Are you feeling overwhelmed about the summer ahead? Do you want to balance responsibilities and recreation with purpose and sanity? In this episode, I’ll share my personal plan to save the summer!
I’ll walk you through four lifesaving strategies that will make your summer memorable and manageable. We’ll talk about creating a vision, setting up systems, and ensuring everyone in the family is on board and contributing.
Plus, I’ll share some personal stories and practical tips to help you feel balanced and connected. Join me for this insightful episode and learn how you can save your summer, too!
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TRANSCRIPT
Monica Packer: Hi, I’m Monica Packer, and you’re listening to About Progress, where we are about progress made practical.
What do you remember of your summer breaks as a kid? I have distinct memories of climbing trees in my backyard, the chlorine of our neighborhood pool, where we spent a great deal of time, especially with me reenacting that one scene from The Little Mermaid where Ariel bursts from the waves. I do remember sleeping in.
I remember reading a lot of books. As a mom, I always look forward to summer when my kids are off from school. I love not having to do the school morning rush. I enjoy feeling more relaxed in the afternoons and especially going on a lot of adventures with my kids. But as much as I do look forward to it, I also feel the stress.
After all, I am the one in charge. I’m the one who has to make sure we have the right amount of responsibilities and leisure and So we can create those summer memories I hope my kids have as adults without them being spoiled, while also maintaining our home and prioritizing my own self care so I don’t get overwhelmed and then overwork and that my kids memories are of me throwing mommy tantrums.
This episode will release the week my kids are getting out for the summer. So I selfishly wanted to walk through the four ways I am saving my summer ahead of time, and how that’s turning into my summer plan. I shared this not because my way is the right way, but because regardless of if you have children in the home or not, Everybody experiences a summer shift.
And I think we would all love a type of summer where we balance out responsibilities and recreation with purpose and our sanity intact. Coming up, I’ll share the four summer savers so that you can save yours too. I will also share my podcast plan for the summer, but first a quick break for our sponsors.
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As we’re heading into the summer, I hope you have some time to step away from your responsibilities. Maybe to relax a bit, read some books, go on adventures, and even take a me day. These are all things that can be assisted by your own do something list. My yearly DSL gives me a way to prioritize fulfillment by helping me uncover and discover who I am.
No goals allowed. Members of our community have found their own DSLs essential to discovering new hobbies, prioritizing their interests, and exploring who they are while making time for themselves. If you’re looking for a fun way to shake up your summer, get the free training we have for you at aboutprogress.
com slash DSL. And that’s where I will help you learn what a DSL is and walk you through how to create your own. The training includes a guide and many, many examples of real DSLs from real progressors of this community. Again, you can find that free training at aboutprogress. com slash DSL.
I find anytime there’s a shift in seasons and also a shift in responsibilities and when our day to day life may look like, it can be very easy to get swept away and all the pressure out there, uh, you know, people are doing a lot this, this, this. Summer people have a lot of adventures, they go on a lot of vacations, they have a lot of interests and activities that are taking up their time, and it’s really easy to feel that pressure and also to have our own internal pressures of things we personally would love to do, and we can either get carried away with it, and And, you know, lead to some summer burnout, or we can feel paralyzed by it and, uh, stuck and not doing anything because we don’t really have much, uh, of our own clarity.
We’re still getting swept by the tides of summer. So my first summer saver for you is to start with a vision. I always love to cast a vision at the beginning of anything new, whether it’s me creating a course or a workshop for you here on my about progress community, or if I want to start a new habit and I know it’s during a certain time of day, I always start with a vision.
of casting a vision. And the way I do that actually is before I even get clarity on what we’re doing, I actually start with the feelings. How do I want us as a family and me personally to feel this summer? From there, I then brainstorm what things can help create those feelings. And then I narrow that down more to a real vision.
So let me walk you through it. To cast a vision, I start with how do I want to feel? So this means for me and my household, I like to divide that into, like, how do I want us to feel as a family and how do I want to feel personally? For us as a family, I want the summer to feel adventurous, connected, and chill.
Those three feelings. For me personally, I want to feel balanced. And I know these feelings are going to be really helpful in the summer. Getting some clarity I need with all the things I would actually like to do, because right now my list is long, you know, from different chores and routines we’re going to have to places we’re going to go to even the adult school I wanted to do.
