Morning Madness - Getting The Hell Out Of The Door Every Day

I remember one of the biggest adjustments to parenthood as a first time mom was the simple art of leaving the house.  Before kids, you just got up, did your morning thing, and walked out the door.  When my son was a week old, we had to take him to his Bris for 7am.  I think I experienced real terror on how I was actually going to manage to get out of the house with an infant at that hour... make sure the diaper bag was packed with extra clothes, diapers, wipes, diaper rash cream, etc., do a last minute diaper change, calm the crying baby, quick turn at the boob, put snowsuit on (Oh yes, born January 21st in the dead of winter), take snowsuit off, do another diaper change, put snowsuit back on, stuff crying baby into baby carrier, remember to actually bring diaper bag.... blah, blah, blah.  If you've been there, you know what I mean. 

Nearing the end of my mat leave with Myles, I think I had actual panic attacks thinking about how I was going to get both him and myself up and out the door by 7am every day.  Then add baby #2 to the mix and the anxiety more than doubles.  I've been at it now for 3 years and mornings are still far from fun.  I definitely have my timing down to the minute in order to leave on time, but there isn't a day that I don't end up in a mad rush by the last few minutes.  I don't think I ever leave the house leisurely on a weekday now that I have kids, except on the rare occasion when I'm not doing a drop off.  Those days feel like an absolute luxury.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I wake up at un-Godly hours.  I set my alarm for 5am everyday, but I'm usually out of bed by 4:45am.  I get up, brush teeth & put in contacts while trying to rouse myself, take some vitamins, do my 20-30 minute workout, feed the dog, finish making lunches (I try to do most of it the night before), take a shower, get dressed, etc.  By the time I'm finished all of that, it's usually around 6:30am.  Up until this point, my routine is at a very nice, unfrazzled pace, unless of course one of the kids has woken early.  Then they are usually tagging along and needing something.

Usually it starts with the breakfast demands (or TV demands).  Amazing how they are so absolutely starving and need breakfast NOW, when at other mealtimes, I have to force them to eat.  It doesn't matter if I'm half dressed or not dressed at all... they can't wait another minute! 

And then the fun begins... My daughter wakes up every morning with a rat's nest on her head, so we start with the hair brushing ordeal - brutal.  Out comes the brush and the No More Tangles Spray (thank the lord for that invention).  Once the screaming has settled down, then the dressing game begins.  No matter what I choose, it's the wrong outfit.  And if I ask her to choose, she can literally take an hour.  So there I stand looking at my watch as she's hemming and hawing and I have to remind myself to breathe.  She also has this special trick of wanting to play catch me if you can once the clothes are finally chosen.  Fun.  Not.  My husband tries to have her choose her outfit the night before and does have some success with this strategy.  But she definitely invokes the female prerogative to change her mind! 

The morning madness is taken to an even higher level on those mornings where I actually have to wake my daughter from a dead sleep.  If she's not up by 6:45am, I usually carry her into our bedroom and turn on some cartoons, hoping she'll transition from sleep zombie to TV zombie and won't have any kind of a meltdown.  And did I mention, by 7am coats and boots are being wrestled on?  So all those fun activities take place in a nice 15 minute window.  Because of course, we need to be dressed and leaving by 7am in order to roll out of the driveway by 7:10am.  I still can't figure out how that takes 10 minutes.  But it does, so it has to be calculated in.  Oh, yes, and somewhere in that 15 minute window during the wretched winter months I have to get outside, start the car, and clean off the snow.

Thankfully this past September my son started kindergarten.  So he's now my husband's responsibility in the morning because he doesn't leave for school until long after I've left for work.  Many days he's still asleep when I do the morning madness dash out the door.  But I used to do the morning routine with both of them.  And next September, Charley will start pre-K at Myles' school and I can once again return to just getting me, myself & I out of the house.  I'm counting the days... In the meantime I will try to remember how blessedly wonderful it is to look at her little face and get that warm good-morning hug and kiss.  It does make it all worth it. 

Here are some helpful hints I found for getting out the door in the morning.  I won't say "hints to avoid morning madness entirely" since I haven't quite mastered that.  If you have, please fill me in!

From "Hub Pages"

From "eHow"

From "Pick The Brain"

From "Associated Content"

From "WorknWomen"

Healthy Eating Despite Hectic Schedules

Like most women, I have a long history with consistently eating healthy and maintaining a "happy" weight.  I say "happy" because for the most part I'm usually in my healthy weight range, however, I have definitely gone up and down by 15, sometimes 20 lbs.  I, of course, prefer it at the lower end but that definitely gets harder as I get older (I don't think I've seen the lower end in a while now).  I also gained 70 lbs with both pregnancies.  I didn't eat any differently but the weight just packed itself on.  Luckily, with hard work and dedication, I lost it all both times. 

