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Morning. That inevitable start to every day. For me, it's usually a jolt back into the reality I've created for myself, and it's often not pretty. The kids' lunches are not made, and worse, I didn't even clean out their lunch bags from last night. Now they smell, the little plastic containers I'm going to need are not washed, and their ice packs have now thawed.

I don't have a shirt to wear (well, one that doesn't make me look like an unmade bed with it on), I have no clean socks and underwear (looks like I'm going to "double shift" a pair), and I'm out of deodorant and shaving cream. Looks like I'm using my wife's leg shaving cream (lovely peach smell) and trying to sneak a use of her deodorant, which for someone reason she finds revolting - I can't figure that out.

Living in Canada, we could have some other wonderful weather related surprises to add to the morning stress. The cars could be frozen solid, or worse, covered in inches of snow (because we can't put them in the garage - that's where we store all of our useless junk, leaving our multi-thousand dollar vehicles to survive in the elements). Getting the cars ready to drive on such a morning can take a good 20 mintues. Oh, and you may have to shovel the driveway and walk out too.

So, I think I've captured the problem - too much to do, not enough time. My tips, which I'm trying to follow, are to prepare as much for the following morning as you reasonably can the night before. Have a shirt laundered and ironed for yourself, and as much as possible, set out the clothes you're going to wear. Have your kids do the same thing and set their clothes out. If you make lunches, make as much ahead of time as you can. Try to get to bed earlier, get up earlier, and when all else fails, make sure you have a big pot of strong coffee brewed.

Learn more about this author, Rob Terry.
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