Whether your personality thrives when you stick to routine or you resist it with everything you have (guilty!), there is always a benefit to starting your day on the right foot. Mornings set the entire tone for our day, and they can make or break our feelings about being home with our children or heading in to work. Personally, I don’t see a lot of space for rigid and strict routines when you live a life with small children. Infants and toddlers have a knack for doing everything in their power to lay to waste the best made plans, so I try to approach each day with flexibility.

Still, when it comes to my morning routine, I have found it incredibly important to make space for a few really basic things. Without these things, I feel out of sorts and frazzled for the rest of the day. Morning routines will look different for every mom, so think carefully about the few things you need to start you day with a positive attitude. Personally, the timing and order of my mornings seem to to change daily. However, I carry a mental checklist around of the things I do for myself before I begin tackling my work or housework for the day.

Basic Self Care: A sure fire way to get burnt out as a mom is to stop taking care of your basic needs. I’m a low maintenance gal, so I stick to the same self care checklist each morning. Wash my face, brush my teeth, get dressed, brush my hair. If we’re going out, I stick with quick and easy make-up which takes me no more than five minutes.

A Quick, Focused Prayer: I don’t have a morning Bible and prayer time. For a long time, I drowned in guilt because I couldn’t squeeze it in before my oldest woke at 5 a.m. (for the first year of her life!). Now, my oldest sleeps through to seven but my younger daughter is consistently waking before six each morning. Eventually, I got past the guilt and committed to a quick prayer each morning. Sometimes, it’s in bed while a nurse my daughter for the first time and other times I am standing over the stove making eggs. It doesn’t really matter where, it simply matters that it happens every day.

A Hot Drink: Personally, I don’t believe in starting a day without coffee. If coffee isn’t your thing, maybe it’s tea or a glass of lemon water. Each morning, I settle on the couch for five or ten minutes while my girls play around me in their pajamas and take a few minutes to gear up for the day. It isn’t so much about the drink as it is about taking the time to think about what is on the agenda for the day and how you plan to care for yourself and you family throughout the day.

How do you prepare for your day?

Warmly,

Mary