My Morning Routine: Getting 2 Kids To School May Sound Easy, But, It's An Art.
Just a girl, in her favorite Beau Soleil t-shirt, getting her kids to school on time. Oh, and the green cereal bowl is a must-have- buy them in bulk HERE.
While I love love LOVE seeing (and shopping) style picks, beauty recommendations and organizational finds (I divulge my white bin obsession HERE) on Instagram and blogs, some of my favorite reads are when women who I totally adore (some I know IRL, most just from afar but they feel like besties- ahh, the beauty/weirdness of social media, right?) share their real life habits and routines. The insight I get from those posts- be it a few sentences in a caption or 4 paragraphs in a post- always leaves me inspired, and so many of the habits I personally have adopted in recent years come from their examples.
While yes, I will admit to being a frantic mess (often), I do feel good about my morning routine. Getting 2 kids out of bed, dressed, fed and out the door on time with minimal items left behind and minimal screaming is not as easy as one may think… Or at least, it isn’t for me.
Here is a how I make weekday mornings work for our family:
The Night Before:
-While I let the dog out in the backyard before heading up to bed, I lay out placemats, napkins, plates/bowls, and water cups for the next morning. It takes 2 seconds, but it makes me feel prepared for the next day.
-Our wonderful au pair packs the girls snacks and fills their water bottles right when they come off the bus in the afternoon and leaves them in the fridge for me to put in their backpacks. I always check to make sure they are in there, and set them at eye level just so I don’t forget to throw them in should the morning take a hectic turn. (Yes, we have an extra pair of hands living under our roof which is HUGE, however, I usually do mornings solo and let our au pair sleep in/go to the gym, saving her hours for later in the day when I need to work, do errands, etc.)
-I grind the coffee beans and leave them in the grinder, and fill the water tank in our coffee maker (we have THIS coffee maker and I love it so much, highly recommend) so it is set to go. I lay out a mug, packet of Splenda and my giant tub of collagen peptides (THIS is my favorite one).
The Morning Rush:
-Alarm goes off at 6:35, and I title it “Get Up Now, Don’t Hit Snooze, You Will Feel So Much Better”. If I have writing to finish, or want to prep an Instastory to accompany a blog post going live that morning, I set it for earlier, like 6. This way I don’t feel as anxious to sneak in phone time when I should be focused on Lex and Goldie. Before heading down, I brush teeth, put in contacts, and try and get dressed for my day in at least as much as I put on a bra. (Note: My husband has usually left for work by this time or is traveling, so yes, he exists- don’t meant to leave him out of this, he gets very sensitive haha- but for all intents and purposes, he is not part of the morning equation.)
-I go downstairs at 6:45, make coffee, and put out small little bowls of fruit at each place settings (we bought mini bowls similar to THESE years ago to hold dipping sauces for a Chinese-themed New Year’s Eve dinner we hosted and they are the perfect size to fill with a serving of fruit in hopes you kids’ will actually eat it- and it won’t touch anything else on the plate, because should syrup graze a strawberry?! MAYHEM!).
-If nobody is up, I savor 10-15 minutes to watch the morning show headlines, and then wake up the girls and ask what they want for breakfast. These days for Goldie it is oatmeal, Lex picks a peanut butter sandwich. Some days, they are cool with getting dressed before coming down for breakfast. Others, not so much. I prefer the former- the less up and down the steps we do, the better. So let’s go with that. For Goldie, I lay out 2 options before heading downstairs and she dresses herself so she can “surprise” me when she gets downstairs. Lex has a fashion sense of her own, I don’t even try to suggest.
-By 7:30/7:40, both girls are dressed and eating breakfast. I pack their backpacks, find Alexa’s glasses that always seem to disappear and give them a good wipe-down, and her Alexa’s coat, shoes and backpack in front of the door so when we race out to make the bus, there is no frantic searching.
-Around 8am I force the girls into the powder room to brush their teeth (I keep a set of brushes and toothpaste in there, it doesn’t match the decor, but it sure helps me stay sane, so that’s something), then I hand Goldie my iPhone (she gets to watch YouTube Kids while I walk Alexa to the bus in the winter, the damage that screen time may be doing to her brain is probably less than the damage that I, screaming and flustered stuffing her into a coat and boots watching the bus pull up through the window, would do to her psyche, so…).
-Lex is on the bus at 8:08, I am back in the house at 8:10, and Goldie and I have 30 minutes to play, straighten up and chill before walking across the street to her preschool. I use that time to clean off the counters (seeing bare countertops for sure helps my blood pressure), look over my Google Calendar for the day, and BREATHE. We leave around 8:40, and by 9am I have typically returned to a quiet, empty house to begin MY day.
So there you have it. No meditation, no spelling pop quizzes over Cheerios, no pampering skincare routine…Just the basics. I figure if it ain’t broke…
What is ONE THING you do that just makes the morning rush WORK for you and/or your family? Please share in comments- any and all tips welcome and SO appreciated!
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