How to Use Summer to Make Back to School Easier on Your Personal Life [episode 69]

Emily
Hey there, thanks for joining us today. In today’s episode, we’re talking about what you can do during this summer to help your future self and sharing a teacher approved tip for taking care of those you care about during the chaos of back to school.

Heidi
We start our episodes with a morning message just like we used to do at morning meeting in our classrooms. This week’s morning message is what is your go to lunch on a school day? Emily, why don’t you go first.

Emily
Well, these days I don’t have to pack a lunch anymore, thank heavens, but when I used to do that, I’d very often bring leftovers or sometimes frozen meals like Lean Cuisines, you know the fancy dining.

Heidi
Yeah, I am 100% of leftovers girl. If I am going to the trouble to cook I want to get as many meals as possible out of that. 100% But there was a year when I was teaching and I was like sick that whole year so I literally just had a cup of cottage cheese every day because that’s all I could manage.

Emily
Living your best life. We have some responses from our community and I have to say that everyone suggested really healthy options. So maybe only the people who eat healthy lunches responded. So if you don’t eat as healthy as all of these responders like you’re probably not alone.

Emily
So Sheree said turkey or chicken wrap, yogurt, apple slices and peanut butter.

Heidi
That does sounds good.

Emily
It does. Carol said I make a pot of soup on Sunday and eat it all week. Such a good idea. Carrie said Factor 75, which I’ve only recently heard about these. I think it’s like frozen meals that get delivered.

Heidi
Yeah, I had to look it up. They have quite a few options that look yummy.

Emily
Maybe we’ll have to try it. Heather said turkey and cheese sandwich a classic. Christie said leftovers from dinner and she purposely makes extra to pack very smart thinking. Haley said egg roll in a bowl or tuna with crackers and veggies. Very clever. I like the egg roll in a bowl

Emily
Amy is very relatable with her answer of coffee. She says so bad, I know, I just have a hard time eating during the day and then I’m famished at three.

Heidi
That’s a lot and an empty dummy.

Emily
Nancy said hummus and pretzels and a cheese stick. And Monica said chips and guacamole every day. I’m never tired of it. And in Monica’s honor, I actually had chips and guacamole for lunch today. Once I read this, I was like oh, that’s chips and guacamole.

Emily
We’d love to hear your lunch ideas healthy are not so healthy. So please come share them over in our Teacher Approved Facebook group.

Heidi
The past few weeks, we have been talking a lot about planning your summer.

Emily
And that may feel counterintuitive. I think a lot of us want a summer that’s light on the plans because the school year is planned to the minute right.

Heidi
So yeah, of course we want our summer to feel freer and lighter and allow room for spontaneous techniques and popsicles if you’re a more spontaneous person than I am. But if we make zero plans, we are just drifting. And the problem with drift is that it sets us up for trouble.

Emily
Right. If I don’t have any preparation in the summer, then once fall rolls around, it’s a frantic dash. Some people thrive on that, but it wears me out fast. So then I started the school year already fraying, spending nine months trying to catch my breath. And when summer rolls around again, I’m so exhausted. I insist on three months of no plans. And the cycle just repeats itself. Right?

Heidi
I came across a quote somewhere that was like, we can either deal with it when it shows up or when it blows up. Oh, yeah. And if we are not intentional with our summer plans, we are definitely leaving ourselves to the mercy of blow ups.

Emily
So what do we need to keep from blowing up? Well, obviously, there’s school stuff and that’s what we’ve been talking about. There’s curriculum mapping and lesson prep and setting up our classrooms. If you go back to Episode 65 of our podcast, we walk you through how to make summer plans that include time for both recovery and back to school readiness.

Heidi
But we are more than just teachers, despite what our students may think we do not live in our classrooms.

Emily
Even if it feels like we do sometimes.

Heidi
So today we’re going to talk about what you can do during the summer to make life easier when school starts.

