Morning people

Some of my family is made up of morning people.  I’m not included in this group.  Naomi isn’t either.  Simeon…well, the jury is still out.  Some mornings with him are great and some are…not so great.  Hannah and Michael are both up like toast and rarin’ to go in the morning. 

However, if I sit around and wait until I’m awake and ready to face the day, any potential momentum for the day has dissipated, and all of the kids are doing different things and I’m stuck trying to regroup as the very first thing of the day.  This isn’t a good scene.

So I’ve instituted the early morning bike ride.  Everyone up, dressed, beds made, small snack, out the door. (Well, almost everyone.  Our ride doesn’t include Michael. He takes an early morning bike ride, too, but his starts before ours and goes to the park and ride so he can catch his bus.)  After about 30-35 minutes of riding, we’re all ready to face the day.  We’ve seen the snails at Snail Town (phlox in a bunch of neighbors’ yards seems to attract snails), we’ve enjoyed the morning sun…or sprinkles, we’ve had a chance to work off some excess energy (or wake up as we realize that our legs are moving), and we’re all much more able to do chores, eat breakfast, and get started with school as cheerful, happy family members.  This morning we rode to the library (not open yet at 7:45 a.m.) and returned some books, so we even did an errand!

Now that the spring mornings start so nice and early and the spring weather means that we don’t always have steady driving rain every morning, I think we’ve found something that will help us have better mornings and get some exercise, too.  I have not yet become a morning person, but I figure that this might be a way to get as close as I’ll probably come. 

I can’t actually credit myself with the idea of exercise first thing, though, because I have to admit that most of my ideas about morning are along the lines of, “How late can I sleep and still take adequate care of everyone in the morning?”