My Mornings Went From Chaos to Calm with This Morning Routine

I’m going to come straight out and say it, i used to think morning routines were bullshit. Here’s the thing, I’ve NEVER been good at consitancy. Because I’m either zero or hundred, all or nothing type or person. Besides having the same morning smoothie for breakfast, everything else was a variable from the time I woke up to when I brushed my teeth to when I started work.

Motherhood has forced me to instil a lot of structure and routine which I’m actually loving. It’s something I can can come to rely on and “control” if you will. There are a lot of things I can’t control throughout the day from if my kids will throw their food I cooked them on the floor to how much Life Lapse earns….so having something I can count on that is in my control brings me peace.

Let me paint you a picture of how my days started BEFORE I introduced a morning routine:

1. I slept until the boys woke up.

2. I get up, change their diapers and bring them down to play a bit while I empty the dishwasher and start prepping their food

3. They are now crawling into the dishwasher, clinging off me or crying because I need to walk around the kitchen to make them food/ put things away.

4. My heart rate and stress levels during the first 30 minutes of my day 📈

5. I give them their food and start to make my smoothie.

6. When they are done I take them out, wipe them clean and then hang out with them.

7. At this point they want my smoothie so they’re crying and pointing to my smoothie cup despite me making them their own smoothies. (I put a bit of protein powder in mine so I dont want them have any).

8. I need to let Jack out who still doesn’t love the pee pad I made him in our new backyard so i have to walk him which is a challenge if Im alone with the boys (need to train him to use that pee pad!!)

   What it’s like when I think I’m doing my stress levels justice by getting an extra 30 mins -1 hour of sleep:

I used to think getting that extra 1 hour of sleep was for my own good. LOL. Nope. Not worth it. I repeat, NOT WORTH IT. I prefer to now wake up with everything in order so I can enjoy the morning with the boys before I start work and it doesn’t involve waking up to my alarm clock. Here’s what I do now:

1. When I wake up naturally in the morning around 6:30ish, I use Mel Robbins “5-4-3-2-1” method to get out of bed. I realize I will always be tired when I get out of bed no matter the time. Even if I go back to sleep for another hour, I will still be tired getting out. Getting out of bed sucks lol.

2. I leave my curtains open a little so the natural daylight wakes me and we have an alarm clock that is a light that slowly fades on for dark fall/winter mornings (it doesn’t produce any noises).

3. When I first wake up I open Spotify to see what new podcasts rolled in over night. I LOVE to learn in the morning so I put on a business/marketing podcast. I scroll through and figure out which podcast I want to listen to while still in bed because it motivates me to get up so I can listen to the podcast downstairs.

4. I get up, rinse my face, put on my vitamin C serum & moisturizer with SPF

5. I take Jack outside. I love how peaceful it is in the mornings outside in the neighbourhood.

6. Start listening to a podcast while I empty the dishwasher

7. Make my smoothie

8. Prep the boys breakfast

9. Finish drinking my smoothie, make my coffee and if I got up early enough chill on the couch for a bit and drink my coffee before I go grab the boys.

10. Now when the boys come down I am not frustrated because I’m not trying to do a million different things which is impossible when I have two toddlers hanging off me. Now I get to play with them, give them their breakfast and give them my full attention and EVERYONE IS HAPPY!! Happy kids = Happy (stress free) Mom! lol