I like quiet time. That's the reason I'm a morning person.
Unlike children who writhe and weep over forced rest time away from others, I relish in it. In fact, I yearn for it. Please take me away from others! Force me to sit in a dark quiet room! I'm begging you!
I don't know if you've ever had children and homeschooled and worked from home, but it doesn't exactly lend itself to quiet time. Like, at all.
Thus, the majority of my thinking must be done in the few quiet moments before bed, the eye burning moments of the early morning hours, or… well, actually that's about it.
This morning, in the stillness and darkness, a few loud bellows came like rhythmic chants from the barn while I was still tangled in amongst the warm sheets. Mooooooo. (1 second pause). Moooooo. (1 second pause). Mooooo…. okay, you get the idea.
I was just awake enough to realize that our dairy cow Cece was calling (or rather, shouting) out for her morning milking and as the mornings have changed with the shortening days, this now means she's ready whilst it dark outside.
Someone should've told her I don't milk in the dark. Ya know. Mountain lions and stuff. Also, hot coffee and stuff.
Alas, she continues to shout while I sit her peacefully sipping what may be the very best cup of coffee in the world. Don't feel bad for her though. I looked at the clock and she started up early this morning. Probably sticking it to me because it's Saturday and why wouldn't she want to get up early on a Saturday morning.
Truth be told, I'm actually a big time morning person.
I know a lot of you aren't… chill out… I'm not pointing any fingers… but you should realize that you've been living wrong your entire life and try to rectify it, okay?
Geesh, Shaye, that's a bit of a bold statement.
Ya. It is. But it's true. Morning time is the best time. Another bold statement, I know, but apparently I'm full of them today. Allow me to prove my point (this is especially crucial for all you Mama's of littles out there, though in no way exclusive).
Becoming A Morning Person
First things first. When you're becoming a morning person, you need to go easy on the cocktails with supper and get into bed earlier than normal. This means no binging Netflix until 1:00am. (Don't worry, it's not good for you anyway). Count backwards from your alarm time at least seven hours (preferably eight) to decide when this will be. I go to bed at 9:30 and wake up at 5:00 (on average). I use oils to support a deep, restful sleep so that I'm physically recharged when I wake up. This is crucial to not being miserable the next day. (You can see the oils I see here).
So now that you're well rested, you can approach the morning with new vigor. First up…
Order Up
Let's just be honest about the real reason I get out of bed. Stu makes me coffee. Every morning. It'd be criminal to let it go cold, so instead, I leap out of bed like a tiger towards prey. Only this prey is served in a ceramic mug. Maybe coffee isn't your thing – maybe it's tea? Lemon water? Coffee? (oh wait, I already said that). Whatever it is, make it fabulous. Set your timer. Buy a beautiful french press. Use your favorite mug. Cultivate this habit into one that instantly lifts your mood.
We just trashed our broken electric grinder and got a hand cranked one instead. The sound is so beautiful against the stillness of the morning. It's amazing how changing small aspects of your routine can take something from a chore to a treat.
Quiet Time
This looks different for each of us. The point is that it's quiet because all four little monsters are peacefully sleeping in their beds, God bless 'em.
My quiet time often takes on different forms, based on the day, but I often find: “It is a good rule never to look into the face of man in the morning till you have looked into the face of God.” – Charles Spurgeon
Smells are very powerful so I often turn on a diffuser in the living room during said-quiet-time. Something uplifting like Lemon, Elevation, Wild Orange, or Bergamot. Wake up brain! Wake up!
Get Ready
When I was a new mother, my own mother encouraged me to get up before the baby (!!!) and get ready for the day. Clothes. Hair. Face. Shoes. The whole deal. Say what?!
But, being the perfect daughter, I took her advice and went to the effort to “be ready” when the baby got up for the day. Four kids in, I can tell you, this is still a ticket to my success as a morning person. As a Mom actually. I need to be mentally prepared for the work ahead (and trust me, the homesteading, homeschooling, work at home, mom-of-four act is most certainly work). Does it take effort? Giiiiirl does it ever. But it's worth it. So do it.
