What is it with "Mom's quiet time"?

Ah, the coveted "Quiet Time". A time to pray, read, blog.  As a mom of 4 boys, it's something that has to be fought for. Even my mom commented at 11:30PM, "Wow, I guess you really don't get any quiet time !" Some days I feel like Igrane The Brave. I feel like I have to put on a suit of armor, get on a horse and ride off to fight the quiet-time-eating-dragon!  I wonder if Cornelia Funke would do me the honor of rewriting her story so Igrane (me) slays my dragon and rides back to the castle, pulls up the drawbridge and heads up the tower to devour some delicious "single-thought-at-a-time-in-my-head-time".

Examples:

1: early riser boy, Dakota.  He senses a shift in the air pressure when I cross the livingroom to my lukewarm coffee pot and "PING!" He's on the hunt for mom and  a bowl cereal. He accompanied me through every single paper I wrote for my writing class this year and chattered away as I wrote rough drafts,edited, proofread EVERY paper. I consider that my "bootcamp training" for being a teacher. (I love the little guy so much I do appreciate his chatter- after breakfast)

2:wish-I-was-an-early-riser-Wyatt.  Has more than once interrogated and instructed me with these words, "Mom, do you  get up way early before everyone else? Well, wake me up ok? I want to have cereal and play outside!"

I'm really wearing this as I write!

3:houseguests  I love em' but only after 6:30am and one cup of coffee. A few years back, one guest asked, "Do you and Chris get up early for coffee? Like 5:30am? Well, wake me up! I'd LOVE to have coffee with you guys!" (how do I type out a nasal-y-not-a-chance-snicker? phnnnnkkknsh!) I've also had a 5:30 am request to charge an electronic device "since you're up"  by a housguest  that got up, requested, went potty, and went back to sleep.

4:pets Even my dog wants to get up early and be taken out when I tiptoe by. However recently, I've volunteered to babysit two lovebirds for the summer that "SQUAAAAAK" the second they hear the chime of Windows7 on my laptop. I find myself going outside and closing the door behind me so I can concentrate on projects. These guys literally rattle my eardrums. The neighbors three houses away laughed and said they can hear them!

5:friends  On the first morning that the boys did not have summerschool (their official first day of summer) they were blissfully sleeping late (except Dakota) and an old neighbor boy was staying with some friends for a week, comes over and knocks on their bedroom window, knocks on the front door and makes the dog bark.  A while later, a very considerate neighbor boy is sweetly tip-toeing on the porch to see if we are up yet. I peeked my head out the door and let him know the boys were still in dreamland. I had yet to get through that first cup of coffee or semi-quiet before the first boy returned to knock again and get the dog barking.

It's not that I don't love all these pets and people,actually I'm thankful that we've finally made friends and our boys are in demand -  it's just those moments when I try to sneak in some quiet that I wish the sandman would visit them all, human and animal, and sprinkle some sleepy-dust - just enough for me to shake off my grogginess with a cup of joe, then I throw open the front door welcome them all to buzz in and out for the day.

So that explains why many of my posts happen at 2:30 AM and why my interrupted thoughts look like Morse Code...---...----..---!

How about you all, how do you sneak in your quiet time?