A morning in the life of......

So I thought that I would share what a typical morning looks like in the Smith home during the week. I specifically am just making a record of this for myself because one day I may forget how crazy these times were and I it will be fun to look back and wonder how we got through! :)


4:00am – Karlena wakes to eat…she wakes several times during the night but her last early morning feeding is at 4am. Once she is done I know that I have just over an hour before my alarm will go off.

5:30am – Alarm goes off. I use my phone as my alarm. The actual alarm clock I purchased makes this horrifying buzzing/beeping sound so I stopped using it! I usually lie for a few minutes and say a prayer that God help me to be the best version of myself that day. I never hit snooze. I actually despise snooze buttons after a very long freshman year of college with a girl who NEVER got up with her alarm…but that is for another story!!

5:35am – Fill the hot water pot with water for my hot chocolate and get it boiling. Get clothes for Karlena and get her up to shower with me. We have this little bath bouncer seat deal that she sits in while I shower. Speeds up the whole morning process and she loves it!

5:45am – Get Karlena dressed and put into her swing. After her shower she falls back asleep for at least another hour.

5:45 – 6:00am – I get dressed, put the much needed products into my hair and blow dry it a little bit (I typically let most of my hair air dry…)

6:01am – Re-warm up the water for my hot chocolate in the hot water pot. While this is coming to a boil I either start a load of laundry or fold some of the clothes that are in the dryer….well everything except the socks. I LOATHE putting sock pairs together. I don’t know why. It is really weird if you think about it, but I often fold everything but the socks and let them tumble with each new load until we are out of socks and I HAVE to do them.

6:15am – Gabriel has usually joined me upstairs. He is an early bird just like me. I rarely have to wake him up in the morning. He will come up and get in the shower for me right away. While he is showering I get his breakfast ready. We usually go for weeks having the same thing. For the longest time it was oatmeal…now he is into Berry Crunch cereal – dry – he never eats cereal with milk!

6:25am – I head downstairs to do some major multi-tasking. This is the time that I log onto the computer, check e-mails, read a few blogs, drink my hot chocolate and put on my make-up. I have a little mirror down there on our computer desk that I look into to put my make-up on. Weird I know! Depending on the speed of our dial-up internet connection this whole process takes anywhere from 10-15 minutes. Also during this time Gabriel has finished his shower and needs his towel. He can basically do everything by himself but he likes mom to wrap his towel around him still!

6:45am - I go get Isaac and Elijah up. They are NOT early birds and have to be woken up most mornings! Once upstairs Elijah gets in the bath….as a side note I don’t know how people can have their kids take baths in the evening….most mornings my kids smell of pee or sweat or other unmentionable smells….a bath or a shower in our home in the morning is a MUST!!

7:00-7:30am – At this point Isaac is helping me get Elijah dressed, finishing his breakfast and getting himself showered. I am curling my hair, packing my lunch, most mornings feeding Karlena again and getting Elijah something to eat – or better stated keeping Elijah out of the cupboards so that he doesn’t just eat cookies before we leave.

7:30am – Isaac will go and start the van for me – soon this won’t be necessary!! And then he will head off to school. I “encourage” Gabriel to brush his teeth during the commercial break of his favorite Spongebob episode, brush my teeth and start taking my things out to the van.

7:45am – By this time I am helping everyone get their coats on so that we can be all in the van and on our way by 7:55am. Some mornings even this can be a challenge even though we have 10 minutes to do it in. I strap Karlena into her car seat and hope she falls back asleep. She used to take a morning nap when I dropped her off from 8-9am…but recently she has been wide eyed and ready to go when we reach the daycare.

7:55am – Gabriel to the van himself, backpack in hand. Elijah out next…he wants to walk himself – so independent. Walking himself means that he won’t want to go to the van but would rather play “backitball” instead. I say no – he throws a fit and screams the rest of the way to the van. Lovely! Karlena is last and off we go.

7:56am – We say our morning prayers. Gabriel has started saying them instead of me and Elijah folds his hands along with us. Gabriel prays in his own words “Thank you that I will have a good day at school, thank you that Karlena will start to feel better, thank you that Elijah won’t be naughty and kick or push people at daycare, thank you that daddy will have a good day in Tyler and pray for daddy’s boss that he might know Jesus and have you in his heart and be nice to my daddy. In Jesus name amen.” It varies some days….but this is what I hear most days!

8:00am – Gabriel is dropped off in front of his school. We live about 3 blocks away. By the time we are done praying we are almost there. The daycare that Elijah and Karlena go to is right across the street from the school. I bring Karlena in first – talk quick about her night and go out to get Elijah. We go in take off his coat and inevitably before I leave he has done something naughty that could warrant a time out. (Couldn’t he just wait until I am out of the driveway before he starts that?) He has started pushing everyone lately. If anyone has ideas on what to do about this please let me know!! I bought several books yesterday “Hands are not for hitting”, “Feet are not for kicking” etc. We will start reading them every day and see if it starts to set in.

8:05am - Hopefully I am back in the car and on the road again. Starting my drive with another prayer that God would put the spirit of peace in Elijah’s heart and he would stop being such a little bully! :):)

8:45am – I am pulling into the ramp at my office, ready to start my other job!


And that is about it. Wow I am tired just re-reading it all! haha!! Some days it doesn’t run smoothly at all and on Thursdays I have to be at work by 8 for an early meeting so I am up even earlier and those days it is just a mad rush to get out the door. It is crazy to me that I have to be up 2 ½ hrs before we need to leave but it is what’s working for us at this time…so we just go with it!

Have a fantastic weekend….we will be doing this whole routine tomorrow as well because we are heading to Tyler in the morning!! No rest for the weary I guess!