The pool that we go to opened for the season yesterday and school wraps up this week for my boys. Summer is here and I’m ready to embrace it. It is not lost on me that this will be another golden summer for our family - kids who are quite independent (but still delight in bedtime read alouds, still need mom to help apply their sunscreen, still make the best sidekicks for running errands, etc.), baseball and golf and pickup games of basketball at the park, our kids’ friends who are funny/smart/kind/adventurous, lots of poolside reading for me, sunshine + popsicles, and going to bed physically tired every night. Something tells me that our ordinary summer days are what I’ll think back to many years from now. So I’ll do my best to fully live them, not sweat the small stuff, and cherish the memories being made.
What is something I can do for our home?
What is something I can do for/with our family?
What is something I can do for myself?
Today for me it’s figuring out what’s for dinner based on what we have on hand, cheering on my son at his baseball games, and planting zinnia seeds in the backyard.
here’s this week’s take home folder, enjoy!
A new month starting on a Monday? Elite.
What went well in May:
-I was present. For the school events, for the after school debrief, morning hugs, baseball games, and everything in between.
-Outdoor walks - I averaged 25 miles a week walking outside and loved every moment.
- Oof, hate to admit that eating better makes me feel better.
-Fun family and social stuff - May felt like a taste of what’s to come this summer.
May challenges:
-We haven’t been dialed in on our spending. I was thinking May would be a low spend month but it was more of an average spend month.
-Keeping up with the house - I think there were two days in May that I exhaled and thought, “the house is in a great place right now”. The other 29 days it’s been a game of whack-a-mole as far as cleaning, laundry, and keeping things tidy. Whew. Don’t know that this will really improve until the kids go back to school in the fall. We’re living hard in this house and I need to accept that in this stage of life, a perfectly clean and tidy house is not our reality.
Goals for June:
-Settle into our summer groove. This generally takes us a couple of weeks.
-Stay the course with 75 medium.
-Mindful spending - hoping to do the summer version of “enjoying our mortgage” aka enjoy all of the things we already paid for like our pool membership and the popsicles in the freezer.
-Read! - audiobooks on walks, physical book before bed, in between innings at baseball games, on the front porch, and at the pool - don’t lose my reading mojo.
How’s your June looking and how are you going to love yourself through it?
One thing on my agenda for the last week of school? A Costco run. Here is what I’m planning to keep stocked in our home this summer. For our family and all who end up hanging out here.
Popsicles/ice cream treats
Snacks - individually wrapped to grab on the go or offer when the kids have friends over and bulk bags to pour onto snack plates, fill lunchboxes, etc.
Fruit - last weekend we took our kids and several friends mini golfing and they came back to our house and polished off an entire watermelon and a batch of muffins. I loved having that on hand to feed them! Goal is to have washed/cut fruit in the fridge most of the time.
Aloha bars - 4/4 family members like these and they’re a great protein and fiber option for on the go.
Easy breakfast stuff - we’ve been teaching our kids how to make their own breakfast so want to keep the food they can make independently stocked.
Sunscreen
Drinks - what are you offering your kids’ friends to drink at your house? We offer water but also regularly offer Gatorade when they’re outside playing for hours. I’d love to figure out something a bit less expensive that I could mix up in a pitcher and they could pour into glasses? (like KoolAid of the 90s but, uh, less sugar) Any thoughts?
What are you keeping stocked for summer?
My 8 year old’s dresser was feeling too full recently so I did a refresh of his wardrobe and it feels MUCH better. Here’s my approach to dealing with our boys’ clothes.
stick with what works - we tend to buy the same items in the next size. Sort of like a decide once. They don’t care and we already know it fits and washes well. Plus, constantly browsing for new stuff is a huge time suck.
mix and match - I tend to buy pieces that fit well and will work together no matter what they grab from their drawers.
get what’s outgrown OUT - sell it, give it away in your Buy Nothing group, drop it at a donation center. No need to hold on to outgrown clothes that another kid could be wearing.
less is so much easier to manage - they just don’t need that many clothes. Streamlined wardrobes for kids are the best.
My kids live in the same things year after year:
shorts (specifically these from Old Navy, these from Target, these from UA, and these for nicer occasions or golf.)
athletic tees (Target discontinued their favorite style boo! and shirts they get “free” for their sports teams)
cotton tees (this super soft and nice-looking tee has been a Godsend for my picky 5th grader. My 2nd grader has a couple tees from Life is Good and they’ve been great.)
socks (yeah pricey but they last)
baseball caps
swimsuits (these neon trunks from Old Navy and Chubbies)
crocs of course
Airmax 270 (I only buy on sale and there are currently a few colors that are!)
Last year I made weekly chore charts for my kids for summer and it went pretty well. They had daily tasks to complete and an additional chore for each day of the week. The snafu was that sometimes we had more or less time to work on chores, and some days other things were more needed. Enter this summer’s plan: sticky notes.
Each weekday, the kids will wake up to a sticky note of ways in which we’d like them to help the family that day. This can be anything from vacuuming the car to grocery shopping with mom to tidying up their rooms to sweeping the front porch to wiping bathroom counters.
I think this will be a win because both Todd and I can add to their notes and the list will vary daily by what most needs to get done and the day’s schedule. I’ll report back on how it goes!
There are many parts of the day that I pinch myself due to the goodness - the sleepy, warm hug from my kids when they first wake up, walking outside on a beautiful day with a good audiobook playing in my ears, sitting down at my computer to write this newsletter, making dinner while the boys tell me about their day at school.
But I think I’ve pinpointed my very favorite thing in this stage - my bedtime. It’s the feeling of showering (gah I LOVE a nighttime shower, even if its just to rinse off the day), doing my skincare, brushing and flossing my teeth, putting on soft pajamas, crawling into bed next to Todd, knowing our boys are peacefully snoozing down the hall, and reading until my eyes are droopy (which doesn’t take long, ha).
The best part? Realizing I get to do it all again tomorrow.
see you right back here next week,
recent favorites
a driveway filled with bikes
hard zip cases to organize our pool bag
Land’s End swimsuits (pictured is this style)
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