Early Bird WannabeSidetracked Sisters

Here are the grandmas on a “work weekend”. It’s probably around midnight. See one grandma is snoozing and the other is waiting for the party to begin!

In college, my mom and two grandmas would come up to Eau Claire and help decorate my dorm room or apartment. Inevitably, we would chat for a while, go out to eat, and begin working on our 10 pm. I would begin to fade at about 1:00 am, and mom was just hitting her stride.

A Family of Night Owls

Dad and I sleeping on some random carpet–probably on a crazy decorating weekend where we were busy into the wee hours of the morning.

Michelle was living in New Berlin. She and her husband bought a fixer-upper. For 8 consecutive weeks, my mom, dad, the two grandmas, and I made a weekend trip to help paint and decorate her new home. We never showered or changed our clothes the entire weekend. Errands and planning began in the afternoon. The painting, creating, and decorating began in the evening. We never did much in the mornings. Sleep was not a priority. You crashed when your body gave out.

But I always WANTED to be a morning person. I like the idea of running at dawn, drinking coffee watching the sun come up and doing yoga to start the day.

In High School, I don’t think I ever began my homework before 9:30. After school was meant for “relaxing” and watching t.v. When projects were due, I would stay up as late as necessary to complete the work. Caffeine was my very good friend the next day!

During the summer, I don’t remember mom actually waking me up. I think she believed that your body would tell you when it was time to get up. (Back then, you couldn’t lay in bed and surf the web on your phone or get caught up in TikTok all night–or all day.) But I hated waking up mid or late morning. It felt like I had missed out on the whole day.

The Early Bird Catches the Worm

So, when I went to college, I purposefully planned a heavy schedule on Tuesdays and Thursdays. which meant that my first class was at 7:45. I never missed a class.

This began my life as an early bird.

When I purchased my first dog, Eli, back in 1995, I felt guilty leaving her all alone all day. I could release some of this guilt by walking her in the morning. That habit continues today.

I currently have a day job Tuesday through Friday. The workday begins at 6:00. I get up every day at 4:15 to momma-jog with my two fur babies 1.75 miles around my subdivision. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday my girls expect a much longer walk…in the morning…first thing! Do you know what it is like to have an 80 lb golden retriever standing on your bed, waiting for you to move an eyelid…to show any sign of life?

Sometimes I choose to wake up early.

Sometimes the choice is made for me.

Either way, I choose to be a morning person…and I’m not even a real fan of worms.