September is a great month for a re-boot. Here are a few ideas for September.
Set goals for the month or for the fall. I like making a list of fall recipes reflecting the change in season and the harvest bounty. My favorite fresh marinara sauce makes good use of ripe tomatoes.
Consider signing up for a fall class to learn something new - photography, yoga, cooking, dancing, using essential oils, swimming, knitting, or mastering a lifelong goal.
Discover a new exercise routine. This fall I am focusing on yoga! I've been aspiring to do this for so long. I know my body will thank me later.
Return someone's cart at the grocery store.
Prepare two weeks of dinners and put them in the freezer. I love having dinners prepped and in the freezer during the busy fall months of soccer and football games. This lovely cookbook transformed my Freezer Cooking with not only wonderful recipes but also plans that specify how to complete multiple recipes specified time allotments. I love this cookbook - Not Your Mother's Make-Ahead Freezer Cookbook by Jessica Fisher.
Give yourself a breast self-exam (visit komen.org for a refresher of what to look and feel for). Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in women ages 40-55 but many women before that age range as well. This is a great resource for noticing warning signs and detecting Susan G. Komen for the Cure Breast Self Exam Detection.
Hold an emergency evacuation or fire drill in your home. While you are at it, test those smoke alarms!
Make a new friend. I encourage my kids to keep their eyes out for kids who may not be included at lunch or in social settings and to reach out and include them, especially at the beginning of the school year. This can be a stretch, but what a friendly conversation can lead to a new connection. At the very least, spread cheer by smiling and making eye contact with those you meet.
Check out Cozi - a great free tool for keeping an entire family connected via scheduling and calendar reminders and updates utilizing an app and online calendar.
Clean your microwave. For a great, fresh scent microwave a cut lemon in a little water, then use the lemon to help cut grease.
Brainstorm a list of favorite dinners and plan a month's worth of menus. I recently made a list of "Better Than Takeout" meals using items I have on hand. These quick, throw-down meals come from items I routinely keep on hand in the pantry, freezer or fridge. Yes, they can be as basic as chicken quesadillas!
Schedule a family photo. It's been two years since we have all been in a "real" photo together. Too long.
Take a little time to schedule time for yourself for a little self-care. Maybe that means carving out an hour to read a book, go on a hike, or to spend doing what you love. Summer can take a toll on me, even though I love the hustle and bustle. It's important to take a little pause every now and then.
Update calendars with school closures, early release dates, conferences, vacations, graduations and field trips. My oldest graduates in June and I am dreading putting that date on my own calendar.
We are gearing up for our annual trek to California for a family reunion and thought we'd share some of our survival and road trip sanity ideas when traveling with kids.
Cousins fishing at the Annual Family Reunion
My sweet mother-in-law Cindy raised seven children - 6 boys and one girl! During those childrearing years, she and my father-in-law traveled across the country from California to Washington D.C. with all the children in tow! (Talk about road trip survival experts.)
When we were gearing up for our first 10-hour trip with four kids in tow, she shared her wonderful idea for 50 Mile Bags. They are ingenious for maintaining sanity on road trips with kids in tow and for avoiding the relentless, "How much longer?" questions.
You start with a paper bag packed full of goodies, treats and car activities for each child (I learned that each child needed their own bag after the first round of tears from a favorite piece of candy nabbed by the first set of paws grabbing the bag.) No one is allowed to ask how much longer until... questions. Rather, the co-pilot gets the job of announcing each time 50 miles has passed that it is time to reach into their stash for the next treat. I can't tell you how much fun these bags have been over the years on our annual trek to family reunions and holiday gatherings.
50 Mile Treat Bags for long road trips!
One year I hit the jackpot and found kid movies to tuck in each bag along with the normal favorite treats. I typically break the rules on my limited candy and anti-soda campaigns and allow a little bit of sweets to surprise the recipients upon first inspection of their bags.
A variation of this that I want to try this year, now that the kids are much older involves putting a map on the back of the seat with various towns/cities along the route circled. The kids will now be able to determine when we reach the town or destination for their 50 mile treats, by watching for road signs and clues along the way while honing their map skills.
50 Mile Bags include:
Gum
Beef Jerkey
Individual Juice Bottles
Dried Fruit
Trail Mix packs/Granola Bars
Rice cakes
Pirate Booty, Goldfish or Pretzel Bags
Cookies
Favorite Candy Bars
Licorice - they actually have naturally flavored, old-fashioned licorice now without dyes!
Small Games/Brain Challenges or Mad Libs
Favorite Snacks and treats
Movies, Magazines or Books
Even though my kids range in age from 12-15, I am still finding myself packing 50 mile bags as it's tradition but now the kids are old enough to share from one big bag and understand prioritizing goodies and snacks amongst themselves.
I sure love being the copilot next to these two guys - both focused on the open road!
Recently, I read a great idea for packing Travel Activity Bags so I went about packing a large tote from thirty-one gifts that will be ready for our summer road trips.
