In most K-12 school districts across the country, the beginning of the 2021-22 school year has been different from what school and district leaders expected and were planning for. Many spent the spring and summer sowing the seeds of their ESSER plans, allocating federal investments to high-impact strategies designed to bear fruit for years to come. The most planful districts have struggled to get their COVID-recovery work moving, let alone efforts to redesign existing policies and structures so all students can learn and thrive. The most equity-minded leaders are grappling with how to allocate more resources to the places with the greatest needs when funding may be boosted, but staff are already stretched to their limits and everyone is in need. The good news is that there is a path forward. Through work with dozens of district partners Education Resource Strategies have seen both the exponential challenges facing districts right now and the range of effective solutions leaders are employing to tend to their gardens while also responding thoughtfully to the fires igniting in front of them. For those trying to balance doing both, the following five actions are offered in this report: (1) Prioritize your plan; (2) Deliberately protect the resources you need -- people, time, and money -- for the strategies you decide to pursue; (3) Create accountability for implementing and improving your narrowed set of priorities; (4) Address the fires in ways that can advance your efforts to build toward sustainable recovery and redesign strategies in your original plans; and (5) Create the space and systems that allow for mindfulness, wellness checks, and other supports for those doing the work.