Why I Like Getting Up Early*

*AFTER I conquer the warmth and comfort of my bed, of course. Temptation to turn off the alarm and 'give myself a gift of sleeping in' is a daily battle.

So I've been attempting to revamp my mornings and get up long enough before my kids that I can get my heart pumping with some exercise, get into the Bible, and get my day planned out before the noise that starts as soon as they get up. Last week I fell off the wagon and slept in every single morning. It started with missing my alarm 'cause I hadn't turned it up enough. Tuesday I turned it off without hardly even waking up, and only knew it when I woke up to my kids' voices hours later. Wednesday it occurred to me after my alarm woke me that I had a 5K coming up in three days and I decided to 'gift myself' with sleeping in for the rest of the week. Wow, written out like that that looks like a lot of lame excuses.

So I was thinking that if I listed the pluses of getting myself out of bed, I may be motivating myself even more. And possibly give myself a little accountability because other people (all, what, 6 of you?  :D) will know that I am trying to change this habit.

1. Peace and Quiet.
With 3 little girls who have inherited my hubby's and my ability and desire to talk, it's not quiet for long (if at all) after they get up. Besides the pets charging around wrestling with each other, it's pretty quiet when I get up.

2. Seeing the Sunrise
There are quite a few houses around here but that doesn't stop the sun from gorgeously staining whatever clouds are in the sky. Right now the sunrise happens during my 'planning for the day' time, when I feel like I can drop what I'm doing and drink in the fact that God gave me a gorgeous sky-painting to look at.

3. Getting my Heart Pumping.
Exercise gets my body warmed up and moving. I can move on to my bible reading without worrying about coffee until later. Plus it feels good to burn off most, if not all, of breakfast before I even eat it.

4. Learning Discipline.
Eventually, this will become a habit. The blogs I'm reading that are encouraging me in this promise that eventually, it becomes something you look forward to! Seems odd to look forward to getting up early. But I do feel better on the days I've gotten enough sleep and get my self in gear before the kids invade. ;)

5. Time for Myself
Every mama learns quickly that if they don't get some time to recharge, get in touch with God, the days go horribly. I've been reminded of this many times. Eventually, the battery gets to critical levels, like my laptop did this morning, and I need to plug in. Get some time in the quiet, when I can try to hear God and get my patience built up for the day.

This is my current goal. I've been learning about myself and my relationship with God and my kids. I've learned certain things are critical for keeping my patience intact, like enough sleep. Getting up early also requires going to bed early, thus enough sleep. I hope to post more about how this goes.

Today I missed my iPod alarm but my back up on my phone did wake me up enough to notice I had slept in. It took 20 minutes of arguing with myself to get up. Of course, I had only had 5 1/2 hours sleep. Tonight, earlier to bed!

The Dictionary According to Our McLife

*But not in alphabetical order...*

Beautiful

Free

Friends

Fun

Swing

Toes 

 

Persistence

That's the world according to us these days, getting all the playing and swinging in we can on glorious days like today. And showing off our new haircuts. And learning how to ride two wheelers. Great ways to spend our evenings.

Running Headlong...

...into the new school year! It occurred to me just now that I haven't posted an update on any of my kids in quite a long time.

The biggest deal in our lives right now is that A starts Kindergarten this year. She's torn between being extremely excited and a bit apprehensive (she's our most careful). She's also undecided about whether she wants to go. S is not as excited about school starting back up, and A wants to be excited but wants to be like her big sister. Poor middle kid. :) She's been asking lots of questions and I've been careful to make sure she knows that she can ask me anything she wants. She also has the same teacher that her big sister had. S loved this teacher, and that's helping make A more excited. So that's good.

A has a lot going on! She's also learning to ride her bike with no training wheels. She's only gotten to try twice so far. I hope to get her out there practicing enough over the next couple weeks that she knows how to ride it before school starts. 

S has soccer coming up. She's very excited for the new season. I love to watch her play, but all of her games are at 8:30 and 9:30 A.M. this year! Yikes! She also has a birthday coming up. She's really looking forward to this one because being 8 means she no longer has to ride in her booster seat. I think that's the highlight of her fall! She gets to take an exercise ball to school to sit on instead of a desk chair this year. I think this is a brilliant idea by her teacher. I've also read some of the studies the teacher mentioned about how staying engaged with one's body and mind helps with learning. That is helping with her excitement level. She figured out how to use her roller-blades all by herself this summer, too.

