tardy tardy tardy

Yesterday morning I took Josie out for a muffin at a local bakery, and glanced at my cell phone while we were sitting at the table- Josie enjoying her blueberry muffin, and me enjoying my french vanilla coffee. She looked up at me as I tucked my phone away and said, "hurry hurry mommy, we're late!"

And I realized that PERHAPS I might be rushing the kids too much. And PERHAPS my system of waiting until the last possible minute to get somewhere could possibly be stressing my children out. And PERHAPS, I should attempt to leave a little more time to get places. Who knows, I might even start arriving on time? Doubtful, but you never know, right?

So this morning, I woke up a WHOPPING one hour and 15 minutes earlier. Gabe has to be at school between 9 and 9:15am every morning, and I usually get out of bed (wait for it) at 8am. I know. Insane, no? That leaves me exactly one hour to shower (and wash and dry hair every other day), get dressed, change Josie's diaper, dress Josie, make sure Gabe is dressed, feed all three of us, get all of Gabe's school items together, shoes on everyone, jackets and mittens and hats in the car, and all of us to Gabe's school that is 8 minutes away. This usually involves a mad driving dash, with me yelling at everyone to buckle seat belts faster and HURRY UP HURRY UP HURRY UP, and any minor detour, such as slow putting on of shoes, is enough to push me over the edge into frustrated and yelling mommy. Gabe will cheer me on from the back seat and tell me to drive faster and pass cars to get there on time. Miraculously, we've only been late about 3 times, mainly because arriving late involves a walk of shame through the whole school past every single classroom because Gabe's class is on the far side of the school, rather than the glorious pick-up by the teacher from the car (best part of school, I swear).

Anyway, this morning Josh convinced me to get up at 6:45am, which is the time he leaves for work anyway. SIX FORTY-FIVE AM! I sat at the kitchen table with him for 5 minutes eating the scrambled eggs he'd made for us, yawning and wiping my eyes, and when he walked out the door, I started my day. I picked up the kitchen, living and dining rooms, took a shower, blew my hair dry, got dressed, and took out the garbage. By the time the kids got up at 8am, I was completely ready and could devote the whole hour to them. I laid out clothes for Gabe while he dressed himself, got Josie dressed, and made them oatmeal and toast and cut up some bananas on the side.

The kids actually had more than 3.4 minutes to eat their breakfast, and no one yelled. At all. And, I didn't have to speed down the road to school, and everyone got there on time. I'd even had time to throw all the library books and checks to deposit in the car, so as soon as I dropped Gabe off, I was able to run all my errands without having to stop back at the house to grab the things I'd forgotten/run out of time to grab. And I remembered to put out the trash for pick-up!

SHOCKING, I know!

Who knew that getting up earlier might let you get places on time. Without rushing, even! I can hardly believe it. I might even keep this up. Maybe. I'm falling asleep on the couch right now because I'm so tired from the early wake-up, but I'm considering it. There's always more afternoon cups of coffee.