It's all about the mornings ...

What a difference a day makes!  Yesterday morning I woke up to a disaster zone worthy of national relief efforts and managed to avoid cleaning up the epic mess for most of the day.  In the evening after dinner, which I had somehow managed to throw in the crock-pot earlier in the day, my superhuman husband cleaned the kitchen and started a load of laundry.  This after a full 12-hour day at work!  I really don't know where he finds the energy, but I'm appreciative because today ...

When I woke up to a nice clean kitchen (thanks again, hubby!) I was completely inspired to make us a yummy breakfast, which we all three sat down and ate together - success :).  After breakfast I tidied away the dishes and threw in some laundry, which I've been processing periodically all day.  Then, after our usual morning walk I swept and tidied the front courtyard, which had been in a complete state of disarray since a weekend attempt at fixing the sprinkler systems.

I kept the momentum when Lily went down for her nap by tackling the nasty task of entering all our expenses from the past two months into our budgeting spreadsheet.  It's a good thing Lily took a long nap because this task took me over two hours to complete, but it was well worth it just to feel the tremendous sense of achievement when I checked it off of the to-do list that it had irritatingly stared at me from for the last month!!

Action begats action so when Lily woke up we took on some errands and even managed to find a police officer to sign off the 'fix-it' ticket that's been sitting in my glove compartment for the last two months (and is nearly delinquent at this point ... nearly!).  To celebrate our successful morning we stopped by our local park for some well-deserved play time. 

So I guess the point of this post, other than to boast about how productive I've been all day, is to make the point that, for me at least, your morning, the way you start your day, really does have an impact on how the rest of your day goes.  If I begin my day with a dirty house, tripping over clothes on the floor and struggling to find a clean bowl for my cereal, it has a negative impact on the rest of my day in that I feel defeated before I've even had my morning cup of coffee!  If, however, I wake up to a nice tidy home then everything just seems to sail a bit smoother and that turns into a much better day. 

So tonight I have made sure that the house is respectable to ensure another fabulous day tomorrow.  And now I'm off to bed to read with the husband.  Speaking of reading, I have to share that I'm reading "The Age of Innocence" by Edith Wharton and thoroughly enjoying it. I started reading it a couple weeks ago after starting and subsequently throwing away several 'modern' novels in a row.  Why read new books when there are so many proven classics that I have yet to read??

And one final note ... below is a little picture of my princess.  I had to include it to share her preciousness with the world ... or at least with the three of you reading my blog :).

Have a good night, friends!!