A Novice's Reflections on the Morning

I am not a morning person. In fact, I would love it if the entire world would stay up until 2 am and not get up in the morning until noon. Unfortunately, most of the world is not on board with this practice.

I am, little by little, and especially this summer, training my children to view sleep patterns like I do, which is why it is 7:47 am and no one is up in the house except me!! My son had tackle football practice last night from 6-8 (there will be a future blog about the insanity of that, I'm sure), so by the time he got showered, and we ate dinner, cleaned rooms and tried to straighten up, my kids were probably up way past a bedtime that would be considered "good parenting." You know there is something weird about you when all of your neigbors' lights are out and blinds are pulled, and your family is just sitting down to dinner!

This bizzare sleep practice we have wouldn't stress me out too much, except for the fact that I happened to glance at a calendar, yesterday. Today is the first of August. School will start in about 15 days. I have roughly 15 days to put my family on some kind of decent routine with bedtimes that begin before the next calendar day!!

In this spirit, and because I have OCD (self-diagnosed, of course :) ), I chose this morning of August 1 to turn over a new leaf (it would've been better if August 1 would've been on a Monday, but I guess we can't have everything). I actually set my alarm, and dragged myself out of bed at 5:15 this morning! To make this craziness even worse, I drove to the fitness center and exercised--for an hour. I am really thinking about making an appointment with my psychiatrist.

Here is the terrifying thing: I expected to walk in the door, bleary eyed, and have my pick of torture devices with which to start my morning. Boy, was I wrong! That place was HOPPING. And no one in the place was younger than 60. These folks put me to shame. They were weight-lifting, ellipticizing, walking/running, AND biking--all on the same DAY. There wasn't an ounce of body fat on any of them! I must've been an oddity to them, as well, because three people spoke to me, mentioning that they have never seen me there in the morning before. Well, DUH--I've never SEEN the morning, before!

All in all, though, getting up before the sunrise isn't half bad. I came home, had a quiet cup of coffee, and a great time with God--He talked through His Word--I listened. So, my body is saying, "Thank you very much," with all of the sarcasm it can muster, and my spirit is saying, "Thank you VERY MUCH!" with all of the enthusiasm it can muster.

And it is all I can do not to crawl back under the covers. Hopefully one of my kids will get up, soon. The temptation is getting to be too much!!