Make a Better Tomorrow and Make Life Easier! (Dealing with Tiredness)

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Apparently, tiredness is just a part of life. For everyone. Who knew?!  The reasons that I may be tired seem endless . . .

Getting woken in the middle of the night and/or very early by Teresa. Constant busyness during the day. Getting over illness. Preparing for a vacation, a birthday, a holiday or a volunteer project. Cleaning up after a vacation, a birthday or a holiday. Nursing. Hormones. Refereeing arguments several times a day. Children whining. Training disobedient children. Crying after the disobedient child refuses to be trained. Laundry. Cooking. Dishes. Not enough time.

In the past four months, Teresa's nightly sleep patterns have been disturbed three times. First was when we decided to stop swaddling her. She was beginning to roll over and we were worried about her safety. Second, she had an ear infection last month. This month, she has had a cold and now has a terrible cough at night. Both after discontinuing the swaddling and the ear infection, we had to do some "sleep training." For sleep training, my favorite book so far has been The Sleep Lady's Good Night Sleep Tight:Gentle Proven Solutions to Help Your Child Sleep Well and Wake Up Happy. It provides a great balance between giving babies the comfort and consistency that they need (and that their parents need!) Once Teresa's cough has gone, we will most likely need to sleep train once again. Once she has made a habit of getting up in the middle of the night, it happens every night like clockwork and is a hard habit to break. Until then, the tiredness will continue. 

This may sound like a long list of complaints. Maybe it is. But more so, it’s supposed to help remind me that I have good reason to be tired. Often I feel guilty and frustrated by my lack of energy.

A better way would probably be to anticipate it and to prepare for it!

A big smile for Daddy as they get some much needed rest on the couch

So I am making myself a list. Another list? Well, this list is like a secret weapon against tiredness. Not only will it help prevent tiredness, but it will help me anticipate tiredness and deal with it. It is a list of reminders as to what my priorities are each day, what I need to get done and helpful hints as to how to set myself up to have a great day the following day. Often, when I am extremely tired, I do not have the focus to be able to manage my time well and prepare well for the next day.


Here is what I have so far:

First of all, realize your natural energy patterns. For the most part, my energy level continually goes down throughout the day. I need to plan for that.  Meaning . . . 

Make the most out of the morning. 

Health

Get exercise done in the morning. If you had a terrible night with children, drop the exercise and catch up on sleep and DON’T feel guilty about it.

Drink water!

Eat high energy meals and snacks.

Have an afternoon iced coffee. 

Prioritize your time

Homeschooling first.

Work on today’s meals.

Then get very basic cleaning tasks done. (Laundry folded and put away. Counters and table cleared and wiped. Dishes done. Put clutter away. Sweep.)

Then prepare for tomorrow.

Then do any further cleaning. 

Homeschooling

Take time on Fridays to plan out the next week.

Look at lesson planner each night.

Work on Progress every day or two.

Prepare Veronica’s homeschool box 

Housekeeping

Start laundry in the morning; one load of laundry every day.  (Folded and put away!)

Keep on top of dishes.

See Happy Housekeeping list

Take Time Today to Prepare for Tomorrow, Giving Yourself the Gift of a Better Day!

Plan tomorrow’s meals and do any prep that you can. Defrost anything needing to be defrosted.

Make tomorrow’s coffee.

Defrost Teresa’s food..

Take out tomorrow’s exercise and regular clothes 

If You Have Extra Pockets of Time and the Energy

Cut up vegetables

Make hard-boiled eggs

Make energy bars 

Cooking

Whenever you can, cook more than needed and freeze an extra meal.

Make a list of Plan B Dinners and keep ingredients on hand. These are easy, FAST meals that either Jason or I can make. Examples are:

Quesadillas

Grilled Cheese

French Dip

Tuna Sandwiches

Deli Sandwiches

Caesar Wraps

Pasta with Marinara

Gardenburgers

Hot Dogs

Sweet Potatoes

One of the main ideas is simply to prepare as much for tomorrow as I can. That way, if I have a tiring day, it will be easier to deal with because some of my work will already be done. This requires a bit of extra work today, but the idea of an easier tomorrow if often very motivating to me.

And with that said, I'm going to bed so I can have a better tomorrow!

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