Sayonara, Snooze Button!

I stumbled across Experimonth at the end of March, just before Get the Lead Out was set to begin.  Oh. My. God! I thought, how cool is this? The thing is, the reason I thought it was so cool was because I was already sending things via post back to my friends and family in Chicago nearly every day – a little deal I’d made with myself so I wouldn’t feel so homesick (and so I would stop calling them on my way to work, when they were all still blissfully asleep – who knew one little time zone change would make them so cranky?).  I ultimately decided not to join Experimonth, because it felt too much like cheating.

Ditto for May’s Mileage May Vary.  Having recently moved from the heart of Chicago to 15 acres in Saxapahaw, NC, I easily walk a mile every day just chasing my toddler around the property or taking her for a run in the jogger along back country roads.  I also run every single day on my lunch break.  So – again with the sense of cheating.

Finally out of excuses, June’s Experimonth couldn’t have come at a better time.  Sure, there was some hemming and hawing – I already get up at 5 o’clock every day for work, I thought smugly to myself; this will be a piece of cake quickly gave way to will participating really impact my life that much? And then my alarm went off at five o’clock on Monday morning, and I was suddenly aware of something I had been conveniently ignoring for several months now – I like to hit the snooze button.  A lot.  My husband alleges that I do it every single day, but he’s not including the mornings I get up with our daughter when it’s still dark as pitch outside.  Those count, right?

Anyway, this is the month that I got on board, and after nine days I’m already a happier person for deciding to participate.  I have a satisfying work-life balance; it’s my family-self balance that needs adjusting.  Before having my daughter, I was fiercely selfish about my alone time – that is SO not the case anymore.  Getting up at 5 a.m. has helped me recapture some of that.

During the week, it was little things:   getting in a full hour of yoga before leaving for work, walking the gardens, uninterrupted reading.  Even throwing in a load of laundry and doing the dishes was different without the clamor of my family around me, almost like meditation.  This past weekend I took a walk around my new little town, camera in hand:

It’s pure luck that these photos turned out at all – you don’t want to know how many I took total.  But I’m hoping to document a few more of my mornings as I discover things that make me thankful for this precious alone time.