10 Tips for Managing and Organizing your Family!

1) Prepare a weekly healthy menu ahead of time. Once a week go grocery shopping for the ingredients you'll need to be able to stick to your menu. Make sure to include healthy low sugar breakfast items to start your kids off with brain fuel. Remember to include healthy after school snacks and items for extra curricular events during the week. On a budget? Check the local sale adds before heading out to shop. On the day of your extra after school activities stock a small ice chest full of healthy snacks or a prepared meal to have on hand to avoid the temptation of the fast food urge. Get the kids involved in learning about making healthy choices and planning out the weeks menu and getting them involved in cooking the meals.

(One of my fondest memories as a little girl was when my mom and grandma were in the kitchen cooking dinner. I was around three so to keep me occupied, I had my own cook station. A tray with a bowl and stirring utensils and extra food scraps, egg shells, vegetable scraps and such to mix away and cook my imaginary meal.) Always wash children's hands before and after handling food.


2) When your young children arrive home from school. Go through their backpacks looking for notes from the teacher, homework, or flyers for other schools events. Update your calendar right away with any new events and talk about your child's day. Make sure to ask your older children how their day was and what go over their assignments they are working on.

Life is precious and can be gone in an instant. Do not waste a minute of it.

Guest post by Erin Taylor, author of 

Connection and Kindness: The Key to Changing the World Through Parenting.

I WAS HIT BY A DRUNK DRIVER LAST NIGHT
Yes, you read that right. I was hit by a drunk driver last night. Thank God I walked away without a scratch, but needless to say, it was pretty scary. As you know well by now, I tend to write through my experiences in order to process them, so this will likely be a long but chocked-full post. Please read on if you will….

I was on my way to a school to meet my friend and colleague Sue DeCaro so that we could present part one of our Conscious Parenting series when the accident happened. I was in rush hour traffic on a very busy road. I was probably the 20th car stopped at a red light when out of nowhere, a car slammed into the back of my car. I called Sue right away to ask her to come pick me up where we were so that she could bring me to the workshop (because yes, I truly am that committed to the work that I do!). She immediately turned around to come to me.