5 Tips for Keeping Your Family Stress-Free During the Busy Season of Life!
We have a large family that always seems to have a million things happening at once. Our family consists of 3 kids juggling academics, friends, sports, and extracurricular activities. A husband who works up to 12 hours a day and spends every free moment working on our new home. A new puppy who we are trying to train, and I’m the mom juggling everyone’s schedules plus coordinating IEP meetings, doctors’ appointments, household errands, and of course running a business of my own too. Life can easily get stressful for all of us, but I try my hardest to keep our days running smoothly and squeeze in time to relax, breathe, and reconnect.
5 Tips to Improve Your Family’s Week
Start every day together at the kitchen table
Before life pulls everyone in different directions, sit down together and pour a delicious and creamy glass of Horizon Organic Grassfed Milk, while sharing your excitement for the day ahead. This certified organic non-GMO milk is the perfect way to fuel my family as they get ready to head out the door.
We go through a lot of Horizon Organic Grassfed Milk in my house, the kids love the taste and think the container is really cute, while I love that I can feel good about what is going in their growing bodies. Plus, it is affordable and available at Walmart, my go-to store for everything!
Take family walks every afternoon
Now that we have the new puppy, this has become an activity that we need to do, which means it can’t be pushed off our schedule because we don’t have time. And I secretly love that! Each afternoon after the kids get off the bus, or in the evening after dinner, everyone puts down their pencils or devices and we all hit the pavement and walk the neighborhood, to the local playground, or to the local ice cream stand and enjoy each other. There is something about the fresh air, being outside together, and talking about our days, that just melts the stress away.
Read together
As a special needs mom, reading can become a huge source of stress for my kids, so the perfect way to not only bring back the joy of reading but also unwind together is to curl up on the couch for a few moments and read a story to each other. No pressure, no testing, no book levels, just a family listening to a great story.
Create a schedule that has wiggle room
I hate being late, and when I have 3 kids going in 3 different directions at the same time, I get stressed quickly and that stress can rub off on everyone. I started sitting down one day a week with my planner and fully planning out my entire week and being intentional about leaving wiggle room. If appointments or practices are overlapping, this gives me plenty of time to reach out for help or reschedule things. This means no more yelling at traffic while I am trying to get somewhere. I also create a full shopping list for the week in my planner, this means one shopping trip for everything instead of running in and out of stores every day. Having everything planned out and in view for the week ahead keeps me from being overwhelmed and the wiggle room allows lots of little moments to reconnect with my family.
Divide and Conquer
With 5 people in our house, every chore can feel overwhelming we drag our feet and let something pile up. Dirty laundry piles become mountains, sinks overfill, and dust ends up as thick as a blanket. We are all busy, so putting all the chores on anyone of us, just isn’t fair, especially with children that are 9 and 12. Every afternoon, I take a look at my cleaning list and everyone takes a couple of tasks. One child will empty the trash, another will vacuum, etc. Then on a weekend morning, we do the same thing with larger cleaning tasks, like mowing the lawn or wiping the baseboards. For me, having a clean house lowers my stress level no matter what’s on my plate for the day. With 3 kids, it’s not always possible, but when everyone works together, it is maintained more times than not.
Have you tried Horizon Organic Grassfed Milk? Does your family love it as much as mine?
We don’t have a chance to have breakfast together, but we always have dinner together and have reading time or game nights! It’s so fun 🙂
Your photos brought a smile to my face! Between your kiddos and your puppy, cuteness overload. These are great ideas for keeping stress in check, especially your point about dividing and conquering when it comes to household obligations and chores. Thank you!
I love Ibotta. It’s great. Breakfast together is hard for us, since my husband has to leave so early…but we do dinner!
These tips will be great for families. It looks like your adorable children are really enjoying their milk 🙂
Ah! It’s so easy to translate stress within the family. Thanks for the tips on how to keep stress free. What a great reminder!
It’s too bad we don’t have this brand here in Toronto! My family uses a similar organic milk, and it tastes so much better than the regular non-organic kind.
I love taking walks in the evening and it definitely helps ease stress a ton, even without kids! And organic milk just tastes so good, doesn’t it? I hated milk until I switched!
one of my greatest memories growing up was cuddling up at night with my mom and brother to read altogether!
Theseare great tips and I really ned to incorporate family walks into my day. You took priceless photos, love them.
These are great tips and I really need to incorporate family walks into my day. You took priceless photos, love them.