The Summer of You

Breathe in…can you smell the summer on its way? Ahh….Regardless of whether you work a 180 to 260 day calendar or somewhere in between, hopefully you are lucky enough to take some well timed vacation days in the next couple of months. How do you plan to make this summer count?

We all have those pieces of our lives that may be sidelined by the school year. Late meetings and special events sometimes chip away at our life balance. My brain is often led back to Seinfeld and the “Summer of George.” If I remember right, his goal was to eat a giant block of cheese and not move whatsoever. Hopefully we are aspiring to the opposite of the summer of George.

At the start of a New Year, our family members often make a list of 20 things we’d like to do and 5 things we NEED to do. The years where we do this, it’s amazing how much of these lists we check off by year end. Those years we miss, it seems like we end up treading water a bit. This reality is supported by research that shows written goals are much more likely to be achieved.

With school break, this is an exciting time to build this type of tradition into summer plans. Start now by talking with family members and having them construct their lists. Even more importantly, we need to make our own list FIRST and not let it be crowded out by meeting everyone else’s needs again. The phrase “Thanks but NO” may be our best friend. If we give ourselves permission to re-energize during the summer, next year might be our best, healthiest year in a long time!

It’s been a joy working with you this school year and I look forward to much more fun to come in 2012-2013. I have greatly appreciated your teamwork and positive support in efforts to make wellness real. Have a fantastic summer!

Kudos To:

• Campbell Elementary for building walking and running at noon recess habits over the past several years and utilizing fundraising walkathons to create a ¼ mile track around their school yard. Step by step over these past few years, they’ve logged their student laps. At this point, they have now circled the globe three times, walking over 74,500 miles! Yeah! Excellent work by retiring Principal Rosie Molvar and her entire crew for using this goal to unite their school and for building a culture of wellness along the way.
• Norwood Park celebrates their success ranking 2nd place nationally with their video about students staying active in the Fuel Up to Play 60 challenge. They will receive visit by a special Husker turned NFL star! Thanks for all of your voting efforts!

All my best,

Michelle