Mornings are pivotal and can set the tone for the whole day. At our house, we have had our share of terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days! And we still have hard days, but we have also discovered some things that help us keep a happy mood in the morning so that everyone walks out the door with a smile on their face.
First things first:
- YOU Set The Tone for the Morning
The saying “When momma ain’t happy nobody’s happy” is so true! Chances are, if you wake up to kids jumping on top of you, you will feel frustrated from the moment you wake up. Try setting your alarm to get up before the kids. Give yourself a few quiet minutes of personal time.
For me, mornings are sacred time. My early mornings usually consist of prayer, scripture study and exercise— sometimes I’ll use the time to work on something, shower and “become a person” aka get ready for the day.
(Sidenote: My hubby and I have started to make the effort to get up early together a couple mornings a week for some “companionship study”. We start with a morning prayer, study what we want to together or separately, sometimes, we even get a short workout in before kids wake up. With his schedule changing so frequently, I don’t know if we will always be able to do this. But for the last two weeks, we have really liked it!) My husband’s favorite mode of exercise is the “7 Minute Workout” App. It literally takes 7 minutes and is full body— we do as many rounds as we have time for.
Be forgiving of yourself. Life is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. My mom has often reminded me, “Life comes in seasons”. You may be in a stage of life where you are up with a baby all night, with another toddler at foot, and you need every ounce of sleep you can get. So you fight for those Z’s girl!
Whenever possible, carve out your own time in the morning to reconnect with yourself, make a plan for the day and most importantly, involve God in the process. I promise it will change your life.
Remember, these sayings were created because they are TRUE! :
The early bird gets the worm
Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. 
2. Start the Day Clean and Tidy
Now let me preface this with the fact that I am not even close to perfect at this. There have been plenty of nights that I have gone to bed with a sink full of dishes only to wake up to crazy mornings that I can hardly even put my bra on before noon! TMI but it’s true! The mornings that I wake up without a mountain of housework staring me in the face are sent from heaven!
At the end of nearly every day, I often feel exhausted, like I have nothing else to give… let alone, no energy to clean. And with lots of little kids, it take 5 seconds to watch the house unravel before my very eyes. I try to monitor it the best that I can… but most days it looks like a BOMB went off at some point. So we clean up the messes before bed time– or after bedtime without kids (it all depends on my level of patience at the end of the day!)
Try waking up with a clean slate, and you will be floating on Cloud 9 with that first step out of bed.
A NOTE ON CLEANING…
As a person that likes things to be clean (my husband says I’m OCD about cleaning—> though we can exclude laundry from my OCDness because laundry is THE WORST in my opinion!) I tried my darnedest to keep things clean as I had kids. And then kid number 3 came… and kind of blew up my “clean” world! (And it has never fully recovered!) For me, after my third child it hit me hard one day that I needed to make a decision. I could either be a happy mom and have a “relatively” tidy house, OR I could be angry all the time because my kids were messing up the house. You know, just being kids. Because that’s what kids do! Make all of the messes and have all the fun!!!
I want to be a happy mom, and I am not a happy mom 100% of the time (of course) and I still get upset with some of the crazy messes that my kids make, but for the most part, I let it go. Best decision. So my advice to you is this…
Let life happen! Let kids be kids. Roll with it. Then make a cleaning game out of it— have a contest with the kids, turn on some music and dance/clean! Our homes are meant to be LIVED in not just LOOKED at. I don’t care how those perfectly perfect moms on instagram portray life as a mom. Throw that “ideal” out the window! The idea that motherhood is sitting on the couch and embroidering cushions while the kids play quietly and lovingly at our feet is a BIG. FAT. LIE!!! Besides, your kids won’t remember that there was a sticky film on the kitchen floor most of the time, they won’t remember that every drawer in the house was perfectly organized. They WILL remember the fun they had with mom because she was cleaning all the time or getting mad at them for not cleaning all the time.
3. The Power of Music
I’m sure most of you have experienced the transforming power of music. When you turn on happy music, you generally become more happy. When you turn on spiritual music, you can feel peace and the spirit more in your home. Again, disclainer here—- we have had yelling and shouting intermittently with all the happy or spiritual music playing. That’s life. But truly, music has the power to speak to the soul.
When choosing your music, ask yourself, ” Will this music build and inspire or stunt and conspire?” There is so much music today that can be so fun and upbeat, but it’s important to be mindful of the messages you hear. You may not realize it, but listening to garbage has the ability to fill your life and mind with garbage.
“If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.” (The Article of Faith No. 13)
4. Be Present
With so many “to-do’s” and distractions out there for us now, it is so easy to live our lives staring at a screen and be half-hearted in loving and parenting our children. Give them your full undivided attention in the morning. Make them feel loved. Be there to steady them. These kids need to know that they are the most important thing in your life. Life I’ve said before, mornings can get soooo crazy and chaotic but you being there and fully engaged in helping them speaks volumes.
A Note on “Transition Times”
When I had three kids under 4 and was the soul entertainment for all the hours of the day, I didn’t have to worry about this as much but as my kids have grown older and gone to school, I have learned more fully about the importance of “transition times”. If you can send your kids off in the morning, pick the up in the afternoon, and put them to bed at night with the best smile you can manage, and “I love you”, and hugs (all the hugs you can get to then all the time!) Being mindful on this one thing alone will bless you and your child and your relationship forever. Hard stuff happens, fights, words in anger, punishments, lectures, — that’s all part of the struggle of parenting. But don’t forget to always follow up with an abundance of love, especially during those transition times of every day.
5. Invite Christ
I have noticed in my own personal life that if I can start out the day with thanks to God in the form of a prayer and scripture study— I can better manage all that the day throws at me.
As all of us are children of God, we all might just be the same way. Our own children need to start the day with God. Every morning is different, there are always curve balls and obstacles, no morning can be perfect. But here are some ways that we have loved inviting Christ into our mornings:
- Read from the scriptures together
- Play spiritual music
- Pray together (remember to let your children have the chance to offer a prayer.)
- Watch a short uplifting video while they eat breakfast. You can find our favorite ones HERE.
- Quote a scripture together.
When I was little, my mom used to have us recite the same scripture every day on the way to school, and now my kids and I do the same thing.
This is your time. This is your season of motherhood (a very short season that you will miss when it is over!) Make it count. Do your best and the Lord will make up the rest. Your kids need you and they love YOU. Not the women you wish you were. But YOU. Remember that those moms on instagram with the 5 perfect kids, all matching perfectly, who always look like they are having a blast, with no problems, they struggle with the day to day too. There is no such thing as a perfect mom or a perfect family. Spend 5 minutes with my family and you will see that we are one happy/sad, loving, chaotic, mess! BE YOU. Your kids love you. The mother you are RIGHT NOW. Love those kids, squeeze them tight. Don’t sweat the small stuff— cause most of it is small stuff. When the struggle gets real, just have a dance party, pray, and I promise it will all be okay!
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