Mornings at our house are really hard.
One of my children has really bad reflux and it is at its worst during the first couple of hours that they are awake and therefore those first couple of hours are spent trying our hardest to push through and get done the absolute basics if even that in between cleaning up the aftermath of that reflux.
There have been numerous times that I have been feeding one child with one hand and holding a bucket in front of the other with my other hand.
We go through a couple different outfits every morning and it has nothing to do with being indecisive about what we want to wear.
These morning time challenges come morning after morning following night after night of being up late.
As a result I found myself always starting the day off already behind. This cycle of starting the day already behind was very much a challenge for me for quite awhile.
I’d read quite a few books and articles on time management, organizing etc trying to find some solutions but didn’t have much luck finding any strategies I could successfully apply in our unique situation.
Well I’m excited to say all that has changed!
I have finally come across some solid strategies and advice that have helped to bring a nice rhythm and routine to our mornings (and evenings as a result!) that is giving me that little bit of headway I have been craving.
What is the resource you ask? It is the Make Over Your Mornings 14 day Online Course by Crystal Paine.
(Click here to try the 1st day for free!)
I have been an avid reader of all things Crystal Paine for years now. I read her books, her emails, and regularly devour her blog, Money Saving Mom.
Her blog not only helps women get it together in the area of finances but also in life in general.
The words of wisdom she shares on her blog have empowered me to be an intentional wife, an intentional mom, an intentional friend, and intentional with all the day to days of life.
One of the unique things about Crystal that has stood out to me over the years I’ve been reading her blog is her genuine ability to think outside of her own circumstances and truly be able to see the intricacies of the challenges others are facing, even if she is not facing those same challenges.
Crystal is not a mother of a special needs child herself but she is one who I can say gets it.
She gets it in the sense that she knows she doesn’t get it but she knows it’s hard, it can be isolating, that mothers of children with special needs have unique challenges they face and she doesn’t hesitate to acknowledge that the hardships a mother of a child with special needs experiences are different than her own.
This is something I have long admired her for.
When Crystal announced her 14 day Make Over Your Mornings Course was available for purchase I bought it quickly and confidently knowing I would be able to apply her advice in some way to help me get a grip on my mornings.
(Click here to grab your Make Over Your Mornings course!)
When I started the course (which can be done in 15 min a day!) I was absolutely blown away, not just by the top notch quality and content of the videos and included downloadable workbook, but by the fact that several times throughout the course (specifically on Day 2 and Day 8 of the videos) Crystal gives very specific applicable advice for parents caring for a child with special needs.
She then takes it a step further and gives some very needed (for me at least!) affirmation and encouragement in the video segment for day 8 “Creating a to do list that serves not strangles.”
I showed my husband the video for Day 8 and he was very pleasantly surprised as well. We’ve found it to be very rare (and maybe we’ve just been looking in the wrong places) but we rarely come across someone with the success and reach that Crystal has, who does not have a child with special needs herself, who considers and includes families with a child with special needs the way she does in her Make Over Your Mornings Course and as I have seen her do on her blog.
I don’t want to give the impression that if you go to her site or take the course you will find every post dedicated to special needs parenting. That is not the case at all.
What you will find though is a site and course dedicated to helping women live their lives well, and that means all women, including moms of children with special needs.
I wholeheartedly recommend the Make Over Your Mornings Course. It’s a course I think all women (single, married, mom or not, working or stay home, have a child with special needs or not) will find beneficial.
It’s not a course you’ll be rolling your eyes at saying I can’t do that, I have tube feeds to do, therapies to get to, doctors appointments to schedule or anything else that is overwhelming in your life.
I get it, I am there and I have found the course to be very practical, helpful and applicable to my unique circumstances as a special needs mother.
The information and action steps contained in the course are laid out so they can be applied to your own life in a way that makes sense and works for your unique circumstances.
One final very important note, Make Over Your Mornings is NOT a course about waking up early, it’s a course all about how to use your morning time well (whatever time mornings start for you) for the sole purpose of living the rest of your days intentionally and well!
