Oh nine, oh nine, oh nine

What a great date.

Anyhow, the verdict is in.

Survey says: nope. I know, I was expecting to come back here and say I was converted to early morning rising. I was going to say the benefits were overwhelming and I couldn't deny that it was the superior lifestyle. I wasn't sure I was going to say I would keep doing it necessarily, but that I had to admit it was oh-so productive and well, made me feel like one of those "good" moms.

But alas, day one found me on the couch by 5pm in a thoughtless stupor. After an extended time of such behavior, even Ryan was perturbed by my dysfunction and I was begging for bedtime by 8 o'clock. Day two found me standing in the kitchen at 6:30am staring aimlessly into the refrigerator trying to figure out the mixed signals of my confused body. I was hungry. But there is really nothing that sounds appealing at that hour. But I choked down some food and tried to get something started on the computer while listening to the wailing of my baffled stomach trying to digest when it was still wondering why it was awake.

Let's just get the cons out, shall we?

- I really felt I was complicating my life. I know, you would think it would be the opposite, but having alone time, I felt I should be getting done all these projects I wouldn't otherwise be doing. None of them were successful. I'm still undecided about the blog books. I'm still refusing to believe that after all the effort I spend getting them formatted the way I want on the blog that I have to go through that all again to make a book. But I tried to start them multiple times. And then I'd still be working on them when the kids got up so I'd throw them in front of the tv with some cereal and try to keep sneaking in to work on more stuff. I didn't feel like a better mom. I tried making videos and tried out all the software we have on our computer, tried to download some others, and took a long time realizing I didn't have a really good program I felt like working with yet. So that was another dead end. So then I just felt like I was wasting a lot of time, effort and patience trying to get into stuff that I wouldn't have been doing if I'd just been, well, asleep.

- I ate more!! This was frustrating. If you eat breakfast at 6:30 rather than 8:30 or 9 like I usually do, you're starving by like 10am! So then anywhere we would go, I'd be sitting there rooting through the diaper bag and snarfing down all the kids treats, looking like a total pig in front of all our friends. So basically I felt like I was adding in at least another meal and all those extra calories that I wouldn't have been eating if I was, well, asleep.

- Having realized early on that my body just doesn't function for exercising in the morning, I'd still plan on exercising at night, only to find my energy totally depleted and my mind frantically wanting to just get to bed already. So I'm pretty sure that overall I exercised less than I usually do.

- I don't know, by the end I felt like I was just wasting time; like I was up just for the sake of being up. And I never waste time. I like to be efficient. And sleep is definitely on my list as an efficient use of time. Especially when all my projects dead-ended and I'd be cursing being awake on those rare days when the kids actually sleep really late. What in the world was I doing up??

- BUT. We must be fair and include the pros. Or pro. I will say it was much more pleasant waking up to kisses instead of cries. My children never wake up happy, and it does start the day off on a much better tone not to feel forced awake by screaming. Ryan made good on the romance and I was awakened by kisses every morning (well, however romantic morning-breath kisses can be), and got good hugs before he left for work. It was almost even worth it just to watch him triumphantly flipping on light switches everywhere he went just because he could. Almost worth it. Yeeeeahhhh, it feels a little bad saying he didn't win though. :)

Although now I'm wondering what I've done to myself - starting next week we will have stuff to be to at 9am 4 mornings out of the week. Gasp. I'm pretty sure we've never made it anywhere by 9am! I'm really excited though that someone I know has decided to do a little preschool for the kids for three hours, two mornings a week. Exactly what I was looking for! So that will be great. And then we just found this little sports activity morning that Cash is going to do with one of his little buddies that I'm really excited for. And then we have playgroup the other morning. And now I'm a little worried - isn't this my last year before I actually have to get the kids up and somewhere - for the rest of my life?? Kids go to voluntary pre-K here at age 4, so Cash will start that next fall 5 days a week, and then every day from then on out I have to get up and get kids out! So we'll see what I think after next week - I'm not sure I can hack it, and my sleeping in may be done with anyway.

And yes, Ryan, I do have greater appreciation for your long days. Thank heavens we both don't have to have days like that, huh??