7 Things That Are Working Well For Me This Summer

I love summer and look forward to the warmer weather and more laid-back schedule all year long.

AND, now that we’re a month into summer, there have been needed adjustments for all of us to settle into a routine that works for our family.

Here are a few of the things that are working well this summer:

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7 Things That Are Working This Summer

• Accepting that my work schedule will look different during the summer. This past year was my first year of having a (mostly) full-time work schedule with all my kids in school. So it’s definitely been a switch going back to much shorter work hours. I decided at the beginning of summer that I just didn’t want to be stressed about work and that I’d be focused and productive and then let the rest go. I hope my blog and Instagram are useful and helpful but they are NOT solving world hunger or curing cancer and it’s silly for me to be ultra-stressed about it. It is a . . .work in progress.
• Lunch together. I wrote a whole post about this last year but we’ve kept it going this summer because I love it so much! It’s a great time together, it means everyone actually eats lunch, it’s a nice hard stop for work from me, and then everything is cleaned up and done instead of lunch stretching out over hours and hours between six people.
• Working out at home. For the past nearly six years, I’ve gone to an early morning strength training class multiple times a week but it is SO EARLY and I decided a few weeks into summer that I was going to swap it out for doing lifting videos at home so I could get a little more sleep. (This is the program I use – it’s 99 cents right now for a whole year although that deal ends on Monday). It’s been a really good change for me, at least for the summer. We’ll see what I decide to do when school starts back up.
• Almost daily trips to the water park. We have passes to two different water parks and so does my sister, so most days after lunch we meet up and our kids swim and play and we visit and chat. It’s the best and everyone has a good time, plus it wears them out.
• More walking. One of my goals last summer was to walk or bike or scooter as often as possible rather than taking the car and it’s been such a nice slowdown to do the same this year. I love taking the time to walk to a neighbor’s a few streets away or fitting in a long walk on Sunday afternoon with Bart or a family bike ride after dinner.
• A new favorite pair of shorts. I’ve generally not been much of a short wearer, but I bought this pair a few weeks ago and to my surprise, I LOVE them! They fit perfectly (I got an XS which is my normal size) and I’ve been wearing them nonstop.
• Teen/Tween Movie Nights. We started watching some movies and shows with Ella at night two years ago. Our family movie nights are generally aimed a bit younger so this was a chance for us to enjoy some things with Ella that might be too much for her younger siblings. This year, with Ani about to enter 6th grade, we’re adding her in for a few of the movie nights too! (We started with Ella the summer AFTER 6th grade, so Ani isn’t invited to all of them, but we decided to let her join us for a couple instead of waiting one more year for ANY).

What’s working for you this summer? I’d love to hear!

If you liked this post about surviving summer, you might also like these other posts:

• 20+ Fun Ways to Make Summer Feel Special
• 20 Fun Summer Activities for Kids to Do at Home
• 9 Summer Essentials