Morning Madness

Do you and your family suffer from morning madness where it is so busy, everyone especially mum is rushing about. You are trying to get all the children fed and dressed for the day, making sure lunches are packed and that the children have matching socks on. (we have school uniforms here and my daughter goes to a private school so she has a dress code, matching blue socks and blue hair ties and her hair has to be up) Are you wanting more time to spend with your children in the morning. That is what my mornings were starting to become like. I did not want my daughter going to school rushed and flustered. I wanted us to have a calm morning where we leave each other in a happy frame of mind. Below I have written about what I did to try and change our mornings. Don't get me wrong we still have days when everything does not run smoothly, things happen, especially when you throw a 2 year old into the mix. But on a whole life is much nicer in the mornings at my house.

This year my eldest child started school. That was such a big change in our household especially in the mornings. I was finding that mornings were starting to get stressful. Having to get everyone ready in time for the school run was a challenge. You see my husband is a swimming coach and leaves home about 5 in the morning, I also have a 2 year old and a 3 year old. As you can imagine it can be a tad bit busy in the morning getting everyone ready in time.

So after lost of thinking and brain storming I thought I would try to set the breakfast table at night after dinner. I made it my daughters job, after I have cleaned up the table after dinner she is to set it for the next day. (She only has to do this Sunday through to Thursday night on weekends we don't have the same time restraints). I went looking to see what I could use to make the job easier for her and so she can do it without much assistance, she is nearly 6. I found on my bench a tray that I used for tea and coffee so I cleaned it up and put all the spreads in it and put it in the cupboard, then I went onto some auction sites looking for a cute cutlery holder and purchased one. At night she gets the bowls, plates and glasses out. Puts spoons and knives in the cutlery holder and puts out the spread tray. When she gets up in the morning she puts all the fridge spreads out like butter. (I picked up a nice ceramic butter dish, that way I can use the butter in the kitchen if needed and still know there is some on the table.)

This is what the table looks like at when she sets it at night. I picked up these little mugs for the Children last week, with winter here now I am finding they want hot milo's in the morning. In spring and summer they have glasses out for juice.

The little tray that has the spreads in it. I am thinking of painting it white to match the holder.

And my butter dish I just love this, I top it up every week.

Now in the mornings breakfast is allot quicker, and I am finding I am getting to sit down and have breakfast. Before I would not get to have breakfast at all.

Another thing I do is if I am planning to have porridge the next morning I put the oats, milk and water in the saucepan the night before and pop it in the fridge. (I use a ceramic saucepan for this) So in the morning all I have to do is pop it on the stove and stir as I am finishing making the lunches. Not only does this make the porridge creamy it also cooks faster as the oats have soaked all night.

I also purchased a cute ice cream timer for her at Christmas as she takes ages to eat her breakfast. I have made sure uniforms are always ready to go the night before, that clean socks are also in her shoes and her bag is packed with what she needs the next day for example library bag on Tuesdays.

Mornings are allot less stressful now and some mornings we even have enough time to do a devotion reading before school, this is something that I want to be able to do most mornings. It will take time to get it all organised and I am sure that once the second child starts school I will have to make some changes.

I hope you find this useful and remember that what works in one household may not work in another. The key is to take an idea and adapt it to suit you and your family's needs.