She rises while it is yet night...

• She also rises while it is yet night, and provides food for her household...

This is a difficult one for me these days. I confess, I am a bit of a night-owl. I haven't always been this way, I started off in a family of mostly early risers, and kept those habits for a long time.

As a newlywed, I got up with my husband at 5:00 am, then sat around for over an hour after he left for work at 5:20, till time for me to get ready to be at my job at 8:00.

I think it started gradually after our son was born. Hubby had a job that required early mornings hours, so he usually went to bed early, as did our son when he was younger. That quiet time when I was the only one awake was my time to do whatever I wanted. I read, I watched TV, I did crafts, I talked on the phone with a couple of night-owl friends. Except for a few short years when our son was in elementary school, I was a working-outside-the-home mom, so that was my only time to myself. Weekends the whole family would stay up later and sleep in the next day, so the habit became even more ingrained. As our son grew up and required less and less from me in the mornings, I started shaving that time back in the mornings little by little. By the time he left for college, I had it down to an exact science--I knew to the minute how long I could sleep and still jump up, get ready, and make it to work on time. Or mostly on time, anyway!

More recently, we relocated to a new area with my husband's job, so I was not working for the first time in many years. I wanted to take a few weeks to relax and settle in before beginning a job hunt, so I reveled in the chance to sleep in and just laze around. And laze I have done.

The problem is, now my time at home has stretched, and looks to stretch a little longer still, and it's time for some habits to die! I find myself running around in the late afternoons/evenings, trying to get things done, wondering where the day has gone.

I know that I'm more productive when I get up earlier, but it's hard to motivate myself to get up in the cold, gray mornings. Okay, we're in the south, so it's not cold. But it is gray. At least until the sun comes out.

I'm almost like a baby who has their days and nights mixed up. I'm not sleepy till late at night. Tired, maybe, but not sleepy. All the good shows come on then. I'm doing internet research. I....

I need to start going to bed earlier, so I can get up and not feel like a zombie for the first few hours of my day. It's healthy. It really is. This week I've been working on getting up a little earlier. I haven't mastered the going to bed earlier part, yet. But I'm working on it.

I'll keep you posted.

Until next time....

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