I am a ‘free spirit’ in nature in many ways. I am not a ‘free spirit in nature’ because I am typing this in my home and I shave my armpits. I am creative and don’t like being bound by time limits etc. Well, now……I think I was kind of lying to myself and I DO like it because I am actually achieving way more than just spinning on my heels like an old lady trying to escape from the nursing home on her motorised scooter.
Having the ability to set my own work hours with being a stay at home domestic engineer is both a blessing and a curse haha! I have taught all of my babies to sleep until 7am (or at least stay in their rooms until then). The little ones come running out of their rooms as the minute hand slides over to 7am and are go, go, go. Especially Leah. That girl can book it!
If I am staying up really late and dragging myself out of bed and plopping myself on the arm chair to scroll on my phone for an hour whilst life happens around me I am now realising that my ‘unplanned slacking’ had become a habit. So much time that I could have been more active and gotten things done (not house work).
By getting up at a certain time, getting dressed and putting my shoes on I am giving my mind a shift into ‘work’ mode and ‘receive children’ mode. Makes for a lot of people who are happier in the morning!
So, for me this means my alarm goes off at 6am and I get up pretty much straight away. One way to make sure you will get up on time is drink water before bed. That way, when the alarm goes off I pretty much have to get up straight away for the toilet! I’m a genius I tell ya!
Now, for the next part…..I have mixed feelings about it. I know that I need to eat a good breakfast, read the Bible and I want to check in here and I only have one hour before the children wake up.
That adds an urgency of sorts to the situation haha! So with my first step being get fully dressed I tend to go straight to the kitchen because after a few days of doing this I realised that I was short changing myself with a good breakfast.
For a long time I have made eggs but lately I have wanted more protein so I have been using leftover mince (ground beef) and adding red peppers and/or sliced red cabbage with a sprinkling of sesame seeds or cooking chicken thighs in ghee. I will also have some fruit like strawberries and banana etc (the papaya isn’t ripe enough yet)
Simple things but they take more than a few minutes. Either way I tell myself that feeling my body needs to be a high priority. I also still want to lose weight!
So yeah, up early, dressed, fed and the reading and the blogging. It is busy times people!
I also recently got a strengthened resolve to walk daily. Rain, hail or shine. So far the worst weather was a very like misting of rain and 2 cold days but overall the weather has been stable so far this winter. I think they have predicted 13 and cloudy with showers? Time will tell. I did look into a rain cover for the pram but they are $60 at the moment and none in stock. It is good there are none in stock. That gives me a chance to really think about it and see if just using a blanket won’t just be ok enough.
Usually for me, if it’s raining I will I tell myself “it’s only water” but I really don’t want James of Leah to get wet AND be cold. I like for them to be toasty and warm.
With all of these little changes I just keep telling myself to keep going, keep moving forward and I am trying to make these changes small but significant.
Making a lot of little changes can be hard to keep track of. So I set alarms on my apple watch so I don’t start skimping on time and totally lose the focus for the day. I have alarms for times to feed James, nap times, meal times, school times. It has helped A LOT. I think I may have mentioned this but I have also time limited my phone use. This is both hard and easy. It was so easy to set the limits and when I know I have a time sensitive thing it is easy to keep me going but the temptation to use the phone and go on instagram is high. Self control is being used the entire day for a myriad of things.
Alongside the timers the time blocking goes hand in hand. Our school time is from a certain time to a certain time. Same with breaks and lunch etc. It all slots together. No more rushing around or trying to remember when I need to do something has helped a lot with slotting in new habits. It helps me find time!
So there you go, I think that is all I want to say at the moment. I hope you have a great day and I will see you soon.
