Stripes

Monday, April 18, 2011

How to Get Ready in the Morning


The simple answer to this is: do it the night before.  If you’re going to be tied to any type of a schedule the next day the greatest favor you can do for yourself is to have everything ready a day ahead of time.
1. Clothing.  Pick out all the clothes for the next day before the kids go to sleep.  That way the next morning when your toddlers refuse the clothing choices and you have to start from scratch, at least you’ll have the argument, “But you picked this shirt last night and said it was your favorite, favorite shirt!” at your disposal.  Not that it will change anything, but it might make you feel better.
2. Breakfast.  One of my favorite things to do is make muffin batter the night before, get it all situated in a muffin tin, and have it waiting and rearing to go in the refrigerator.  In the morning it just takes twenty minutes in the oven and boom!  There you go: a hot delicious breakfast with no dishes mess.  It’s a portable meal as well, so when all your best laid plans go awry and you’re all eating them in the car as you dash to church, your children can pick that place to either A) inform you that they hate muffins and are really hungry, so what else do you have for them? Or B) quietly rip the muffin to shreds and shmear it all over their clothes and hair.
3.  Bathing.  Doing this one the night before sounds pretty common sense, but keeping them clean thereafter can be surprisingly troublesome.  Most days it will work out perfectly and they’ll be all sparkling clean for those trips to the park and preschool.  But on mornings when it’s very important that they stay clean all day (holidays, weddings, etc) they will find the means and opportunity to get dirty, no matter what it takes.  You can try to pre-empt their efforts as best you can: dead bolt the back doors, hide the yogurt, banish the dog, give everyone some Pepto to dissuade any barfing or explosive diarrhea, but it matters not.  All you can really do is give yourself enough time to give everyone a second bath on mornings that are really important.

1 comment:

  1. hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaha! Oh my gosh you make me laugh so hard! I love the muffins in the hair on the way to church. Classic! I love you so! :)

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