My morning rituals

I don't know about you, but I most definitely have a morning ritual.

On school days, it starts by turning my phone alarm off, which I leave on the kitchen bench. It means I have to actually get OUT of bed and walk to the kitchen, where my routine starts. This is intermingled with packing bags for school and feeding animals. If I am lucky the kids aren't awake yet and I can do most of that in peace.

A lot of the morning tasks are ritual, like opening the curtains, putting the kettle on and usually, going to the loo.

Whatever order I do things in, there are three things that I do (for myself) religiously every morning.

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Drink hot water and lemon juice.

This is the first thing I do in the morning. Every morning. It's habit.

Drinking warm lemon water is supposed to aid digestion, be good for the immune system and liver. Lord knows my liver could do with all the help it can get!

What I do know is, it keeps me regular! Which must be good for my colon too (a little extra information you probably didn't want to know). Lemon juice contains Vitamins C and B6. With my history of depression and anxiety, the B6 is important. 

I squeeze half a lemon's worth of juice into a mug, then fill with hot water from the tap. It's at this time that I take my multi vitamins too.


Make a herbal tea

I have never been much of a coffee drinker, and when I was, I felt sluggish and weighed down. It just doesn't agree with me I don't think. That's not to say that I never have coffee. I was bought one the other day, by someone who didn't know my tendency for tea, so I drunk it anyway. Every now and then is OK with me, it's just not one of my habitual drinks.

I do however drink a lot of herbal tea!

Straight after I've had my lemon drink, I make a cuppa tea. Sometimes it's drunk while perusing Facebook, or making lunches for school, or watching the morning news. It depends how much time I have on my hands or whether the kids are up yet.


Eat breakfast

I always make and eat breakfast. My staple breakfast is porridge, with added goodness like pumpkin seeds, LSA, coconut and sesame seeds. Sometimes some dried or fresh fruit.

I always seem to fit it in before school drop off, even if it's a quick piece of toast or some fruit and yogurt. Porridge seems to keep me going until lunch time though, without dipping into the pantry. It's the space between lunch and dinner I have trouble with, and all the sweet crap I have in the pantry.

How does this differ or similiarise with your morning? 
Are you a coffee or tea person?
What is your weakness, when it comes to the mid afternoon slump?

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A new use for baby wipes

For the last five and a bit years, I have used baby wipes every single day.

Now that Summer is toilet trained and wiping her own rear end, I still have a packet of wipes in my bag. They are still good for wiping dirty hands and faces. I have however found another great use for them, so I may not have to give the habit of, and the feeling of not being ready to stop, buying nappy wipes.

For the last week or so, I've been wearing make up, EVERY DAY! Who is this person?!

I guess I was inspired by Jess, and her post on #openslather, explaining her four and a half minute makeup routine. 

I used to wear makeup every day when I went to work. I haven't worked at any sort of job for just over three years, and well motherhood(which is a job in itself) and a busy life has just got in the way.

Now the girls are a bit older and I seem to have a morning routine pretty well down pat, I am getting about twenty minutes, sometimes less, to shower and now, put a face on.

At the moment the girls are my alarm clock, they wake up always about 7 am, so I get them dressed, put the kettle on, drink tea and make everyone's breakfast. I don't always get breakfast in this time. So it's usually fruit for me, something quick. I try to get in the shower about 8, and everything is dandy. When it is not dandy, a shit fight breaks out and one of them is crying down the hallway and totally ruins my peaceful drying time. This sees me traipse out, still wet, with a towel wrapped around me yelling bloody murder.

I find putting my make up on, easy to do, straight after I get dressed after my shower. And it is only taking me about five minutes! Maybe longer trying to get Izzy to leave my make up bag, the hell alone! Luckily this doesn't happen all that often. Mainly it is not in the morning, and other times when I catch her with a stool, trying to get the make up case down from the top of the wardrobe, where I have to stow it.

Some BB cream, a swipe of shadow, some mascara and lipgloss and I am ready to go.

In the attempt to not wake up with panda eyes, is where the baby wipes come in. Not only are they great for wiping crap from infant crevices, they are great for wiping makeup from ancient crevices, that being the lines and pores of my aging face!

Do you wear makeup much? How do you clean it off? Or do you go for the morning panda eyes look?