10 tips for THRIVING during the busy season: family edition

I struggled with a title for this because we’re not talking about any one thing specifically, it can be any number of reasons that make your life busier than normal.

Family vacation
Event
Holiday

Kids look at the above examples and get super excited, moms look at them and immediately get overwhelmed. We’re going to talk about a few things you can do to make the busy season a little bit more enjoyable for the entire family.

If you’re new here, welcome! I’m Tonya Jonson, founder of Helping Hearts Homeschool where I help homeschool moms and ministry leaders navigate the waters of social media. We focus on creating enjoyable homeschool lifestyles while learning how to use social media in a way that glorifies God while simultaneously growing our bank accounts. Like anything else, social media is just a tool. We simply focus on using it for positive vs negative.

We’re going to focus on short term preparation, so prepping for a 1-2 week busy life season. If your situation requires more than 2 weeks of “off time” then you’ll want to tailor these tips to your life. Most will work for you, but a few will need tweaked.

I’m going to use my real life as an example. I’ve been through dozens of “busy seasons”, and I’m about to head into another one next week. We have what’s called Day Camp at our church, it’s basically like a giant VBS, but instead of heaving the kids at night, we have them from 730am-5pm which means I’ll be away from my home from 630am-530pm M-F of that week. All of the tips below are ones I’m using myself in my current season.

First thing you want to do is make a list of everything you need to do before the season of life starts. Btw, this week's freebie contains everything you need to breeze through these steps and enter in your busy season with as little stress as possible. 

The week leading up to the season will require intense focus in order to work ahead. For us, that means the house is a little messier than normal, I’m definitely working longer hours, all the extras for homeschooling have been removed and we only kept the independent work, and my daughter is getting way more screen time than normal.

The rest of these are in no specific order, just tips.

Every season will require a different way of doing this, but this is what we’re doing for the season we’re currently entering. The Saturday (10th) before, I’m planning our meals for Sunday (11th)-Saturday (20th).

That Saturday (10th) I’ll be prepping all our lunches and dinners for Sat-Wed. Then Thurs-Fri will be crockpot meals for dinner and sandwiches for lunch and Saturday (20th) will be a fun cookout day with friends. Breakfasts will be bowls the first half of the week and overnight oats (me) and fruit/cheese stick/muffin (glori) for the second half of the week.

*Cooked meats are safe for 3-4 days in the fridge, so that’s why the first half of the week and second half look so much different. During our normal life I prep meals on Monday and Thursday mornings, but during this upcoming season I don’t have time to prep more than once, so we’re opting for more convenient meals the second half.

Having a plan will prevent eating junk food the entire week. The last thing you want during a busy season is to not feel your best. Having said that, it’s also a very fun season for Glori, so lunches will be provided for her as well as fun snacks and sweet treats. I’m choosing to bring my own food, but we’ve decided to let her enjoy “camp food” with all the other kids.

Communicate with Family

Let them know what to expect. I had this conversation with my husband last week. I told him my goal this week was to work as much as possible and basically keep my head above water. Clean laundry, a clean kitchen, and hot meals are a priority, but everything else is on the back burner house wise.

During "Day Camp" week my goal is to focus on my students and keep a healthy sleep schedule... I have severe PCOS and am having a pretty bad flare up as I'm writing this, so sleep is a non negotiable right now. As far as the house, same as last week - clean laundry, a clean kitchen, and hot meals are a priority, but everything else is on the back burner.

The Saturday after day camp we’ve planned a fun pool day with friends. It will be full of games, good food, music, and swimming.

Then the following Monday and Tuesday will be spent deep cleaning the house, prepping school, and getting back into our normal rhythm.

Again, this will look different for everyone. The bottom line is to just keep communication open so everyone is on the same page.

During day camp week we will be doing 0 school, the week leading up will be independent school. Again, 100% your decision, but having a plan is a must.

HUGE one for the kids. Ideally, you'll want to use something like stackables. You can see what I’m talking about in the attached video. The idea is that you have them labeled mon-fri and you put your kids’ clothes in there accordingly so there’s no guesswork the day of. For day camp, the kids all have a t-shirt and I’m pretty sure my daughter only has one skirt that matches, so I think she’ll be wearing pretty much the same thing each day and we’ll just be washing every couple days, but we’ll see. I don’t have stackables, so if we needed to lay out outfits, I’ll just hang them up at the end of her closet and yes, I’ll include everything; shorts, underwear, undershirt, whatever is needed for the outfit will all be hung up for easy access. Hopefully our mornings go smoothly, but if we have a late start, the last thing I want to do is be hunting for an article of clothing.

You have a plan in place, so remember it’s ok to say “no”. I had to practice this this week. I planned my prep week, communicated to my husband and daughter, and then I was asked to help in an outreach opportunity the Saturday before Day Camp starts. I didn’t have to think about it, I immediately said "no" because I already knew what I needed to do in order to not only survive the busy season, but to thrive through it.

Don’t schedule an intense day right after you get done with your busy season. Ease back into your routine. If you’re coming back from a trip, take a day to unpack, meal plan, grocery shop, etc… anything to make it easy to get back to your normal routine. If your season is less than fun, schedule a fun day when you get back like the cookout/pool party we’re doing.

No matter how busy things get, it's always a good idea to keep your devotions and journaling a priority. I've included a free journaling starter kit in this week's freebie, and you can watch the "how to journal" tutorial here. 

Busy seasons are inevitable, and a small amount of stress is going to naturally come with that. What we're focusing on right now is simply minimizing that stress by controlling what we can. Use this week's freebie pack to help your organize the chaos. 

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