The list is long and very complicated. Cause each of those things have like 10 or 20 bullet points with them. So I need to get some clarity based off of those feelings. So here’s what I’m going to do next is brainstorm. What things could we actually do that would create those feelings for us as a family?
What would help us feel adventurous? What would help us feel connected and what would help us feel chill. So for us adventurists, I, my kids do so much better when we get out of the house. So I do want to prioritize getting out most days of the week and doing things, going to a splash pad or a pool, going on hikes, going to the park, going to the zoo, going to some museums that we have passes to, using our get out pass.
We need that. To get out. That’s going to help us with the adventurous piece. They get along better. They are fun. They’re easier to manage. Our house feels less, less messy. Like all those things. Adventurous is great for us. What would help us feel connected? I think spending quality time together at home in the afternoons.
I imagine my kids doing puzzles and playing games together. They do a lot of that stuff and us doing that as a family too. Um, in the. In the late afternoons when things are a little bit slower and after dinner. And we also love to have movie nights together. So I imagine us watching a lot of movies together as a family.
So those are the things that would help us feel connected and for chill, what would help us feel, feel chill for me? It’s having. Regular downtime. If we’re going to go in the mornings, I want to chill in the afternoons and evenings. So that, to me, all helped me, um, that gives some clarity on things that will actually create those feelings for us.
And this is still just my brainstorm list, okay? I also needed to do me. If I want to feel balanced, what would that look like? That to me feels like having committed work hours. So me knowing when my work hours are for a day and that I am not going to be working when it’s not my work hours. And then I will be working when it’s my work hours.
So my family and kid responsibilities will not be influenced by my work and vice versa. And for me, that will also include time on my phone, but my work often is on my phone as well. So I’m just having that commitment. That would help me feel balanced. If I’m not feeling stretched thin and divided between the two.
Okay. So because I started with what the feelings were and I would then was able to brainstorm um, things that can make those things more possible. I do have more clarity and that feels good. And now that means I know what things I can let go of. We’re not going to go on many trips at all this summer.
We’re going to go on a family one with my family for part of a week. And at the very end of the summer, the beginning of the school year, we’ll join Brad’s family for just a couple of days, too. More than that, we’re just going to be around here. Um, it’s also giving me clarity that the adult school is a great idea, but I need to simplify that to make it actually more possible, because there are other things that need to take more priority.
So, I’ve got that clarity. Now I need to figure out how to make more of a plan. Those feelings and the activities we could do to create those feelings, that’s my vision. So, how can I make these things doable? That’s where I’m going to go into my next summer saver, systemize. Systemizing for me is truly just about making the vision possible.
How would this actually look? I have a vision, but how would it look for our weeks, for our days, and, uh, you know, for our home and what things need to happen within the home to have, uh, Those activities and those feelings be possible. So I’m going to go by those three areas. I just said, I’m going to systemize our week and what that looks like and our days and then our home and what we’ll do around the home.
So let’s take on our week. It kind of helps me. And I’ve done this off and on for years, especially when my kids were all really little is I like to have a certain theme for a day of the week. So I knew which days we were going to go out and which days we were going to stay home. And even then what kind of activities we would do out And at home now that my kids are mostly older and
Um, he is pretty good about just joining us, us, wherever we go. So for our stage of life right now, I do feel like getting out each morning and doing those chill afternoons and evenings are going to work Well for us, but I am going to systemize our week. So we know what kinds of things we’ll be doing out.
Otherwise I’m going to get stressed out each night thinking, what are we going to do tomorrow? And this just gives me a little bit of guidance and clarity, but also it’s flexible. So when I share this, just know it’s still going to be flexible. It’s not going to be as regimented as it may sound, but this will just help me feel like I have some decisions made for me.
So here’s our, Daily themes of what we’ll be doing in the mornings. And then we’ll have the chill afternoons, of course, and evenings. So museum Monday speaks for itself. We’ll go to a museum of some sorts. Um, take it outside Tuesday. For me, that’s going to a hike on a local hike or going to. A nearby park that’s really simple.
