This post is sponsored by RetailMeNot, Yours for the Saving ™

(pssst…there’s a $200 Visa Gift Card Giveaway at the end of this post!)

Confession: Those Back to School Ads we’re pretending to be all sad about–all “Don’t end my summer so fast!” hold-it-back about? Yeah, those. Pssst: I love them. Listen, nothing makes me happier than the first day of summer, and I am ALL IN when it comes to shutting down the school scene and going balls-to-the-walls Summer Bucket List in June. Give me June and July. But come August 1, I’m ready for a shift of season. LET ME SNIFF ALL THE PENCILS! Rev the buses, pick out the backpacks, buy the gym shoes! It’s time for BACK TO SCHOOL, and everything about this time of year brings back all the feels. Suddenly, I am seven, my first-day-of-second-grade outfit is hanging up six days in advance (black mini skirt, hoop earrings, yellow slouchy sweater–way old for my age, but I’m thrilled, thanks Dad), and all I can think about is when I’m going to bust out my new purple jelly shoes. Second day of school? Third day? Play it cool and wait for the second week of school?

While getting ready for another year of school can be stressful, I’ve always loved the buzz of excitement that comes from preparations.

The unboxing of the Back-to-School Gym Shoes:

Back-to-school shopping is one of those fun things for us, but let’s face it–watching your bank account get smaller is never fun. So, how do we shop for the season, add new things to start the school year, take part in all the fun without completely blowing our fall budget (save some budget for earthy fall candles come September!).

The answer? We shop smart. I have two rules for myself when it comes to back-to-school shopping.

A): Don’t get swept up in the NEW NEW NEW EVERYTHING! lies. Like Christmas, advertising this time of year can flood us with the idea that we need new everything–backpacks, lunch boxes, wardrobes, desks, homes, husbands, cars…you get it. I try to stay smart and not buy into the lie that we need to ditch all the old things for new, shiny pretty things for the start of the year. Not everyone’s getting a new lunch box this year, and if it ain’t broke, we don’t fix it.

B): Use your resources. Tax-free weekends. Coupon codes. E-mail deals. Big sales. Shopping apps.

Which brings me to a secret weapon in back-to-school shopping (and any-time-of-the-year-shopping): RetailMeNot.com.

 

Have you used it? Instead of hopping around to a hundred different shops to see if they have deals or sales or coupon codes, it puts all the deals in one place. Whether you shop online or in a store, you’ll find thousands of coupons, deals, cash back offers and discount e-gift cards for all your favorite stores and restaurants, and you can combine offers for extra savings!

How do we use it?

First of all, I’m all about free shipping. It’s my kryptonite in getting me to buy something because I HATE paying shipping. You can search RetailMeNot just for shops that have free shipping deals.

For Back to School deals, you can search the RetailMeNot app for deals based on categories…

We used it this year for our gym shoes, one of the things we buy new for our kids at the end of every summer. It only took an extra few seconds to do our gym shoe shopping through RetailMeNot, and we ended up saving over $20. In seconds, we had a 15% off Foot Locker coupon code we used (LKS17YKC) for shoes we had been eyeing for Nella and Dash…

And of course you know what happens when two little siblings get new gym shoes…

You have to test them out with a race.

“Will these make me go fast?” Dash asked.

“ROCKET FAST,” I told him.

What is it about these cute little gym shoes that makes me all excited to send them off to school?

One of my favorite things about RetailMeNot is that I’ve gone to buy something on a site I love before and quickly remembered to check RetailMeNot only to find there’s a deal I could have missed out on had I not checked. And for shops you visit locally, your RetailMeNot app will alert you to nearby offers that can be redeemed directly from your phone at checkout.

Here’s the bonus. Our friends at RetailMeNot are giving one of our readers a $200 Visa Gift Card to go towards all your Back-to-School shopping needs. Follow the steps below for your chance with win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Now, about those gym shoes. Lace up or velcro?

