Breakfast
I am not a morning person and never have been. My brain remains in a fog and it takes me about 30 minutes to wake up. Sometimes I lie there frustrated that I can’t remember the wonderful dream I had the night before. Sometimes I think up a whole novel, right in my head. Finally, I get up, wash my face, and get my three children dressed and ready for the day. I feed them all breakfast and then try to clean up and sweep. I like my mornings calm and quiet. I normally do not like to visit people.
My husband sometimes complains to me about my morning pattern. He tells me that women in the past would have never lived like that and that they had to get up even earlier. That made me think about the morning patterns of the women in the past.
My mother also hates mornings. She still woke up faithfully every morning to get us five children ready for school. She would always put on the weather channel so that I always connect jazz music to getting ready for school. After getting five children ready for school, she would sometimes wash dishes, and then take a nap. She would wake up, watch the news, and then the one soap opera she watches, The Young and the Restless. She also likes her mornings quiet and simple.
My grandmothers usually wake up early as well. I have no idea how Mimi, Daddy’s mother was when she was young. When I would stay with her as a teenager, she would always wake up early. Gee, my grandfather, liked to wake up early. Mimi would cook sausage and biscuits and drink orange juice every morning. I loved the way she said sausage and biscuits. It was always important that while I stayed with her I ate sausage and biscuits. They always had the television on in the background and woud read the newspapers. I don’t know if she watched soap operas.
My mom’s mother also wakes up early. I always remember her ironing something and fixing breakfast. I always wished that I had her energy in the mornings. After getting everyone fed and the clothes ready, the mornings are quiet. She used to babysit children in the morning so there was always kids shows on in the mornings. She also watched Young and the Restless at 11 AM.
I was curious about my great grandmothers. They woke up even earlier and cooked homemade biscuits. They usually lived on farms and had a lot of work to do in the mornings. They had to iron all of the clothes and fed their families large breakfasts so that the men had plenty of food in their bellies for their long working day. Some worked on farms, so were businessmen. Mornings for these women began at dawn and were extremely busy. They had their daughters and sometimes servants depending on the great grandparent help them out with all of the work they had to do. The great grandmothers did this work since they were young girls. They cooked, ironed, scrubbed, and cleaned all morning until everyone was off to work or school. In the later years, they would watch their soap operas during a break between chores. One of my great grandmothers watched The Young and the Restless. In earlier years, they would read a novel, visit friends and relatives, or sew.
These women are an inspiration for me. I admire the hard work they did every morning for their families more so because I so despise mornings. How did they do it pregnant, sick, or tired after taking care of an infant the night before? Now in the mornings I think about these women and use their examples to keep me pressing forward. I probably won’t wake up at 5 AM to make biscuits though.