Sunday, July 19, 2009

What's your best time?

I'm 43 years old and I've finally realized I need to listen to myself: I am productive, eager, enthusiastic, and patient...

...in the morning.

I tend to get up before anyone in the house by an hour or more. I shower, put on makeup, do my hair, and get dressed before anyone's even awake. I go downstairs, make coffee, have breakfast while reading a cookbook, put in a load of laundry, empty the dishwasher, lay out the boys' clothes, fix their lunches if it's a school day, check my email and the news, and start planning the week's meals (okay, lying about that last one but doesn't it sound good?).

I do more before 9:00 as a stay home mom than I used to in a whole day at my day job. At least there toward the end of my cubicle career anyway...

I maintain that ferocious ambition at home for several hours.

And about 4:00, the wheels on the production bus fall off. By five, I'm skidding. 6:00, wow, pity the phone solicitor that draws up my number. I'm short with the boys, trying to fix dinner without letting the TV babysit them, and wondering if Pete's "I'm on my way home..." means he's in the truck with the motor running or he's "finishing up" an email. Big difference between those two scenarios.

So I've learned that if I'm going to try to accomplish something that will be especially taxing, like shopping for a week's worth of groceries with both boys, it needs to happen in the a.m. when I'm at my best. If you ever see me at Walmart after 4:00, might be in your best interest to pretend you didn't...

It sounds crazy, but I'm just now realizing this to the point of changing the way I do things during the day. Things that are easy, like letting the boys play on the computer or watch a video, need to happen during that witching hour at 4:00 or so. In fact, I believe they, too, begin to get bored with the day...probably a lot of kids do. So I used to blame that stress-filled time on them until I realized, hey! I have a not-so-great time of day, too. Who knew?

So what's your best time of day? Morning? Midnight? When do you have the most energy and what do you do to get yourself through the times of day when you're dragging? (And I already know about coffee.)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like you are your Mother's daughter!! I am doing outside chores, watering, picking the garden, etc at 6:30 until about 9 Then clean up have breakfast and do a few inside chores or errands. I sure do 'peter out' between 3-5, then get a second wind. That is why, when you all were little,I could not wait until 3PM for Mickey Mouse of Howdy Doody>>> Mamma

Owlhaven said...

somewhere between 9pm and midnight, I'm prety darned sure....

Mary

Anonymous said...

I always said I'm not a morning person or a night person, uh oh. 4:00 is my least favorite. I guess my best time is the morning but just not too early. Is there a prize involved in this question?
jw

Anonymous said...

The great Oz will have to think about this. rw

Anonymous said...

Being my best depends on my motivation for the day or how much sleep I've had. It varies. rw