This story is written as a possibility...

I awoke from sleep with a little yawn and a stretch. The alarm had not gone off yet. As was typical, I swung my legs around and got out of bed with a hop in my step. To me this ensures that the little yawn will go away quickly and I get a jump on the day. Walking over to the sink, I look at the clock. Five o'clock it says, well, 4:58, but that's normal. The alarm will go off at six, just to keep the pace of the morning going. My partner lays sleeping, and I let her sleep until the alarm goes off, when I go gently wake her from her sweet slumber, with kisses and a gentle hug. She is loved.

Our children are sleeping in the room down the hall. I am quiet in the morning before the alarm goes off. I use headphones to catch up on some entertaining shows and listen to TED talks. The coffee maker was preset from the night before to begin its brewing at 5am. It takes a few minutes for the coffee to brew, and that gives me time to do 20 pushups. They are clap pushups, and they leave me with a pumped feeling in my chest and the blood flowing through my body, waking my whole system with a roar of movement, power, change, growth, and mental fortitude knowing that small acts of pushing myself reap the huge benefits of how my mind perceives the world, the abilities I grant to myself, and the permissions I give myself are all dependent on my belief in myself to accomplish the hard things over time and stick with them to see the benefit. This is why we do pushups. The coffee is ready.

I take my coffee with a little sugar. Coffee without sugar is like life without woman. It's bitter alone, and it could use just a little sweetness.

The time goes by in the morning; this hour for me draws to a close. The hour of awakening is nearly upon us. I am ready; coffee, pushups, learned something, go time. I am near the alarm before it sounds, and this is for reason. This plan was thought through as the best way to effect a gentle wake-up because a rude awakening is something none of us would appreciate. The alarm goes off, and I'm quick to press the snooze button so as to start the timer. Every 10 minutes we will be reminded of the passage of time, and I find this super helpful in moving the events of the morning along. The morning is broken into 10-minute increments. Shake off morning fog, 10min. Shower, 10min. Dressed, 10min. Breakfast, 3x10min. There's the first hour of the post-alarm day. This is an ideal, and I can't say the plan works every day. The beauty here is the flexibility built in. And that flexibility is needed because after my beautiful, amazing wife wakes up, our children are getting up. And while she is shaking off the morning fog, pouring a cup of coffee, I am getting the kids up. "Hey, Hey kiddos. It's coffee time..." Well, maybe no coffee for the kids. Just going in to their room and getting them up and moving. They need to wash up and get dressed for the day as well. The older one, she can do most things for herself. But our youngest, he's not quite to getting his own clothes on yet. It'll be a fun time when he's learning how to pick out his own outfits. For now, we'll have to take care of that for him. If you look at his outfits, most days you can tell which one of us dressed him by the colors worn and the potentially non-coordinating colors of the outfits that were chosen by me.

Breakfast is on this list and is allotted three 10min time slots. This is a goal, we can call it. The breakfast time allocation runs on kid time, two kid time at that. Luckily for us, they enjoy the egg sandwiches that dad makes, and mom agrees that dad's egg sandwiches are the best. On the weekends sometimes, when we have more time, I'll make pancakes for the family and we get to have a morning activity where it used to be just mom and me, and as they've gotten older, the kids join in the fun, and the fun can be a mess sometimes. The thought of those days fills my face with a smile and my heart with joy. I understand only barely how meaningful these moments will be to them, and to me. This breakfast is moving though, we've got the toast toasting, we've got the eggs coming out one at a time, this is restaurant style. We've talked about getting me a second pan so I can crank out 2 eggs at the same time. I don't think we need it, and she thinks I'd love it. She might be right, and I still can feel satisfied with the one, until the Christmas where she got me that second egg pan. Oh man, she loves me, and tears wanted to pour from my eyes in this moment for that feeling of connection and shared joy. Ah, the eggs! Okay that's two eggs finished, one more for the lady of the house, and finally some quick scrambleds for me.

Of course there are the mornings of special excitement, if someone doesn't feel well, when life is tough, when we're tired from the night before and all of this feels like more than usual. In those days, we rely on each other. She keeps me going and allows me the moment of rest when I need rest, she supports me through these times. I need to slow down and take the time so as to not burn out. These mornings are a treasured part of this family for me, and the morning is the foundation for the rest of the day. We can start with love and finish with love. This is a happy beginning to a happy day. And even though I love the thought of how deep and meaningful these moments are, I must get back to this moment because the last eggs are ready. Then we gotta get out this door to get the kids to school. The rest of the day is unfolding before me, and I don't want to miss a single moment.