Back to School Routine

In the last weeks of October and the first weeks of September, more than half of all the bloggers I follow post a mini course, ebook or other type of publication beyond a simple blog on the topic of **surviving overwhelm**. This so obviously coincides with Back to School Season, and yes it is a season! Whether you homeschool, send your children off to school or are still enjoying the years of having an infant or toddler at home with you, the Back to School Season will affect you so you need to prepare yourself!

As summer was winding down, I fully committed to preparing not only my mind, but also every space that surrounds me for the Back to School Season. It truly was a family effort. Skip to the bottom to view the actionable steps that might inspire you to create your own Back to School Season plan!

Meal Planning for Back to School

Planning, shopping, washing, prepping, cooking, storing, eating and cleaning it up--food definitely takes up a large portion of the day. Having tried Once a Month Meals three months in a row during the end of winter this year, I thought it might be the perfect addition to my typical food routine of using Real Plans meal planning. I created a customized meal plan that would start the Tuesday after Labor Day. I happened to want to do the 21 Day Sugar Detox at the same time so I choice meals that would be Whole30/Paleo approved. Thankfully, this is really easy to do on OAMM!

After selecting the plan, I took the time to type out every single recipe from the 21 Day Sugar Detox and add them to my meal planner within Real Plans. As the start date grew near, I edited the subscription dinner plans in my weeks to make sure they would be 21 Day Sugar Detox approved. Most were--except for some of the amazing desserts.

After creating these plans for myself, I chose a shop date, prep date and a cook date for making the OAMM magic happen.

Clean and Tidy

Having recently finished reading Marie Kondo: The Life-Changing Art of Tidying Up  and doing her method of purging the house, things have been pretty tidy. Every year I do have to refresh the homeschool room and clear out the work that my girls have surpassed. I take some time to rearrange, label things and make a short list of supplies that we might need. Most of my time on this task involved ordering books and such for our next school year.

I do a monthly kitchen pantry/fridge/freezer inventory. I did this right before making my OAMMs to make sure I didn't overbuy any food. This is a good time to organize the other shelves too while you are in there digging around!

As part of KonMarie-ing the house, we went through the children's clothing to remove pieces they no longer like to wear or that don't fit. We also brought in the toddler's hand me downs. I made a very small list of items the three of them will need for fall and winter. It is great to have three girls so that every item gets passed down. We sure get our money's worth out of every purchase!

Finally, I packed up our fall gear and placed them in my lidded tote. Inside that tote we have three pairs of rain pants, four rain jackets, three pairs of rain boots and our typical first aid kit. Oh and my husband completely cleaned out the van. Yay!

Schedule and Plan for Back to School

A morning routine and a daily routine are absolutely essential for all Crunchy Super moms. My routines keep the same basic format but I do check myself frequently to make sure I am being efficient. Having a planner dedicated to homeschooling has helped me out a great deal. I also use the app 30/30 to time myself on my projected daily plan. I am pretty much in love with this little gadget and the kids love it too! I created a task list for each day of the week and allotted a specific amount of time to each task. So from morning until I go to bed, we pretty much operate along with a timer. This sounds hyper-scheduled, I am sure, but it doesn't feel that way at all. The girls enjoy hearing the "choo-choo" alarm that I have chosen and they like knowing that as soon as the sound is heard, it is time to finish whatever they are doing. I love having the timer set up because I know that we have enough time in our day to fit in all that we want to do--and that includes the very important outside time...and down time! It seems like an oxymoron to have a timer and plan for down time, but in a busy house like ours, this is really the best way.

The app is definitely *not* for everyone. If I weren't also a work-at-home mom on top of my homeschool mom and whole food cooking mom roles, I probably wouldn't even consider using such an app.

My paper planner for the previous school year was an Erin Condren planner. I did enjoy it but there were things it lacked. I actually ordered TWO planners this year. One is a blogger planner that I hope to use for all of my "work" planning including my volunteer work. The other is a homeschool minded planner. Look for a post on the blog about these two products.

Within the planner, I made sure to write down all important events coming up for the next two months. I try not to schedule too far out in advance but if I take the time now to work on next month, then it will not be "next month" already when I find more time to make plans for us.

The start of the Back to School Season is so much like New Year's Day for me, and I am sure it feels the same for many other busy families. There is no reason not to make resolutions and changes at the start of this season. Why put off until tomorrow what you can do today!?!?

Back to School Actionable Steps

1. Create a meal plan and consider once a month cooking.
2. Clean out the van/car and tidy up your house. If you don't have time for a deep clean of all areas, try focusing on the most important areas like the kitchen, school related areas and possibly the children's closets.
3. Prepare the van for more frequent outings. Consider a stash of emergency water and snacks in case you find yourself staying out later than planned.
4. Create your schedule or weekly plan for the next two months. Write it down! Electronic calendars are handy but writing things down will make it easier for you to remember what you have done or will be doing.