And now, I have 2 little humans who depend on me to provide nutritious meals as well as healthy eating habits.  Pretty scary considering last night my 3 (almost 4) year old daughter turned to me and said, "Mommy, am I fat?" and I responded, "Far from it!, Why?" and she said "Because I don't want to be fat".  This is terrifying because she shouldn't really know the concept of being fat at this age, and even more so because she's only ever been in the 10th percentile for weight (she was born full term at 4 lbs).  The doctor told me this week that she probably can't move to a booster seat until she's 5 based on her growth curve! 

So how do you provide healthy choices when you have a crazy, hectic life?  Breakfasts are almost always rushed, you have packed lunches to deal with, never mind a hot dinner to get on the table every night.  Of course I will always fall back on my good old standard... planning, planning, planning! 

I do groceries once a week - usually at 9am on Sunday mornings... I like to get it out of the way early when it's not busy, and also, it won't waste the whole day with errands when I would rather spend my precious time with the kids.  I of course travel with a list to expedite matters.  We usually always cook something on Sundays (often a nutritious soup with lots of veggies and protein).  I personally bring my lunch every day, I either pack leftovers right after dinner for the next day (so as not to have to do it in the morning), or I dip into the soup throughout the week. 

As for the kids, I try to offer whole wheat options in the morning.  My daughter will sometimes go for an English Muffin with cream cheese and my son likes his with egg and cheese (me too - and it keeps you full longer).  It actually doesn't take that long to do.  I have my son choose as many of the hot lunch options as possible from his school lunch menu (they are quite well-balanced and only $4.25 each - pretty economical and worth the time savings for sure).  Luckily, my daughter has hot lunch included at day care every day.  I do pack a lunch box for each of them with snacks, which I also try and do each night (instead of rushing in the morning).  I try to provide healthy snacks in the lunch boxes, such as cheese, fruit cups or apple sauce, yogurt drinks, gold fish, fruit chews, rice crackers, bear paws, etc. but some healthier junk definitely makes it in.  The fruit and cheese often comes back (mostly from my son).  I do have some guilt in sending some processed snacks, but at least I know they will eat them and it's definitely easy to do (hey, I never said I was perfect).

Now on to dinners...When I went back to work after my first mat leave, the slow cooker was my best friend.  I filled it up the night before and turned it on in the morning.  We also did a lot of cooking on Sundays and those dishes lasted the first few days of the work week.  In addition, I washed and cut up lots of vegetables for easy use during the week.  After my second mat leave, we got some help in the house and I am now blessed to have dinner prepared for us.  But getting my kids to eat is a bit of a trial and dinner hour can possibly be my LEAST favorite time of the day.  After a long day at work, the last thing I want to do when I come home is fight with my kids and try and force them to eat.  Especially since I haven't seen them all day.  My son has definitely come around and is now usually pretty good (but that's VERY recent).  My daughter, on the other hand, is impossible.  As I mentioned, she is extremely petite and so I get frustrated when she barely touches her meal - my mothering instinct makes me want to stuff it in!  Lately, I have taken the tactic of saying, OK, no dinner, then no dessert and definitely nothing else to eat for the rest of the night.  I figure if she is hungry and doesn't eat, it will teach her to eat the next time... can't say it's really working.  She doesn't seem to care.  I really want to ensure they both have a healthy relationship with food and not create hang ups (i.e. by force feeding or using threats LOL) - especially for my daughter.  She'll learn enough hang ups from society and friends when she gets older, I'm sure.

I guess I end up somewhere in the middle with healthy eating.  I know some mothers who are at the extreme and their kids never have sugar, soft drinks, or junk of any sort (they're the ones who make me feel like a failure).  And then there are those who live on processed foods (they're the ones who make me feel like I'm doing OK).  I feel that if the majority of the time they get healthy choices, that junk in moderation is alright too.  I don't want them to go to extremes when they can finally access junk on their own (or at friends' houses).  It's kind of like drinking alcohol.  My parents never made it taboo so when I was a teenager, it wasn't a big deal.  I had friends who's parents were super strict and they went a little crazy when they could access it themselves.

So I will continue to OFFER as many fresh, healthy choices as possible (today I cut up 3 grapefruits and left them in a bowl on the kitchen table - within 40 minutes it was gone).  It takes a little more work to make those offers (i.e. cutting up the grapefruit rather than opening a bag of chips and dumping them in a bowl), and I'm hoping my kids will eventually add more and more of those offerings to their repertoire on their own.  I may not be Jessica Seinfeld with her Do It Delicious recipes, but I will continue to try my best.  And my best is all I can do.

Here's one that's always a favorite:  homemade spaghetti & meat sauce (my kids with a close friend and my husband).