So a little bit more of a chill activity. We also have a pass to a local canyon called Mill Creek Canyon. So we can just go up there and go by a creek and they can play in the creek. Like something simple. We just need to get outside in the morning before it gets too hot. Wet Wednesday. This is where we get wet.
So a lot of days that will be as simple as a splash pad. And those are always so easy to prep and do the things for, and you can just sit and watch your kids. That feels more chill for me. On other days, we’ll go to the rec pool. They’re doing free passes for kids to rec, uh, rec, um, Salt Lake, Salt Lake City.
Rec departments or not departments, rec centers. There we go. So we’re going to do that. My mom and dad also have a neighborhood pool we could go through, or we can even just run through the sprinklers or get maybe a little kiddie pool. So wet Wednesdays, how we’ll spend our Wednesday mornings. Thrilling Thursday.
We have the get out pass. I talked about this a few years ago and I didn’t really use it last year at all. Um, mostly because I didn’t know I have it, had it, but that’s in a whole other story. And, um, Also because I was still getting used to having a fifth kid and we did not have this kind of summer. And so this year we have the get out passes and I want to use them.
So Wednesday nights, we can plan together where we’re going to go on Thursday morning with our get out pass. And then fun Friday, and this is where we’re going to have kind of a miscellaneous day. We’re going to have one kid each Friday choose what our morning activity is, and that can be going to the library or it could be something like going to the zoo, which is something I would normally reserve for Museum Monday.
I know that’s not a museum, but anything we have a pass to. So a kid gets to choose what the morning activity. Now, I just want to say. Uh, say again that this may seem regimented. And last year, my, my season was not this, I, I just needed, my kids just played all day long in our house and that was fine, but we went a little nutty nets, so now we’re gonna get out there and have more fun.
So this is more flexible than it may sound. And also it’s our season to do it this way too. It’s just our season. So we’ll see. How that goes. I’m feeling really excited about having something to do in the morning that’s theme based and the afternoon and evenings are our chill and connected time. And we’ll have a little bit more on that in a moment.
So there’s our week. Now let’s talk about what will our days look like. I feel like summer is great because there is obviously a lot more room for fun and to not have things be so regimented. But my children, many of whom are neuro atypical, neuro diverse are, they need more routines. They just do. That is going to add a lot of calm and semblance and predictability to our days.
And I need it too. So we will have some systems to our days, starting with touchstone family routines. That means we will have a morning routine that is the same every morning, and we will have an afternoon routine and an evening routine. And thankfully, these routines are already based in what we do during the school year.
So it won’t be like we are starting all of these routines without them. Having any familiarity with them, they already know most of what we will be doing. So I’m just going to share those with you for ideas. Not because I think you need to share mine, but just thinking about for yourself, how could we systemize our days so that we have some touchstones there that add some predictability and also help us manage some things that can happen around the house.
Um, that may need that or some skills or chores or whatever it may be that we want to make sure are a bit more systemized so that I’m not always like barking orders at people. So for our morning routine, again, this is really similar to what we do for school already. I am going to tell my kids I do need to be up by eight and that also has to do with some of my, my, um, neurodivergent children and, um, If they’re not up around a certain time, they will be up all night.
And then it throws off the whole summer and sleep schedule. And, you know, when you have a child who keeps coming to your room around midnight, you know, you didn’t do that right. So up by eight. And that means they still get to sleep in. They usually are up by seven. So up by eight. And then same as school, they have to make their bed and get dressed before they come upstairs because all their bedrooms are downstairs.
They have to empty the dishwasher, those who are in charge of that. Um, and then eat breakfast, which I will normally have provided for them. And then after breakfast, they need to put their dish in the dishwasher, brush their teeth and do their hair. Those are all things they’re already used to doing every single morning.
And usually in that. Exact order. So they will know that, but what will be new for the morning routine for the summer is they will need to weed outside for 10 minutes, and then some kids will need to practice their piano and other kids will need to do typing club, because that’s one thing our lovely hippie school doesn’t do very well is teaching the kids how to type.
And I have some budding writers on my hand. And I’m like, you need to learn how to type so that you can, um, feel like that’s an enjoyable and also productive experience for you when you’re sitting down at a computer and trying to write your novel. So, um, I don’t know exactly if I’m going to have all the kids practice the piano who need to in the morning or if we’ll do some of that in the afternoon.
