I’m looking at the clock on my Macbook… we leave for school in 8 minutes. Actually.. it JUST became 7 as I typed that. And I don’t remember mornings every going this smoothly as a kid or even years ago in our own household, but I am calm enough to sit & type a blog post with my office window open listening to the ocean which is 9 houses away from where we live. And most importantly to note here: I am generally not considered a calm person by any means, ha!

Routines & rhythms have given us important pieces of our life back over the years. People think that routine, lists and schedules are so constricting and rigid, and in some cases… they can be, but because we use them life is easier and a little less hectic and that’s exactly what I need. 5 minutes now, I better make sure I get to my point.

I’m a recovering perfectionist and an aspiring good-enough-ist but one thing I’m not willing to compromise on is routine & rhythm that makes my family happier, more calm, more on point with day-to-day, hour-to-hour, minute-by-minute tasks and responsibilities. I can promise you that when done right, adding lists and routines can solve a lot of the things that hurt us as families… missed bill payments, forgetting the library books, all of the things that are totally preventable but we don’t put forethought into – we react to missing them and messing up instead of preventing it in the first place. There IS a better way.

Two minutes left and I will leave you with this: give yourself a quick minute today to ask, “what is not going well in our mornings?” Last year I asked this and I discovered that the pain point was the girls getting dressed. It felt stressful and rushed, but why? We got up in plenty of time, why was this so stressful? Because they were getting dressed right before we left. They ate breakfast and got their backpacks ready in their PJs… so we changed one simple thing. The girls now getting fully ready: dressed, hair done & socks on (shoes happen right before we walk out) and THEN they eat their breakfast. Now, every single morning we are done with everything 10, 20 and sometimes even 30 minutes before we need to leave. It’s a miracle and there is no bad energy before taking them to school!

And now, I have to go 🙂 So I hope you liked this and I hope it helps. Wishing you the happiest New Year!

XOXO, Amanda