I Have to Get Up at What Time? Are you SERIOUS?

by Julie Coulter Bellon

I am not a morning person.

I never have been. Well, maybe I was when I was a kid. My mom tells me she never needed an alarm clock because my brother and I got up at the crack of dawn every day no matter what. But it didn’t stay that way for me. In high school, I had to be up at 5:00 a.m. in order to catch the LRT (Light Rail Transit) and transfer to two buses to make it to early morning seminary on time. It was tough, but I did it, although I can’t claim that I was happy about it. It was okay, though, because teenagers are generally known for being quiet and moody, so no one really thought much of my apparent non-morning persona.

Now that I am a mother, however, all that has changed. I still have to wake up early to help get the children ready for school, lunches packed, etc., but since I’m the mother and I can have a big impact on the tone that everyone has for the day, I have to try to be happy. It wouldn’t set a great tone if I was cranky and telling my children that no one can talk to Mommy until after 9:00 a.m. I’m still a little quieter in the morning, but since I have a large family, it’s not really that noticeable, and I can generally kiss them all goodbye with a happy heart. (No, I’m not kissing them goodbye with a happy heart because then I can go back to bed. Tsk, tsk, tsk. I know what you’re thinking. Sadly, I’m one of those people that can’t go back to sleep once they’re up. Believe me, I’ve tried it a few times.)

I have attempted to change this little quirk about myself. I thought that maybe if I turned some music on in the mornings that would get me started and going. I put on my 80's tunes and my older children rolled their eyes and asked if we had to listen to the old people music. Which of course was right after I was dancing around the kitchen and they turned away and said they were scarred for life and I should never do that again. So that idea didn’t go over so well.

Then I remembered how my mom used to sing a little song to us in the mornings, "get up get up you sleepyhead, get up get up get out of bed," and so in my mind I envisioned singing that at the bottom of our stairs and my sweet angel children would skip down, anxious and happy to greet the new day. Sadly, with my singing voice, they would probably only rush down because they thought one of our pets was dying in a horrible fashion with howling and wailing. So, a big no on that idea.

I guess I just have to accept this about myself.

A lot of my friends tell me that mornings are their most productive time. They can get up and read their scriptures, exercise, clean the house and do a load of laundry before the children get up. Several of my author friends write early in the morning when the house is quiet. They say they like their quiet time when they can think. I like my quiet time in the mornings to be happening when I’m in dream world, snuggled in my nice warm bed, my soft pillow under my head, the blankets curled around my shoulders just so. I sort of count it as thinking time, since some of my best ideas for novels have come either right before I’m going to sleep or right before I’m totally awake. But my most productive time definitely isn’t in the early morning.

Personally, I like the evenings. After the children are in bed, the house is quiet and my husband and I can enjoy time together, I can read my scriptures, write a new chapter on my novel, and the creative juices are flowing. I do laundry at night, slipping a pile of freshly washed and folded clothes into each child’s room like a clothes fairy delivering their prize to the delight of the children the next morning. I like to watch Jay Leno’s monologue and reruns of Whose Line is it Anyway. Or sometimes I’ll take out a book and read. The possibilities are endless. There’s just something about night-time that rejuvenates me.

Maybe that’s why I’m not a morning person. I’m an evening person.

There is one good thing about mornings though. For some reason, I weigh less in the mornings. I think that may be God’s way of saying, "Julie, get up and weigh yourself and feel good about at least one thing this early in the morning." It’s like a little pick me up to start my day.

If nothing else, I know I can turn on the 80's tunes and dance around the kitchen. Not that it got me going so much, but it really gets the kids going. They eat breakfast and help pack lunches really fast just so they don’t have to see it. Which makes me laugh. And voila! the day has already started out on a good foot.