Night Owl

That’s me, I’m a night owl. My grandma (more commonly known as Gramma) really likes owls and she always says that she is a night owl. Now, I honestly don’t know if she likes owls because they are nocturnal or if it is for some other reason but she likes them so much that she has a stuffed one on her wall. When I was a kid, she told me that I was a night owl just like “Gramma”, and I was so proud of that! I loved spending the night at Gramma’s because she stayed up late with me. I loved it so much that I wrote a children’s book for a high school assignment about it and I read that story to my kids now.

I am a little less proud of being a night owl now. I am not less proud of being like Gramma, I just wish that I was more of a morning person. There isn’t really any season of my life that I can remember enjoying getting out of bed early. But on days that I have, I have felt so accomplished! Like somehow there was more time in the day. Technically there isn’t more time between 6 am – 10 pm and 8 am -12 am but there is something about getting things done before noon that seems more impressive to me.

In the fall, I love the smell of the crisp morning. In the spring, I love to see the dew. In the summer, I love to garden before the sun gets so hot. In the winter... I can’t think of any reason to get up in the dark and cold… My point is, I love mornings but I typically love my bed more. So, most of the time, I wait until my kids get up to start my day (and my coffee). Then, at the end of the day, I take my “me time” while the kids are asleep. This is why you often see my posts go up so late in the day.

As you may have already guessed, I sometimes cook during my “me time”. Like tonight. Tomorrow holds a day of running errands and then just spending some time playing as a family. Now, my husband is often working at dinner time during the week so I enjoy making him nice meals on the weekends. In order to accomplish such a thing on a day that I don’t want to be in the kitchen, I did my prep work tonight so I can just dump my ingredients in the slow cooker tomorrow. Prepping at night is a fairly regular thing for me. Sometimes I want to have something ready for my husband to take to work, sometimes I have appointments or events the next day, and sometimes I want fresh baked goods for breakfast (but we all know I am not getting up at the crack of dawn to start a yeast bread).

Back in my introduction at the start of this blog, you may remember me talking about the book “Start” by Jon Acuff. The author’s question, “what can you not stop doing?” is part of what inspired me to write this thing. Of course, my answer is still cooking; I can’t stop cooking, even at bed time. Cooking is relaxing and calming to me; not in a way that makes me sleepy, but in a way that makes me feel like it is good for my soul.