Five on Friday: Mornings Here

On Monday, I got a very lovely and unexpected card. It has a picture of a little girl with a bathrobe on, messy hair, laptop under her arm and she's sipping a giant mug of coffee that says "step one: COFFEE." The message on the inside is this:

When our 11-year-old daughter got home from school, she saw the card and said, "OH MY GOD MOM, that is YOU!"

I laughed and messaged the card giver to let her know. She very thoughtfully replied:

I had to tell her that my daughter's assessment was based solely on the picture on the outside:

So now that you have an idea of what I look like in the morning, I thought I'd give you a little sneak peek into what the actual typical steps are for this Mom's mornings (late winter in-the-country version):

1. Stumble into kitchen and either find the coffee maker all set up and internally praise myself for being "quite possibly the SMARTEST person in the ENTIRE WORLD" . . . or, just as likely, find it looking like this and thinking the opposite.

Oh Gina why are you the absolute worst?!

2. While the coffee is brewing . . . check the mousetraps for any overnight kills (ooooh that reminds me, I forgot to do something this morning. BRB.)

3. Next, contemplate restarting the fire: check to see how much ash is in there (requires more effort if i need to clean it out) how many embers (less effort as fire will restart more easily if many) if any kindling is cut (requires way more effort if I have to use a heavy tool pre-caffeinated) . . . usually decide it's too much effort and I'll do it a little later.

4. Sit down with coffee (and a blanket because it's cold in here! Somebody should start that fire!) Do all my daily nerdy things: take my online Scrabble turns, do a few duolingo lessons . . . 

5. Finally admit it's time to start thinking about my day. Look at the to-do list and feel slightly dejected at how many things from the day before didn't get accomplished. Commence creative rearranging, prioritizing and justifying (I only have time for one call today and don't need to call the doctor today per se as there's nothing wrong with me,  just need a physical so that can be put onto next week's list!) When possible, decide on some delegating. 

This normally leads to me thinking, "What day is it? Is it my turn for carpooling to high school/jazz band/flute ensemble in the morning or for stage crew or basketball pick up this afternoon? Do I have time to throw on some clothes before I have to pick up the neighbor kid or will it be a pajama drive for me again?" 

Then of course I realize how late it is and have to start yelling at the kids to get their acts together. So now you can see why my daughter said the card--outside only!--is exactly me in the mornings.

She's not wrong.