6:57 a.m.

Every. Single. Morning.

This is when Blake, my alarm clock, goes off each morning. Without fail. No weekend sleep-ins, no pressing snooze. It does not matter if the child goes to bed at 7:30 or 10:00 - the consequence is not a different wake-up time simply a different level of grumpiness for him throughout the day. The consequence of "snooze" (letting Trenton get him out of the crib and putting a pillow over my ears while he yells "ma-mee, ma-mee, ma-mee,") is often a messy diaper and a diaper rash to battle for the next 3 days. It does not matter how dark the room is, how warmly he is clothed, what he has eaten the night before or whose house we are in, and he is certainly no respecter of vacations.

Now I realize you early morning seminary parents think I have nothing to complain about, but your 5:30-5:45 wake up time is not 365 days of the year. You have fall break, spring break, summers off, 3 day weekends, every weekend for that matter and winter vacation - things to look forward to.

I also realize it could be worse. It could be 5:57. That would be bad. And I am also fully aware this season of my life is better than seeing that clock at 1:45 and 5:00 facing a hungry baby. So I'm not necessarily complaining, just stating the fact that during this season of my life I have a relentless, unforgiving alarm clock. And sometimes I wish that once, just once I could look at the clock and it would say 7:45 or 8:30 or 9:15 or something delightful like that.