I'm not a morning person--no more--day 5

I forgot to mentioned that I changed my wake up time from 5:15am to 5:30am.  I want to shoot for 8 hours of sleep.  Today I did wake up on time.  I noticed that waking up early in the morning is not that bad.  I think the hardest part for me is going to bed on time.  It takes discipline.  Real discipline, to say, hasta mañana (until tomorrow).  I have been a late night person as long as I could remember so it is tough getting to bed at a decent time.  I think what keeps me going is my time for prayer in the morning.  It is so special.  I don't have the words to describe it at the moment but I am sure if you already wake up early to pray you know what I mean.

I think having a special place (a nook) you go to pray in the morning gives you the motivation to get up.  I have a special place I like to pray and read.  My little nook.      

Do you have a special place you like to pray in your house?  Please share.

¡Buenas Noches! 

I'm not a morning person--no more--day 4

I woke up a little late this morning--5:45am.  I'm not sure what happened but I did not hear my alarm.  I have a new phone and I am still getting use to it.  So when I woke up I went straight to the shower.  I did not take any chances.  Thankfully I did have a few minutes to pray and we were out the door on time for bible study.

During my morning prayer I like to read a book by Lisa M. Hendey, A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms.  You learn about a Saint each week, it includes a bible verse for each day, activities you can do with your children, family prayer and something to ponder.  I recommend this book.  

I have been thinking of what I want to accomplish in my morning routine which is: time to pray, workout (no P90X but something to get my heart pumping), shower and if possible through in a load of laundry.  It will take time to figure out how to accomplish it all but these are my goals.  

I am a big planner.  Planning things out helps me accomplish my goals.  I have learned (the hard way), that if you want to manage your house smoothly, you need to plan.  Money Saving Mom has great resources to help you get organize.  She has free downloads you can print out to help you get started.

I have to tell you, I really like getting up early before my family.  It feels great to start the day with prayer and be set for the day when my family awakes.  Love it!  Love it!  Love it!  ok one more time LOVE IT!

If you have any great tips or resources you use to manage your house smoothly, please share.  Thank you.

¡Buena Noches!

I'm not a morning person--no more--day 3

My friends, it was a rough night for my little one.  She usually goes down by 7pm and sleeps through the night but last night she kept waking up every 20 min or so.  The last time she woke up was at 10:40pm so I went to bed at 11pm.  Since it was late, I decided to change my wake up time to 6am.  I am glad I changed the time on my alarm clock because she woke up again at 3am.  When I woke up at 6am, two minutes later, she was up.  My night and morning did not goes as plan but I did pray the rosary with my baby girl.

Every madre knows that there are nights like the one I had last night.  You have to be flexible with little ones.  So if this happens to you, do not get discouraged.  Attend to your little one.  God knows we are trying.  Just make sure you to take sometime to pray.

Tomorrow morning I have a bible study leaders meeting so we have to be out early.  ¡Buenas Noches! 

"I have the strength for everything through him who empowers me."   -Philippians 4:13

I'm not a morning person--no more--day 2

I almost made it to bed on time, 9:40 pm, which is progress.  I did wake up on time.  My oldest daughter woke up at 5 am with a bloody noose, poor thing, it happens to her once in a while.  So waking up was not a problem.  My oldest daughter went back to bed and they both woke up at 6:40 am; which gave me almost 1.5 hrs to myself.  I prayed, had a cup of coffee, prepared for the day, check my email etc.  It was great!  It was quite.  The stillness of the morning is a great time for payer.  I recommend it.

One thing that did cross my mind was that I need to make a plan or a schedule of what I want to do to make the most out of my mornings.  I will be thinking about my goals and let you know at a later post.

What do you do to make the most out of your morning routine?  Please share.  Thank you.

¡Buenas Noches!

I'm not a morning person--no more--day 1

Are you wondering if I woke up on time?  First let me tell you about my night.  I did not get to bed on time.  I lost track while blogging.  I went to bed at 9:58 pm.  I woke up at 3:38 am with a splitting headache.  I took some medicine but it did not kick in until about 40 minutes later and I went back to sleep.  My youngest daughter (7 months old) woke up to nurse at 5:09 am.  My alarm was set for 5:15 am.  So I did not have any trouble waking up but my baby girl did not fall back to sleep.  I tried to put her back down twice but she just wanted to be in her mama's arm.  She usually goes back to sleep for about another two hours but not this morning.  As I was trying to rock her back to sleep, I started to think how my night went and what a came up with was that,  you know who is trying to discourage me not to wake up early to pray.  So, I started to pray as I rocked my baby girl.  Once she woke up from my arms, we both went downstairs and prayed the Rosary.  I played my Rosary CD which I like to do when I pray the Rosary with my girls in case I get distracted with one of them.

