If your house is like the day begins way before 8:00 AM, but that is when the morning is no longer starting—it’s pushing through the day pulling me kicking and screaming behind it slow down wait I’m not read or I didn’t get that done.
Sometime especially on David’s days off he has fed people. Coffee is halfway gone (or cold) and it’s the time I should be grabbing a glass of water but more times than not it’s a glass of Sweet Tea or a left-over Cherry Do, Pepper from Sonic.
And now the focus shifts from waking up to getting everyone moving in the same direction. This is where mornings often fall apart. Not because anything big happens—but because everything small stacks at once.
Someone can’t find their shoes.
Someone suddenly needs something moved, opened or at times signed or copied.
Someone changes their mind about what they’re wearing ie Charlie.
Thank the LORD David isn”t home or it would be even more confusing as he panics because he can’t find his keys or hat. Out the door he goes only to hear it open 20 minutes later as he drops Charlie off on his way to work from getting a snack.
Or Charlie and I are sleeping, and he had to come back to get his wallet be forgot. I move from one thing to the next without finishing anything fully. From wiping a counter, to stoping to answer a question, go back, then get pulled away again.
Work what is that? Yes, I do work from home it’s just everyone seems to forget that at times. It’s why more times than not I have a breakdown. That’s not failure. That’s the structure of this hour. This is a momentum hour, not a completion hour.
If I try to finish everything, I’ll feel behind immediately.
If I focus on keeping things moving, the hour works.
So I shift my mindset:
I’m not here to make things perfect—I’m here to keep things from stopping and that is why this thing is called my life, and this is my Circus and these are my Monkes.
That looks like:
- Putting shoes by the door instead of organizing the whole entryway. We have a Coat rack in our small entryway does it get in the way sometimes yes, but it saves us time and that is more important than space and what guest would think.
- Tossing items into bags instead of neatly packing them
- Saying “we’ll handle it later” and meaning it
- Having the trash set by the door so on the way out you can put it on the curb.
You lower the standard—but raise the movement.
That’s what gets me through this hour without frustration taking over.
You may notice my house doesn’t look how you would like it to.
But that’s not what this hour is for.
This hour is about transition. All the time. 24/7 365 days a year.
And transition is messy.
What matters is that people are moving forward—even if it’s not smooth.
Because once you clear this hour, the pressure shifts.
And you get your first real chance to reset.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
