Haynes 1

Tanya W Haynes
Professor Brenda Stephens
Engl 1053 Writing for Adults
28 April 2014
IAM L8
Listening to the kids sing along to their favorite gospel song as we coast down I-85 in
pre-morning rush hour traffic is pure bliss. Orchestrating this beautiful medley of one soprano
and one alto-tenor accompanied by Kirk Franklin is no small feat. It is instead, one performance
that had escaped us more often than not. As a family, we have analyzed the problem and
developed a solution that has given us more Kirk Franklin-gospel-song-belting mornings than we
thought was even possible. We have concluded that our key times to ensuring stress free
mornings are 9:30pm, 6:00am and 7:20am.
Setting the children bedtime at no later than 9:30 was the first step in obtaining the
elusive blissful morning commute. With the children getting older, their involvement in
afterschool activities had grown. Their extracurricular activities were causing everything else to
be pushed back later. Finishing up homework, eating dinner, and getting baths was pushing their
bedtime closer to 11pm and even later when projects needed to be completed. It became
necessary to rearrange some things in order to meet the goal of a 9:30 bedtime. Picking them up
right after school allowed more time to complete homework and work on projects. Leaving the
television off once they arrived home from practice allowed them to get baths and eat dinner
without distraction. Only after they were ready for bed could they engage in television watching
until their bed time. Hugs, kisses and I love you complete their nightly routine. Getting them in
bed by 9:30 has made their 6:00am wake up calls much easier.
Comment [BS1]: Dont use 1
st
person
pronouns.
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Haynes 2

Three alarm clocks go off at 6:00am every morning except weekends. Snooze buttons are
allowed to be pushed once or twice, but never thrice. Hugs and kisses are given at the start of
every morning. Periodic checks are made to ensure that everyone is keeping on track with their
morning routine. Everyone has a specific job to do in the morning as part of their routine. My
sons job is to fix breakfast for his sister and himself. If time permits, then he will also fix
breakfast for me. My job is to warm up the car, help carry out book bags, athletic bags, breakfast
and make sure all lights are off. My daughters job is to get herself ready and be ready to leave
out of the door at 7:20am.
Leaving the house at 7:20am was the last key to having a blissful morning commute. It is
critical that we leave the house at 7:20, otherwise, we could get caught-up in the morning school
traffic that could cause us to run late. Getting two children and myself out the door by 7:20am
can be hectic at times, but adding the rule that you are either ready or left home helped out a
lot. The children quickly learned that being left home wasnt as appealing when the
consequences were explained.
We enjoy our Kirk Franklin filled mornings much more since we figured out that three
key times are all that was need to make them possible. Some mornings I see the black Nissan
300ZX, that was once my road buddy on late mornings, darting in and out of traffic. I see his
license plate IAM L8 pull away from us and I am thankful for our 9:30pm, 6:00am and 7:20am
routine that gives us blissful stress-free mornings.

Set this up as a family, not your own family to avoid the 1
st
person pronouns.
Comment [BS8]: I love this sentence!
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Comment [BS13]: Nice!
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