Emily
We are big fans of the idea of giving a gift to your future self. We talk about that all the time on the podcast. Somehow that just feels more motivating than doing something because I know I should do it. I’m doing it for my future self, I’m giving her a gift that is very motivating to me.

Heidi
So let’s give ourselves the gift of making life a little easier at the most hectic time of the year.

Emily
Some helpful gifts to yourself might be scheduling doctor checkups and dentist appointments in the summer. Maybe a gift to your future self would be making an appointment with your stylist a couple months in advance because you know, they fill up fast in August.

Emily
I have to say I’ve done both of these things. I got my kids eye appointments way early. We’re already done. Normally I’m doing that like the week before school starts. Dentist appointments are already scheduled for summer and I already have my oldest hair appointment scheduled again. I’m usually frantically like, oh, we can you fit us in before school starts. So those are some excellent ways you can give yourself future gifts.

Heidi
And all gold stars Emily, that’s impressive. Your future self might appreciate you stocking up on the non perishable items that your family uses all year, so that your grocery shopping will be a little easier when school starts. Or maybe a gift is experimenting with a new system for staying on top of the laundry.

Emily
Or maybe your future self wants you to go spend a bunch of money at a bookstore so that you have books you’re eager to pick up on those nights when you’d normally tell yourself you’re too busy or too tired to read.

Heidi
Our future selves really do like to be spoiled.

Emily
Yeah, I like the idea that this isn’t just about getting tasks done. It’s also planning ahead to take care of yourself.

Emily
So we asked our teacher approved Facebook group to share what they do in the summer to make their personal lives less crazy at back to school time, and they shared some really great responses.

Heidi
So Jennifer says freezer meals are a huge help for her. She says I try to do one big cooking day right before back to school to put 30 to 50 freezer meals in my freezer. Wow, Jennifer. My family and I then get a couple of reheated home cooked meals a week. And I don’t have to stress about shopping and cooking on a school night.

Emily
That is amazing that she can plan that far ahead. Wow. And for one crazy day of cooking her family has dinners for several weeks.

Heidi
We might get her to teach us a class on that word.

Emily
That’s impressive. If you can’t dedicate a day to batch cooking, or maybe you don’t have room to store that many meals, another idea is to just double the meals you’re already cooking this summer and put one of them in the freezer for the fall.

Heidi
Even if you are only able to get a few meals done, you’ll at least have a few nights that you won’t have to worry about dinner, and your future self will thank you every time you pull out one of those to reheat.

Emily
Even if it’s just the first day of school that you plan to head for you will be so grateful. Tracy had several good ideas to share. She says shop early, plan a fun activity the week before school starts, plan out lunches a week at a time. Plan out clothes a week at a time love that. Complete your calendar. You can even put your freezer meals and lunch plans on your calendar.

Heidi
Those are such great suggestions. And if you are wanting to get your lunches planned in advance, make sure to go back and listen to that morning message we just shared at the top of this episode for some yummy suggestions.

Emily
Yes, summer is a great time to try out some new lunches and it’s a great idea to plan your outfits along with your lunches. That would be so handy during those first crazy weeks back to school when the decision fatigue is very heavy.

Heidi
If you are really on top of it in advance, you could plan out your outfits for the first week or two. And then actually just like set them aside in the closet with your shoes and accessories and anything else. And then you’ve really given your future self a huge gift.

Emily
And I also love Tracy’s idea to intentionally plan a fun activity the week before school starts. I bet that really helps soak in every bit of summer. And if that’s an activity with your family or friends, then it’s a good way to spend some extra time with them before you’re about to get really busy.

Heidi
And Dale actually had a similar suggestion. He said, in August, I plan for something fun on a weekend day in late September, buy tickets for a show, plan a party, go to a festival, etc. Having this time carved out in advance and seeing it on my calendar helps me avoid making every weekend all of that work, especially at the beginning of the year.

Emily
I love that idea. Dale!

Heidi
That is really so many clever tips rolled into one.