I’m thinking we’ll split it up, but knowing my kids, it’ll be better for us to say these kids do in the morning, these kids do in the afternoon for piano and the ones who are not are doing So that’s what I think we’ll do. That was our morning. Touchstone family routine. Now for the afternoons, the afternoon is also going to be my work time.
And for years, what we’ve done with my kids is it’s quiet time and that’s also chill time. So for them, that means they need to be downstairs because the baby will be sleeping and I will be in the kitchen working. Or if my sitter is able to come that day, I’ll be upstairs in my office working. And for two, maybe three hours, they can have chill time.
Quiet time downstairs. They get to read. We have special snacks just for our special reading club that we have. They can play puzzles. They can play games with a sibling. If they’re doing that quietly, some of them could do typing club if they’d prefer to do it then. But basically it’s just free time. It’s like, what do you want to do?
That’s, that’s it. Quiet and mostly on your own, or maybe with one sibling, maybe two siblings downstairs and mom will work. And then once the baby is up, this is like our afternoons. Our, our, our routine is just play, like go play. You can play upstairs. You can play outside. You can have friends over. Um, but it’s more of that while I start to tidy up and make dinner and all that stuff.
So those are, that’s our afternoon touchstone. Mostly the quiet time is the touchstone there. And then evening. This is something we already do during the school year. So everybody helps with dinner cleanup. We have different kids do different things while we’re cleaning up. We also have a pre show cleanup.
So all the kids clean up their rooms, the basement around the main level while others are taking showers. They all kind of trade off cleaning and taking showers. And then that’s our, um, Usually it’s our show time as a family, but we’ll either do shows or we’ll play games or we’ll do something fun as a family.
Maybe we’ll go on a walk. Maybe we’ll have popsicles in the backyard, invite friends over for popsicles or ice cream, whatever. So, uh, most of that is something they’re used to. So dinner, cleanup. Um, dinner cleanup, pre show cleanup, showers, and then something as a family. Okay. So those are how we’re going to systemize our days.
And I’m going to tell you now, if we were starting from scratch, I wouldn’t start with three big touchstone routines. I would start with the one that’s most important. And for us, that always tends to be morning. And I know personally, that’s the one I’m going to be very diligent about making sure my kids are following that morning routine until they have it down and they can do it mostly on their own.
And then, um, The quiet time, just like them knowing when it’s quiet time, you are downstairs and being, doing something quiet on your own. So that’s what we’re going to do. All right. Systemizing our home. When I think about systemizing our home, I’m thinking about what are some things that happen that need to happen in our home so that we can also still have the overall feelings.
If I am trying to do all the things, and if I am acting as like the, the drill sergeant around the home, um, Barking orders all the time. That’s not going to be a way that we’re going to have the adventurous, fun, chill, connected and balanced time. So some systems we’re going to have in our home is obviously chores in the morning that I already shared, like weeding and piano stuff.
And also in the afternoons for those who may need to make that up. Um, you know, After the baby’s up, we always do quick cleans as needed, but I think we’ll make sure we do that, uh, after lunch and before, um, the nightly and the night, the normal nightly show cleanup. One of the things I know is going to really help is having kitchen hours, like open kitchen hours.
Like this is when the kitchen is open and that’s just because otherwise they will all be in, they will be just in the kitchen and eating all day. And then that leads to frustration when I’m What’s, why are, why is all like, why is this all out? And, and whose plate is this? And of course, that’s part of our systems.
I want to make sure they know is when I take something out, I put it away. Or when I’m done with the plate, it’s in the dishwasher. When I prepare food, then I put the food away. So I’m going to walk my kids through the kitchen system. And part of that is open kitchen hours. And then also kitchen rules.
Like I just shared, I just shared those rules, like. You know, when you use a plate, put it in the dishwasher. When you make your food, put the food away. Um, sweep up any crumbs. Wipe off the counter. We’re going to have those rules in place that they have the skill set to take care of themselves as adults.
