mornings, lately

as i near the end of my pregnancy, i find that my priorities are often in contention. what i want to be doing and what i should be doing and what i can be doing are often in tension.

i want to work as hard as i can for as long as i can so that my time off will be gloriously guilt free.
i want to play and enjoy every last second with cruz as my only child.
i want to wash and fold and prep teeny tiny baby clothes.
i want to scour every inch of my house for every last speck of dust.
i want to take two naps a day.

do you see what i'm up against? (as i'm sitting at the kitchen table writing this, cruz is running around the living room hollering, "mommy needs a to-do list!" so now you can see that things have really gotten out of control around here)

sometimes you just have to find a plan, and sometimes that plan is ann voskamp, who is smart and articulate and because she has like six kids and lives on the canadian prairie, i usually trust her.

ann says to start your say with word in, work out, work plan.
so that's what i do with my mornings, lately.

word in.
this is not your glamorous devotion time. there is no cup of tea. i do not write in a cute journal while watching in the sunrise from my back patio. there are hardly any deep thoughts. there is me in my bed, struggling through the book of hosea. i fight off sleep as i pray prayers that mostly sound like "thank you" and "help."

work out. 
at least three mornings a week i like to start the day with prenatal pilates. i tell cruz that we're going to "work out with robin" and he immediately starts chanting, "and exhale! and exhale!" he gets it. i have really been loving robin's prenatal program and credit her workouts with how good i've been feeling since i began it. at 36 weeks pregnant with cruz, i had my feet up all day long and my back ached. comparatively, i feel amazing. doing prenatal pilates has been such a positive, healthy component of my pregnancy, i just can't recommend it enough. (you can find out more about robin's balanced beginnings program here)

this is how cruz does pilates. this is a leg left. 

work plan.
finally, as i eat my breakfast, i make my to-do list for the day. i think about work, about cruz, the house, and what we need to do next for baby girl. it gives me a little bit of control and helps to put my priorities in place. i could still do with another six hours in the day (and the energy to get through them all), but it's slowly getting done.

so that's us, lately. trying to find a little sanity and routine in the midst of a busy season.