Emily
I love that he makes sure to plan his fun event ahead of the starting school craziness. So he has the time and energy to figure out the details. And scheduling it in late September gives him something fun to look forward to when the work is draining.

Heidi
And I always felt like the end of September was when that haze of starting the year was just starting to lift. I could have really used a fun event about that time. But I had no reserve energy to be able to pull something together at that point. So using this summer to plan something fun for the fall is an absolutely genius idea.

Emily
And it’s also so smart to just get it on the calendar. When I’m planning ahead, I always resist nailing down a specific date because something inevitably crops up and I don’t like to be locked into things. But I found that it’s better to just put add it on the calendar and accept the idea that I might have to reschedule.

Emily
That’s at least keeping all the pieces on the game board as it were. If I intend to do something, but don’t really schedule it, it almost never happened.

Heidi
I think that’s a really common pitfall, or at least it is for me. But research shows that when we really want to do something, we often think that our desire to do it is strong enough to make it happen. So we underplan thinking that our motivation will carry us through. But spoiler alert, we do not.

Emily
Yeah, we overestimate that motivation. If we want to do the things that matter to us, we actually have to have concrete plans in place.

Heidi
So what plans do you need to put in place? What gift can you give your future self? Maybe it’s prepping freezer meals or planning lunches or outfits. Maybe it’s planning an activity or two to remind you that you are more than just a tired teacher.

Emily
If you need a little nudge, consider this question from Greg McEwan’s book, Essentialism. He suggests asking yourself, what one thing could you do that would make the highest contribution to your life?

Heidi
So since we are focusing on back to school right now, let’s tweak that question a little. What one thing could you do to make your back to school transition a little less taxing on your regular life?

Emily
Now you might instantly know the answer to that question. If not, you might want to list everything that comes to mind when you think of making your life smoother during such a chaotic time.

Heidi
Maybe what makes your life smoother is having plenty of time to relax in the evenings. Maybe it’s making a plan for at least a little exercise because you know, that’s the first thing you draw from your schedule when life gets hectic.

Emily
Or maybe your kids are in a ton of sports in the fall. And you need to find a way to make sport life work with teacher life. Once you’ve got your list going, it’s tempting to want to do all of the things. But that’s how we end up doing none of the things.

Heidi
So it’s important to be really critical here. What one thing will make the highest contribution to your back to school life? Once you’ve zeroed in on that key thing, the next step is to figure out how to make it happen.

Emily
So if protecting your energy is your priority, maybe you make that happen by saying no to any after school commitments for the first six weeks you’re back in school. Or maybe it means being okay with more takeout than you’d like while you get your feet under you.

Heidi
If your priority is not giving up on your healthy habits, maybe that means setting up an after school walking group with some other teachers, so you’re getting at least a little movement in your day. Or maybe you really dive into freezer meal prep this summer or figure out a new system for staying on top of the laundry.

Emily
So how much planning do we need to do here? The answer is as much as it takes to make sure it happens. That’s why we wanted to have this discussion early in the summer so that you have time to make the back to school season a little less draining.

Heidi
We would love to hear your suggestions for ways that we can make our personal lives less crazy at the start of the school year. So please come join the conversation in our teacher approved Facebook group.

Emily
Now let’s talk about this week’s teacher approved tip. Each week, we leave you with a small actionable tip that you can apply in your classroom today. This week’s teacher approved tip is make a plan to support the people in your life during the crazy back to school season. Heidi, tell us more about this.

Heidi
Well, as we know the switch from summer mode to teacher mode is rough. But that switch also has an impact on the people that we love. So you might want to consider making a sweeten the season list.

Heidi
Start by listing all of the people who are affected by you being busy and stressed with school. Obviously kids and your spouse would be on the list, but maybe extend your thoughts a little further. Consider a friend that is used to hanging out with you all day during the summer. Or your mom who has been enjoying daily phone calls. Maybe even your pet who is used to you being around all the time.

