Can a Night Owl become a Morning Person?

My husband falls asleep right away (despite drinking caffeinated sodas and playing computer games at night), and wakes up perky. I’m jealous. Our daughter seems to be following in his footsteps (thankfully). My father is a morning person and over the years has mentioned that my mother, sister and I are not. He states this fact in the nicest way possible (bless our hearts). My uncle (mother’s brother) is a night owl extraordinaire. So, see: it’s genetic.

Or is it? I really wish I could fall asleep right away and bounce out of bed. The few times that this happens, it’s wonderful! I feel rested, and I feel like I can get so much done. It’s not like I am staying up horribly late anyway.

In fact, I have a number of friends that feel the same way (maybe that’s the problem – my friends are night owls too). A quote in an article by Deepa Ranganathan sums up my feelings:

When I told my friends I had found a way to transform myself into a morning person, they responded in one of two ways. The night people leaned in as if I were about to reveal the location of a stash of pirate gold. The morning people simply regarded me with pity and wonder. "I just don't understand why it's so hard," said one friend, a Danish medical student. "I can get up anytime I want."

So, what would it take? Not Just Laura chronicles what she did and advised me to take small steps.

There are some obvious steps like setting and keeping an earlier bedtime. Except that, again, I don’t think 10:00-10:30 pm is all that late. Don’t eat big meals before bed (no problem) or drink caffeinated beverages late in the day (this I know not to do). Avoid alcohol (done), exercise (I avoid it completely most of the time), and mentally stimulating activities (hmm, that one is a little harder). Avoid too much light at night including TV and computers (I’m good some – but not all – of the time). Take melatonin four hours before bed (never tried this).

Morning requires consistency too, for instance, waking up at the same time (helps if you go to bed at the same time). Get out of bed and take a walk (now, wait a minute!). Just like we need to avoid too much light at night, morning light helps us wake up.

I’m sure that general healthy habits help the situations too. Eating well and regularly, exercising, avoiding stress, and actually getting enough sleep.

And last, but not least, pray.

Organic okra at farmers market

Every now and then, we drive out to a small farmers market in one of the suburbs. We don't go often since it is a 30+ minute drive and only has a couple of stalls that we go to (we can finish in 15 minutes - with browsing). But unlike the big city farmers market 10 minutes from our house, this one has a couple of organic farmers (vegetables, meats, cheeses, eggs).

This weekend was one of those weekends to make the drive. We picked up some wonderful fresh squash, bell peppers and okra. In fact, I may have to go back next weekend to pick up some more okra. Last summer I stored up a bunch after one of the daughters taught me how to freeze it. Wash, dry and slice. Place on cookie sheet and freeze. Remove from cookie sheet and store in freezer bags. We used it for months.

For those that shy away from okra, it's really quite good. And easy to prepare. Once sliced, add to pan with some olive oil, salt and pepper. Add garlic and chopped green onion if you like. "Fry" up until slightly crisp. Serve.

Bird Watching and Photography for Kids

No, we didn't take photos of birds. I give credit to my husband for the first activity for Little One: bird watching. Take two empty toilet paper rolls and tape together to make binoculars. Print out photos of birds and tape to walls and ceiling. Go bird watching with 3-year-old. Clearly this can be done outside with real birds. But it's a little hot, so there are not many birds about.

Since I come from a line of photographers and got a camera at a very young age, I decided to take a tour of the neighborhood with Little One and a small digital camera. She took to it quite nicely, and even got some good shots. Thankfully, digital cameras don't use expensive film. She managed to take 273 photos in 20 minutes!

Time for prayer

I have become a prayer slacker. I was doing so well for awhile, but lately I don’t seem to have the time or the drive to engage in active prayer and study. Oh sure, I still say the blessing at meals, pray before I go to bed and while at Mass, maybe a rosary here and there. But study the Bible or read a Catholic book? Not much since Lent. Pray the rosary every (weekday) morning? Not every day for sure. I’ve even let slip the morning prayer routine that I started with Little One.

Now, to be transparent, I’ve let a lot of things slip lately. I suppose I’m in a bit of a funk coupled with job worries and career stress plus inertia over where to live along with our recent miscarriage. Or maybe I am just having a mid life crisis. Ok, that last statement is a definite, but I digress.

Driving to work the other day thinking about why I’ve slacked off on my rosary praying on the way to work (but not, mind you, picking up my rosary and praying), I did come to the brilliant epiphany that I didn’t need to wait until I had time to pray the entire rosary. And this was before coffee (ok, I had a cup of tea before I left the house).

Praying means a lot of things. In this earlier post, I outlined the ACTS of prayer (adoration, contrition, thanksgiving, supplication). Prayer can be long or short, just as long as we pray. And listening is as important – if not more important – than talking.

I do find that the more I pray, the more peaceful I am. Who wouldn’t want a little more peace in one’s life?

Sacred Heart

Little One is fascinated by the Sacred Heart of Jesus. And with my desire to learn and pray more chaplets, I thought I would research and make a chaplet. In researching the prayers to be said for this chaplet, I have run across several versions, mostly regular rosary beads or chaplets with 33 small beads (and some number of larger beads). Most in red, which will make Little One happy since she likes red. A lot.

The chaplet starts with the Anima Christi prayer - one of my favorites:

Soul of Christ, sanctify me
Body of Christ, save me
Blood of Christ, inebriate me
Water from Christ's side, wash me
Passion of Christ, strengthen me
O good Jesus, hear me
Within Thy wounds hide me
Suffer me not to be separated from Thee
From the malicious enemy defend me
In the hour of my death call me
And bid me come unto Thee
That I may praise Thee with Thy saints
and with Thy angels
Forever and ever
Amen

One each large bead say "O sweetest Heart of Jesus, I implore that I may ever love Thee more and more."

On each small bead say "Sweet Heart of Jesus, be Thou my Love."

At the of each group say "Sweet Heart of Mary, be my salvation."

Conclude by saying "May the Heart of Jesus in the most blessed Sacrament be praised and adored and loved with grateful affection, at every moment, in all the tabernacles of the world, even unto the end of time."

The God bookstore

Little One's initiative to rename one of the local Catholic bookstores: the God bookstore. Very appropriate I think. The ladies in the store loved it. We purchased a nice illustrated book on saints that should last her awhile and a booklet on chaplets.

My latest creative venture (aka how to do something productive and/or creative with my little bit of free time) is to make rosaries and chaplets. I have the beads, but need to purchase middles, crosses/crucifixes, and medals. Little One wants a red one - she likes red.

More tomatoes

Silly birds (I assume) ate two of my four ripening tomatoes.