I love the pre-dawn hours at our house. It’s peaceful – usually just me and one of the cats purring beside me as I get things quietly crossed off my to-do list and get prepared for my day.
I always chalked up the productivity of this hour to it being the time of day I’m at my best.
Apparently it’s not.
I learned this when my eyes opened to a noise that did not sound like my alarm going off at 4 AM. Some awful beeping sound was coming through the wall behind my head. B’s alarm clock. Crud.
I didn’t get there soon enough to turn it off before he woke. He had already climbed out of his bunk and figured out how to silence it.
And since he’s like me in so many ways, I knew that once he was up, he was going to stay up.
He got dressed and followed me downstairs where I had some work I needed to get done on the computer before school. It should have only taken me maybe an hour to do it all – leaving me time to get to the gym with plenty of time to do my 30 minutes.
Except it didn’t.
My son plopped himself on the couch and did everything he knew would ordinarily delight me – ask me questions, tell me stories, read me favorite lines from the book he was reading, ask me how to pronounce something.
I am disappointed in myself that I snapped at him to just. be. quiet. By that time I’d already lost enough time that a gym visit was out off the question.
So he quieted down, I finished my work and got ready to go to school…and the whole thing bothered me all day.
It also raised all kinds of questions about whether I really am efficient at that hour (which seems unlikely if I couldn’t even multitask for that short period of time) or if I can only work at that hour when it’s quiet and I’m the only person awake in the house.
In all fairness, I should note that all of this happened BC – before coffee – this morning.
#nerdlution update
So I didn’t make it to the gym, but I did some heavy cleaning and minor rearranging in my classroom tonight – I’m sure it wasn’t as effective, but that 30 minutes was surely worth it.
I did some writing at school today and I find some interesting territory I’d like to scribble some more about tomorrow.
My big box of ALAN books came and I set a few aside to enjoy first because I know that I won’t see them for a long while once the kids get them. I went through them all with my husband after we put the kid to bed.
I did get some reading in but less than I’d hoped.
Charting By the Stars 
Sounds like a tough morning but I appreciate the share! As a parent, those “slips” are hard to let go of and I too am trying to find that balance of productivity and being in the moment. My kids are great for keeping me in the moment, but they also give me lots of practice on setting boundaries so I can take care of what I need to for myself. It’s all practice, right?
It’s always practice – because once you think you’ve got it figured out, they grow and change and you’re starting all over again. This parenting thing is never boring! The good news is that while it weighed on me, it wasn’t even really a blip on his radar.
It may well be when you are at your best…alone. Sure he didn’t understand it, but B was messing with your routine, which will make anyone cranky. He has forgiven your crankiness. :)