August is officially coming to an end! I can’t believe how quickly it went by. I don’t know about you but I can’t complain. This summer has been pure bliss with us spending as much time as possible with the kiddos. For this weeks bliss list the team and I wanted to share some back to school necessities for the entire family and some of our favourite articles on that topic. We’ve also started an exciting addition to the bliss list. For the next few months we will be hosting a giveaway for a new item in every bliss list post. So, as you’re reading through this week’s favourites, you will find out what our first bliss list giveaway item is!

One
If you’re a mom, you’ve had great experience sipping cold coffee and when we had the opportunity to partner with KitchenAid Canada and try their new cold brew coffee maker we were excited to sip cold coffee by choice haha! This beautiful little stainless steel appliance sits pretty in your fridge with a super handy spout that pours out your morning pick me up bevvy and all you have to do is add your choice of water or milk. The KitchenAid Canada cold brew holds up to 14 servings but it’s a concentrate so don’t expect 14 full cups of coffee to pour out of it. We fill a quarter of our cup with the cold brew coffee, and mix it with fresh almond milk and a drop of maple syrup. You can find it on Kitchen Aid Canada’s website here. It retails for around $150, but Best Buy has it currently on sale for $94.99 here!!!!! One lucky reader has the opportunity to win one of these beauties to fuel your morning! Details on how to enter at the end of this blog post. This coffee maker slow steeps coffee in cold water for a balanced brew that’s always on tap. It’s so easy to use and our coffee comes out smooth and rich AND less acidic too!
Two
I know this is a sensitive subject, and we’ve all been dreading it but…. Let’s talk about school lunches. As you guys know we keep it pretty healthy in this house and try to avoid added sugars and artificial colouring, and also need to keep it nut-free. This isn’t always easy. But by being creative (well, as creative as your little ones’ taste buds will allow you to be) you can come up with some really fun and healthy options. We wanted to share a handful of our favourite kids cookbooks that are full of delicious lunch friendly ideas that involve the kids in lunch making. Win-win, right? We can’t wait to try the funny bunny quesadillas recipe!

Three
On a recent homesense hunt for some back to school goodies, I stumbled upon a great family calendar. Made of mostly magnets and wood that allow the kids to learn more about what’s on our schedule for the month and help by adding in dates to remember with you. Our two kids were super excited about this calendar as we’ve been looking for one for so long, and to be honest, even if your kids aren’t starting school, this is a great family friendly and budget friendly calendar to help teach them about days of the week and months of the year. It can also be used for multiple years – it included magnets for up to the year 2021, check it out here!  If you’re handy, it would be a great #diy project to try with a few magnets and cute print outs!

Four
Back to school is a busy time for moms, duh. And within the chaos of it all with lunches, buying school supplies and more – there is dinner planning. How many of you feel like cooking dinner every night during that back to school chaos? I don’t. Heck, I barely felt like cooking every night this summer and I sure as heck didn’t lol! We’ve humbly turned to delicious pre-made meals from a local caterer in Barrie, Ontario called Cravings Fine Foods AND our Hello Fresh subscriptions. If you haven’t checked either of these companies out, do it – trust me! And if your dinner is ordered in pizza or even fried eggs on toast, mamas THAT’S OKAY!!! I mean not every night can look as delicious as that Four Cheese Spinach Lasagna above by Morgan of Host the Toast right? Another great tip is to meal plan – this helped us HUGE last year and we plan to do it again this year. One of our favourite mamas in the food blogger world Tori has a great article on meal planning like a pro in 1 hour every week that we know you’ll appreciate, check it out here!

Five
We know that going back to school also means bringing new germs home. And I’m not going to sugar coat it, flu season sucks and it’s right around the corner! Not only is it important to keep our kids health in mind, but also our own. Stock up on vitamins for the whole family, get on a healthy sleep schedule (yes, mom, that means you too!), get those essential oils diffusing and teach the kiddos the importance of washing their hands! You can check out my Pinterest board full of Natural Remedies here and I promise we will FINALLY be sharing the oh-so famous Bubbi’s chicken soup recipe you’ve all asked about for years, it’s seriously a cure all kind-o’-soup!

Six
If it’s one thing I understand all too well, it’s anxiety about sending my kiddo off to school without me. Ella and Noah have never done daycare, they’ve grown up being with me almost every day so I naturally have a hard time sending Ella off for a day without me. I feel no shame in it! I am lucky that I found a school that I can count on to give Ella the foundations in education she needs and that we can trust to take great care of our little. I stumbled upon this great article on The Every Mom that shares 15 Questions to ask your child’s teacher as they head back to school – so helpful! It covers questions you should ask the teacher like , “How can I best contact?” and ” What am I not asking but should be?”. We loved it as moms and you can check out the full article here!

KITCHEN AID COLD BREW COFFEE GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

We are so excited to be partnering with Kitchen Aid Canada to give 1 lucky winner a brand new Cold Brew Coffee Maker, we are in LOVE with ours!

How to enter…

1 – Subscribe to our blog (if you are already subscribed then you’ve already done step 1!)

2 – Comment below telling us you entered!

3 – If you want to head over to our Instagram you can also enter there or for an additional entry!