With the wonderful weather we’ve been having, it’s felt like summer for weeks but now it’s official. Summer is here! This will be a unique summer for us because we are staying with my parents while our new house is being built. That means we have a little less to do, a little less to worry about, and a lot more time to enjoy the season. Some of our favorite things to do in the summer include:
1. Swimming
Charlotte had a lot of fun helping to fill the inflatable pop up pool grandma got her and she is in it almost every single day
2. Parks
There are so many parks to visit in the Valpo area, plus the park in front of our new build is finished so we get to go visit it every Sunday when we check on the progress of our new home
3. Soccer Camp
We signed Charlotte up for a week long soccer camp with the Valpo Parks Dept so she could test it out before joining a league this fall
4. Drive-in Movie Nights
The 49-er Drive in Movie theater is a fun treat for the whole family, though we usually only make it through the first movie
5. DIY Projects
With all the downtime we have not doing projects around the house, I’ve started doing what little I can for when we move in and to help around my parents’ house.
6. Family Walks
There are so many great places to hike and walk in Northwest Indiana with the Dunes State Park just down the road and more. We definitively take advantage of this all we can (on days where we won’t sweat our faces off)
7. Catch up on Reading List
I have taken advantage of my downtime to catch up on my mile long reading list that includes; books 4-8 in Outlander, Twisted Fairy Tales from Disney, all Magnolia Journals to date, Make Something Good Today by Erin and Ben Napier, and so much more! Charlotte’s been pretty impressive with her reading as well, checking out 5-10 books a week from the library.
8. Dream about New Home
I have been a Floorplanner.com, Pinterest, Home Design magazine, HGTV junkie this summer dreaming up all the wonderful ways to make our blank canvas of a new build our dream home (on a budget of course)
9. Clean Out Junk (In the home and in myself)
While all our stuff is boxed and packed and at my mom’s and his mom’s and storage, this is the perfect time to clean house so to speak. First task is closets. All our clothes are at my parents’ right now so that makes cleaning out our old clothes an easy one-day task. Charlotte is growing like a weed so I need to bag up her too small items to give to her little cousin and I definitely need to simplify. Too much of a good thing is no good at all, and I have way too many clothes! We are also selling a lot of our Lego “inventory” so we don’t just have money sitting on the shelf when we could be using it for our new house. This summer is all about simplifying for me.
I am also using this downtime to get back in touch with myself, God, my family, and take stock of it all. I want to improve my relationships, learn to love others better, recognize my flaws and improve on myself, accept my quirks and imperfections, applaud myself for my creativity and talents, and dig deeper into who I am. I want to envision what the best version of me is this summer and then go after that.
10. Invest Time in our Businesses
I am investing more time in my authorship business and in my new home decorating business I am in the process of launching this year. It feels so good to be my own boss and to create beautiful things like stories, characters, and homes. This is what I was made for.
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