Morning Routine.

I am not going to lie...I love the stage of life that I am in right now. Having babies and toddlers was an exciting time in my life and I will always look back on it with fond memories and will miss certain things about it, but having older children is the bomb. Yes, that means there will be no more baby's in this family. We feel very complete. I love watching my kids grow, learn, and excel at their talents and the things they are interested in. Of course having older kids comes with new and different challenges but life for me is pretty darn awesome right now.  I love that I have more time for myself, and doing the things that I love. I finally have the time and energy to concentrate more on improving my health, which I have always felt is very important. I have tried to maintain this as I was raising my little family but lets be honest, its pretty hard. Most of us do the best we can, and at that time in our lives, its enough. But now it is much easier for me to have a good morning routine. A good morning routine is important to me because how I start my day really determine's the kind of day I'm going to have. If I'm lazy and take forever to get out of bed, then I'm usually lazier and unmotivated for the rest of the day. If I get myself up and moving, I feel happier and more motivated and I get a lot more done. Makes a lot of sense right:) I'm sure most of you have probably figured this out already.

Here is the morning routine that is working for me right now (I say right now because with each stage of life, your routine usually has to be adapted and changed).

I usually get up around 6-6:30am. I try to get 7-8 hours of sleep. And guess what? I rarely have to get up with any little one's during the night. Yeah. I'm not saying this to brag, but to tell all you Mama's out there that this too will happen to you at some point. I can promise you that. Because of this, I can wake up and get up bright eyed and feeling energized and rejuvenated. If you are up in the night with little one's, don't stress about getting out of bed early. Sometimes an extra 15 minutes of sleep makes all the difference to you. For me, it is easy to get up (most mornings anyway).

I started getting up and getting myself some herbal tea every morning. There are so many yummy flavors out there. I drink tea while I read. I like to take 30 minutes to have some quiet time before the chaos of the day begins. Right now I'm reading the New Testament, and I always have a few other things on the go as well, so it just depends what I'm in the mood for. I find the hot liquid in the morning whether its tea, or just hot water with some lemon, really helps with my digestion and moving things along down there (sorry if that is TMI) but it has helped regulate me quite nicely:) Then I will jump in the shower.

After my shower it is time to wake the kids up. Sometimes they are already awake and down eating breakfast. I try to have a green smoothie every morning. Ryan is usually up so he makes them most mornings. We really just add in whatever we have and whatever we are in the mood for, but we try and do more vegetable then fruit. This is definitely the healthiest thing to put into your bodies in the morning and its easy to carry around and drink while I'm getting the kids ready and out the door. There are so many green smoothie recipes so if your really interested just get on that handy thing called google and you will find a ton.

After the kids leave I will exercise. I try to exercise 4-5 times a week. I downloaded the Nike training App and I love it. They have tons of workouts for you to choose from and then you just follow along. I love changing it up and doing different one's all the time. Right now I will either do a 15 minute or 30 minute workout depending on whats happening that day or what mood I'm in. It has made such a difference and I have never felt better.

Then I'll usually have breakfast. We are trying to eat healthy. Eating less sugar, gluten, and meat, and more fresh stuff obviously vegetable and fruit, but definitely more vegetable.

After I eat, I like to focus on one room of my house and do a deep clean. If I just get it done first thing in the morning then my day is open and we can do whatever we want. If I don't get it done first thing, I start getting way behind on my house cleaning. I like doing one room a day (just during the week) cause its easier and then I don't feel overwhelmed by the cleaning. Most of the rooms get cleaned once a weekish. That is deep cleaned. I still do my best to keep my house tidy throughout the day.

Once that is done, my day is wide open to plan things out. When I stick to my morning routine I am more motivated and have a much happier and successful day.