Meditation--trying it again

I'm trying again to meditate daily.  And also to practice yoga in the morning, after meditating (OK, and after going to Starbucks and drinking a tall mocha).  I've learned that if I don't meditate pretty early in the day, I'll find too many reasons not to--and/or I won't have the time without being interrupted.  For about a week now I've been meditating for 20 minutes, around 7:10-7:30am.  At that point I'll have read the paper (or papers if the WSJ turns up, but it usually doesn't), and my husband will be back from walking the dog.  So he'll be upstairs getting dressed, the dog will be (relatively) calm, and my son won't be up yet.  And I know when my 20 minutes is up because his alarm will go off around 7:29.  I'm sure it's against some meditation rule to mark time with a blaring alarm, but works for me--I don't end up opening my eyes after 15 minutes, and then opening them again about every minute lest I go beyond 20.  Which is all I can tolerate.  My mind gets so noisy--today I went over some dialogue from a listening session I had a few days ago with some parents whose young adult children have a mental illness; thought about what to cook for Sunday dinner, went over yoga teaching techniques in my head...and those are the ones I can remember.  I have a hard time redirecting to the mantra and breathing.  As I continue longer I'll see if my mind calms down.  At least for 20 minutes...