C also has a birthday coming up, just 3 weeks before S's. She'll be 4. Four, for crying out loud! Who said my baby could turn four?! I have to keep reminding myself to treat her like she's four. The biggest thing we are dealing with with her is that I'll be "homeschooling" her preschool this year. I plan to shadow A's kindergarten curriculum and make sure C has the basics of what she'll need to know next year. We've already got letter recognition, she writes and spells aloud her first name, and she counts to somewhere around 25.

My kids are beautiful. I want to appreciate every second of this. I want them to grow older and for me to have no regrets as a mom. I am working on this right now. My struggle is with appreciating all of their personalities and trying to help them develop them while not losing it.

I'm going to miss this. I'm trying to remember.

Inspiration

This is a good video to watch if one finds oneself making a lot of excuses... Like I can find myself doing when I don't want to study my bible, or put my husband before myself, or really engage in parenting, or exercise, or get up before my kids wake up, or clean my house, or mow the lawn...

NO Excuses!

Hmm. Apparently blogger won't let me put in a YouTube video. Sorry, you'll have to click. It's good, I promise.

Assess: How did it go?

This summer, many of you participated in the Marriage Challenge. How did it go? How did it change you and how did it change your marriage?


I said this many times as I was writing my blog posts. This was such a fun challenge, and it went so well for my hubby and me. I had a great time finding out new things and remembering some things I already knew about my hubby. 


How did it change me? It made me even more aware of  how each of my actions show respect or disrespect toward him. It reminded me of the fact that sometimes, it's okay to let the day be all about him, even if it isn't his birthday or Father's Day. 


I learned that my husband is very capable of wise, informed decisions. Even when we don't talk about our future that often, he usually has a vision formed in the back of his mind about where he'd like to be in a couple of years.  And he and I are pretty much on the same page when it comes to that vision, too. 


I learned that he enjoys knowing what I respect about him. I learned that there are in fact many things I love and admire about him, and that it's always a good idea to remind him of these things now and again. Especially in public. 


I learned what his priorities are when it comes to our home life. And even though they weren't exactly as I expected, they were in fact very wisely laid out. I'm working on remembering what is priority when it comes to maintaining things at home, and I'm sure I'll be working on it for a while. Knowing what is most important to him has been beneficial for my prioritizing, as well.  


I gained a little tip about remembering to pray for him. I'm still trying to get into the habit of letting my wedding ring serve as a reminder to pray for him, but the amount of praying for him that I do has increased over the summer.  


I was reminded of why I fell in love with him, and got to look through the pictures of our wonderful wedding day again, which is always fun. In fact, it's fun to have those pictures on here, as now I can look them up again every time I blog. It even inspired me to add them to my sidebar. Hope that's not too crowded, 'cause I wrecked the slideshow and can't remember how to get it back on there.


( /rabbit trail...)


I absolutely loved this challenge. It helped me see my hubby in a new light once again. It's so much fun to learn new things about one's spouse, I think. Talking about some of the deep and not-so-deep things, poring over our wedding pictures and dating pictures together once again, and spending quiet time over his favorite meal were all fantastic ideas, and ones I hope to repeat often. 


I think it changed our marriage at least a bit too. I love and respect my husband and I hope he knows it every day, but I think getting it out in 'print' made us both just a little more keenly aware of each other. I'm so glad to have participated!
 

Week 10--Kiss Him Like You Mean It!

First, a recap of last week. I really am trying not to toot my own horn here, but since my readers are all people I know in real life, that's going to be difficult. So to preface, please keep this in mind: if in anyway I come across as haughty or bragging, I apologize from the bottom of my heart. Okay.

Hubby and I talked about last week's topic, and he said to me that there was nothing in particular he could think of that I needed to work on when it comes to respecting him. This was so encouraging! Since early in our marriage I've been trying to work on showing respect to him. I could see the way sarcasm and demanding statements made him cringe and I knew I didn't want to hurt him in that way anymore.

