Life By Kristen

Morning Routines

I never used to be a morning person, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to appreciate the morning for its quiet, its slow pace, and for the opportunities it has that often don’t come at any other time of the day.

During the work week, my mornings are all on the same schedule, mostly because I feel tired and half asleep, so doing the same thing in relatively same order helps my brain wake up and get to work. Q wakes up a good hour or so before me to work out in our basement so often his alarm helps me to slowly get out of the sleep zone. When my alarm goes off at 6, I usually hit snooze at least once, though if I hear the whine of the treadmill from the basement, I know it’s time to hop in the shower. I always shower first because Q is a hot water hog ( he would say this himself so it’s not like I’m dissing him here!) I tend to plan an outfit while I’m in the shower or sometimes even at the beginning of the work week if I know I have something important going on where I need to look halfway decent and professional. I’ve been pretty lazy the past few months when it comes to doing my hair ( the glories of it being longer now!), so unless I’m blow drying, I’m usually showered, dressed, and makeup-ed within 20 or so minutes of getting up. Then it’s coffee, lunches, checking on supplies for dinner, and out the door by 7a. We run a pretty efficient morning at our place!

I’m usually the first one in my office, which is the thing I love the most about my work day. Even with a 45 minute commute to wake up the brain, I crave the quiet time at my desk to go through emails, catch up on the news, and get ready for the day. Even on lazy weekend mornings, I love that time in the morning when I get to read the newspaper on the iPad with coffee, look at blogs or the book of face, and so on.

In the past few years, I’ve tried to not be too wedded to a routine, as I want to leave room for exploring and spontaneity in life, especially since I’m probably one of the least spontaneous people, but having my mornings the way I like them makes me the most happy, feeding my curious mind and often inspiring me for the day.