Who are we kidding? Summer time isn’t always the easy breezy laid back vacay we imagined it would be. Especially if you have school aged kids at home! Summer schedules can be just as crazy with camps, traveling, parents working from home, lack of daily structure, etc! Speaking of summer camps…don’t sweat it if you missed a deadline. Give yourself some grace. This post will help you stay on track with the family calendar so your chance of missing another deadline is much smaller! Win!
I remember the days of sheer panic as I would meet up for coffee with my mom friends in April and May and they would be talking about all the camps, sports, and outings they had planned for summer already! I couldn’t imagine being “that organized” to already have the entire summer figured out! I’d leave those get-togethers and ponder a life where I too “had it all together” and could be “one of those moms” (Insert lots of assumptions here on my part!) I remember feeling the heaviness of managing the family calendar all on my own. I had a team of people under my roof, but I felt like a team of ONE.
Then it dawned on me…I need to share! I need to share the family calendar with all the players on my team so they have a chance of helping to manage activities AND become responsible for their own activities and plans. (I must admit…it felt like I had found a cure to cancer when this occurred to me.) No more “team of ONE”!
So, here’s what I put together for my own family to help get us all on the same page as summer drew near! It’s the platform for everything we do! (No seriously…this is where it ALL happens! We started this in 2019 and have continued every single week since!)
A Weekly Family Huddle!
Think of a sports team and why they huddle up consistently. A family huddle is exactly that!
Here are the 3 Essential Steps we implemented to unify our team to curb the calendar chaos and have more peace and laughter in our home.
#1. Choose a growth theme to hone in on for the month (Example: Respect, Responsibility or in our case, Organization). Imagine this theme being front and center in the minds of everyone in the family, for 30 days. A focused GROWTH MINDSET helped our team feel solid because we knew the game plan. No more “just wingin’ it”!
#2. Then, have a brief Weekly Family Huddle and encourage positive participation by all members! During your huddle, simply review the calendar for the next week, allowing everyone to see the schedule—getting a visual is KEY for spouse and kids alike. (Remember, sharing is caring! If they can’t see and don’t know, you may remain a team of ONE…noooo!) Huddling up UNITED us and helped foster a strong sense of belonging from our teenager all the way down to the toddler. It’s true that when we feel we belong and are not alone, we are more resilient, often coping more effectively with difficult times in our lives. Coping well with hardships decreases the physical and mental effects of these situations. Yes, please!
#3. Finally, identify one specific goal to work on, daily, between Family Huddles that relates to the theme of the month. (Example: Organization—daily goal is to get up when the alarm goes off and make bed.) When each person in the family had the freedom to choose a specific vice to work to change…they felt empowered and supported by the rest of us! Daily ACTION felt like conditioning/strength training with the team. Each of us had a different “workout” depending on our position on the team, but we felt positive knowing everyone was doing their part to make our whole team stronger!
Funny sidebar: We end our huddles by circling up and placing our hands on top of each other's, someone counts to 3, and we yell “TEAM LANGDON” at the top of our lungs as we throw our hands in the air! Then we celebrate with a family reward like ice cream sundaes or movie night. That’s IT!
This simple Daily, Weekly, Monthly formula of Growth, Unity and Action has taken this former burnt out, exhausted, resentful mom from feeling like a team of ONE to a refreshed, goal-oriented, joyful mom who, while she still takes a lead role managing the family calendar, has willing and able players who step in and share the tasks and responsibilities...with joy! WIN!
Team Langdon went from not even being able to make plans for the upcoming weekend because we were so bogged down in the “day to day” to a family who is planning months in advance and even tackling some awesome 5-year plans (like visiting all 50 states, skiing every winter, tithing to charities and more!).
You may be thinking…that’s a lot for me to put together as a parent. I’m not sure I have the time to think about a monthly growth theme and daily goals for everyone in my tribe. Great news! We’ve done the heavy lifting for you! Our Adventure Into Character Kits plug right into the Weekly Family Huddle perfectly! Your theme of the month is all bundled together with items that are tailored for each member of the family. No tricky daily goal pondering. We’ve got you covered. But listen…the kit doesn’t work magic on your family just by arriving at your doorstep. You have to open it up and put it to work during your family huddle for maximum results and real transformation. Otherwise it ends up on a shelf somewhere collecting dust, like the 7 other journals and activity books you purchased elsewhere, and it ends up causing feelings of guilt. (Been there, done that!) NO THANK YOU!
You, too, can do this! TEAM JONES…TEAM KENNEDY…TEAM NGUYEN...TEAM ROBERTS! Join our community of families who are building character and cruising into summer with a game plan! See…summer really CAN be that easy, breezy, well deserved break we all need!