Sunrise & Seasons
While getting ready, or reading, or listening to a podcast, or enjoying your coffee, take the time to open the curtains. Observe the sunlight or darkness. Crack a window and smell the morning air. Take note of the beautiful season at hand. Watch the sunrise. Slip into the day with an engaged, restful mind.
Expand Yourself
Maybe that wee bit of extra time gives you a space to listen to audiobooks. Or explore new music. Edit photographs. Read some engaging articles. Or even exercise (I don't do that, but I know it's a popular thing). Put on some light music (Hilary Hahn Plays Bach and Kreisler Plays Kreisler are a few of my favorite morning albums) to up the enjoyment of your time.
It's quite easy to lose yourself in the hustle of the day. We ramble around filling demands, tending to work, and meeting expectations. I enjoy the swell of action throughout the day, though through becoming a morning person, I find I enjoy the stillness of that first few hours much more.
Here's one final though, in parting, to remember: you can change. If becoming a morning person is something you'd like achieve, do it! Your eyes will burn, your body will protest, but so what. Do it. Create the habit. You're in charge here!
Or you could just get a dairy cow. The sheer volume of her will at milking time will force even the most avid night owl out of bed in this early hours.
Off to milk I go…
And Amen.
I have always been a morning person. Some of the best sights and sounds start in the wee hours. 😊
THANK YOU for this encouragement!! It is just what I needed as the fall season starts and it feels like a beginning of sorts!
I TOO have always been sort of a morning person! I get up usually on my own around 6 and start my day in the quiet solitude of the chickens cackling, rooster crowing, horse neighing, and the sun popping up from the horizon. It is the BEST time of the day I believe (at least for me). I usually sit on the back porch (most of the year until it gets entirely too cold to handle) with a cup of coffee, the largest cup we have! It actually takes about half of the pot! Ha ha YES I love coffee too Shaye! It is the best way to spend time with my Father and thing about (and pray over) the day coming…… the busy homeschooling, homesteading, family fun oriented day coming!!!! I wouldn’t have it any other way!
Thank you for this. I am not a morning person, but want to be. Your testimony is encouraging. Something I needed to hear today as we begin a new season.
i like reading beautifully written articles. using my imagination and using your inspiration..reflection, stopping time to reminisce and ponder on the simplicity of nature and its wonders…
your article does all that.
thank you
I was waking up e ery morning between 4:30 _5 am for a zoom walk with about 10 other people Realky enjoyed nature at thst time. Met a racoon, an owl, hummongbirds playing together and a coyote. Nature is awake at that time.
Love this! I certainly needed to be reminded (retired RN that does not set alarm) of what I have been missing out on at 5:00am every day! I want to thank you for sharing your life and knowledge. You are an inspiration to me!
Thank you so much for this encouragement, Shae. It was spoken at the right time for me. Our mornings are just no fun. I used to be a morning person and I would like to be again. I think it would be beneficial for my children to have a mother who has had time with Jesus before they wake up at the crack of Dawn! Blessings today!
This was so beautifully written, I loved this.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. As a morning person, this gave me a fresh perspective on my mornings and encouraged me to set the clock back a little bit further, too. (Big fan of hand coffee grinder and essential oils over here too. 😍)
I love morning glories and I miss getting to see them. I’m planning on planting some on the little porch off of our bedroom as an incentive to get out in the fresh air, in the early morning.
Thank you for your encouraging words. This was greatly needed as I am struggling to change my morning routine. A morning started with God is the best thing we can do for ourselves and our family. Thank you so much Shaye.
Love this post, Shaye! I’ve been thinking about attempting a 5 am wake-up myself, as finding time to work on my blog is difficult. ME time IS self-care!!! Random question: what is that glorious and booming plant on your circular arch in the garden photo??? Thanks for always providing quality content!