I try very hard not to tease him about things he struggles with or is self-conscious about when we are in public. Or in private for that matter. I try never to tell him what to do, but only to ask him when I need help with something. I actually have to be careful not to ask him to do EVERYTHING for me, because I know he would. I still struggle with all of this, and find myself having to apologize frequently enough...trust me I know I'm not perfect.

Respecting him is important to me so I work on it. It was nice to find out that my hubby thinks I'm doing alright at it so far!

Second:

August 9 - Kiss Him Like You Mean It (and be sure the door is locked!)

Again, there's no real easy way to blog about this when one knows all of one's readers personally. :) So I'll just link to the blog I'm following that is leading this Challenge. She has a wonderful post up here that has some great advice about WHY we as wives need to kiss our husbands like we mean it.

"His words are kisses, his kisses words. Everything about him delights me, thrills me through and through! That's my lover, that's my man, dear Jerusalem sisters." Song of Songs 5:16, MSG.

Week 9--Respect Him!

August 2 - R-E-S-P-E-C-T! No complaining, criticizing, rolling your eyes, nagging, or giving him any friction this week. Enjoy a week of peace in your home!


From the blog of the woman leading the charge with this exercise:

 "God's command to wives is to respect our husbands - unconditionally. Our men are not boy scouts trying to earn badges of honor. God does not say - respect the husband who is "worthy" of respect. It is simply their position of husband that we are to respect. 

Dr. Emerson Eggerich says in his book "Love and Respect" that if you asked women if they'd rather their friends love or respect them - the majority would say love. But if you asked men if they'd rather their friends love or respect them - the men would answer respect. We are hard wired this way - God created men with the need to feel respected and adequate. 

Sometimes we women "mock" the male "ego" - but it truly is tender. Deep down - there's insecurity and they need to know that indeed they are adequate, they are enough, they are worthy of our respect"


I've read and studied about this before, about the male ego. In our feminist world we've been raised, thanks to media and shows portraying the 'dumb male' who usually can't even find his own socks, that males should be 'put in their place' because otherwise they'll just ruin everything. So not true. Every husband needs the respect of his wife. It's as (or more) important to him as her love. 


She goes on: "It has taken time for me to learn what it is that makes him feel disrespected. But I can tell you a few things that all men disdain.
1. The wife rolling her eyes at him. 
2. The wife criticizing him.
3. The wife complaining to her mother or girlfriends about his flaws. 
4. The wife not respecting his knowledge, opinions or decisions.

5. The wife nagging him or assuming the worst in his actions. 

6. The wife using sarcasm to communicate bitterness.

7. The wife disrespecting his work, protection, provision or leadership. 
8. The wife disrespecting his need for physical intimacy or his "manhood"

This week - take some time to assess your husband's respect-o-meter. Ask him what sort of things you do that make him feel disrespected and respected. Work on weeding out disrespectful thoughts and attitudes and exchanging them for respectful ones."

She goes on to remind us all that we should base our respect for our husband on the fact that God commands that we respect our husband, and not make him earn it. 

And now my thoughts: We view our husbands actions through sinful eyes and they are sinful creatures, so earning respect is not always easy. So that's not what it should be based on. It should come from an obedient heart toward God. Ephesians 5:33 says "Each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself and the wife must respect her husband."

I am not the husband in this relationship, so it's not my job to worry about whether the first half is getting obeyed, it's between him and God. It's not for me to say, well, he's not holding up his end of the bargain, so I'm not respecting him. The verse does not say we can wait to respect him until he's got the loving his wife as he loves himself down pat. It just says respect him. So that's what I'll be working on this week. I plan to talk to him about any areas where he feels I am disrespecting him, as suggested. I hope to post about it but we'll see. It may be a bit personal, but I'm going for transparency here so we'll see. 

Again, I love the potential here for me to find out how better to love him. As I said I read about the whole respect thing in a wonderful book called For Women Only. I highly recommend it to anyone who asks me about good marriage books. It's made a difference for us. Anyway, we've been through conversations before about how I could better respect him, and it's always a good idea to go over these things occasionally. I'm looking forward to it!