early risers

I remember thinking back to my high school days when I would get up at 5:30 in the morning to shower and straighten my hair, even though it would be wavy again by 8 o' clock and I'd get sweaty during soccer. Why did I get up so stinkin' early for that? Truthfully, it probably was a waste of precious sleepy time, but I was in high school. Sleep is for English class. Just kidding, I actually liked English.

Now that I'm an adult though, I must confess, I actually want to get up early. "WHAT?! Did she really just say that?!" You betcha!

With the talk of having kids soon and the thought of juggling something so new like that with all of our other commitments and jobs, I got a bit frazzled one day and laid out an ultimatum for my husband.

"Jason. We have to get on a schedule. If we don't, we'll lose our minds when we have children, and this home will be chaos." Let's be honest too, we all have more time than we really think we do, and I got tired of wasting it.

About a month ago now, we committed ourselves to getting up at 6:00 every morning. Yes. SIX. A. M. Let's just say I haven't been up that early since the last time I had an 8 am class in college, and even then I wouldn't get up until 7:35 to wash my face, throw on a giant plaid flannel, jeans, grab books, and skip breakfast. I honestly threw fashion out the window because, well, I was lazy. Honestly, I was. It was sad looking back. Anyways...

Unfortunately, I got sick the first week we started, so I got the first couple days to sleep in until nine. It was glorious, really. I was quite proud of my hubs for actually listening to his alarm clock. But then I joined him.

And I thought I was gonna die. Or pass out during our run.

"Wait... run? Don't tell me you work out that early too!"

Yes. We even work out in the morning. Mostly because we got tired of cramming a workout into our evenings, or having to skip it to hang out with friends or go on a date. Now, we're ready to go by 9 am. Breakfast? Had two already! Dressed? I look so good! Focused? LET'S DO THIS!!! Shocking isn't it?

Here's the thing though.

We love it. Not the getting up part, let me assure you. But we love the way that we're ready for the day by 9 o'clock. We're "wide-eyed and bushy-tailed," ready for whatever is on the agenda. And we're not tired either. Maybe for the first two minutes, but once I'm up, I realize I've had plenty of sleep. The best part though, is that once we have our work done, the rest of the day is ours to do what we please. Imagine the day I finished all my work by 10am. Field day!... er, Pinterest. Don't judge.

Our evenings are more open, we're not trying to cram in a workout or that one task we forgot to do, and we don't have to sacrifice exercise or friends for the other. It was a great moment when we realized that everything was done and we could enjoy the extra time entertaining our hobbies, being together, being with friends, or just plain relaxing for the joy of it.

So now, we're early risers. And we love it. And it's definitely not something I thought I would ever be of my own choice, so there's one more interesting thing about the adult life to put on my shelf.