Okay, so open kitchen hours though for us 8 to 9, that’s open kitchen. They can eat the breakfast I provide or make their own if they don’t like that breakfast. Um, another open kitchen hour is 8 to 9. 12 to 1 and that’s flexible because we might be on about likely be eating lunch out and out and about too, but if we’re home, that’s lunchtime and then open kitchen is 5 to 6.
And that’s when we have dinner. Now, my kids need to eat more than just those three meals. Those three hours. So we are going to, I’m going to allow them to have snacks in between when they’re hungry. And the way I’m going to do that, instead of saying it’s snack time between 11 and 1130, that’s going to be too stressful for me.
Some of you that might be working, that may work really well. Instead, I’m going to say you can have one snack of your choice and your own creation, because I’m not going to make breakfast. Snacks usually in the morning, um, sometimes in the afternoon I will, but I’m not usually going to make snacks, but you’re allowed to have a snack of your choice in between.
And I’m going to put up a list of what those snacks are in the cupboard door, because there are some snacks we have that are only allowed for outside the home, like granola bars or those little fruit strips. Those are for only outside. Packaged snacks, the rest, and also our reading club snacks that they have.
Um, those are very special. Those are fun. Those are like fruit by the foot kind of snacks or popcorn, like kettle corn kind of stuff, or Graham, not Graham crackers, uh, goldfish kind of packets, like things we don’t never have. I love to have reading club snack. Um, that is really special. So that is something they can have in the afternoons, but otherwise, if they want a snack, they’re allowed to have one snack in between the open kitchen hours, you know, mid morning.
Afternoon, but they have to make it themselves and it has to come from our list of stacks things like popcorn or apples or cheese and crackers or yogurt Um, i’ll have like a whole list for them of things that they can have Um, one other thing we’re going to do to systemize our home is In addition to having open kitchen hours and kitchen rules, I’m going to ensure that my three oldest are making their lunches.
If we know we’re going to go out the next day, I want them to make them the night before or the morning of there are certain children who work really well about waking up and being on their game and they can do it in the morning and others who just take their time a little bit more so they can do it the night before.
Okay. So I’ve talked about chores in the morning. I’m talking about quick cleans. I’ve talked about kitchen hours and rules. And we are also going to maintain our home with the systems that we already have in place. My kids already have set chores on Fridays and set chores on Saturdays, and those will just stay the same.
Fridays are bathrooms, and they each have different parts of bathrooms they’re in charge of, in addition to washing floors in certain areas. Saturdays are bedroom and basement day, um, so they each have to have their room vacuumed and dusted, and they have the basement vacuumed and dusted, and Floors washed.
We have, um, LVP flooring in the basement, which I’m so glad we do. By the way, we’ve had a few floods already and it’s been so good, I’ve been so glad we have those. So those will stay the same. And then here’s some other things I feel like would be helpful for our systems is two of my children really are at the age where they are both capable and in need of making their own money.
We don’t do allowance, but we do do, if you want to earn money, in addition to your regular choice. We have a money. chart, like a money chore chart, where I have different levels of money, 1, 2, 5 chores. And they can choose whatever they want underneath those. They have to get them approved for me just because they’re like, I want to dust the baseboards.
I’m like, great, but you did that yesterday. So you don’t need to do that two days in a row. So what other chore do you want to do under that dollar? Um, so my two oldest in particular though are, um, Um, both getting older. One’s turning 13. One just turned 11. My 11 year old’s going to start traditional middle school soon.
And I’m sure that he’s gonna want to do more stuff after school with his friends. They have a lot of food places around the school. I can see him wanting to hang out with friends more. He doesn’t really right now. Like my friend, my kids just hang out a lot. Um, or like with a neighborhood family, but I can see that he’s probably going to want to go to the pretzel store nearby the school or go get a drink, like at a soda place with his friends or go to a movie and, and he will need to pay for that.
And my daughter too, if that’s something she’s getting more interested in and she’s, you know, a little bit of a different life situation, thanks to being autistic, but that’s something I want them to both feel like they have Earned money throughout the summer that they can spend on the school year if they want or even during the summer.
So i’ve suggested maybe hiring out their services like babysitting or yard work around the neighborhood Or that they do more Around the home and going off of those money chore charts. So i’m gonna I have that already hanging up. Uh, we have kind of like a, a place that we have in our stairwell that goes to the basement that also is right next to the kitchen.
