Ok so, apparently she borrowed that quote from Benjamin Franklin..at least that's what Google says. But anyway, at the time i thought she was just saying that to get us to get up and go to the market with her at the, as they say in Jamaica, ungodly hour, of 4 am. Damn I used to be soooo pissed and I thought she was just evil for waking me up at such a time. So, there are more than a few famous quotes about the benefits of getting up early but I haven't had a whole lot of experience with those benefits...at least not in recent years. Mainly because I have a persistent problem getting to sleep before 2am, and then one or both of the girls ALWAYs yells "MOMMY" from their rooms within at least two hours of me falling asleep. I'm constantly jumping up out of my sleep all panicked running to their room. So crazy.
I know all the mommies out there can relate, and the worst part is they never really want anything that they shouldn't be able to handle on their own. For example, me: "YES Nia, what's wrong, what do you want?" Nia: "I have to pee", or my personal fav, "I just want you!" Me: Yes Haile, "what's wrong, what do you want", "I had a bad dream", or "Nia kicked me in my face", or "I have a bloddy nose." Well you get the picture. well I guess the bloody nose is a legit reason to call for mommy. But the point is, I don't get a lot of sleep, so I have a hard time getting up before 10 am. or later, depending on how late they sleep.
SO, you can totally understand, how excited I was when the girls and I were awake by 6:30 am this morning. Now, while I was perfectly content with the decision to just roll over and go back to bed, after all I didn't fall asleep until close to 3am. But Haile would not quit telling me that we should get moving. I gave in (after thinking about how damn hot it is when we go walking after 11am) and we grabbed a quick breakfast of Oatmeal and hit the road.
Arriving at the park at 7:30am, I was not surprised to find a lot more people there than we're used to seeing at 11 am or noon when the sun is blazing. There were skatebording teens, grandparents with toddlers and folks walking dogs, playing tennis and watching children play on the playground. There was a very nice breeze, birds were flying about singing and big ass lizards (making my skin crawl) where running across the trail. We hit the trail, did 2 laps together, then the girls ran off to play on the swings and slide. I did another 5 laps trying to be present in the moment and appreciate all Mother Natures early morning sights and sounds. It was awesome, and once again, I had MJ tunes blasting, singing along, and a noticible extra-pep in my stride and spirit. It was really great and all I could think was, i hope I have the motivation and strength to pull this off every morning. Anyway, after my 7 laps I was able to coerce the girls into joining me for the last lap. We hit the trail holding hands, singing, walking, skipping and running from Lizards and an abundance of strange flying insects.
Pleased with repeating my 8 lap record, and with Nia and Haile's accomplishment of doing 3 laps, I agreed to some extra play time and we hit the playground to chill and swing a little while longer. The decision to quit at 8 laps (i could have probably done 10 the way i was feeling) was mainly because it was then 8:30am and my old friend and foe, the Sun, was out and making its presence clearly known. We stuck around for another 3o minutes then split when more folks started showing up with dogs. That is always a deal breaker for Haile who is scared of dogs.
We made a quick stop at the grocery store, got some wings for dinner and tried to go to library -- it was closed. I really didn't know when they opened because I'd never tried to go that early before. Back home at 10am, I made a mid-morning smoothie snack (bannas, strawberry and blue berry Yogurt) and made my chicken marinade. WOW ya'll...10:30am and I was so ahead of the game. It was truly wonderful.
Awww look how happy they are!
So, again, the rest is not really worth mentioning as we went about doing just "stuff". We had Turkey sliders for lunch and for dinner, I made Caribbean Chicken Wings with Saffron Rice. It was delish!! See pics.
All in all it was a wonderful day, would have been better, as always, if daddy was there! The day also seemed much longer. Funny thing, because I always feel like I never have enough time in the day and quite rushed to get dinner going and such. So, yes, I now know the benefits of getting an early start and I REALLY hope I can make it a habit. My stress level was lower, I accomplished a lot earlier and had a lot of free time as a result.
Here are a couple quotes to reinforce my new found understanding. LOL
1. Lose an hour in the morning, and you will be all day hunting for it. ~Richard Whately
2. The dawn is a gentle lover,Noontide more as rape.~Emme Racine deFleur
Oh here are a couple video of the girls commenting on their smoothie and dinner. They love making these videos.
So, that's it..blog at ya tomorrow.
Love to all and remember, CheRiSh YeSTeRdAy, DrEaM ToMoRRoW, LIvE ToDaY
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