Pre-COVID I had grand plans of establishing a new early morning wake up routine to try to help settle and calm my night sleeping routines. Like pretty much every other attempt at normalcy, all that went out the window in late March. Granted, I probably needed it more than ever then to get some “me” time but hells to the no, 5:00A was not on my list of priorities in early quarantine.

Now that we are eleventy billion days into this, I have had to (re)establish some patterns and habits because we.are.struggling.

For one, as previously written, I started walking. I haven’t missed a day of that which means I am somewhere near the three month (who actually knows; time is weird) mark of getting my rear in gear on the daily. And that feels good. In the last couple weeks, due to fireworks and full days, I’ve had to do multiple sessions on the elliptical instead and I’m pleased to see the progress I have made in strength and endurance. I can now crank out an extra 400 in the time it used to take me to do a mile and I’m not sucking air like I was back in February when I’d stagger off the machine.

The other “something’s gotta give” shift came in the form of a compromised get-up-early time. Instead of 5A, I started with 6:20 because, in theory, that gives me an hour-ish of time to myself before the kids are allowed to roam the house. And yes, I said allowed. I know people think we are weird for how early our kids go to bed but for the love of all things holy, they wake up so damn early, some balance must be made. And some boundaries must be set, which includes when they are allowed to turn on their lights to read/quiet play in the mornings and when they are allowed to leave their rooms for breakfast.

This early morning time has been great because it allows me to drink my coffee in peace, work on school stuff, and keep up with my 28 (56) days white supremacy book work. What it hasn’t allowed for, however, is actual kid-free time.

The oldest two would be just fine to read for their whole hour and the youngest is still in her crib (thank goodness) so it is the two middle boys who are the biggest loose cannons, with the middlest of all (who still can’t read and now sleeps on the main floor like me) being the worst and most interruptive cannon of all. Oh, Linky. I love you to pieces, and, you test my patience a lot when it comes to giving me my peace that I am seeking out by getting up early in the first place.

How is it so hard for children to understand that Mama does NOT want to parent before 7:30A?

Of course that doesn’t mean that I actually ignore them. I parent a lot on a lot of my early mornings. But as this quarantine life continues, this need for space also persists.

And as a side note: quarantine does continue for us, even when it seems like many of the people around us have moved on (even as cases and deaths continue to rise). We saw grandparents for the first time for the 4th of July weekend to celebrate Linky’s birthday and the Big 4 did get to participate in their first outside-the-home activities this past week (camp at our favorite local nature center and summer orchestra), but that’s it. And it probably will be for some time, because unless people start taking masks seriously (and not just for photo opps) this is going to drag on for the foreseeable future. End side note.

Depending on how things unfold, I may just keep pushing that get up time earlier and earlier because it really is the only way to get shit done with this small country of children that share my roof around all the time. Another side note: I am not actually complaining about that, nor do I want them to stop being around so much any time soon; I just want a little ounce of Morning Mama Time to keep me feeling OK in one of the most not-OK-est years that I have ever known.