top of the morning to you

This has been a challenging semester for Ben. His wife is growing larger (and more clumsy and more awkward and taking up more space in the bed) daily. He is also taking a very demanding class for his masters degree. Lots of reading. Lots of papers. I'm learning a fair bit about the current heath care crisis just by listening to him process it all. Needless to say, Ben is spending a good bit of his time preparing for his Tuesday evening class. So this has become our morning routine:
Ben wakes up an hour before I do, makes coffee, sits himself in our easy chair in the living room and studies. This is a new thing in our marriage. Ben has always appreciated the theoretical beauty of early morning. He has felt very little need to experience it personally. You could say perhaps that in our marriage the "early bird moved into the late night owl's nest" (Andy Gullahorn). But Ben has been up early nearly every morning. I find him settled into he easy chair with computer on his lap and coffee in his hand.
I take my mulivitamin, take my shower; Ben is typing. We usually eat breakfast together. We read together. Ben may or may not go back to his studying. I get ready for work and make our lunches. We are usually heading out the door for work at about the same time. I like this arrangement.

I invite you to imagine with me how different our morning schedules are going to be in just 10 short weeks!