Trying New Things

I can't say I'm on a roll yet, but for the last 4 mornings, I've woken up at 6/6:30 am, and stayed up for the rest of the day, and i LOVE my ME time.  That's exactly what it is, I wake up, pray, and then sit and read a book in complete silence, without feeling like i'm ignoring a kid's needs.  It's addictive and I can't get enough of it, and it ends too soon with (usually) Hasan waking up, or (today) Sumayya waking up with a loose tooth.

The only possible (downside) is that I can't stay awake past 9 pm, which i gotta work on.  Esp when Saif stays up till 1, 2 and 3 am every night.  But on an upside, I've actually made an effort to clean the kitchen up before I go to sleep the last 2-3 nights, and again, it's really difficult when you can't stay up, but it feels SO good after the fact.  Props for that goes to my sis in law, Maha, who we just came back from visiting in Michigan.

And props for me waking up early goes to two 'things'.  1. ZenHabits blog (www.zenhabits.net)- who encourages early waking up and tells you to do ANYTHING you like to help you do it (props to Maha again for directing me to this site) and 2. the anything i like that helped me get up the first day or two.....WWF!!! That's Words With Friends, a scrabble type game on my Android.  Thanks to Afnan for getting me hooked!  I don't do this first thing in the morning anymore, but it helped get me to do it the first couple of days when I seriously needed a push. 

My whole (motherhood) life, I've FEARED the idea of waking up early b/c I didn't think I'd have the energy to continue with my kids during the long day, but alhamdulillah, i'm doing well!!!! 

And back to the final inspiration to stay on this course of waking up early: my ISLAM! which has always taught us that there is complete baraka in those early hours.  Ya rabb, please help me stay the course and benefit from my early morning hours, with your thikr, praises and husn ibadah.