I love these amazing totes and bags that come from thirty-one gifts via my friend Kambria.
Our Travel Activity Bag packed and ready to roll.
Our Travel Activity Bag includes:
CD Music Options - We love to play Name that Tune as a family and over the years the kids have been exposed to a plethora of music that they may have never opted to listen to but now can rattle off song titles and artists like "nobody's business"!
I love compiling summer play lists for road trips and recently asked for input from friends and family on social media outlets leading to our exposure to some great new and old music.
Headphones
DVD Player - even though we have a car-mounted DVD player, we can't always get unanimous decisions from both girls and both boys as to how they spend several hours invested in movies so this serves as a back-up for those occasions.
Thermal Insulated Snack Box - packed with snacks and water bottles
Pens and Pencils for games, notes and scavenger hunts or license plate games.
Hand-Wipes
Small games - portable checkers and mancala for example
Books on CD borrowed from the library
Gum
Reusable Water Bottles
DVD Movie Options
Our Car Cooler fits between seats and holds heavy snacks and sandwich makings requiring refrigeration, yogurt, fresh fruit and vegetables and cold beverages to help us avoid unncessary stops. Our kids love summer sausage and cheeses so those are usually tucked in as well. The cooler also has garbage bags, plastic silverware, a knife, a small cutting board, napkins and wet wipes in the pockets.
We love being able to have snacks for our trek because we wouldn't have to stop and wake the dog!
Fun Travel Games that we enjoy playing include:
Name that Tune using playlists or CD compilations. We play the song until someone belts out the answer but when the kids were younger, it was more fair to play boys vs. girls or to give each person a chance to guess the song instead of belting out the answer.
Although my kids are too old for it now, The Quiet Game was an adult favorite for years.
Traveling Scavenger Hunts include objects or landmarks to spot along the trip (road signs, mtels, animals, fast-food restaurants, bodies of water, etc.) along with tasks they can complete in the car (such as getting a wave from a passerby or a horn honked along the freeway). The first one completed can choose an activity to do while traveling or a place to stop for a bite or treat.
A variation on this scavenger hunt can utilize the letters of the alphabet and each person has to spy something along the route starting with each letter of the alphabet.
Would you Rather? - Take turns posing a question to the rest of the travelers such as "Would you rather kiss a snake or a pig?"
Geography - The first player names a place (city, continent, body of water, neighborhood, ocean, mountain range, etc.) then the next person has to think of a place name that hasn't been mentioned that starts with the last letter of the previous place.
Lines and Dots - has players trying to mark sections of a grid by marking their initials in squares as they compete by taking turns connecting dots with lines.
Road Trip Questionnaire - Last year the Hubs and I played this game from The Dating Divas while the kids watched movies and we each had to try to guess what the other's answers would be and received points for correctly answered questions.
New games we want to try include:
Emotions - The driver starts the game calling out an emotion and the first player says "A" in that emotion, then a new emotion is called out for the next player and "B", etc. This also works using each player's name.
Encore - Someone says a word or category and sings a song wtih that word in it.
Vehicle Name Car Search - this game from About.com has players marking names off as they spy cars. Players can keep tallies of cars or you can compete for the greatest variety of cars. Make guesses before play as to which car you think you will see the most of in each state or area you travel through.
Great free Apps to help you get to your destination:
Sit Or Squat - a great little app from Charmin to help you find clean public restrooms while traveling.
Gas Buddy - helps you locate the least expensive gas prices along your route.
Food Tripping - a cool app that provides alternatives to fast food stops that are rated by others. I love all the healthy options and hidden gems that are shared on this site!
Waze - via GPS, Waze guides you through cities giving you options to save on gas and time and helps you avoid traffic, construction and other challenges giving you the least amount of time on the road.
Along the Way - allows you to type in your start and end points and gives you suggestions of interesting stops and suggestions of places to eat along your way.
Focus on the journey...and the destination, at least while embarking on a long road trip.
With the return to school comes the beloved return of homework! In our house, gone are the days when reading for 20 minutes for the evening was the only expectation, along with a list of 10 spelling words or robust vocabulary meanings. These days, we have middle schoolers who are expected to devote a great deal of daily time to studying and reading.
According to more than 60 research studies on homework, Duke University researchers concluded that homework does indeed have a positive effect on student achievement in school.
In an effort to ease the daily homework regime, we put together a homework basket, assembled last year in an effort to have everything the kids needed for completing homework assignments in one place. It can easily be moved from various locations throughout the house and tucked away for easy clean-up.
The contents include:
Sharpened pencils
A battery-operated pencil sharpener
Scissors
Rulers
Glue sticks
Glue bottle
Dictionary
Thesaurus
Erasers
Paper clips
Colored pens and colored pencils
Sharpies
Calculators
Highlighters
What strategies do you use to ease the homework routine?
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A girl in love with the seasons who wants to cram as much as she can into the 365 days of the year to live a life of bliss. Welcome to What Matters Most Now! I hope you will find inspiration and recipes you love.
