how to be a morning person.


Which is kind of ironic when you consider my life over the last 20 years.

In college I had 8 a.m. classes every semester except one....and that was the semester that my work-study job was cashiering for the food service BREAKFAST shift that started at 7 a.m.  :(   In the summers I worked for a day-camp that paid extra for morning and afternoon extended care workers.  Guess who earned extra college $ with morning hours?
As a teacher I was often required to be in the building on school days by 7:30 a.m. It was assumed that I would also be presentable, professional and prepared at that hour....most days I was 2.5/3 with the presentable being left open for interpretation.  Who really needs make-up and finished hair at 7:30?

As an "old" married lady I discovered that my husband was a true morning person.  Sleeping in for him is defined as still being in bed at 6:30 a.m.  I guess we do marry our opposites.

As a mom...well...lets just say that my children's early years are awfully blurry in my mind due to sleep deprivation.  Neither one of my children slept past 7 a.m. as infants or toddlers....sigh.
One of our newer family hobbies is gardening.   Guess what the best time is to water, weed and harvest your garden.  No, really, go ahead and guess.....or just laugh, or in my case cry......   Most gardening books and websites strongly urge you to do your gardening in the early morning to get the best flavor from picked herbs, and allow your plants to get water in their systems before the heat of the day.  Early as in just as the sun is rising.  Sigh again.

So now I do what any non-morning person has been forced to do in this daylight driven culture.  I consume caffeine and sneak afternoon naps :)

While I was no stranger to caffeine as a college student, I didn't consume much of it unless I was studying for finals, or finishing a paper.  Coffee wasn't really on my radar until my last semester and I had started my student teaching.  It was then that I was introduced to the wonderful mysteries of the Teacher's Lounge.  That wonderful room contained fluorescent lighting, a community fridge, uncomfortable plastic chairs at the table and....a coffee pot :)  My supervising teacher made sure to point it out to me on my orientation tour.

At every school I worked at, the Teacher's Lounge and it's coffee pot became my 2nd favorite spot in the building. (The first being in my classroom with the students...one of the few things fun enough to entice me into a job with those hours.)  I had the students in some of my first hour classes trained to check the level of coffee in my mug before they asked me questions like.."Are we really having that test today?, Can I have an extra week to turn in my paper without losing points? and What was the homework I was supposed to do last night?"  If the mug was still full, meaning I has insufficient caffeine in my system, they knew to wait a while before asking such things.

As a mom and wife I helped my family learn how to operate the coffee pot and time the first pot to still be hot when I make it to the kitchen.  In addition, I also taught the fine art of afternoon napping.  Especially for toddlers and extra-especially for Sunday afternoons!  Even if the kids weren't tired we still had afternoon quiet time.  Some of us used that time for a nap :)   I am convinced that Sunday afternoons should be declared International Mandatory Nap Time...for everyone...except the NFL, MLB, PGA and NASCAR.  Without those, its hard to find good background noise to lull you to sleep.

I suppose I could always try something like...going to bed earlier..... 

Nah.   
That might just make me a morning person...and I can't do that....because according to my transcripts...
I missed the class on that.  :)