Where did all the sleep go?

I awoke the other morning in a most familiar way...

I may have mentioned once or twice that I am not a morning person. This is a bit of a troublesome situation since that is when I exercise. Every night I set my alarm clock to 5:00am and every morning someone who is in my bed, possibly me, turns it off. It's really starting to cut into my elliptical time.

So back to my morning. I wake up to Sydney yelling at me because unlike her Mother she is adamant about being on time and apparently she feels I am not being helpful by still sleeping at 7:30am. I jump, more like slowly rise, out of bed when I remember that David is gone and I must ensure everyone is dressed and have lunches packed by 8:00am. My husband is the morning person and so he takes that shift, however he sometimes has to leave early and so it falls back to me, the person who is not so keen on early rising. Why don't they let kids of parents who are tired and needing more rest go to school later, say 11:00???

I walk down the hall to find that someone has wet a bed, someone else has spilled fruit loops all over the floor with a little milk to boot, and another someone (furry I might add) has peed on the floor. I then hesitantly continue on to find Rusty still fast asleep and like a sleeping lion cub I am hesitant to wake him in fear of being attacked (he did awake but mostly because of the bribery). I move out to the kitchen to find Avery, who is none too helpful, watching tv in his drawers and Colby stretched out next to him. I then finally I discover that since taking Shelby out of bed she has managed to pull every toy out of every toy chest and disappear with ninja like abilities to start eating the fruit loops that are still on the floor.

The next 20 minutes are fast forwarded like a cheesy movie about large families running a muck, yet in this tale no kids were left home alone, though the Mom in the story would love to be left home alone. 

By 8:00am everyone was where they were supposed to be. All was right in our world and Dad didn't need to know the difference. Honestly for kicks I told him I woke right when he left and prepared a huge breakfast for all five kids while teaching them about geography and then proceeded to carry them to school on my back to really up the guilt card for the next time he's running behind.

I know some day I'll get this morning routine down. That or they'll all be grown and I'll just sleep in but regardless it never gets easier. 


Just out of curiosity how do mornings run at your home?