So it’s where my kids go up and down all day. So that’s where the money chart chart will be. And that’s also where I’ll put the kitchen rules and the kitchen hours, and I’ll put the snack chart somewhere different in one of the cupboards. But, um, I got to update that for them. And I also got to sit down and like have a conversation with them about what is your plan?
Because I will not be taking. An initiative on making you earn money. If that’s something you want and need, you need to take initiative. And also I’m going to have to let that play out. Like in the, and when the school year starts or the summer, if they want to go to a movie with friends, we’re going to say, so where do you have enough money?
And if they don’t, they won’t be able to go, which will be so awful. So hopefully we can have that conversation and then they can commit to that. But, um, Um, so that’s another system. So with all of what I just shared, I’m like, okay, remember how I wanted to do adult school and like teach my kids adult life skills all summer long?
I shared this in a messy middle episode. I do want to do that still, but I’m like, you know what? We don’t need to formalize that. What I’m going to do is I am going to do stuff like that. Like talk to my kids about how to. Make their own money and make sure they’re doing that and have their own consequences and, you know, gradually as we go, talk about where are you saving your money and, um, how are you going to pay for certain percentage of things that we like to do for charity or otherwise.
Also, um, I, what I’m thinking with cooking is my primary skill that I want them to learn right now. They already do their own laundry, so that’s another system we already have in place. They do their own laundry, so we’re going to. Keep to that. They, um, wash and fold their own laundry and put it all away, except my six year old, um, I think he’s ready to start doing that actually.
So I’m going to teach him how to do that. So what I’m thinking is like cooking, laundry, money skills. Like I just need to do that as we go. And just keep that in mind for myself is, um, When I’m learning, when I’m cooking dinner, I can have a kid help cook it with me just so, like, I can teach them some skills.
And then hopefully by the end of the summer, I think we can get to a place where, um, they know how to make one meal. And that would be great. And since I’m not preparing their mid morning snack, and they’re gonna make their own, they already know how to do that. Like, they know how to make themselves toast or slice up an apple and stuff like that.
But maybe they’ll have more variety if I have that snack. Um, yeah. options like a snack menu up for them. So, um, and I was also thinking maybe on Sunday afternoons, I could just teach them how to make a special new snack or bake something with me. So I’m just thinking adult school is going to happen more organically, but as long as I just have that in mind that I’m trying to teach them some life skills and not do everything for them, but teach them how to do things.
I think that will be swell. Okay, so I’ve shared two summer savers. The first was to start with a vision. The second was to systemize by making that vision possible. I’m going to share two more savers. They’re going to be a little bit more quick, which I think you’d probably appreciate. But first let’s take a quick word from our sponsors.
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You know, life always surprises us, but one of my biggest surprises this year is Of 2024 has been quite a delightful one, and it’s been our supporter model. You might’ve heard me say that this show is listener supported. And when I say that, I mean, you make it possible for us to pay for our online software and products, and even people that are the only way this podcast can keep going.
I don’t know if you’ve heard, but the podcast industry in general is going through some rough patches and having a supporter model is what has made this show possible during a Very tough year. And I know we’ll continue to make the podcast possible and free for all for years to come. It was a risk for me to do the supporter model.
And that’s why it has surprised me in delightful ways. One, because so many progressives from this community have risen their hand and they have Love to one support the show, but they’ve also loved the exclusive benefits that we have from it. And to the biggest part of the surprise for me is how much I have loved creating those benefits and making them possible from online to even in person meetups, to private workshops, to private reading diaries, to my private premium podcast, more personal.
If you love about progress for education, you will love more personal. For entertainment, it’s just a different feel. I’m a little bit more relaxed. We talk about tough topics, but in really open ways, we have fun reviews on products you see peddled all over the internet book reports. And so much more of the deep dives, especially are super fascinating.
You guys love the one on Rachel Hollis in particular. I would love for you to be surprised by the supporter model. You can check it out by going to aboutprogress. com slash support. And. Make sure you check out the three levels of benefits we have and sign up for one of those. Again, that’s aboutprogress.
com slash support, and thank you so much for your support. Shall we continue with our summer savers? We talked about starting with the vision and then systemizing that vision. To me, this is what creates your summer plan. You know how you want to feel. You, you know how that could actually look in the day to day.
