This morning I headed out at 5.30am in -4 degree temperature (yes, that is MINUS 4), to go for a jog.

I did feel a little bit crazy,  actually, a lot crazy.  My logical brain kept saying “why are you doing this?”, “go back to bed”, “you can surely find time to do this later”…  It was dark, it was eerily quiet and it was, quite literally, freezing.  At one point my glasses fogged up and I tripped over a drain pipe,  did a kind of crazy skid/skip, stumbled for a few steps, waved my arms around madly and somehow managed not to actually fall over (this is where I was glad it was dark).

I walked back into the house, to be confronted by my son at the front door…to tell me a woeful tale of his 6year old sister pushing him out of the big bed.  My daughter was crying in the bed room and my husband kissed me goodbye as he walked out of the house and away from the mounting chaos… big breath… first day back at school after school holidays…things were looking messy.

I managed to distract the children with some breakfast and get things back on track but then things took a turn for the worst when it was time to get dressed.

I’m such a horrible parent that I bought my daughter a new school dress (like the one she already has which she LOVES) in the next size up for her to wear on her first day back.  But unbeknown to me, the fall out from such a simple act would be explosive.   The dress… is too big.  The dress… is too wide.  The dress…is NOT the same as her favourite dress.  THE DRESS WILL NOT BE WORN.   Tears tantrums and yelling were to follow  (maybe a little bit of mine).  I felt my patience running thin and I quickly backed away from the situation (again..literally… you have to imagine me walking backwards out of the room, step by step…until I reversed into our bedroom shut the door…and locked it).   I took a big deep breath and took a shower.

I got back out and continued to pack bags ready for school, pretending like nothing had happened and this seemed to be working.  WINNING.  Then I noticed an alarming smell.  After further investigation I uncovered that our dog (god love him), had done a poo in his cage and managed to smear it everywhere.  AND…rubbed his bottom along the carpet (who can blame him, who wants poo on their butt…right??).

Again…I took another deep breath and decided to deal with that situation after I had dropped the kids off.

So then,  here I was,  on all fours,  scrubbing carpet of poo on a Monday morning… wondering when I would finally get to my real work.  When I had a realisation.   I just managed to get through the morning without totally losing my cool,  a rather dramatic morning if you don’t mind me saying so.   I didn’t do it perfectly,  it certainly wasn’t my best parenting morning.  But I did it and you know what,  I’m feeling pretty awesome.

And you know what I credit with this mysterious power?   My crazy icy run.

Having that time in the morning to myself before the chaos began.  To get the endorphins flying before my patience was tested and the universe thought dog poop on the carpet was a funny game to play on Claire…was the key.

We all know it.  We all read about it.  And in some ways it seems so simple it is hard to believe it really is true.  But for stress heads like me,  exercise is like taking a morning chill pill.  I didn’t roll out of bed thinking “Yah I want to go for a run”.  I’m not entirely sure I even enjoyed it while I was doing it (infact, I’m pretty sure I didn’t)…but I can absolutely tell you that consistently waking up each morning, rolling out of bed and doing some sort of exercise before I do anything else…is doing wonders for my state of mind.

Step number 2,  in my ten steps to work life awesomeness…Moving Daily…. NAILED IT (just quietly).

Are you feeling awesome today?  I’d love to hear what tips and tricks you have for waking up and shining.