out words. But she loses interest in trying very quickly. And when it’s 9:30 pm and this Momma’s had a long day and has to get up early, I just snuggle up and read and decide to leave the lesson for another day. Thank goodness she has a magnificent preschool…and one whole year til kindergarten. This kiddo is going to be reading Day One.

Andrew – well. He likes to occasionally flip through books and then throw them. We have some time to work with Little Man on the love of the written word. He’s all boy, and I know that getting him interested in reading is a big deal. We read together often, he’s just usually off and running before I get through the third page. I won’t give up – I just understand that little boys are a bit different.

Back to my own reading. It could be anything, really. Lately I’ve been into historical fiction. Anything that takes me back to another time and place, throw in some battle scenes or “solve” an old mystery, and I’m hooked. I try, sometimes not very well, to add in some classics every now and then, but I do struggle through them. I force myself because I think it’s good for me to read some of these books, but when I have so little free time it’s often a battle lost over something more up my alley.

Now, I think I’ll go crack open another book.


~Becky