Charm Citizen

Back to Work – Today is my first day back to work and I’m trying to keep the vibes high. I got a good night sleep and tried to take a few minutes for myself before taking a shower, getting ready and packing up to drive to the office. I drank some coffee, did a Daily Calm on the Calm App, played with my cat Shadow, watered some house plants, popped outside for a few minutes, and then got in gear. I spent the morning reading a lot of emails and catching up with my boss and coworkers. I don’t think it will be too hard to catch up this time, or at least I hope not. I checked emails once a day while I was gone but limited any responses. I managed to pull together my usual lunch, a salad, from the less than super fresh options at home, went for a 15 minute walk around campus, and buckled in for afternoon meetings. The day ended up being longer than unusual, I didn’t leave the office until almost 6 and then had to stop for gas. It was a long first day back but I’m trying to hold on to my vacation vibes and good mood for as long as possible.

Feel Good List – I’m creating a daily list of things one you can do to feel good and boost mood. Here are some of my ideas:

• Meditate
• Make a smoothie
• Eat a salad
• Meditate for at least 2 minutes
• Step outside within 15 minutes of waking up
• Make a hot cup of coffee or other favorite drink
• Go for a walk
• Create something – art or a nice meal
• Pull a Tarot card
• Say a prayer

Vegan Pumpkin Zucchini Bread – I added canned pumpkin to the zucchini bread recipe I made and blogged about last week. I think I’m getting early pumpkin spice cravings!

Back to School Supplies – Holy Shit! I just spent $530.00 on school supplies and that was just for classroom items like pencils and loose leaf paper. The $530.00 was for three kids so I spent around $143.00 for each child at Staples.com. I refuse to shop in a physical store for these items. I’m not sure how other schools work but it’s like this every year. We attend a public charter school in Baltimore City and each year it seems like we go through the same thing. I feel like the school sends out a disorganized list of needed school supplies and everyone shows up on back to school night carrying tons of boxes to drop off into a community pile. Items on the list include pencils, pens, markers, composition books, paper towels, tissues, dish soap, and art supplies. I’m not sure, but I’ve heard that much of these supplies are included in the cost of private school tuition so parents at those schools don’t have to go through the same exercise. I also believe that there are many families at the school who skip this process or pick up a few items, either because they cannot afford the supplies or have other reasons, and so other families are funding general classroom supplies for the greater good. I’m okay with this, for the most part, because my husband and I feel good about supporting the school and our kids are very happy there. But still! It’s expensive. We still need to purchase new lunchboxes, shoes, and some clothes. We are hoping to take advantage of tax free shopping week that runs for the remainder of the week here in Maryland. Finally, I’ll just add that I read about some schools that buy in bulk. I wish we had this option at our school location, but I think we lack a strong parent-led group because of our charter structure.