Are you a slugabed?

Today's word of the day: slugabed \SLUHG-uh-bed\, noun: One who stays in bed until a late hour; a sluggard.

Just this morning my sweet hubby asked me if I was getting enough sleep. Let me give you a little background here... See we've been married now for 23 years and he knows my sleep habits well. When we were first married I longed to sleep in until noon on Saturday while he was up early ready to go enjoy the weekend. He didn't quite understand that I was enjoying my weekend - sleeping. When I was growing up, my brothers used to have to drag me out of bed on Christmas morning. Don't get me wrong, I couldn't wait to see what Santa left me, but why did I have to get up at 5am?! I loved to sleep till at least noon- 1pm on the weekends when I was a teenager. I stayed up on Friday night to watch The Midnight Special (yes I am dating myself here) which didn't come on until - well Midnight. So I was up late which justified me sleeping late. Right? This drove my parents crazy.

But that's not the way things are now. I am actually waking up before the alarm goes off. I explained to my hubby that I wake up and can't fall back asleep so I get up. He started to laugh and I knew where he was going next. He said he remembered when I would set the alarm about 20 minutes before I had to get up just so I could hit the snooze button a few times before I actually got up. Come on now, I know there are those of you out there who have done this. I even know there are those of you (and me) who have set our clocks in the car 10 to 15 minutes fast just so we would not be late for work or church or where ever else we had to be. I told him, "Well I guess I'm just getting old. I can't lay in the bed all day anymore. Or maybe I've finally grown up."

Whatever the reason I have found this to be one of my favorite times of the day. I actually enjoy seeing the sun come up as I look out in my backyard. The house is quiet and still. There is no ESPN or Hannah Montana on the TV. I start my coffee and look out my kitchen window to see the mockingbirds. If you have not heard one of these birds in the morning outside your bedroom window, count your blessings. They are obnoxiously loud. Anyway, this is one of the sweet little gifts God has given me lately - the quiet time, not the mockingbirds. Uninterrupted quiet time. Time for me to just be say "Good Morning Lord".

So are you a slugabed?