Heidi
These are the people who have our hearts. So what can we do to sweeten the hectic back to school season for them? On your list, make a note next to each name of what you can do to make this transition a little smoother for them. Maybe you need to spend some one on one time together this summer.

Heidi
Or maybe you want to write out a bunch of cards ahead of time and then mail them to your best friend over the school year as a reminder that their friendship matters to you, even when you are not available to do very much. The more that we can invest in our relationships really the better the rest of our lives will be.

Heidi
To wrap up the show we are sharing what we’re giving extra credit to you this week. Emily what gets your extra credit?

Emily
I’m giving extra credit to reusable water balloons. So aren’t water balloons just like such a fun part of summer it just feels like summer with water balloons. And those bunch of balloons that they sell these days make it so easy to fill them up quickly.

Emily
I’m always like you guys have no idea the way that we tied the two hours in ours to tie those up one by one. So this is so much faster to make them. But they’re gone just as fast as they were when we were kids within five minutes, a huge bin of water balloons is gone. And then all you’re left with is little bits of balloons all over your lawn. It’s not great.

Emily
But balloons are so fun. So I’m so glad that somebody has finally come up with a way to do this in a little more economic and eco friendly way. So they’re these new reusable water balloons. And they’re made of silicone. And they connect magnetically around the middle. So when you throw them, they can burst open. But until you throw them or squeeze them, they stay together really well.

Emily
They’re super easy to fill up too, just dunk them in the water and then snap them shut, seriously could not be any easier. We took them to our neighborhood pool earlier today and everyone was obsessed with them. Kids we didn’t even know we’d look over and they had some like they were a total hit. So easy to use really fun, great addition to your summer activity resources.

Heidi
That sounds really cool. You used to have some that were just like knit or something?

Emily
I know they were like crocheted or knitted or something. I got them from Etsy a couple summers ago and you dunk them in a bucket of water and they just because they’re really absorbent yarn, they’d contain a lot of water and you could throw them and kind of be like a like a flashy rag.

Emily
But you basically it was all right. The kids had fun with them for sure. But I think these are much closer to the actual water balloon experience.

Heidi
Well, that sounds really cool.

Emily
Yeah, I’ll put a link to those in the show notes.

Heidi
Well, my extra credit goes to the Princess Bride Home movie, something I just stumbled on recently. But it was made during the early days of the pandemic, I guess Quibi had actors do like it shot for shot remake of scenes from The Princess Bride.

Emily
But like, just at their house with like whatever props they had around the house, which made its way funnier.

Heidi
I totally missed this one. I haven’t because I didn’t have Quibi. But you didn’t have Quibi either, because that’s why Quibi no longer exists. Yep. But someone on YouTube was smart enough to save all of the clips, and then they pieced them together into one long movie.

Heidi
And if you love The Princess Bride and who doesn’t come on, I think you will love this. It’s so charming. like Emily said, each scene is filmed at home and it’s played by different actors. So you’ve got everyone from John Malkovich to Zazie Beetz. So each scene switches up actors and it just really does feel like watching home movies. It’s a lot of fun.

Emily
And I watched this I don’t know two weeks ago when I was working I put it on after you told me about this and it really was a delight. And of course we love Princess Bride. We have such a soft spot for that movie anyway. But it was just such a hoot to see these actors acting so silly and ridiculous. With such fun source material.

Heidi
Lego figures acting out some of the big action scenes like yeah, it’s just fun.

Emily
Yeah, and Jack Black pretending to be like climbing up the cliffs of despair but it’s just like this very not steep staircase that he’s going with this with the hose as his his rope. It’s, it’s very silly and very funny. And if you need a laugh, I also cosign this extra credit.

Heidi
Oh, that’s good.

Heidi
Well, that is it for today’s episode. Give your future self a gift by making a plan to ease the back to school craziness. And don’t forget our teacher proof tip to sweeten the season for your loved ones.