A LOT with Audra

Ep34
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Welcome Back!
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​[00:00:00]

Audra Dinell: Hey, welcome to a lot with Audra. I'm so glad you're here and I am so glad to be back recording. I have spent several days recording over the summer and done a good amount of interview episodes, but it's been a while since I've done a solo episodes, so my kids are back in school. You can see if you're watching this on social media.

My office is still a little bit of a mess from having them home for the summer with their artwork and little storyboards taped up all around, [00:01:00] but they are back in school and I am kind of feeling all the things I don't know about you, but back to school is such an exciting time for me. As a parent of little kids, especially elementary school kids, and I always use that as a reset.

And so that's what this episode is gonna be about. I'm gonna do a short little recap over the summer. I am going to share with you something new that I am doing, and then I'm gonna talk about how to do a little reset for you. As a parent for back to school. Now, you could also apply this for like post Christmas break or any time that you're really shifting your focus away from normal routine life into this more fluid, fun, chaotic time where you are spending more time with your kids than normal.

Maybe it's post vacation, [00:02:00] even if you are a corporate. Person and your summers look just like the rest of your year, so.

Summer Recap
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Audra Dinell: A little recap on how my summer went. The summer went really good. If you have listened to my team's podcast about our plans for the summer, and then the episode where we did a summer update, you know that some things worked out the way I was hoping some didn't.

We had some great surprises over the summer. I say, great. I don't really know why, but we had some surprises over the summer.

Surprises and Missed Goals
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Audra Dinell: My oldest just really loved the structure of camp and has buds at camp that he doesn't go to school with during the school year, but has been with for the past several summers that he was really excited about spending time with.

So that was a big surprise that we, I spent less time with him than I anticipated. You might also remember in our. Update. I was hoping to sneak in [00:03:00] one more trip before the summer ended. I was also hoping to learn how to make a latte. Neither of those things happened, and such is life. But all in all, I would say setting out for this summer, I was really hoping to.

Do work in a different way and be more present as a mom and really just summer with my kids and enjoy it and have fun, and I feel pretty successful in that effort. I think for the first time when August rolled around, I was more in the camp of, no, I'm not ready for back to school. I mean, I love the organization of everything and all of the.

To-dos the back to school shopping stuff, but I was not ready for our summer to end, and that made me feel really happy. Now, I will say, as we got to that week, I was like, okay, I feel it. We're ready. Everyone's ready. But I was still in, in disbelief a little bit [00:04:00] the night before when we went to back to school night, like, really, the summer is over.

So here is. One new thing I am doing and then I wanna tell you some thoughts I have on just resetting and recharging after a break such as this.

New Planner for a New Season
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Audra Dinell: So one new thing I am doing is I am switching my planner for the first time in at least three years. I have been doing the full focus planner for the last three years.

I have talked about it on the podcast. I still love it. But I am learning in this season of life how much I want my business to be shaped around my children's school schedule. And I hear a lot of parents talk about, you know, just the irritation that can happen. With school hours or camps not being available during certain weeks.

And man, I feel that because if you work for a company or in an [00:05:00] industry that you don't get to dictate when and where you work, it's a real pickle. And I feel grateful that right now I am. Running a business and building a business that can be more flexible and can run off of my kids' schedule. So I switched my planner to Emily Lay's Simplified planner.

This is a favorite from the past. I used this planner 10 years ago and really loved it, but I decided to switch to a back to school year schedule. So my planner is now August through July. If you're a nerd like I am about planners, you know how fun that is to be a new thing, a fun little mix up. And if you're not a planner nerd, you're like, I can't believe we just spent [00:06:00] two minutes talking about that.

But we did. So I'm very excited for my August through July planner. I had done the quarterly planners with the full focus planner for the past three years. So I was always getting a new planner and redoing every quarter. And my brain really liked that fresh noon novel mix up. But like I said, as I was really sitting in this space of, I do wanna run my business in flow with my kids' schedule right now, for me in this season of life, which is something that is, is probably pretty unique to me, I'm guessing.

I decided to switch it up and get a new planner, and that's what I'm doing.

Back to School Reset Tips
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Audra Dinell: Okay, so something that might be more interesting to you is back to school reset, or any time you are on an extended period where you're juggling things, but your primary role is parenting, this year is the [00:07:00] second year where I've got two little elementary schoolers and I saw a shirt the other day that said, not my first rodeo.

And I feel like not my first rodeo. I know what back to school week can be like. Even though every year it's different and there are always surprises. But this year I was really intentional about holding space for myself to process. Just feelings and things and sort of celebrate the back to school season and take care of myself.

So I have some tips for you if you are in that season two.

Book a Massage
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Audra Dinell: The first thing I did when I thought about what I wanted back to school week to look like for me as the parent is I booked a massage people, and this is like new life hack for myself. I was very excited to think about this and get this on the schedule because you know, with.

The fun of [00:08:00] summer, but the chaos, right? And then all the back to school organization and getting them out the door and the pictures and the first day, and it's beautiful. I. Knew I wanted something on my calendar to relax and look forward to, and so I booked myself a massage and it was amazing to do that the afternoon that my kids went back to school.

So we were both very, very much looking forward to the whole day.

