If you are like me, you have probably noticed an increase in flyers, commercials, and radio advertisements lately…
It’s that time of the year once again…dun, dun, dun…
Back
To
School.
I find there are two main camps regarding Back To School:
Camp 1) No matter how old you are, simply hearing the words Back To School evokes fear, unease, apprehension, and a sudden breakout.
Camp 2) Back To School season (yes, it is a whole season) evokes joy, anticipation, shopping sprees, and a sudden urge to de-clutter, purchase new gadgets, notebooks, pens, and erasers. You are old school, and you love it.
Which camp are you?
Ok, I lied. There are more than 2 camps. I like to think of myself as part of the 3rd camp which is a combination of the first two.
Even though I am now entering my second year of ‘Back-To-School-without-actually-having-to-go-Back-To-School, all of the emotions still flood back to me during Back To School Season (BTSS).
In no particular order:
1) A strong urge to organize and de-clutter
Before: After:
- Closet cleaning
- Donating unwanted clothing items to charity
- Cleaning out my purse/wallet
2) A strong urge to organize and de-clutter my DESK area in particular
Before: After:
- Reading over every piece of paper and keeping what I truly need (i.e., 1% of the crap on my desk)
- I organize all of my scattered notes and to-do’s onto one new piece of paper and recycle the rest
- Clean desktop, keyboard, mouse, etc. Ewwwwwww. If you are like me, you wonder how you didn’t see that dust bunny in the back of your keyboard tray (seriously take a look at your own, you know you aren’t perfect either! lol)
- Cleaning my virtual desktop. One of my tasks today. Can you just believe how out of control this has gotten? It got really bad over the weekend when I was coding and re-doing the website.
Yes, I have cat treats at my desk. I bribe Sketchie to lay in my office during the day. ;)
3) Schedule every aspect of my life.
- I printed a new calendar for September. Ahhh, all fresh and ready to be filled in. I am making sure to write really ‘pretty’ so as to not ruin it like my current one.
Note: NOT pretty writing below:
4) Renew my healthy eating and fitness goals!
- I am planning out my fitness goals for Fall. The biggest of which is training for my half marathon on Sept. 27th. I also am planning on signing up for something that is so uncharacteristic of me. Any guesses? ;)
5) Pack lunches/Prep food
- Yesterday, Eric and I shopped for groceries and we bought him lots of lunch foods (sandwich stuff, fruit, etc) to pack his lunches (we slacked off a bit in the summer).
- This week I am making a couple bulk orders of food to save money. I am making my Buck Ten Spelt Tortillas and my 50 cent hummus (note that I didn’t buy any store-bought hummus or tortillas this last grocery trip!!!)
Personally, I see the Back To School Season as a fresh start. A time to re-organize and re-new our goals for the last part of the year. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely hate seeing summer go, but nothing beats my favourite month of all- September. :)
~~~~~~~
Are you going back to school this fall? What are you doing?
How do you feel about Back To School Season? Do you make resolutions? What camp are you with?
~~~~
Also, be sure to check out Green Monster Movement for the latest Green Monster recipes! Today’s bunch features a Peach Pie GM and a Green Colada GM- yum!
I’m really hoping my blender arrives today!!!!!
Hope your blender arrives today! This will hopefully be my last back to school Fall. I am hoping to finish my PhD in Environmental Engineering this year. I still get excited about back to school partially because September is my fav month as well and it brings my birthday!
Good morning,
Yesterday, I did all my re-organizing, home, work and my training schedule as well renewed my healthy eating goals as well.
I will be checking the GM recipes and I love the new design.Reminds me of home. Can’t wait to start ordering your bars.:)
Funny — this Saturday I did a major clean-out of a closet. There is something about organizing/decluttering that really clears the mind. It is a trick I use to make myself feel better. Of course, the house benefits, too! ;)
School is definitely back in for me this season. I’m taking a few courses for fun… enlightenment… that sort of nonsense ;) But I’m especially looking forward to the “crispness” in the air that comes with fall in the city. As for lists, I make one each year on my birthday and am plowing through my latest right now, before I turn 30 next year. I guess since my bday and fall are so close anyway, it works out. I love this time of year – it feels like we’re on the cusp of “restart”. Always a great thing.
