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A simple blog about seeking the Lord, savoring life and joyfully serving.


Sunday, February 1, 2015

Morning Routine With a Newborn

Our family thrives on a routine. Before our 4th baby arrived I knew I would have to develop a routine we could easily adhere to in order to ensure our children's schooling did not fall behind. We are not rigid with our routines but we find they are the backbone of our day. The children enjoy the rythm and seem more balanced in their behavior when we adhere to our routines. It doesn't always work out perfectly but below is our ideal morning routine...


Morning Routine:
Our rooster starts crowing around 4am and that is usually the time I wake to feed my baby. I will lay in bed and cuddle her till about 4:30 or 4:45 (ETA who wrote that? this no longer happens. I guess technically it does but then daylight savings happened so it is now 5:30 or 5:45) and then I get up. It's early, I know but I am refreshed at this time and I have found if I go back to sleep I feel more tired when it is time for me to get up at 6:00.
1. Feed baby girl 
 2.Quiet Time: This is the time I read my Bible, write in my prayer journal, give thanks, dedicate my day to the Lord and ask Him to give me a soft heart, gentle temperament and kind yet firm disposition. I pray for a passion, love and delight in God's Word. "For then you will delight in the Almighty And lift up your face to God." Job 22:6
4. Pack husband's lunch and green smoothies for us to enjoy for breakfast (he eats breakfast tacos at work and I will have eggs later with the children).
5. Blog. I aim for 3-5 entries per week (haha, I'm lucky to get 3).

6. Breakfast with children (eggs, fresh from our chickens). I then go over my daily planner/to do list and meal plan. Proverbs 16:3 says "Commit your works to the LORD And your plans will be established." I commit my day to Him and pray we honor Him in all we do.

7. Between 8:30 and 9:00am I get the children on track with their daily chores. I find the children do best when I go into their room with them and start helping them rather than just giving them a list of chores to do on their own. Once they have a good momentum I'll throw on a load of laundry, make my bed and get dressed.

8. Bible study with kiddos. We pray, sing some fun praise songs, go over our weekly memory verse and the children enjoy morning snack while I read. It is usually time for the baby's morning snack as well :)

9. Begin math, reading and writing. In order to effectively homeschool with a newborn, I sought programs that would intorduce the material to the children while I could nurse or help the other two school. For math we use Teaching Textbooks (I will give a full review in a later post). Reading, spelling and vocabulary are Reading Bear and now adding Progressive Phonics (thanks, Jen). Writing is Explode the Code(workbooks purchased from Amazon) and we write out a new memory verse each week.  We use Classical Conversations for History, Science, Latin, English and Geography. These are not affiliate links.

12:00 lunch

12:30 clean up lunch and sing Classical Conversations memory work.

I recently thought it would be wise to do some early spring decluttering so we discussed taking a week off from our routines. By Thursday we were all going stir crazy. Things didnt get accomplished as I had hoped and the children were bored. Friday we implemented our routine and the children had a much better day and I got a lot more accomplished. Seems somewhat contradictory  but hey, it works for us! I enjoy hearing other mom's routines as we are always tweaking ours to fit the changing seasons of life. Please share what your morning looks like in the comments below. I would love to get ideas from you for our next season of life!


Grace and peace,
Adoring Family

linked:
HipHomeschoolMoms.com

13 comments:

  1. You are such a great Mom :)
    And Your kids are beautiful!

    <3 Emma
    www.emmacristy.com

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    1. Thank you, Emma! I am so blessed and love being a mom :)

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  2. This is great! Do you have it written down somewhere to help keep you all on track, or are you pretty conditioned to know what comes next? I find I do better if I write it down, but like you, not strict with it. Working out is the hardest part for me to get in ! I also aim for 3 blog posts a week- sometimes it's super easy, sometimes I struggle! I love your Bible References throughout :) Great stuff!

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    1. Thank you, Jamie! I have our schedule multiple places :) I keep a list on my phone, iPad and my planner haha! I find if I break up my work-outs into shorter sessions I don't mind them as much. That routine I linked takes me about 5-10 minutes!

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  3. Wow, that is an amazing routine! and you look great for having four babies :)
    We have five here, and I only homeschool two of them...and often find it difficult to get any work out routine in at all. One day at a time I always tell myself ;)
    That baby is super cute!!!

    Thanks so much for linking up with us on Mom 2 Mom Encouragement Party this week. Hope to see you again soon :)
    Rachael @ Diamonds in the Rough

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    1. Thank you! Our routine keeps me on track but it doesn't always work perfectly :) I hope you and your kiddos enjoy the snow!
      It was a joy to participate in your link-up. I will see you next week!

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  4. Wow, that's organization. I love that you do a daily workout. I also do to and it has has has to be in the morning before anyone gets up. That's my time! I am having a baby in April, but I have already gone through the homeschool with a newborn twice already. It's sort of old hat. I imagine the baby will be watching me as I workout, but it must get done. It's important for my overall health and well being.

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    1. Congratulations on your baby! They are such blessings and so precious. I agree about the workout, it is essential. I think it helps balance the hormones as well. Thank you for the link party! It was a blessing to meet you and some other moms today :)

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  5. It's fun, I love it! You have so much to offer it would be great to see a new post :)

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  6. What a gorgeous family and I just love your routine... it's a wonderful blend of connecting and self-care.

    Thanks for sharing.
    xoxo

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