The morning hustle…it happens to us all whether we have ten kids or no kids.  Whether we are married or single.  No matter what our stage is in life, the morning routine can be downright hard.  Our mornings almost always involve tears which is just an awful way to start out the day.  I hate this time of day and because of that, I have thrown this time to the super mom inside me to conquer it.  Although I think we have come a LONG way…there are still tears many mornings!  Here five ways that I changed our mornings for the better.

5 Ways to make your Mornings Easier!

1. Nobody gets up until mom is ready

The alarm hasn’t even gone off yet but someone is tapping you on the shoulder asking if it’s time to get up yet. This is no way to start the day.  Not that you do not love those little faces but it’s hard to face the day when you aren’t prepared. Getting up and ready before my kids need me makes me ready to conquer the day.  I can easily ward off those fighting tones if I don’t feel like I just got hit by the morning truck.

When my kids were younger we used to have an alarm clock in their room and they couldn’t come out until it went off (except if they need to go potty). We do not have alarm clocks for them anymore but they still know to stay in their rooms until I come to get them.  This helps so much to know the schedule and the time they will be needing me.  It also helps them know the boundaries.

When we had our first three children (three years in a row nonetheless) I was in a morning panic each morning.  Sometimes my oldest would be up at 5 AM, then the next day it would be 8 AM…I just couldn’t keep up and I was failing at life because I wasn’t prepared.  I put an alarm clock in her room and set it for a reasonable time and we never had another issue.  It was reassuring to her also.

2. Weekly Breakfast Choices

We have six children so this is very easy for us to do but if you have less (or more) maybe you have them choose two days or you choose some.  We have created a weekly breakfast schedule. I had each child choose what they wanted to have for breakfast one day. Each week we have the same thing on their day.  They can change it anytime before grocery day if they want.  I help them make good choices for what they should choose… by this I mean pop tarts and toaster strudel are not options.  We can have those things on specials days but they are not something we eat weekly.  Each child has to choose one breakfast for the week and they feel special when it’s their day.

This helps so much not only for our morning routine but also for grocery planning.  I do not have these things memorized and sometimes we have leftovers that can work for breakfast.  With that being said it does change sometimes but for the most part, we stick to the plan.  It is such a blessing to know each morning what breakfast will be and that it will also be a healthy and hearty meal for them to go off to school with.

Breakfast options that we love include

• Eggs (can be eggs and sausage, omelets, scrambled eggs, egg sandwich, eggs in a tortilla shell)
• Oatmeal (try to spice it up make apple oatmeal, banana oatmeal, cinnamon sugar oatmeal)
• French Toast
• Pancakes
• Cereal (we do this once a week on Monday because I also have to get off to work)
• Cinnamon rolls
• Toast or bagels

3. Weekly Lunch Choices

Right along with breakfast choices my kids also each get one day to choose their lunch.  I ask them to choose the main course, a fruit, a vegetable, and a treat.  Again we choose these and they are set each week unless they decide they want to change something in their meal.  I try to have each person choose different things so that although we are eating the same thing each week it’s different each day.

Another thing I do while making lunches is I do not only make them for my school-age kids.  I make everyone’s lunches.  This way when we are scrambling from the gym to preschool drop off, I already have a lunch plan.  It works so well for me to prep three more things and only have ONE mess to clean up after.

Here are our current meal choices:

• Monday: peanut butter and jelly sandwich, yogurt, carrots, and goldfish
• Tuesday: Lunchable (I only allow these once a week), jello, peppers, rice Krispie, and chips
• Wednesday: ham and cheese bun, oranges, tomatoes, cookie
• Thursday: peanut butter and jelly roll up (on a tortilla shell), applesauce, celery and peanut butter, and a donut (some things have to be fun right)
• Friday: Friday is often hot lunch day at our school but we still plan to have chicken nuggets, grapes, cucumbers, and whatever treats are leftover from the week.

What do you think?  You think you can guide your kids to make great choices for lunch?  I also have a bin for each day in my pantry so it’s very easy to pack up.  For the vegetables, I spend one day a week cutting them and prepping them into a fridge drawer so that they are all ready to go.

4. Daily Devotions

I make lunches quickly when we first sit down to eat because my kids sit at our island to eat.  It’s very nice to chat with them while they are getting settled for breakfast.  I am making lunch and they are starting to eat.  I do find that we still end up with fighting.  To solve this I started reading to my kids.  It helps them to eat because they want to be quiet and listen and it keeps them from fighting.  I use this time to read a little devotional for kids that they can relate to.  It’s amazing how reading these short little snippets really can impact their morning.  We can connect and think about the short message that comes across and usually it guides us into the next phase of the morning very well.

5. Out the door

It’s that time…pick it up, pack it up, mop it up, sweep it up.  As my husband says! The last rush to get out the door.  I give my kids a good 10 minutes to get their bags and things ready before we need to rush out. It’s amazing that even with this long amount of time I’m still saying hurry hurry hurry.  Put your shoes on, did you brush your hair, get your coat…oh man it never ends.  I do try to remain calm because we have some extra time. Before we know it it’s off to the bus.

ok… so maybe it’s 6. The bus Lineup WAR

The last morning battle that I have found needing a solution is the bus lineup war.  You know it…they fly to the bus stop and then when the bus comes they all push and shove to be the first one on.  Well after feeling worried for my kid’s safety because they are waiting on a busy street, and being completely embarrassed as they fight to get on their CHRISTIAN school bus. I felt this was an important matter to address.

I know many of you probably have more than your kids at the bus stop so I know we as kids used to line our bags up and that was the order to get on.  This also worked great but for me, I wanted to get more out of my kids.  I wanted to find something to help our mornings and what better than a good way to get them to quickly eat their breakfast.  For us whoever is done with their breakfast first is the first one to get on the bus…second is second, and so on.

Five (or 6 who’s  counting) Tips for your morning mess

It can be such a mess that’s for sure and even with these tips, I can assure you our mornings do not go perfectly.  The best part for me is just feeling the comfort of structure and knowing what to expect for most of it so when the craziness hits I can be ready for it!

Looking for other great Super mom tips

Thanks for joining me today.  I’m just a mom that everyone is always asking “how do you do it all”, I don’t think I do anything special so I wanted to share what I do with everyone I can.  If you are looking for other solutions check out my freezer meal theory, clothing theory, and laundry theory.  You can also find lots of options for recipes and Jar salads.  Thanks for being a part of my day!