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open to eligible legal residents of the 50 United States and D.C. at least the age of majority in their jurisdiction. Begins: August 1 at 9:00:00 AM ET. Ends: August 11, 2017 at 8:59:59 AM ET. Subject to Official Rules available at http://mediakix.com/sweepstakes-kellehampton/. Void where prohibited. Sponsor: Mediakix LLC.

“I think when I die, I want some of my ashes spread here,” I tell my cousin as I take a picture through the ferry window on our way over to the island. “I mean, not on this boat, but–you know–maybe Mission Point. Or behind the library. Or, wait–I know–the playground.” Yes, that little playground on the back of the island that overlooks Lake Huron is most definitely a place I will forever associate with happiness and peace and watching my children play during a magical sliver of life called summer.

“But, for the record,” I add in a superstitious attempt to smooth out what I just threw into the universe, “that won’t be for a long, long time.”

The ferry speeds ahead while Dash snaps blurry pictures of the water spray against the window, and as we approach the island, what were dots in the distance now take shape into the setting of one of our favorite summer adventures.

There’s the massive Grand Hotel taking up an entire corner of the island’s edge, its sheer size and stately white columns making it the first distinguishable building from the lake. And then Hotel Iroquois. And Fort Mackinac. And the harbor and the dock with all the boats where we finally stop and get off. I take a deep breath of that lake/horse/fudge-scented air that I’m certain is also laced with some highly illegal happiness-inducing chemical.

“Ahhh. Kids–this is it. The adventure begins,” I announce as we seek out our porter to ensure our bags make it to our hotel–by horse.

No direction is given this year–no “This way” or “Turn right” or “Where to first?” because they know. It’s “turn right.” Walk slowly through town. Take it in. Turn around to make sure Dash is following us and not stopped a block back, staring and taking pictures of a horse (he is).

Find the Pink Pony. Order a round of pink lemonades…and two Michigan beers. Ask for the window booth.

It’s Deja Vu. Five years of the same places, same food orders, same smells, same sounds, same summer highs, all blurred together because it is hard to keep the years straight.

Even the horses are the same. “Blackberry and Jay,” a carriage driver answers Dash when he shouts–aggressively, might I add–across the street, “WHAT’S YOUR HORSES NAMES?”–the first of the 789 times that will follow in the next two days.

“We had them last year!” we excitedly explain. “What about Josie and Daisy?” we ask. “Are they still around?”

“Josie’s here,” the carriage driver informs, “but Daisy’s retired now. Livin’ the good life.”

Dash asks about Daisy several times after this, confused about this retired thing. We tell him she lives by the lake now, in a cottage like Poppa’s where she does crossword puzzles and tends to her tomato garden and is perfecting her blueberry crumble recipe. I bet post-Mackinac horses are the happiest retired horses of all.

We close out our tab at the Pink Pony but might as well leave it open because we’ll be back later tonight. And again tomorrow. I fold up the paper placemat where we started a list of the island’s horse names and tuck it in my purse.

We turn right and continue walking. Past the harbor, the houses, the church, up the hill with the flowers. We stop for every horse carriage which is often. “WHAT’S THEIR NAMES?!?!” Dash demands. Duke & Billy. Pat & Jack. Slim & Pete. Clarence & Cindy.

I pull out the placemat list and hand it to Lainey, our official recorder. The list will grow by the hour until we have over 100 horse names before we leave the next day.

We turn the corner, and Mission Point appears in all its glory–the lawn with grass that feels like velvet, the water, the chairs that beg you to come and sit and think about what it would be like to stay here forever–you could make it work, you’d figure it out.

Our visit to the lawn has unwritten rules. Like Thou Shalt Play Airplane. And Thou Shalt Cartwheel. And Thou Shalt Attempt to Throw Children in the Air for a Picture but Notice It’s Not That Easy Anymore.

And then we walk some more.

