The Johnson Crew!

Good morning, friends. I'm so thankful that you're here to join me today. I wanted to show you what our morning routine looks like. I am a mom of four and we home school and my husband and I run our own businesses, so we don't have a specific time in the morning that we must be up. We don't have anywhere that we're rushing off to typically, but most days my husband gets up a little after 6:00 and goes to the gym and then makes it back around 7:45.

Typically, I'm getting up around 7:30. The first thing I like to do is brush my hair and pull it back, get it out of my face. Just simply taming my hair can make me feel so much better in the morning. I'm currently going through a teeth straightening treatment. It's not Invisalign, the brand is called Candid Co. I do actually have a video about that if you want to see it.

So, I brush my teeth and my aligners. And then every morning I take allergy pills and an allergy nose spray. I used to have a runny nose like half the day every day, no matter what season it was. And so, this regimen has changed my life. And then I'll wipe off any leftover eye makeup and put lotion on my face. And some chapstick. And then, of course, some deodorant.

And honestly, I like to stay in my jammies when we don't have anywhere to be. It's just more comfortable. But for the sake of the video, I'm going to at least put on my leggings. And I don't typically put on makeup unless I'm going somewhere or someone's coming over. Um so, if we're doing something later in the day, then I'll wait until then to do my makeup.

But since you guys are going to have to look at my face all morning in this video, I'll go ahead and put a little on. And then I like to make my bed. We went years and years without making our bed. I for some reason thought it was really silly. And then when we finally started doing it, it makes such a big difference in our room. It just makes it look so much cleaner, even if that's the only thing that's clean and straightened in the room.

So, that's something I don't skip anymore and when my husband is here in the mornings and not at the gym, he'll help so well. And then I like to open the curtains and the blinds and let the sunshine in. And then I'll go fill up my big cold cup of water and then make my iced coffee. I just recently got this Four Sigmatic mushroom coffee. Let me know in the comments if you've tried a mushroom coffee before.

I'm actually really surprised it tastes just like normal coffee, maybe even better than Folgers and Starbucks. And it's supposed to have health benefits for you and help you focus. I'm not sure if I can speak to those effects just yet cuz it's pretty new to me. But I'm liking it so far. And then usually I'll make like a half a bagel with cream cheese on it and I'll take these things outside for my Bible time.

I love sitting on our back porch in the morning time for my Bible time. And now that it's getting a little cooler, I'll just bring like a blanket out there with me. So, you're probably wondering what my kids are doing right now. We do let them play their iPads for a little bit in the morning until we start their day at 8:00. So, they are preoccupied while I'm getting ready.

And then my husband gets home from the gym around 7:45 to tend to the kids, which I'm very appreciative of. So, at 8:00 they know that they need to go brush their teeth and make their beds. And then we have their chore charts on the fridge because their assignments change each day, so they can easily look at that and see what they have. So, we run the dishwasher every night and get the kitchen cleaned up as a gift to ourselves in the morning and it is the best routine I can possibly recommend.

And so, the kids chore first thing in the morning is to unload the dishwasher. So, we have three kids that are old enough to do this. So, we split up the dishwasher into three sections, top rack, bottom rack and silverware. And once they're done with that, then they can make their breakfast. Our 9-year-old, 7-year-old and 5-year-old can typically make their own breakfast unless the 5-year-old wants oatmeal, then we'll of course help him with that in the microwave.

My husband will sit with them during breakfast and do Bible time with them. And if you want to check out the devotional that we're using currently, I put a link to it in the description box for you. Some mornings I'll do a 10-minute stretching video, which is always very calming and really helps my body just feel so much better to start the day. And I for sure need to work on my flexibility, so this is really great.

When I'm going to work out in the afternoon or not at all, then I usually shower in the afternoon or at night. And then I'll typically come back in after my Bible reading and prayer time and make eggs or bacon or yogurt or something that's going to help keep me full for the rest of the morning. With these aligners, I can't just like graze all day long like I typically like to do.

You're supposed to only keep them out for like 2 hours a day and you cannot put them back in without brushing and flossing or you'll get lots cavities. So, um I finish up with my iced coffee and my food and I go and brush and floss and rinse and put my aligners back in until lunch usually. Once I've got food on my stomach, I am ready to take my vitamins.

So, I'll take a women's daily vitamin, uh probiotics and extra vitamin D. And then our school day starts at 8:45. The kids know that they need to finish up their breakfast and get their breakfast stuff cleaned up by 8:45. So, I'll go to the whiteboard and change the date. And add stars to their names if they lost any the previous day. This is our behavioral system. If you want to check out how we do that, I'll put a link to that video above and in the description box below for you.

My 5-year-old and 2-year-old will just play most of the morning while we do school. My fourth grader and second grader are doing mostly video-based curriculums this year. If you want to check out all the curriculums that they are using, I do have videos for each of those in the description box below. So, it doesn't require a ton of hands-on from me, which was by design because obviously I've got the 5-year-old who does need need my attention and the 2-year-old who, goodness, is always trying to get into stuff, so definitely needs my attention as well.

My fourth grader is fairly independent with his work. I will start the day with my second grader. She's using the BJU Press video-based curriculum this year. I like to be sure that she's staying on track and keeping things organized, so I'll help her get started and be sure that I know what her assignments are for the day, so I can keep checking her work and working with her on those things.

So, once I get her set up with her first subject, then I can go get my kindergartner and we can do some of his work. I have a video on how we do kindergarten. I I do a really simple version of it now that we have four kids. If you want to check that out, I'll leave a link below for that as well. So, we'll do some of his workbooks or hooked on phonics.

Occasionally, we'll do some hands-on activities. And then he's free to just play, which is how kindergarteners really learn most of their things, right? And then sometimes I'll turn on educational videos for him and the two-year-old. Sometimes we're turning on just fun shows for them to keep them occupied here and there while I'm working with my big kids. But we do keep a lot of toys upstairs, which I can't decide if I like that or hate that because no matter how much we clean, this room just turns into a disaster after every school day.

It's just crazy, but they love these these magnet tiles. They're like such a hit even with my nine- and seven-year-olds still. Everyone plays with them, but they also like are all over the place, so. I still really like how we have the desks set up in here. I'm not sure how we'll change it as everyone gets older, but right now I've got my desk facing my two big kids' desks.

And then behind me is a table for the little kids so they can come and draw and color and do workbooks and things on that. Okay, we are pretty much done with school. It's almost lunchtime. Maggie's got piano to finish up and then we'll eat lunch. So, that is what our morning looks like. Um, I didn't make you sit through uh the temper tantrum that my two-year-old had and some of the other discipline things with my five-year-old, uh but you know how it goes.

So, um typical morning. But it's been a good day. It's beautiful outside. As soon as they're done, I'm going to let them run free outside and then we'll have some lunch together. So, thank you guys so much for joining us today. I hope that you have a wonderful rest of your day. If you're new here, my name is Sarah and I like to do videos about homeschooling and life as a family of six and traveling as a family when we get to do that.

Um, so if that interests you, go ahead and hit that subscribe button below and join us here every week. Until next time. Bye.