The beginning of summer always feels like I’m ringing in a new year because my summer plans look much like my New Year’s resolutions. Every summer, I create a list of lofty goals but, come fall, reality hits when I realize how little I accomplished.
But like New Year’s resolutions, my motivation for summer is renewed by the following year. Now that school is out, I’ve made my new summer goals and I have faith this year will be different!
My Summer Plans:
1. Have the kids deep clean their rooms
I will help my kids clean out every single thing they have stuffed under their beds, in their drawers, and in the back of their closets. We’ll weed through the trash, outgrown clothes and worn shoes, old school books, never-used trinkets and toys, and childhood stuffed animals. And we’ll bag and discard as necessary.
2. Have a huge garage sale
We will have a huge garage sale with all of the stuff we’ve discovered from cleaning the kids’ rooms! The kids will help organize and price everything to sell. It will be a ton of work, but it will be worth all the money we make getting rid of everything. This will surely take a week to prepare for and a full weekend to pull off, but it will be worth it.
3. Visit some fun and educational places in our city
With all that hard-earned money we made from the massive and successful garage sale, our family will plan some new adventures in our wonderful city. There are so many great tourist spots we haven’t yet experienced with the kids, and it’s really important to educate them about the local gems in our hometown. These excursions will be part of my summer plans.
4. Catch up on every Netflix series we missed during the school year
We are all so busy during the school year that we never have time to veg on the couch and watch all the popular shows. During the rainy summer days, we’ll all snuggle together on the couch with snacks in hand while we spend hours binge-watching every series on our must-watch list.
5. Enjoy special family meals
The school year is so crazy with the kids’ sports, activities, and school work that we rarely sit down to a meal together. Summer is the best season to spend some quality time together on our back patio, eating grilled steaks and potato salad.
6. Teach my kids to cook new recipes
Speaking of meals, I really need to teach my kids how to cook some of our family’s favorite dishes. I’ll have each kid pick a new recipe every week and help them prepare it for the rest of the family. It will be great for them to learn how to prepare a good variety of meals before they’re on their own.
7. Spend time with friends and family
We’ll catch up with old friends we’ve lost touch with and family members we haven’t seen in months. I’ll plan cook-outs and host some fun gatherings with these special people we miss having in our lives. It will be wonderful to reconnect and replenish those relationships.
8. Read all the bestsellers that we never had time to read
We’ll read all those books that came out during the school year that we never had time to read. I’ll take the kids to the library and bookstore and we’ll all choose our reads for the season. When things slow down, we’ll have a good book to curl up with on the couch.
9. Let the kids choose some fun summer activities
My teens will be grown and out of the house before I know it, so this summer I’ll let each of them pick an activity they’d like to do for a day. I’ll give them guidelines for cost and location, but otherwise they can choose whatever they want and we will make it happen.
10. Have scheduled screen-free days
Since we’re all on our screens so much of the time, it will be good to plan days when no one touches a screen. That means no video games, TV, social media, texting or Face-Timing friends. I’m not sure what we’ll do instead, but it’ll be fun! Right?
I know how fast this season is going to fly, and I admit we may not accomplish all of my goals this summer. But I still have a few more summers to fit in all these summer plans before my kids are grown!