We walk through town, popping in to Horn’s for another beer, the Seabiscuit for fries, Murdick’s for fudge. We stand and watch the hypnotizing show of fudge makers scraping spatulas through pools of liquid fudge that looks like brown glass and smells like heaven.

We smell soaps, buy a dish towel and peruse handmade jewelry at our favorite shops like Poppin’s and Little Luxuries Artist Market and Caddywumpus. I buy a keychain and four postcards at a new store–Canvas & Paddle–and am reminded how much I love that whole cabin-in-the-woods decor. Everywhere we walk feels like a scene from a storybook, and there doesn’t seem to be a single tourist who takes it for granted. The secret of this island is well-appreciated–it’s why we’re all here. With the absence of cars and a $25 ferry ticket to get here, people don’t stumble on the island accidentally.

Evening takes us on a different walk–along the lake toward the Grand Hotel. We walk slowly again to drink up all the details of the homes–the red front doors, the perfect window shutters, the flowers hanging on the front porch.

We reach the playground and stay until the perfect moment that leaves us just enough time to walk up the rest of the hill so that the Grand Hotel appears as the sun is setting.

 

On the lawn next to the golf greens is the old red phone booth where I’ve taken pictures of the kids every year. They play there for an hour, pleading to stay longer when we suggest maybe we should leave. There’s nothing really to play with but an old pay phone, but they’ve found a way to turn making pretend calls and opening and shutting a heavy booth door into a full hour of play.

We return to the Grand Hotel the next day, this time to tour the inside and settle into big rocking chairs on the largest front porch in the world. We stay for hours.

When the kids need more breaks from walking, we revisit the kid’s art studio in Mackinac Art Museum where they make sailboats out of paper towel rolls, painted newspaper and egg cartons.

Even in the quiet of the studio, you can still hear the distant clip-clip-clip-clop of Duke & Billy. Or Slim & Pete. Or maybe Blackberry & Jay.

The Michigan coloring pages they’ve offered every year are stacked on the same table with a basket of crayons. There’s something comforting about coloring the same robin every year–red-orange for the belly, and for the feathers, the broken classic brown crayon with the peeled-off paper.

And finally, our favorite, the Mackinac Island Public Library with the mint green paint job and the reading deck that overlooks the lake. The little children’s section has so many of the same toys and games and books that we have at home, but here, my kids actually want to play with them for hours. So we whisper so as not to disturb adults on the other side of the fireplace (yes a little library fireplace, by golly) while we play Candy Land on the floor and initiate a silly puppet show we eventually take outside because the kids are giggling so loudly.

On a shelf in the children’s section, I find a display of picture books about Northern Michigan and the island. I thumb through illustrations of lighthouses, pebbled shores, tall pines, sun-drenched dunes and facts about the history of the island, the depths of the Great Lakes, the battles fought near Fort Mackinac years ago. I put the books back and gather the kids to head to our next stop…more fudge, maybe. The harbor, perhaps. On to another page in the picture book.

(a reaction to the smell of horse poop):

The hourglass sand trickles as we know we’ll board the last ferry of the day, and this little island will join our own picture memories until it comes to life again next year.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. Some summer in your life–any summer–find a way to visit Mackinac Island. There’s magic everywhere.

This post is sponsored by Hallmark.

In a town with a population of 1,392, it’s easy to notice things. It helps that there are less distractions here–unreliable wifi and only a handful of shops, for example–in the little town of Lewiston, Michigan to keep you from noticing the more important things like how many different kinds of birds have visited the feeder, what time is the best light for coffee in the garden and, most important, needs that exist in the town…invitations to brighten someone’s day. We’ve been able to observe and join in on a little of this town’s day brightening, and we’ve learned what so many others in this town have learned–that small acts of caring are contagious.

