With four boys, three of which are in school there is major commotion in the mornings. They usually wake up around 630am and get dressed the second they come downstairs. My husband gets them breakfast and they watch Netflix with their cereal. I get up with the baby when my husband leaves for work, usually at eight o’clock. We are out the door by 850 for school, which is a minute down the road. Sounds easy peasy right? Hahahaha its not, its torture most mornings. I am a screaming broken record and they are tiny little lemmings that have lost their hearing and the ability to comprehend easy tasks. Bad combination for the wee hours of the morn.
I have come up with a few things in our house that actually do help with the morning routine. If you look around our house there are a ton of signs, white boards and colour coordination in order to help morning and all other tasks run smoothly…err smoother…
- A 5-drawer storage container. (I got these at Canadian Tire three years ago) We originally started using this as a Monday to Friday thing. We put shirt, pants and undies for each day of the school week. They get their own socks because, to be honest, they are a bit weird about which socks they wear lol But anyway, as the boys got older they wanted to pick out their own clothes, their own styles and maybe not match their brother.
5 drawer storage container - Easy accessible back packs. We have the boy’s backpacks in the front entry. In the mornings I put their icepacks in their lunch pail and their lunch in their backpack. Then they can just grab them on the way out in the morning. Having them in a specific spot helps with the chaos, everything has a spot.
Easily accessible backpack hooks - Reminders! This list is as much for me as it is for them. It is a checklist of things that must be done before they leave in the morning. Things like nails and ears is obviously not a daily thing but sometimes in a busy week ears and nails can easily be forgotten until its too late and your kids nails are long and dirty and their ears have potatoes growing out of them lol No need for judgement from the perfect mothers, so we try to stay on top of things.
lists, lists, lists! For momma and the boys - Essential oils every day! I have kids in school. Therefore I have kids who are around germs all.day.long. I do not need a house full of sick kids; I also have a baby who I do not want getting sick either. So every morning my little pumpkins get a nice rollerball remedy for immunity down their spine and on the back of their necks. I also made up a ‘potion’ to ward off head lice. A concoction I spray into their hats every morning for the prevention of those awful little critters. One other rollerball I have set out for the morning routine is Cheer by DoTerra. Some mornings are rough, for me and for them. I like to run a line down their spine when they aren’t in the best mood. It promotes feelings of optimism, cheerfulness, and happiness. I have those three sitting by their hat and coat racks, again, easily accessed and easy to remember if it’s in your face.
Essential oils for the win! - Timing is everything. They say kids need structure. So how is this for structure?
8:25 – 5 minute warning before they need to get ready. they need to be prepped, usually a 5 minute warning then 2 then its go time. Less whining this way.
8:30 – Brush teeth and use mouth wash, one at a time, so no one fights. It is an utter disaster if three boys are in the bathroom at the same time.
8:40 – Hat, coat, boots, oils and hat spray! Stand at the front door with your backpack on. This is mainly to keep them in one spot while I run around getting the baby ready and myself too.
8:50 – Out the door, in the van, on our way to school!
Balancing Chaos 