LOVE IT!! I have always and forever been a morning person. When you get up with the rooster (or in your case the cow), there is nothing that beats it. I too have a homestead and four children, I would not change this life for anything. I have found that this life gives us all a purpose and( I don’t mean wake up at 5:00 head to the nearest gym come home wake everyone to get ready to go to school, then get ready to head to the job that requires most of you, then get the kids from school and take them to their sports activities and get the point where I’m going) to be god stuarts of this land. I too start my day with coffee and on the weekend when my husband is home coffee with him at 5 is blissful,(I’ll take that any day over starbucks). Girly I love this life!!
Stunning photos …Thanks for such a lovely post
My mornings start at 5:00…..or 3:00….or 2:00….. because sleep seems to evade me anymore…..magnesium and melatonin work sometimes with a few hours.
My mind starts to move faster then my body, calculate what should be done first, coffee, pack his lunch ,do laundry, dishes if some are in the sink.
Then it’s my coffee, my favorite you tube vlogs and the first crack of day light it’s out to the garden or up to the art studio…….or the sewing room on a rainy day….then there’s eight acres of the thirty one acres that need mowing every week.
But it’s lonely…miss those hectic mornings with five sweet faces eating their breakfast…then feeding the four horses….
Homeschooling wasn’t a thing back then actually it was looked down on….
You have a sweet family and a beautiful farm. You are blessed…😊
As I have grown older (63, empty nester) I get up at 5, drink coffee and listen to a podcast of verse-by-verse teaching of books of the Bible. (I’m in Mark right now.) I used to be able to get up and hit the floor running, but not anymore. That hour of spending time with the Lord PLUS coffee………………..is very, very important. I have grown to need it, love it, desire it. Plus, my body-clock can’t sleep past 5 very well. I must say I am in bed by 9 or 9:30. But, this works oh so well for me!
“Here’s one final thought, in parting, to remember: you can change. If becoming a morning person is something you’d like achieve, do it!”
Oh how right you are. We can change. We can dare to change. Dare to see and imagine ourselves as early risers, and then do it. One morning at a time. With not only determination, but our Lord giving us the strength and the desire to do what pleases Him. Which is spending some quiet time with Him. Finding peace at day break and resting in His love and assurance that He’ll give us “enough” for the day. Enough strength, enough patience, enough tolerance, enough love, enough courage, enough joy and enough coffee to kick us into action.
This post is a call to action Shaye and I love it. Establishing a morning habit and routine leads to great accomplishment and grounding.
Keep them coming. Oh how I take pleasure in reading your blog post and sharing them as motivation to others. God bless and keep you dear.
I’m trying soooo hard to be a morning person. I’ve always been a night owl, I find myself staring at my phone, insta to be exact because it relaxes me, but still I can go for hours. So, I’m going back on melatonin to TRY reinvent myself. It worked for a while, but as usual life happens and I got off track. I LOVE early morning, the stillness, then the sounds of the birds, it’s my time with God. I read my devotional and bible and pray regardless of what time I get up, but it’s extra special in the wee hours. Thanks as always for sharing your amazing life with us.
Blessing 🙂
My naturopath prescribed N Acetyl Cystine supplement to help regulate my sleep. She said my brain wasn’t shutting off at night because my muscles didn’t have what they needed to be able to relax. Now when i close my eyes i go to sleep. Still have to work on closing them earlier, though.😏
I just read an article about studies done that show the more time you spend outside in the morning light the more melatonin your body will produce at the right time. It also said to dim your lights in the evening and try to stay off all devices. But the surprising thing was that people are groggy during the morning hours because their bodies were still trying to produce melatonin because they hadn’t slept enough. But it was the amount of time spent in morning light that stimulated the body to start producing melatonin when it was supposed to. Sitting next to a window may help but once they moved a meter away from the window the effect is gone.
Here is the link: https://lithub.com/why-office-workers-cant-sleep-and-why-thats-bad/?utm_source=pocket-newtab
You couldn’t have said it better.
I love early morning, hot coffee and the silence is pure golden. 5am my time of day and sleep by 9 ish. Yes yes yes 😁❤️
Beautiful sunrise!