My night or morning did turn out as I hoped it would but it definitely has given me the determinations to keep on going.  I did not get the chance to take a shower before my girls woke up but waking up early to pray sure did give me the grace and energy I needed for the day.  Praise God!  If you know who is trying to discourage me, well, that tells me this new morning routine is what I need to strength my relationship with God.  

One thing I did learn, put an alarm to remind yourself of your bedtime.  

A couple of wonderful mothers are going to join me on this challenge.  We are going to send each other messages to make sure we wake up.  Please keep us in your prayers.  ¡Buenas Noches!    

I'm not a morning person----no more

I always have admired the madres who wake up early in the morning (before their children wake up) to pray, workout and get ready for the day.  In the last couple of months I have been asking some of my friends (who are mamas) that wake up early what is their secret to get up and going at 5am.  What I discover is that the morning is their own personal time.  I have always been a late night person.  Once our girls are sleeping, my time beings.  I am usually catching up on what I did not finish for the day and once I am done, I begin to wine down for the day which is fine, but I do not workout in my evening routine.  I am just too tired to workout and working out is important for our health.  Another thing that I realized when talking to my friends is that I will not be loosing any time for me if I go to bed early, I will just be changing the time of the day.  So I decided I am going to get to bed earlier to wake up early.  Once I accomplished waking up early, I will add a workout routine in the morning.

As I've been contemplating how to start my morning routine, a couple days ago I was on my Facebook page and came across a post from Money Saving Mom, Making most out of your mornings: Stop saying, "I'm not a morning person".  I click to read on and I was like, OMGosh, it is a sign.  I need to make an effort to wake up early.  I know I will feel great and ready to face the day.  I am going to follow the Money Saving Mom challenge and blog about.  The challenge is to wake up early for 3 weeks.  You must set a time you will go to bed, 5 must things you must do each evening and set a time you will wake up.  I am planning to go to bed by 9:30pm and wake up at 5:15am.  Here are my 5 must thing I must do each evening; which some I already do.

Five evening must-do's:

1. Clean up kitchen  
2. Make lunches
3. 15 min house clean up
4. To-do list for the next day
5. Blog about the challenge

I will start tomorrow morning bright and early at 5:15am.  If you would like to join me, please let me know.  We can support each other.  Any tips will be appreciated.  Tomorrow I will let you know how it went with day one.

Side note.  Please remember that what you read or see here is just a glimpse of my life.  I have my own struggles just like everyone else.  If you could please say a little prayer for my family and I as we strive to grow in grace and holiness.  Thank you.  God bless.

Buenas noches!

Making Baby Food

I made baby food!  It was fun and not as bad as I thought.  I made baby food for my oldest daughter but  I would just puree the vegetable I made for the day or I gave her prepared organic baby food but now with two, not everything goes as plan so I decided to make baby food in larger quantities.  My guide was the book, Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron.  It really is a great book because she break it down for you from what you will need to how long to freeze the baby food.  The best part of making your own baby food is the nutrients.  There are no preservatives nor is it water down or processed.  Plus you know it is clean and organic.

Today I prepared (in one hour) carrots, sweet potatoes and avocado.  It really is easy to prepare.  You steam your vegetables, puree and freeze.  Make sure it is organic.  The money you will save on making your own baby food outweigh the cost of going organic.  So here we go.

I washed, peeled, and steamed the carrots for about 15 min.

Next I put the carrots through the food processor.  You can also use a blender.  If the puree is too thick you can use some of the water in which you steamed the vegetable.  This picture is of the sweet potatoes.  I forgot to take a picture of the carrots.  

Once you are done, you place the puree in ice cube trays or a baby food tray.  I found my trays online, mumiandbudi.com.  I like these trays because it has a lid which means you can leave the baby food in the tray.  If you use an ice cube tray, you must remove the baby food the following day and place them in freezer ziploc bags.

You do not have to steam the avocado.  You just puree a ripe avocado and freeze it.  And in just one hour I made baby food for over a month.  

I thought I would share my baby food experience for those who might think making baby food is hard.  Not hard at all.  Next, I will be making cereal.    

I am back!

I am back!!!  I had a precious baby girl.  She is perfect.  Adjusting from one to two is not as bad as I thought it would be.  Our precious little one is a great baby.  She really is.  She lets her mama sleep which I think makes everything much easier.  It is amazing what you can achieve with sleep.  On the other hand I am busy with our family business.  You wear many hats in a family business.  Yes, I am a stay at home mama which is busy enough but I also work at our family business as an administrator, marketing, book keeping and the list goes on.  But I am thankful to be busy.  Praise God our family is doing well and so is our business.  

I wanted to start blogging again.  I am always thinking of ideas to write about but do not take the time to write.  Plus, a few of my friends mentioned to me to not give up the blog.  It is like free therapy.  So here we go again.  I hope you follow along.