How to Be Awesome at Your Morning Routine

My morning routine has evolved over the years.  At one point, it involved taking a shower every single morning.  (I've since moved that to nights, because then Brian is home to listen for Cricket.)  At another point, it involved a Caboodle full of makeup. (Dude!  They still make those!)   When I was teaching, it took almost exactly an hour for me to get ready.  Now, it takes 14 minutes.  Yeah.  You heard me.  Fourteen minutes from the moment I get out of bed to the moment I'm ready to walk out of the house.

I'm a freakin' morning ninja.

1)  The Basics

Wash face, brush teeth, put in contacts, etc.  Take 7 minutes.  (Eight if my contacts are being rebellious.) 

2)  Clothes

Getting dressed takes way less time than it used to for a couple of reasons.  One, I care way less about what I'm wearing these days.  And two, my clothes are clean, folded, and easy to find in my drawer, compared to when I was teaching and my clothes were clean and heaped in a gigantic pile beside my bed.  Fishing through to find matching socks or the specific shirt I needed took up a lot of time.  Not at all kidding.

Remember this post?

Now, pulling out and putting on a t-shirt and one of the like, two pairs of jeans I own takes 2 minutes.

3)  Hair

I would wear a ponytail every day, but my head is freakishly round.  Like, cartoonishly round.  Ponytails accentuate this to the point where I would be scared to hang out with soccer fans.  So usually I just pull back my would-be bangs.  (I haven't had real bangs since middle school, as a service to society.)  Takes 2 minutes.

4)  Makeup

It strikes me as odd that the older I get and the more I need makeup, the less of it I wear.  I would like to say this is because of my growing self-confidence and natural beauty, but it's really just because I care less and less.  Also, most of it would rub off on Cricket, which would look weird, so I'm down to eyeliner and mascara.  That's it.  Takes 3 minutes.  (Two minutes to apply, and one minute to get off the mascara that inexplicably always ends up on my face somewhere.)

And that's it!  After that, I'm ready for:

5)  Facebook/Blog/Email/Pinterest

45 minutes.