I certainly agree mornings are so much more productive for me. I am up at 4a, down at 9p, and on the weekend, I will sleep in until the late morning…like…maybe…5:30a. 😀
Have a very blessed day!
Kath
Hi Shay I have come to enjoy watching your videos in the early mourning when I have my coffee at 5:30 or so especially the garden’s and cooking so relaxing for me before I start my day you are such a inspiration to me we have snow on our pumpkins this mourning here in Cincinnati and I’m thinking about what I want to add to my flower in the spring but I love this time of year change of seasons thx for your videod
Ask my husband. Im still not a 5:00 morning person. But im a 630 morning person. And i expect it will get earlier as the children multiply. Ahem. Multiply magically all by themselves. My morning coffee by myself with my book or podcast or writing or whatever it is is so very precious to me. And i definitely agree that being up and ready for the day by the time baby gets up is the best start to a day. Serious mom life hack, that one.
So I’m on the other side of the world on a farm in a little place called Budgeree, it’s in Australia. I got up not long ago and I’m currently nursing a cuppa while nursing a lamb I just fed. Contemplating getting dressed to go milk a ewe who will attempt to kill me, although I’ll probably go out and check the lambing ewes first. Then try and wrangle four kids before homeschooling three of them. I’ll teach three singing lessons this afternoon to students that attend my home studio and then fuss about getting my acapella choir sorted for a competition this weekend. Yep, forcing myself to be a morning person but still sitting here with my lamb and my tea!
Thanks for this post. I had a great morning routine going for a long time and it was wonderful but summer vacation got me out of it! I never really thought about how that routine effected my mothering but after reading your post and taking some time to reflect on the past few weeks, I’m seeing things in a whole new light. I just set my Garmin watch to wake me at 6 tomorrow. Thanks again!
Yes!! I cherish my time in the morning when it’s quiet and still. And I completely agree: being dressed before the kids are up makes my whole day go smoother.
I have always admired morning people, funny sounding. I really want to be a morning person. I mean, we all start out as morning people, so it seems it shouldn’t be that hard. I developed some bad, bad habits after my parents divorced when I was in junior high and into high school. The least of which was staying up late and indulging in empty, soulless TV and smoking my mom’s cigarettes. Oh, those were some lonely, dark days that I am so grateful to have behind me. But the bad late night habit has always stuck and I have tried and tried to get to bed earlier and have succeeded for brief periods but then eventually fall seamlessly back into late night bad habits. Ugh!! I am truly so frustrated with myself. I tend to have lousy time management and I guess lack some self-discipline and who knows what else. I’m pretty sure I’ve seriously screwed up my circadian clock. Oh, I don’t know. I love your sentiments and envy, not good but just being honest, that you’ve got this part of your routine ironed out. All I can do is keep it in prayer I guess. Agree with me, will you, that the Lord will make a way for this to be set right in my life. Amen. I’m a mom of 4 now (5yrs, 3 yrs, & 10 month old twins), and I need to get up early, and my children need it, and I know it. And I’ve known it for about as long as I’ve been a mom. And thank you Lord for doing it, even though I admit I’m full of doubt right now. Anyway, thank you for this post Shaye. God bless you and your family. And the Lord continue to bless your mornings. 😊
I know this is not about exact time alotted or anything but, just out of curiosity, about how long is your “quiet time” in the morning?
Amazing blog. Thank you.
Absolute poetry, and the dawn photos were candy for the soul. Thank you for sharing.
Beautifully written Shaye, you have a way with words that always leave me feeling inspired… I am definitely getting up before the kiddos tomorrow
So true Shaye! Even though the kids are almost all grown we still enjoy those early morning hours before the kids get up and the day starts. It wasn’t always that way for me! My husband has always gotten up early- I was a night owl and didn’t like to get up early . Our first kids changed that! They were early birds and got into everything if I wasn’t up.
Now I really enjoy getting up before 5:00 and having a cup or two of coffee- maybe a little more than that!-before I have to get busy for the day.
Your writing is beautiful Shaye. I to am a morning person 4.30am and I agree with your mom the only way to get through the day is to be ready it. I did the exact same thing always up one hour before children.
