{ ME-time }

I don't know about the rest of you but it seems as though in the summer ME-time is almost always replaced with Family-time or Keep the kids occupied-time or host visitors from out of town-time. One of the things I look forward to in the fall is a return to routine and the ability to schedule in some more pockets of self-care. We all need to create within our day time that matters to us. I try to spend 15 minutes at the start of each day prioritizing how I spend my time. What I need to get done. What matters the most. What I want the rythm of the day to bring. Its not that there aren't times I'm an over caffeinated under downward dogged kind of girl...there are. During those times, everything catches me off guard and I spend all of my time putting out fires. And I find myself saying that I have no time for what really matters to me.

Fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes is fifteen minutes. Spend that time doing something that matters. Spend that time on YOU. Spend that fifteen minutes organizing your head for the day in whatever manner you like...perhaps you are a list maker like me. Spending fifteen minutes prioritizing your time and poof, the fabric of time will abundantly provide for you and all that matters to you.

Once I am able to do this I notice immediately, that I find myself on my yoga mat more frequently, reading to my kids more often, sitting in meditation daily.

Treat yourself. Plan your day. Start now. You have fifteen minutes. Go.

{ feed ME }

This is a pretty simple but oh so important concept to remember as you plan your weekly meals, grocery shopping outings and back to school lunches. The key here is {don't buy the crap}. If you have a bag of Oreo's in the pantry, there is just not enough WILL POWER to stay away from it. But if there aren't Oreo's and there is only a bowl of fresh fruit, you'll be FORCED ;-) to grab and apple. The same goes for kids food. Until they are old enough to go to the store and buy their own food, there is no reason they should dictate what is brought home from the store. I hear countless times a day, "But my kids only eat hot dogs, chips and popsicles." WHAT?!?@?! I guarantee you that if you stop buying that crap and put REAL food in front of them, sooner or later they are going to start eating what is available. They won't starve until they figure it out. So, bottom line, just don't buy it in the first place. Stock your home with REAL food, fruit, veggies, etc.

image via here.

{ fresh start }

I love, love the start of a new school year. And one of our favorite traditions is the end of the summer great purge. We give/throw away what we no longer need, and clean and reorganize what we do use. We spend several days over break doing this. Its so good to start the school year off with a fresh, clean slate...and creating space for new ideas & time for new activities, etc.

Anyone else love to purge at the start of a new school year?

image via peg and rail

{ my sentiments exactly }

image via here

{ back to school }

WHAT?!!? Back to school time already? Every year I think that summer goes by way too fast... I adore having the kids around way more than they are during the school year. At the same time, we have had ZERO routine this summer and I am craving a bit more structure to the day so that I can work more normal hours, work out on a regularly scheduled basis and get the kids to bed earlier. We're going to squeeze in one more camping night, a few more trips to the pool, one zip line adventure, one more day on the river and one night making our own icecream! And then...its back to school time!

Our lives are falling into place as I hoped they would when we made some big decisions earlier this year (to sell LobotoME, to try to sell our rental properties, to get rid of stuff holding us down, etc.) The LobotoME sale/transition happens in early September. We've got 2 more big races to produce this year including our new series which we are super excited about and I've got 2 more races I'm running in. The biz is sold, the airstream isn't sold but we've had fun using it while its still ours, one of our rental properties is listed, we've sold & donated more stuff, we are booked to spend a month this winter in Mexico (cannot wait) and back to school organization has commenced. The kids are going to the same school this year which is awesome and will make life so much easier with one drop off & pick up location.

Anyway, a few quick things while I'm thinking of them and a few things we do to get the kids excited about the new school year.

- While you're stocking up on school supplies, pick up extra while they are on sale for Operation Christmas Child boxes in November.

- While planning your weekly family schedule this fall, we like to not plan more than 2 nights a week where we are at an activity. The kids each get one "non-school activity (eg. soccer, swim lessons, tap lessons, etc.) and Sam gets an additional "afterschool activity" (eg. art class at school, girls volunteer group, etc.) In my opinion, kids are way overscheduled and this has been our families way to combat that by limited the activity each "season" to ONE per week. Here's another post I've written about this topic.

- Visit some of my former posts about healthy school lunch ideas here and here.

- We always give small back to school gifts for teachers {Sanity Saving Kits} - a bottle of smartwater (thanks for making me smart tag), a coffee gift card (hope this year is a latte fun tag), lotion (hope this year goes smoothly for you tag), hand sanitizer, healthy granola snack, Save ME notepad, etc.

- We always have a back to school celebration dinner the night before school starts! I think this is a great way to get kids excited about school, to talk about what their goals are for the school year and what the plan is for school & activities.

- The school fairy always visits our house the night before school starts and leaves the kids a new backpack & lunch box and a first day of school outfit.

image via here.