Routines Are for Kids AND Parents

I recently returned from a weekend in Chicago-land: Lombard, Illinois to be exact. It's a bit of a long story how I ended up at the Let's Get Real Zen Parenting Conference.

"Zen parent" is not how I would describe myself and yet, I keep trying. The Monday morning following my return, my youngest child told me to be calm. We were running late for the school bus and I was starting to freak out. The reminder was needed. The kids got to the bus on time.

Clearly, the weekend away threw me off from my routines a bit. It was well worth it to hear Michigan born Rob Bell speak on parenting and spaces, both literal and figurative. The photo above is of one of his slides: "Work out what you need to work out so that your kid doesn't have to work out what you didn't work out in addition to what they need to work out." I'm on it, Rob.

Ali Smith shared his story of growing up in Baltimore and returning home to make an incredible impact in the inner-city schools. Ali also spoke about his evening routine with his son, Asuman, who shared the stage.

Over the past two months, I have shared my morning routine, afternoon routine and later this month will share my evening routine. Your evening routine will likely look different than mine. The idea is to prepare yourself for a morning with ease. Admittedly, I was rushing around that Monday morning, due to skipping some steps in my evening routine the night before.

On an unrelated, but really related note, we are now in the Lenten season for Christians. If you observe Lent what traditions will you be following this year? And for my Jewish friends, is March too early to start cleaning for Passover?

As always, I love to hearing from you. Send me an e-mail or comment over on Instagram (I am at Simply Organized Life).

All My Best,

Carolyn