Making it work

We are so grateful for our little one bedroom apartment. For this season it has been what we have needed; giving us some space to process and be family. All the closeness however has brought on some new "techniques" for making life work. Our typical morning routine these days:
4:45 a.m. a VERY loud call to prayer
4:50 a.m. Elli wakes up frustrated with the VERY loud call to prayer
4:52 a.m. Mom gets Elli settled back down
5-5:10 a.m. 2 VERY large planes skim over our apartment. Elli stirs again, frustrated, but quiets back down.
5:20 a.m. a repeat of the VERY loud call to prayer
5:25 a.m. Elli is now officially sick of it. She nurses and is back fast asleep, much happier with life.
6:00 a.m. the alarm goes off (followed by several snoozes) :)
between 5:50-6:10 a.m. Ethan wakes up, comes to the edge of our bed "Mommy, I want to watch cartoons" (his current DVD is Lion King 1 1/2)
6:15 a.m. Lion King is running on Mom's computer and I've sucessfully snuck through the bedroom to the kitchen to make some coffee
6:30 a.m. Sitting down to have a quiet time

But in the picture you see a pair of bright orange ear plugs. The coffee helps me make it after the series of wake-ups with Elli. The ear plugs . . . they help keep Lion King out so I can try and get more Jesus in. :)