I have always been a morning person. My husband, however, is not. I just don’t understand how someone can miss all that morning quiet and beauty. The world is just opening its sunlit eyes and so many people miss the golden beauty. Aside from that, is that elephant ear vine on your arched arbor? Keep up the blog/vlog. I love it when you post.
When my children were small I too became a morning person now my children are grown I still enjoy the quiet and peace of the early morning 4:30 for me (my husband is at work by 6:00). I watch the sun come up over my garden and marvel at all God has given. I love being a morning person even though I get a lot of boo who’s about it from others who are not and would never live my life any other way. As I age gracefully hopefully I sometimes feel the pressure for 5 more minutes in a warm bed, but then I remember that all is well when I don’t. I get more done than most I know before 9:00 because I have made time for myself my cup of hot lemon water and the soft and lovely sounds of George Winston’s music. Thanks for letting us all know that it is okay to be an early riser.
Yes! I am a morning person because I need to start my day in the quiet before the rest of the house gets up. I go to bed looking forward to my coffee in the morning 😂.
I love your blogs. Recently started following y’all on YouTube
Very inspiring to a brand new retiree who is attempting to manage her time rather than have it manage me!
My problem is that my kids have always been early risers…Like 4:30am early risers. It kind of takes away from that quiet peace of mornings with kids still tucked in bed. Oh well, at least they get to be part of early morning beauty as well!
I remember when before i had my heart issues, my husband and i use to laugh and discuss who’s turn it was to make the morning coffee at about 6:30am – it really was my favorite time of the day – awesome!
My husband and I moved into the country 4 years ago. He is an engineer and I am a nurse. We rise at 5:30 every morning….we take care of our animals (dogs, cats and ducks) do a yoga/pilates workout and then spend some time with God in devotion. Our kids are grown but we spent many years rising before the kids to set the tone for our day. I truly love watching you videos and reading your blog. We often were the topic of conversations as we did many things differently then those around us. We look back and are so grateful that we have those mornings. We live a good life, grateful every day for what we are blessed with and the time that we take to enjoy what is around us.
An early riser here, the silence of the early morning before all busyness and noise- is like no other. I must have silence and time away in my life. It has always been essential for me.
Great blog post Shaye. Thank you for sharing.
As a fellow Washingtonian, might I ask where you found the two quite nice pottery mugs in the photo above? I’ve tried like mad to find what looks to be handmade pottery mugs such as yours.
I had no idea you had a blog! I love your YouTube videos. (I actually read this blog in Shaye’s voice lol)
Since becoming a mom just about a year ago(how is she already a year old) I must say I enjoy getting up early and sitting on our front step with a cup of coffee. Watching the squirrels and rabbits. Wrapped in my “mom sweater” (a really warm soft stretchy cardigan. My daughter loves when I wrap her up in it with me). Having that me time before she wakes up is important to me. The mornings are becoming chilly and winter is on the way (I live in Canada) so I’m enjoying all the outside time while I still can.
Thanks for taking the time to share your life with me! I greatly enjoy your videos and will keep an eye out for your blog posts now as well.
I love getting up early. I love listening to the birds,
the smell of morning sitting on the deck with my bible reading. My daughter’s are grown and
gone but I still get up at 4:30 to swim and back to
the deck at 6:00. Now I have moved , things change but I still get up
early to watch the day start. God is good. Blessings.
I wasn’t a morning person, until I started working as a barista where I had to start working at 5am, which meant I got up at 3am(!!) Now I get to sleep in til 6:30. I love it. The quiet time to wake up in and get ready for a hectic day are the best. (3am was a bit extreme though)
Oh my word i looove reading your posts! Its sooo relatable and full of humor!! 🙂
Ha! I was a morning person UNTIL I had a baby. Now I have 2. They both are the type to wake up whenever Mama does, no matter what time, so I get my alone time and peace at night. I make a point to go outside and get fresh air and star gaze before I wrap up the house for the night.
I needed this encouragement! Pregnant and still nursing. Raising step-children and my own little ones.