Early to bed! Early to Rise!

I am learning a new little trick about life. I am dense so sometimes it takes me longer to figure things out and this one might be a little obvious but it is helping me so I am going to say it! :-) So, I've timed my morning routine, for me to have a good quiet time, workout, pray, eat breakfast, shower and get ready it takes me 2.5 hours without any wasted time from wake-up to the office. About one hour for quiet time, 45 minutes for workout, 15 minutes for breakfast, 22 minutes for getting ready and about 7 minutes from the door of my house to the door of the office. Do I sound anal? Well, I want to be to the office by 8:00am each morning so that I can get home with my work done by 5:30pm. Two days a week I meet with some men from South Bay Church at 7:30am. All of this to say, in the past I would get up at 5:30 and kick myself because I couldn't do it more than 3-4 days in a row. I am learning that a part of my morning routine is really protecting my evening routine. So this means that after Caedmon is put to bed at 8pm Stacie and I spend the next 20-25 minutes getting everything for the next morning ready. Clothes for work day laid out(for me), coffee grounded and ready to go, workout clothes laid out, faces washed and teeth brushed (yes I brush my teeth before bed). After that I have about 30 minutes or so that I can either read a book, pray, watch an episode of the office or talk with Stacie. If I don't protect my nights I am in trouble for disciplining myself in the morning. If I am rigorous about my evenings it is much easier to be disciplined with the start of my next day. I want to also say, there is a difference between being disciplined and legalistic. This is not legalistic, because I am doing it out of a desire to honor God and make the most of my week and my life! Anyways, may seem overly simple but this line of thinking is helping bring discipline to my mornings and my desire to honor God with my time.