***If you want to know some specifics of the changes I’ve implemented in our mornings as a result of the course, a couple people asked that and I shared more about it in the comments. Just scroll down a bit and there’s more about that there 😊.***
Click here to grab your Make Over Your Mornings course!
Not 100% sure the course is for you? No worries, there is a money back guarantee AND you can try the first day for free by clicking here and scrolling all the way to the bottom of the page!
If you take the course, please leave a comment below. I would love to hear how it’s helped you!
(This post contains affiliate links. Read disclosure policy here. I only link to what I personally use, love and/or see as useful. All opinions are 100% my own. Thank you so much for your support along this journey, whether that is you reading along and cheering us on, or if you find something I linked to useful and you contribute, at no extra cost to you, by making a purchase through my affiliate link. Either way, I sincerely thank you for taking time out of your day to stop by and read these words of mine.)
Such an encouraging, positive post! I’d love to hear what that specific piece of advice was that helps you so much if you feel you can give it without giving away to much from the course.
I took the course last fall and loved it too. Crystal’s encouragement is priceless!
God bless you for making the best of what is surely a difficult time of day.
Thank you so much Sarah! I completely agree about Crystal’s encouragement…I’ve grown so much as a result of reading her blog over the years.
The advice from the course that specifically helped me the most and really got the ball rolling to get a grip on my mornings, even with the challenges we face, was on Day 2, starting at the last paragraph on page 8 of the workbook. That advice coupled with some of the things she said such as making sleep a priority even if it’s unbroken or not the ideal amount was very helpful as well. There was so much in the course but those two things specifically along with doing the action steps throughout really helped to turn things around for me.
I am planning on writing a post in the coming weeks on how my mornings look now. This post was originally going to be along those lines but when I sat down to write it, my heart was just so full of gratitude for the way Crystal’s blog and this course has positively affected my family’s life, this post came out instead 😊!
I’m so glad you came by and shared how you’ve been positively impacted by the course and Crystal as well!
I shared a little more about some specific changes I made to how I do things in the mornings as a result of the specific advice in the course in my reply to Shannon below 😊.
I was going to say pretty much what Sarah did. I’d love to hear what changes you have made. I, also, had gone through the course and think Crystal did a great job. Can you share what is different and better about your mornings now? Best, Shannon
Hi Shannon! She did do a great job with the course! I was really impressed by the quality of everything!
I have a post planned coming up to go into more detail of how my mornings are now since implementing what I learned in the course. That is along the lines of what this post was going to be originally but when I sat down to write it I was so full of gratitude for how impactful Crystal has been this came out instead!
As far as what is different now, I have rearranged the order I do some things which has had a major impact. I used to get my son up first, get him started on his g tube feed and then try to get done what needed to get done. But by the time we’d get past the reflux and get everyone fed and dressed there was no time for getting done the essentials to make it so I was ahead for the day instead of behind. The course helped me really pinpoint what I needed to take care of at the very minimum to not keep falling behind and staying behind every morning. Those things for me are making my son’s g tube blended diet and emptying the dishwasher. When those two things aren’t done early in the day our whole schedule just seems to derail. My son is on a pretty strict feeding schedule that determines our wake up time and bedtime. The course really helped me walk through what really needs to be done, what is causing the most stress, etc. I now take about twenty minutes when I first get up and empty the dishes right away, then get my son up. This way I know for a fact the dishes are done everyday and then the only thing I need to try and make sure I get done during that morning rush of reflux as we call it, is to blend his feed for the day (it’s already pre made I just have to blend it), if I wasn’t able to blend it the night before. Anyway since that’s something that absolutely has to be done I get it done quicker since I’m actually caught up on dishes (for the most part, I definitely still have my days!). There’s a few other changes as well such as including time reading my Bible and a more consistent wake up time but this is getting to be a really long response. I will be sharing more in depth in a blog post soon! I hope that help explains some more of how I was specifically helped by the course. We kind of have some complicated things happening in our home so I hope I explained it in a way that makes sense.
Thank you very much for taking the time to comment and to share that you took the course also!