Coffee Date with My Husband
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Audra Dinell: I also got to carve out 20 minutes to go have coffee with my husband at our favorite local coffee shop after drop off, and that was such a fun. Experience. That's not something we've ever done before. So while I will say I have had really good back to school weeks as a parent in the past, I feel like every year I have a new idea or I get to build on what I've already done.

Before, so these two were new. Number one, I booked a massage. Number two, we dropped the kids off. We got to hang with some parents, [00:09:00] you know, just for a few minutes outside on the playground. And the principal was so, funny. She was like, y'all go enjoy coffee now. Your, you know, your time is up. Until next summer.

So, Corey and I were like, yeah, we're gonna go grab some coffee. So that was fun. I also would recommend, okay, so this is number three. So if you, like, let's say you, you know, took a vacation and it wasn't really a vacation, it was a trip, and you're like, okay, I just parented intentionally. We had a great time, but now I need some time for me.

These are also tips you can do then.

Lunch with a Friend
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Audra Dinell: Schedule a lunch with a friend. So for me, I scheduled lunch with a friend who has kids that are in a similar season as mine, and I knew, especially for back to school, that. Just kind of processing with her, updating with her, connecting with her over mostly kid stuff is what we [00:10:00] talked about would feel so, so, so good.

So if you have a friend like that who is in the same season as you, maybe even in the same school as you schedule lunch, like have something on your calendar to look forward to.

Deep House Cleaning
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Audra Dinell: The fourth thing that I thought about doing as a reset is paying for a deep house cleaning. You may pay to have your house cleaned on a regular basis.

You may not, but paying for a deep house cleaning, just doing a nice reset at the beginning of the year or at the beginning of the summer is such. A treat and sort of just like a lift off of your plate. I don't know about you, but when my kids go back to school, I tend to just like push a bunch of stuff to happen like in August and then I look at my pile and I'm like, wow, that pile is kind of big.

And so this is just one way to get something off of your pile. Okay, number five. So let's say you have a friend who you don't live in town [00:11:00] with and can't go to lunch, schedule a phone date with a friend. One of my dear friends from early on in my career, we met at work and it was just one of those friendships that lasted and stayed and we visited each other in our different states and I just love her dearly.

Her life is full and my life is full. So we were texting and we were like, okay, after back to school happens and the kids are out of the house and we're not, you know, juggling more than one thing. Let's schedule a lunch and just have a phone catch up. And so that is a fun idea. Can do that with a family member too.

Okay, so tip number six are we have a pool that is open. For Adult Swim only through the end of August. Isn't that cool? And so my team and I booked a couple of our work sessions at the pool during Adult Swim a few days. I'm also probably [00:12:00] gonna do a solo one, grab my book and it's like a two hour adult swim and just kind of lay out and jump in the pool when it gets hot because you know, it still feels like summer.

And for me, I really. Think about summer as through Labor Day weekend, because our family always takes a trip to the lake that weekend as like a larger family, not just my family of four. And so it's still hot for summer. The pools are open. And so I'm totally taking advantage of it, and that's a fun different thing that I'm doing this year that I just thought, ugh, maybe you have a pool in your backyard, but usually, you know, you, you reserve that time for when your kids are outta school or you know, the weekends have a solo pool day.

Okay, tip number, I think we're on seven. Save a book. So I had a big summer reading list. I have talked about my, intention [00:13:00] to read 40 books this year. Actually it was 25. I wanted to read 25 minutes a day in 2025. And I was noticing by doing that I was averaging three books a month.

Well, in the summer, I knew I was gonna have much more time to read and I was gonna want to read these fun. Romancey or just like interesting books that would suck me in and would just be not heavy, but just like a, a light kind of addicting read. And so I saved a stack to finish out the summer with, so after the kids go back to school, I got to start a new book this week that I was looking forward to.

Okay. This is my last tip. It's gonna be tip number eight, and that is, don't schedule anything. I've done this, I think I did this last year where my kids went back to school on a Thursday and Thursday and Friday. Nothing got on my calendar and it was such a gift.

This year, I think I probably overscheduled some of the fun stuff. [00:14:00] I did give myself enough space, but I don't just have free time like I did last year.

Final Thoughts and Self-Care
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Audra Dinell: So I hope you found one of those. Interesting and something that you might want to do for yourself. I know for, as a person with A DHD, it's like I'm always looking for that fun, and that's a, that's a value in my life too.

Joy is a, personal value, so it's like I'm always looking to have some sort of. Nugget or something that I'm looking forward to. And I just think these transitions where we've spent so much time pouring into our kids and our family and being present, it's just such a great reason to take a step back and be like, wait, what do I wanna do?

And take some time to care for ourselves. Yes, this is a big list, a form of self-care. But it's also a list of fun and I really had a lot of fun thinking about. How I was gonna spend the first two days of back to school this year. So if any of [00:15:00] these resonate with you, I'd love to hear it. If you have other tips, I'd love to add them to my list for next year.

Thank you so much for listening. Comment on our social posts. If you liked this episode, please share with friends. You could even share with a friend who you want to have a phone date or a lunch date with. And as always, thank you so much for listening in, and we'll see you next week.