Julie Gumm - Author

Mornings Suck

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I hate mornings. I always have. I am SO not morning person,

Of course this tidbit managed to completely allude my husband during our 4 years of dating. SURPRISE.

In an ideal world I would wake up, have coffee, check email and shower before anyone spoke to me.

Of course that doesn’t really work when you have 4 kids. Three of whom are morning people, along with their dad. UGH!

Lately I’ve grown weary of the morning chaos and noise. I feel like I’m constantly telling someone to get back on task or to stop annoying their sibling.

It puts me in a bad mood and doesn’t help them either.

So the last couple days Mark and I have been throwing out ideas. We talked about taking away electronic time if they’re not ready but I decided to change that to something positive.

Our kids get a limited amount of electronic time (tv, computer, wii, nintendos, etc) Fri – Sun.

This morning I told them that I would be giving NO reminders. No nagging. If they were COMPLETELY ready to go when I said to get in the car they would earn 15 extra minutes of electronic time.

We leave at 7:30.

It’s 7:15 and they are ALL ready.

Without a single reminder from mom.

I think we found a system. (Although we’ll probably change it to 10 minutes per day.)

My favorite thing about Christmas

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It wasn’t the gifts.

It wasn’t even all the cookies and goodies we ate.

It was family.

For the first time in 7 years ALL of Mark’s immediate family was together. That’s 8 adults and 11 kids. Plus Grandma Speer.

Then add in my parents for a Christmas-day gathering of 22.

I got to do this…

(I didn’t let her drink the soda, but the can was fun to play with.)

…and this.

Actually, quite a lot of this…

Every time my 14-month niece Rhona was sleepy, I grabbed her and put her in “Auntie Julie’s Magic Sleepy Arms”. They truly are magical.

I mean what is better than staring down at this face?

I wasn’t thinking about how hot she was making me, or all the things I could be doing if I put her down. I just sat and enjoyed the moment for as long as it lasted.

Don’t forget about the Stoves for Haiti Challenge in remembrance of the 2nd anniversary of the quake. Sponsoring a $20 charcoal-efficient stove will make a REAL difference – it saves the family money and time, it saves Haiti’s trees and it provides jobs. Not very often that $20 can make such a huge impact.

Stuff To Read: The De-Clutter Edition

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Tying Our Hearts to the Right Things – “All while there is still some truth in that statement, over the past few years of pursuing minimalism, I have begun to notice that the inverse is also true. That my heart appears naturally drawn to the places where I have invested most – not that my investment follows my heart, but that my heart tends to follow my investment.”

Don’t Just De-Clutter, DeOwn – “Simply organizing our stuff (without removing it) is always only a temporary solution. By definition, organizing possessions is an action that must be repeated over and over and over again. At its heart, organizing is simply rearranging. And though we may find storage solutions today, we are quickly forced to find new ones as early as tomorrow.”

Living in the Land of Enough – “Because everyone there is living more authentically and simply, and because they don’t live under a burden of constant stress, they are loving. Simply put, it is easier to love more deeply when you realize you have enough.”