Let's Be Stress Free! {Tips and Giveaway}

Stress Free... What is that again?  It's that time of year again when deadlines are quickly approaching, my class is presently testing, and Open House is one week away!  Can we take a moment and all scream!?!  So how do I keep sane, especially when I am never alone?

At home I keep things pretty organized (as much as possible) with 3 boys - ages 11, 8, and 5.  We have a shoe cubby thing that the boys know to put their stuff away.  I finally learned to do each boys' laundry separately so it was easy to toss all their belongings from hamper to machines to basket, and it took away the sorting aspect.  Each boy has their own "desk" (it's really just a folding table), but it keeps all their paperwork in one place.  Our downstairs hall closet has been taken over with toy organization, and the whole mentality of "out of sight, out of mind" keeps me sane.  My boys do a lot around the house in terms of chores - dishwasher, pets, laundry away, dusting, cleaning up, yard work.  It's nice not being the only one that is tackling the house anymore. :)    

At school it's the same kind of thing.  I need to keep things in their own place, and the kids have to take responsibility for cleaning up.  I'm wrapping up my 15th year of teaching, so by now some spring type of things are just routine.  I know what I need to buy before vacation, what I need to copy for next year, what I need to plan for... I'm organized like that.  I also know that when I get stressed I get forgetful and things get overlooked, which led me to last year creating an end of the year binder to keep all my random lists together.  I shared this freebie over on Google Docs last year, so I wanted to share it again.  These are 5 pages from my full pack, I hope it helps!   

  

   

   

Here's the whole pack if you want to take a peek.  Just click the picture.

When things get super stressful I always try to plan on splurging on a massage or doing something for myself.  I love taking a moment to leave campus for lunch or going to treat myself to a Wild Berry Refresher.  As teachers we work SOOO hard all year, and deserve a little relaxation.  

Now a bunch of my blogging buddies have gotten together to give you a pretty big giveaway.  4 prizes!  Yes, FOUR!! (pretend I'm yelling in a megaphone).  Make sure you click the arrows to see all the prizes and enter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

There are also tons of other tips that might help you, so please check out the other blogs too!  Have a wonderful day!