Discovering Waldorf – ‘The Morning Rhythm’

Rotating picture in the girls’ room. K likes to change it from night to day.

The girls are ravenous as soon as their little eyes open in the morning. No matter how hard I try, I just can not get food in them fast enough to calm them down. This results in quarreling, competing and down right crankiness. They unfortunately get it from me. I become so cranky and ornery when I am hungry. I am just plain old no fun to be around (perhaps that’s why dieting and I don’t mix), especially now with my no dairy or soy diet, it seems like I am always hungry!

To solve this issue I set up a little food station for them to wake up to. It consists of their water cups (their water pitcher is filled and waiting for them in the fridge), our homemade granola and some kind of fruit snack (in the picture above they have unsweetened banana chips). It’s just enough to hold them over until I can get breakfast on the table.

After they have a little something in their bellies they prepare for their day while I am preparing breakfast or tending to Baby L.
They go back to their room to get dressed. They dress in ‘bummy clothes’ when we are just hanging around the house (which is most days during the summer). Our ‘bummy clothes’ are clothes that the girls can ‘just be kids in’ and get as messy and stained as they want to, because they are never worn out of the house. We keep these clothes easily accessible to them on low shelves in their dresser while their undergarments are in drawers below. As you can see, we recently simplified their clothing, which was another sanity saver for me. C, especially, used to go through 5 outfits a day and I was losing my mind constantly doing laundry (along with those dishes!). But more on the clothing simplification another time.

Once they are dressed, they put their slippers back on and hang their nightgowns on their bedtime hook. This is located right next to their bed and was placed there specifically for their nightgowns (that way they are all ready for our nighttime rhythm).

Then they go to the bathroom to brush their teeth and hair. I help C with hers while K loves to do all kinds of interesting styles with hers. K was actually the one to instate this idea. She wanted to be like Emily in ‘Emily and Daisy’ who wakes up, dresses herself and brushes her hair every morning.

I have to point this out – this is K’s only ‘logo’ shirt. It’s a Philadelphia Union soccer shirt. Kevin got it for her to wear to the games they go to together.
By the time they are done with all of this breakfast is usually ready or close to it. With so much fresh fruit in season they prefer plain yogurt and fruit for breakfast right now. Although as you can see in the picture above, it’s more fruit than yogurt. They help me set their little table (we have fun sitting their or out on the porch in the mornings) then we serve out the food, light our mealtime candle and sing our blessing.

After the meal is finished the girls do their dishes while I clear their table and set it up for whatever project we are doing that day (painting day, handwork day, etc). This also tends to be Baby L’s favorite time for his first nap of the day. He will sleep up on me in a carrier or I will nurse him down in our bed, especially if it’s a more involved project.

So that’s the basic overview of our morning time rhythm. I hope it all made sense.

Donni