I’m thrilled to be partnering with Hallmark in sharing stories to inspire more acts of caring in their #CareEnough campaign. Beyond a card company, Hallmark’s roots are really in the art of caring–finding ways to spread kindness and encourage others whether it’s an “I’ve been thinking of you” card slipped in the mail to a friend or a meal dropped off to a co-worker who seems to be balancing a little more in her life than she signed up for. As soon as Hallmark approached me about their summer story-telling campaign inspiring others to join the wave of kindness spreading, I knew exactly which story I’d share. The idea is that when you care enough, you can change the world. It begins in small communities, and in the tiny northern Michigan town of Lewiston, a few people have started a wave of caring, and a growing crowd is catching on.

It started downtown where the neglected overgrown median planters weren’t doing anything to brighten the mood of the town. Gary heard the Downtown Development Authority was working to improve this and knew he had the skills and experience to help them out, so he volunteered to take them over–replanted them, enlisted the ladies of the garden club to help out, worked toward getting new gabion planters down the town’s Main Street and is now committed along with many others who’ve joined him to making this town a brighter, happier place.

Every morning this summer, Gary leaves early in the morning to water the flowers downtown. It’s a 2-hour job, and Dash has joined him many times, learning through the process about the hard work of taking care of plants but more importantly, why it’s meaningful.

“Why, thank you, son,” he’s been told by residents who pass by. “You’re making our town a happier place.”

“I’ve lived here thirty-three years,” one gentleman said as he watched Dash and Gary water the flowers one morning, “and this is the prettiest this town has ever looked. Thank you.”

The satisfaction of knowing you’re doing something to make someone happy is reward enough for acts of kindness, but what’s really remarkable about a simple act of brightening up this town with planting and tending to gardens is how this “Care Enough” initiative has spread to more kindness.

“It’s stirred a civic pride in this town,” a neighbor who stopped by pointed out the other day, “More people are taking pride in their own properties now. This town is becoming more beautiful; even businesses are picking up their game.”

A little caring act spreads some more. After dinner at the town’s Hotel restaurant the other night, the waitress came over without a bill. “Your dinner’s been taken care of tonight,” she told my dad. “Someone at the bar asked if you guys were the ones who had done so much work to brighten up this town this summer, and when I told him you were, he asked for your bill.”

A simple act of caring is all that it takes to start a movement. And now, there’s an entire force dedicated to caring more in this town.

“We’re calling ourselves the RAK Group,” Gary’s cousin told me at dinner the other night. She and her husband have a cabin a few blocks from my dad and Gary’s, and she too has joined the kindness brigade. “Random Acts of Kindness,” she explained, “We started a club, and we’ll be on the lookout for people who need help in this town–maybe elderly folks who can’t maintain their yard anymore or need some chores done. We’ll anonymously come in and help them out, leaving a note that says we were there.”

I can’t help but be inspired by all of this going home. I always leave Michigan renewed at the end of the summer and inspired to slow down and live everyday life a little more attentive to nature and small moments. This year, I’m excited to find more ways to bring some Lewiston love and small town kindness back to my own community.

Caring is a lot like flowers…give them some water, and they will grow. One person’s kindness inspires another’s.

So many of us have the hearts and motivation to care enough and spread kindness–it’s just that we get busy and overstimulated by so many distractions around us. In the quiet of a small town, it’s been nice to listen, watch and learn.

We’ve kept a bucket list of celebration ideas on display this summer to help inspire us to do fun things we might not normally think to do–how great would it be if we kept little bucket lists of kind acts on display to help us remember how fun it is to make someone’s day throughout the week?!

* Send a handwritten card to a friend in another town.
* Double what you’re making for dinner later this week and text a friend you’ll be bringing her dinner that day.
* Buy a pack of stickers and mail them to a friend’s child who would love them.
* Pull the neighbor’s trash bins up on garbage day.
* Slip a $10 coffee shop gift card into a note for the teacher on the first day of school.

We love brands that sell more than products. Thank you, Hallmark, for being a brand that inspires us to care more and make the world a kinder place.