Motivate Me Monday – Before the Kids are Out

Here in Georgia my kids have only 5 more weeks until they get out of school. Egad! Now, I don’t know about others who have kids, but it is much harder for me to stay organized when I have all the kids home. Go figure.

So, usually around this time I am making a list of several areas of the house that I would like to get organized before they get out of school. I won’t be doing that this year because instead, we will be packing for our move to Texas. (I’m SO excited!!)

Here are some of the areas I would organize before the summer started:

• Craft area – I would buy some new crayons, paints, paper, markers and usually add a new craft or two for those days I was going a little buggy and needed some quite time.
• Outdoor play equipment – Summer means outdoors, so I would take inventory of all of our outdoor stuff like sidewalk chalk, balls, jump ropes, and all the pool items we needed. If we were out of something, then I could buy it before we needed it, like sunscreen.
• Kids’ clothes – It’s a good idea to go through their clothes and see if they need any summer items. My kids usually need a new bathing suit every summer and other things like play shorts, tank tops and flip flops.
• The pantry – You can take inventory of your pantry and freezer and see what kinds of summer foods you have and what you would like to buy that will last awhile. For example: jello, pudding, pop-sicles, goldfish, popcorn, etc. If you already have some of those things in stock, then you can just worry about buying fruit and other items that go bad faster. When your kids get a snack attack or you plan a last minute trip to the pool or park, you will already have some snacks to grab.
• Make a list of activities to do – This is the organizing your schedule part. See what’s going on in your community and write it down. Some examples are: free summer movies (our theater does this every summer twice a week), library story times, parks that you haven’t visited, day camps, museums, The Family Y, etc. Most communities will have some kid friendly events happening.

So, your challenge this week is to make a list of 4 things you would like to get organized before your kids are out for the summer. Then over the next few weeks, go down your list and get it done and check it off! This will make summer flow so much better for everyone.

I realize this is geared for stay-at-home moms and teachers who have the summers off with their kids. So, for those of you who work during the summer you can still make a list, it might just look a little different.

I worked full time last summer, but I still had to be organized. I had a “nanny” come and stay with my kids at home all day, so I still needed to have the pantry and freezer full of snacks and I also had some activities that she could take them to do.

Summer is right around the corner. Are YOU ready? I’m trying to be!