Slow-start routine.

This morning I read a post on a lovely blog, The Inspired Room. Have you ever heard a more perfect title for a home-decor blog? I don't think I have. The last post on the blog is titled "The Five Minute
Jump Start the Day Routine" and it outlines the 5-minute routine Melissa goes through every day to start her day on the right foot: make the bed, open the shades, turn off the porch lights, unload the dishwasher. She does this every morning, no fail. No wonder she has a blog about keeping house and I have one about... well, not keeping house.

It's not like I don't have any aspirations as far as my house goes! I do love decorating, the clothes hanging in my closet are organized by color and my shoes are all in clearly labeled fabric shoe boxes. Also, my spices are organized in alphabetical order. But that's more or less where it ends. I'm a messy organizing freak, which means I get all excited at the idea of alphabetizing and organizing minutiae but loading the dishwasher and vacuuming is about as much housework as I can tolerate in one go. (I am awesome at emergency cleaning, though.)

Here's how my ideal Jumpstart morning routine goes:
- I get up at 5.30
- by the time the alarm clock goes off for the rest of the family, I have already exercised and showered
- I get Sarah ready for school and make everybody breakfast
- I clean up the kitchen and start the dishwasher
and most importantly, in this scenario I don't go near the computer until Stella is down for her nap, around lunch time.

Now, you have to remember that's all in my head. Here's how the real morning routine goes:
- 6.30am, alarm clock goes off, I wake up and find Stella in my bed. Try to remember how she ended up there. Oh, yeah, that was the 5th time she woke up. Ok.
- get Sarah up, make her breakfast, keep saying "get dressed, brush your teeth, comb your hair, (etc)" until she gets through the morning routine and is ready to go. See her off.
- drink water. Sit at pc, check e-mail while I wait for Stella to wake up.
- make Stella breakfast, cuddle, have breakfast, tweet, blog or read fave blogs.
- sooner or later, load dishwasher.

Yeah, I know what you are thinking. So close.