Welcome back to the Simplicity Diaries with me, Kim John Payne. You know, we're going to be just extending on a little bit in this Simple Holidays Survival Kit theme. And next I wanted to overview a little bit a couple of themes that are also in the resource library that you can click on right below in the show notes.
And you can go right to this wonderful page. Gosh, we've had fun putting this page together for you. For many of us, there's a lot of travel around this time of the year, right? You know, it comes with the territory.
We're either sometimes even in airports where we're traveling to be together with family over Thanksgiving or through Christmas time and that kind of around this time, New Year and so on. And there's a lot of travel and we kind of bite the bullet a little bit because we know that the travel is going to be tough on kids. It just always is.
There's not a lot of way around long car journeys, airplanes, whatever mode of travel we take. We know it's going to interrupt kids. And one of the things in the two or three podcasts that you'll see on the resource page is about how to, and I want to just sort of give a little bit of an overview of this, about how to get kids ready for travel.
In these weeks, in these coming weeks before we travel, I think it's very important to double down on rhythms. The micro rhythms and the macro rhythms. The macro rhythms being the big ones, like basically when we get up in the morning, when we have our breakfast, when we have dinner, when we go to bed.
Those are the big rhythms. And the micro rhythms, as you might remember if you've read or listened to these other podcasts, the micro rhythms are the little ones. It's not just when we get up in the morning.
It's how we get up. It's how we get dressed. In what order? And then what do we do then? And then, and then, and then.
And then dinner time comes. And it's how. It's not just only when.
It's how. We sit here. We, we say a thank you to the farmers, perhaps, or a blessing or whatever it is.
And, you know, they're all these, all these little pieces. You know, we share our day, the, the, the rose and the thorn of the day. Perhaps you do even do that at dinner time or perhaps it's at bedtime.
But all these little things have an order of event that where we share the best things and the worst things of the day. What's coming up tomorrow? That's a little bit of the, of the reviewing as well. And so we, you know, these rhythms and particularly the micro rhythms, I've got to say, the micro rhythms are, are actually more portable.
Perhaps than the macro rhythms. The macro rhythms become a little bit harder when you're at grandparents place and when things are going on and bedtimes tend to get stretched. And that normally when you would have your, your bath or shower with the kid, you know, for the kids, that gets a little bit loopy.
Those ones, we can be very intentional and hold them together. And those people that do realize that that is a really big benefit. Yeah.
But it takes a lot because you're in someone else's space. But the micro rhythms, they're very transportable. That all that we do this, we do this, we do this.
All these little things come. Because when you do come to, like, if you've got little kids going to have a bath, you know, bath time, then you can still do the same stuff. Like we put it, we, you know, we bring our pajamas into the bathroom because we like them to be cozy warm.
Then, then we, we pop into the bath and we have our bath time song and we do, we do our little rubby and scrubby and squeezes. And then we rub, rub, rub down. And we, in just the same way as we always do at home.
And then we've brought our toothbrush. So that's your toothbrush. And we, we do it all in the same way.
Same goes for older kids too. Those things are highly portable. And I want to encourage everyone to really double down on both the rhythms when you're away from home.
Because the, the, I was talking to one mom this week actually about this, who had let rhythms go a little bit in over the summer vacation. And it really didn't go well. It just didn't go well at all.
Previously, where she had held it together more in the holiday prior to that, the holiday was a lot better. The kids' behavior was better. They didn't get so crazy with their cousins.
And, but she kind of let go a little bit. And she said to me, I won't be doing that again ever. Because it just wasn't a very enjoyable holiday.
Okay. So just one more thing about rhythm is that with the weeks coming up, I mentioned earlier, double down on the rhythms and predictability before you leave. It's almost like you're putting rhythm credits in the bank of resiliency.
Just build up that, that kind of calmness, the parasympathetic nervous system. Just be able to calm and soothe and everything is good. It's almost like you're putting things, you're getting things ready for the journey, but you're doing it inwardly and not just outwardly.
It's not just you're packing clothes up and getting everything in order there. You're getting things in order inwardly. It's like orderliness that builds up the children's forces, what the Chinese medical doctors would call chi or etheric, but you're building up these forces.
Then you've got the journey. Now, I've already mentioned trying to keep the rhythms as good as you possibly can. But when you get home, then it's another time, another space to really double down and wrap home rhythms around you like a big cozy blanket.
And with young ones, older ones, doesn't matter the age. And it's as good for us as it is for the kids, right? So as soon as you get home, just pull those rhythms, pull that predictability of life. And because you will have drawn down on that bank of resiliency.
And so before the kids go back to school, give them as much time as possible. Sometimes it's just a couple of days. I personally have always tried with our kids to not do that.
If we had to travel, I want a week at home, five to seven days before kids go back to school. Because school is another really big hit. If it's a big out, you know, school, not a homeschool, but even homeschooling too.
You know, it's a shift of rhythm. And I want kids in the best state possible. And I don't want their little cups to be totally full.
And so school becomes overwhelming. So you'll see stuff in the library about that in this resource page that we've set up. Okay, so good luck with that.
I hope you've got time to visit and listen in to those audios. Okay, bye bye for now.
