Back to School Tips and Tricks

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So, let’s be real… #school is starting up again and most parents are jumping for joy! But, with going to back to school that means getting back on schedule and developing a new routine. Each year your family’s activities change but that doesn’t mean the school year has to come with added chaos. Now, my son is only 1 but I usually find myself using the summer as an excuse to get off track, fly by the seat of my pants, stay up late and enjoy the long HOT days. And, now that school is starting back up on Monday (!!) I wanted to share with you my tips and tricks for getting back on a routine! 1. Start your routine a week or so before school starts – if you have been staying up late or sleeping in with your kiddos - Monday morning is going to be a RUDE awakening! Start going to bed 15-minutes earlier every night and waking up 15-minutes earlier. This will prevent you from laying in bed for hours trying to fall asleep because your internal clock has been changed. Also, if you don’t have black out curtains for your kiddos… GET SOME! Who wants to go to bed when its still light out! I love the blackout curtains I have for my son’s room and they are from Amazon (like everything else I own). If you have a morning routine or a night time routine write it down somewhere, so each kid knows exactly the plan when it comes to AM and PM. There are some great wall decals online. 2. Meal planning – this is HUGE! A little time spent preparing for dinners and lunches goes along way. If your kids are older, sit down with them and find out what they want in their lunches, so it doesn’t become an epic battle. (I highly recommend packing your own lunches since the school food can often lack healthy options.) I find that meal planning does 3 things for me: lessens my stress, gives us new, in season things to try, and saves me money at the store because I have a plan! I started using Emeals about 6 months ago for my meal planning and I love it! There is tons of variety and it also creates my grocery list! All I have to do it pick the meals I want to serve that week and voila! My grocery list is done! I check off the items I already have on hand and then add the other items we want for breakfast and dinner and I am good to go! Emeals has really been a game changer for my family! Emeals recently started integrating their app with some of the grocery delivery services such as Shipt, Instacart or Walmart Pickup so your grocery list is automatically sent to them and they do all the shopping and get it ready for pick-up or delivery! I love this feature – I never thought I would want someone else to go to the store for me but when my son turned 7-months and hated sitting in the grocery cart for 30-minutes I gave this a try and never looked back. Both Emeals and Shipt have great promotions! Emeals offers a 14-day free trial by clicking this link and Shipt has $50 OFF your membership HERE! Let me know what you think!

3. Clean out the closet – Nothing is worse than trying to get dressed in the morning for school or work and coming upon clothes that you don’t like or don’t fit anymore. Save some of the stress by clearing out some of the old stuff and make room before you head to the mall for back to school shopping. This way you and your kids know everything in the closet works and should help for a seamless (in theory) morning. 4. Start cutting out the sugar – nothing says summer like a big ole ice cream cone! Right? Well now that we are getting back on track it’s a great time to start cutting back on the sugar. I do love a good sweet treat, but sugar just isn’t good for us. The kids are heading back to school and going to be around a bunch of other kids and that means new germs… sugar is the #1 thing that depletes the immune system so start cutting it out now. Make some of my healthy popsicles from last months blog, try Lily’s chocolate bars that are sweetened with stevia, Oh So delicious makes ice cream sweetened with stevia and there are tons of great paleo cookie recipes out there. Have fun with the kids and make some mini-cookies for their lunches. I’ll post my favorite cookie recipe soon! What are some of your tried and true back to school tips and tricks? Try out Emeals and Shipt if you need helping getting your meals back on track or message me if you need help meal planning and we can do it together!