I love love love fall and back to school!!! I am going on a road trip this week and when I get back I already have the lists of all the projects I want to get done. I always want to buy a new notebook and some pencils this time of year!
September is going to be a great month!!!
PS, not sure if you get Good Morning America in Canada but they are talking about a computer keyboard you can put in the dishwasher!!! That would be handy!!!
Courtney
Adventures in Tri-ing
Your half marathon is on my 1st wedding anniversary :D Awesome, hehe.
Hmmm are you entering some sort of bake off, perhaps?
When I was in school, I was Camp #2 excited to the max! Then once school started, and every class’s syllabus with chapter upon chapter of reading loomed over my head–I became Camp #1. :) But looking back, it was a great time and everything came out alright in the end.
I always loved the seasonal changes that school brought – there was always something to look forward to – and yes – I too use those times to make new resolutions about all kinds of things in my life. So when I “grew up” I just became a teacher – I’ve never had to give up back-to-school!
I guess I’m mostly in camp one, although I’m no longer in school I tend to have a small panic attack every time I hear ‘back to school’, I think it’s because that’s when you know that summer is almost over.
I did sign up to take a course this fall though, nothing serious, just a cake decorating class I thought I would do for fun, can’t wait to start!
Although it wasn’t on my mind before after seeing todays post I have a strong urge to get some pre fall cleaning done :)
I’m so impressed by your organization skills! I need to do that before my boy comes home or I will be in BIG trouble!!!
Despite dreading the schoolwork, “back to school season” always gets me excited. School didn’t start for me until September though, so I have a little time to get myself together!
Hi Angela,
I LOVE Back-to-school season!!!
Especially this year, because for the first time in two Septembers, I am actually going BACK to school!
I have purged my entire apartment:
-Gone trough closet and dumped a big bag of clothing to charity
-Mended/tailored clothing that needed maintenance/altering
-Gone through magazines & given away four stacks of Economists & girlie mags
-Gone through cosmetics and tossed those that I never use/are too old
-Detail cleaned every inch of my small apartment
-Reorganize my cupboards
-Bought a couple of new school supplies, but mostly went through what I already had and found most of what I need
Can you tell I love lists, and organizing?? It get my nerdy little heart beating!!
Take care,
Alex
i love back to school season! for me, fall is the time to make lots of changes for the better (as opposed to new year’s). and i might even be taking a class this fall (we’ll see if i can get into a class i want to take). i always want to revamp my entire wardrobe this time of year, too. if only, if only!!
i definitely LOVED going back to school: new notebooks, folders, lunchbox…all of it. I kind of wish I was still in school – I know (even with papers and homework) that I loved that more than working an 8-5 that I don’t enjoy.
I’m definitely “Camp 3” as well! :)
Nice job on the organization so far! :) My desktop looked the same as yours last week – I finally just said “ENOUGH” and spent an hour or so getting it organized – I felt so much better afterwards! :)
Did you know today is national peach pie day in the us? :)
I’ve been going to school all summer, so my sense of the season is out of whack! End of summer is always bittersweet- exciting but sort of sad. I love those last long, hot days, when its still definitely summer but you can smell fall coming.
I am Camp 3 as well, this is the first year in a while that I am also not going back to school and I want to! I have felt the need to organize and I secretly want to go buy school clothes and school supplies even though I don’t need them
I actually never stopped going “back to school.” After college and grad school I worked as a school counselor for 6 years, so every September was filled with the excitement of meeting new students. This September I am going back to school myself as a student, starting a new career path toward becoming an RD. I can’t wait! I love back to school shopping and am really excited fo rmy back-to-school trip to Staples!
I am DEFINITELY Camp 2 (as you could probably tell from my leaf dishes! haha). I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Fall and most of that love comes from my memories of getting ready for school. I still drool over all the new pencils and binders and pens at Target…I wish I had school to go back to! I totally hear ya on having all the same feelings despite also being in my second year of non-back-to-school-back-to-school. Haha.
Loved this post, so cute :)
Oh, and YAY for cleaning and orgazing! That’s what I did this weekend!
love all your back to school tasks! I am in the process of my least favorite back to school project… packing!
Back to school must be in the air! I have files all over the floor because I just got the urge to clean out our file cabinet.