Daily Archives: September 9, 2008

I read recently (and I really wish I could remember where) that sleep deprivation is a part of motherhood. (Well, duh!) This caught my memory because the next sentence referenced the Proverbs 31 woman:

“She rises while it is yet night and gets food for her household
and assigns her maids their tasks.”
Proverbs 31:15 (NIV)

So, sleeplessness is a Biblical precedent?

Ellie’s school starts earlier this year. They moved the whole schedule up by half an hour to accomodate sports schedules for the high school. So, instead of having her there at 8:30, we now need to get her there by 8:05. Add to this my new school-year goal of never dropping her off without a shower (Yes, I did that several times last year, and, no, I wasn’t the only one. Several of us who looked much better at pick-up than at drop-off.) and my morning are a little crazy.

So, I’ve been trying to get up before the sun. It’s really hard!! I can’t turn on the bedroom light because, well, that would just be rude to my still-sleeping husband. I’ve discovered I can’t take a shower before the rest of the family wakes-up because Zach (a light sleeper and a screamer) is in the room right next to the bathroom and wakes up everyone else almost as soon as I turn on the water. Lately, I’ve been tiptoeing through the maze of creaky floor boards to “assign my maids” (a.k.a. “me”; I make my daily to-do list and check my calendar). Today (with yesterday) I combined my early-riser goal with a meal-related goal. I’ve been trying to make meals ahead of time (when possible) to reduce the stress of “happy hour” (the hour between 4 and 6 when the kids go crazy with energy waiting for Daddy to get home while I try to tidy the house and make dinner without losing my mind). (Heather, today I seem to love parenthesis almost as much as you!) I found a recipe in my make-ahead recipe cookbook to try for breakfast. I made it all last night and set it in the fridge so this morning I would only need to pop it in the oven. Unfortunately, the screech of moving oven racks woke my daughter and the “ready beep” of the thermostat woke my son. So now I’m wondering if I shouldn’t just stay in bed and enjoy my sleep. But then I think of this verse:

“Don’t be too fond of sleep; you’ll end up in the poorhouse.
Wake up and get up; then there’ll be food on the table.”
Proverbs 10:13 (Message)

For those of you who are interested, here’s a picture of my completed French Toast Casserole.

It’s like a breakfast-y bread pudding, all warm and gooey with a maple pecan crunchy top. Yummmm!!