How to Have the Best Summer Ever

It’s summer friends! If you haven’t wrapped up your school year yet, I’m sure you’re getting close. The children are getting anxious to be done, and you’re ready for a breather. Hooray! FREEDOM!

This is your gentle reminder to not let that freedom waste away. Use that freedom to accomplish some of those goals or projects you have put on the back burner. Summer is a wonderful time to work on those things (for yourself and your kids) that you just haven’t had time to get around to during the busy school year.

It’s also a time for FUN! Vacations and swimming and camp, OH BOY! But be warned…don’t let your fun drowned you. Take advantage of this slower season to RELAX, to ENJOY and even to GROW.

As excited as we are about summer, let’s make these days and hours count. Don’t have a “bummer summer,” as I heard one lady say. And that takes a little planning. Uggh! Yes! I said that word. But planning doesn’t have to mean a meticulous list with exact times and dates. It could just be a brain dump of everything you’d like to do…a summer bucket list of sorts. Take a minute to write down a few goals. I have a couple friends who just want to have a summer full of fun. That’s awesome! Maybe that’s you too. Write down those fun things you want to do. Maybe it’s time to get your kids started on a chore list. What a great season to implement it while life is a bit slower.

Create a Loose Plan

For me this summer, I want it to be full of fun, but I also don’t want my home to fall apart while we’re doing it. I don’t function well in chaos, so I want to have some days set aside for fun and some days set aside for a bit of normalcy. And I FOR SURE don’t want to have to spend a lot of time thinking about and preparing meals. No thanks.

Well, guess what?! If I don’t want my home to fall apart and summer to be chaos, it’s time for me to do a little brain dumping myself.

Here’s mine:

• Spend A LOT time outside.
• Go to the river several times.
• Check out the creek around the corner.
• E memorize all multiplication and addition.
• Incorporate Clean 15 to E’s responsibility list.
• Have a rhythm for days we are home.
• Rhythm for meal plans and grocery pickups.
• Create a summer bucket list for ideas of fun things to do.
• Clean out music room.
• Sand and seal outdoor table.

I took these ideas for myself and went a little deeper. Taking a good hour or two to plan (even as much as I despise it,) really does help the decision making in the long run.

Chore Lists

E has been doing a chore list since she was two. It has transitioned into more of a responsibility list as she has gotten older, so it was time to update it. She LOVES when we update it because she gets to pick the pictures that go on there. We added Clean 15 and practicing math flashcards to her new list. We’ve tried many kinds of chore charts—velcro charts, money charts, picture charts, the list goes on. This is the chart that has lasted the longest for us because kids love to move the little push pin magnets from “to do” to “done.” And it’s just very simple and so satisfying. You can get your editable version here.

Rhythms

We are gone a lot during the summer, but I know there needs to be a plan in place for when we are home so it’s not chaos all around. And I know kids just thrive on a routine in general, so it’s important to have something in place so I’m not scrambling the night before or the morning of, trying to figure out what we are going to do that day. So that was the next step for me. I just quickly typed up a list of our rhythms which you can find here.

Rhythms are a wonderful tool to implement in your home. While they seem “boring” in the long run, they allow you to work on what is most important to you and help you to always move forward even if it’s a little at a time. Here’s our list of rhythms for days we’re home.

Anchors

Daily anchors are things that always happen on a certain day of the week. We have a lot going on, but there are certain days when specific things happen. I know I need to be home for the days E has music lessons. I know I want at least one day a week where we go exploring or on some type of adventure. I know we have a couple days a week where we are doing church activities. And with a sitter living near me now (woohoo!), I’m able to have one day a week where I can work! I needed to put all of these things on a list of some sort and have them visible so I know what’s going on each week for the most part.

Meal Plan

It’s too bad we all have to eat three times a day! I would imagine food is the most stressful thing for me in this homemaking journey. Eesh. I need to feed everyone. Every day. Several times a day. And it does not go well when there’s not a plan in place, nor when there’s not any food in the fridge. Eesh again! Do you know what you’re eating this summer? All I know is that I do not want to be in the kitchen hours on end. So I must have a plan. I need recipes I can make as fast as possible.

Enter my meal plan anchors…my favorite thing I added to my anchor list. I already have a pretty good rotation that works well (see it here), but I needed it to be whittled down even further, so that when it comes time to sit down and plan out what we’re eating for the week, I don’t have to take much time at all.

• Salsa Sunday. We have leftovers for a late lunch on Sundays, but Sunday evenings are weird. We leave too early to eat dinner before hand, and we get home so late we’re starving to death by the time we make it home. We need something FAST! Enter chips and salsa. That’s what we’re eating Sunday nights. Boom! Decision made! No searching around in cabinets at 10:00 trying to figure out what we’re having for a snack.
• Monday is Sandwich night. We need quick on Mondays because it’s just a weird day trying to catch up from the weekend and planning ahead for a new week. Enter sandwiches…whatever sandwich that sounds good that day. Grilled cheese, sloppy joe, burgers, hot dogs…no sandwich-y item is out.
• Taco Tuesday. Can Tuesday be anything else? I like this one because we have lot of good taco recipes including chicken, beef, and pork. Quesadillas can even be thrown into the mix as well as fajitas. It’s fun to change it up!
• Wednesdays are for quick meals…because church! Think a quick chicken salad meal with rotisserie chicken and bagged chopped salad from the deli section at your local grocery store. This is my current favorite because it’s very quick and a perfect summer meal. Add a slice or two of butter bread to fill up your husband. Or I might do something from the freezer that I can pop in the oven for a quick dinner.
• Meat and Potato Thursday. My husband is a meat and potato man. This meal is especially for him. A roast, honey mustard or garlic honey chicken, mini meat loaves, any grilled meat. Potatoes can mean French fries, baked potatoes, foil packet potatoes, even rice if it comes down to it. I know that’s not a potato, but starch counts.
• Leftover Friday. By this time we usually have plenty of leftovers. We’ll finish those up or go out to eat. (But we live pretty far from everything, so we don’t go out to eat too often on Fridays anymore.)
• Non-American cuisine Saturday. I typically have more time on Saturday evenings for experimental cooking. This is when I do all of my extra flavorful cooking…think Indian, Chinese, Mexican, etc. I always make sure I make plenty so we have leftovers for a quick lunch after a busy Sunday morning.

And there you have it. My meal rotation for the summer.

Hold Plans Loosely and Enter Summer with a Grateful Heart

Another way to have the best summer ever? Hold your plans loosely. Here’s a secret. You’re summer is not going to go as planned. Yes, we created a “loose plan,” but that is just a general guideline. It’s not a hard and fast, “We are going to do this or else…” If you come to summer with that mindset, you are going to be sorely disappointed. If you show up to a swimming play date with hopes that it’s going to turn out just like last year, you will probably be frustrated. Enjoy what is right in front of you. Make new memories. Cherish the moments. Even the grumpy kid ones.

Enter into summer with THANKSGIVING. Thankful for beautiful weather. Thankful for down time. Thankful for children being home. (Yes, that’s something to be thankful for.) Thankful for extra time with friends. Thankful for summer rains. Thankful for water and swimming holes. Thankful for grills. Thankful for BBQs. Thankful for back decks and deck furniture. A grateful heart will allow you to look with new eyes on situations that are less than pleasant.

Relax, let go of lofty expectations. Enjoy your reality. Cherish each and every moment.

Hope you have the best summer of your lifetime,

Sarah

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