I never thought I was going to be a morning person until I got a job in a hardware store called Menards while I was in college. I learned how to go to bed early so it was easier to get up for work at 5am 6 days of the week. It took a little while to get used to, but once I realized how great it made me feel I started loving it. Now I have another early morning job and I've been going on a year and a half at this job loving waking up early and feeling so productive. I wanted to share the ways I keep myself sane when I am the only one in my house who is a morning person at the moment.
Clean
My cleaning is mostly focused on the kitchen area where I can do the dishes or clean the counter while I make breakfast quietly since we still live in a small apartment. I am limited with the noise level I can produce while trying to let my family sleep in, but I usually put on a random video or music to keep my mind busy. I do get to start a load when it is laundry day early and get it going or finish folding some from a previous day that never got done. I try to be a human cleaning tornado with our living room and put as many things away as possible after the previous day's antics. Claire has stations or things and the toys migrate from wherever we want to play with her during the day.
Work
As I mentioned, I have a job that I wake up early for and I am so lucky to have a husband who goes to bed with me at a reasonable hour so I'm ready to teach. The company I work for is based in China, it is called VIPKID and is a one-on-one teaching classroom for Chinese children to learn English. With a year and half under my belt I don't have much prep for the classes anymore and just have to worry about little added props, rewards, and comfort when teaching. Although I may not naturally wake up as early as I teach, it isn't a chore for me to wake up for this thing I love to do!
Read
I didn't say all of them were completely productive, just that I feel more productive when I wake up before people. This is usually what happens as I'm waiting for classes or more especially if I'm really invested in the story I'm currently reading. Even if this isn't the most productive thing to do it is part of how I have time to myself which I don't always get during a day of watching Claire and getting everything done. Alone time is very important and everyone needs that time to refresh themselves so I like to take a bubble bath and read while the house is quite.
Work out
My working out right now is training for a half-marathon so it is a lot of running but it doesn't always happen in the morning. I'm lucky to have some days off of work so I know I can make time during the day to go to an indoor track and run if weather is too cold. I don't have the desire to run while the weather is miserable so right now this happens often but as weather gets to the bearable temperatures in the morning that will change. If I was into yoga, this is the time I would do it and if I lived in a place where loud noises wouldn't wake up everyone including neighbors I would do some dancing. If only situations were a little different...all the things I could do.
Blog
Since I just started writing this blog, this one is very new for me and although I only post on Sundays I get to work on it through the week. I have fun typing and getting my thoughts down from the previous night so sometimes it just random writing that I never even use for a post. When I feel like I'm stuck and not in the mood I know that I have until Sunday to finish and can walk away which makes things less stressful and forced.
Budget
I do enjoy budgeting ever since we started and found a system that works for us which I will eventually share even though its very simple. I check in on our money situation in the middle and end of the month and sometimes when I know I will be going shopping for groceries. Checking how much has already been spent helps me personally keep in our monthly budget and sometimes find where we can spend extra on a nice dinner. We have been very blessed with being able to put money into savings most months and I know it is because I plan ahead and constantly pay attention to our budget.
Taxes
Since the season is upon me, I have been collecting tax documents and will have time in my mornings to focus on getting our taxes situated. We get to do ours online and save information to come back to so my stress is spread to many small mornings and not all one awful day. I have the goal to work on it half an hour two times a week and be done before the end of February so my tax stress this year will hopefully be minimal. Crossing my fingers...
Other Hobbies
I find myself wishing I could do more hobbies but since my craft room is part of my office and nursery in my apartment I can't sneak in there while Claire is sleeping. I love to sew, scrapbook, make cards, cook, make holiday crafts, and many other things that are hard to do right now. For now, I find myself browsing Pintrest for ideas on crafts instead of doing them or recipes for dinner that I might do someday. I like to create new things for my teaching job too and that can count as a hobby since I print, cut out, laminate, and do other things for it.
Studying
If I was in school, this would be a great time to do some quite studying! My studying is only subjects I'm interested in these days which include keeping up to date one current events, doing puzzles, scriptures, and/or learning new recipes. Having different hobbies makes it easy to find different things to study and always be learning new ways to get better at those things. Life long learning and constant improving myself and my skills makes being a morning person the best!
No comments:
Post a Comment