Don’t FALL into Autumn Without Being Prepared
As all parents know, the start of school means that fall is right around the corner and the days seem to grow shorter and shorter. With sports practices, performances, extracurricular activities, and everything in between - finding time to sit down as a family for a single meal can pose a challenge. Although things are ramping up, don’t let yourself get too stressed out and overwhelmed. With a daughter out on her own, a daughter in the midst of a college career, and one last kiddo in high school, I have learned a thing or two about how to manage your time, energy, resources, and stress.
Here are some of my tips for getting prepared to fall into this season:
1. Schedule, prioritize, and don’t demonize
It might sound simple and clique, but you can’t be everywhere at once. There will come a day when you have to divide and conquer or pick one kid’s performance over another’s tennis match and guess what???? The world is not going to end.
Sit down with the schedules for all your kids, spouse, partner, friends, and your own and pick and choose where you need to be and when. Although I think you are magical and our kids think we have superpowers - the mom mobile can only go so fast and so far. Don’t hate yourself for having to manage schedules because you can’t be everywhere at once - so just plan, organize, and schedule.
2. Stock up
With school back in session, my house always seems to become a revolving door of kids coming from school, practices, sleepovers, and group projects. With more people comes more of a need to be flexible and stay prepared. When you are out on your next grocery run or find yourself at Costco - grab some extra snacks to stock your pantry to feed the many mouths that are running from place to place. An extra trick of the trade: keep a snack bin in the back of your trunk with granola bars, bottled water, Gatorade, and other energy snacks that are perfect for on the go. Here are some of my favorite bins to keep things organized in my mom mobile (watch out - trademark pending lol 😂).
Shop here.
Shop here.
Shop here.
Extra cool mom points for a cooler that keeps things cold throughout the day, match, game, etc.
If you are already ready for some Halloween tricks and treats, visit my blog post all about Halloween treats that are easy to make and a great way to get your kiddos involved in the kitchen.
3. Bend, not break:
Going into the height of busy season for kids can be very demanding and extremely overwhelming. Don’t forget that overcommitting only hurts yourself and you have to keep yourself well first. As moms, we tend to push and go and push past what we should for the sake of our kids, households, partners, and friends. In the end, the people we hurt most are ourselves so stay flexible and remember that “no” is a complete sentence. Treat yourself to a fall candle, a massage, or just a night of cocktails out with a friend…OR cozy up and go see a new movie in the theater…we all want to live in Barbie’s Dream House, right?! We all know that sometimes things are just gluesticked together and that is ok!