And then we have to remember we’re a part of a family. So those first two savers created a plan and it’s a great plan, but if you don’t want to be the family dictator, which I certainly do not, you can’t be the only one who is both leading and taking care of the plan. So. The next saver for me is to sell the plan.
If I’m the only one in charge of the plan, I’m the only one who knows about it, and I’m just telling everyone all the time about it, it’s going to make me feel stressed. It’s going to make my kids feel stressed and make, eventually make us all feel resentful. Instead, I want my family to be sold on our plans.
And I also know that means they need to have their input. So while I have my plan. I need to know if they support that plan, if they have some different ideas, if they want some things that will make it different, and then finalize that together, as well as come up with a commitment to the plan. To do that, for us, we’re going to have a family meeting.
And in that family meeting, I’m actually going to start with the fun. I’m going to ask them how they want to feel this summer, and what they want to do. One thing we tend to do each summer is create a bucket list and I just ask them, what do you want to make sure you do this summer? And it’s usually things like, I want to go to Cherry Hill, like a little water park nearby.
I want to go to a movie. I want to have an ice cream party. So yeah. They just come up with all the fun things they want to do. We write it on a list and then we hang it up. And I usually hang it up in that basement stairwell that we have. So that way we can make sure we’re checking them off as we go. And it creates that those feelings that we want to, but I need their input.
So that way I can have their buy in too. So once we get clear on what they want and they want to do, I am then going to ask for their commitment. To what I have in place to, I am going to introduce them to the systems that we need to make the fun possible. I’m going to tell them about our, our morning plans and our morning, like daily themes that we’re going to have.
I also want to let them know ahead of time what the morning afternoon and routine, um, evening routines will look like and the kitchen rules, including our open hours. And I’m going to walk them through the kitchen. We’re going to have some play time where I’m like, so you just ate this. What are you going to do with your plate?
And, you know, try to make it fun. And like, I’m a game show host, like, what do you do with your plate? And I have a, you know, pretend microphone. I don’t know. We’re just going to make it fun. We’re going to walk them through it. I’m going to say so and so, you just ate a piece of toast. What do you do? And then I’m going to let them walk through it.
through while I wipe off the crumbs, I rinse off the plate and I put it in the dishwasher and then we’re all going to cheer and give them points and stuff like that. So that family meeting is a great way, one, to get their input, but also to get their commitment. Realistically, I know that I can’t do this alone and I need to have those two things there and put in their commitment.
So, If I have, you know, if I sell the plan to my family, then that means I’m not the only one who’s both aware of it and in charge of, of, of supporting it. And actually that goes to the final saver. Support the plan. I’m going to do that in two ways. One with my family. I want them to have that commitment and to do their part.
I want my kids to know I do need them to do their part. I do need them to independently eventually move through their routines. I’m going to help them. I’m going to have a little checkoff list. I’m going to put the, I’m going to um, print those lists out for the routines. I’m going to laminate them and have a little dry erase marker for them to check off their squares as they go through the routines until they get it.
And then I need their independence. I need them to take their initiative. And I need them to do their part around the house so we can have that fun. So it starts with them supporting the plan. Will you do your part? Will you contribute? Will you make sure that we can have this fun summer and have the feelings that we all want to have?
Another way I’m going to support the plan is just. By knowing realistically, my plans will likely need to be tweaked or changed. So that’s just me starting with some clear expectations for myself that yes, I will be putting in more work up front and teaching them and training them on the newer parts of our routines and making sure they’re moving forward with it.
But I also have to be flexible and, and remarking like, Oh, apparently that doesn’t work for them to practice their piano in the mornings, or yeah, that’s working really well, but typing club isn’t. So maybe we can do it this time of day. So realistically, I’m going to support the plan. by knowing it will need to be tweaked and changed.
And I will also support the plan by having a target in mind about what will be the most important of our systems that we have in place. For me, it’s the kitchen I already shared, but also the morning routine that really needs to be in place. So I talked about my kids contributing by doing their part. I talked about me, um, having more realistic standards and also baselines, but there’s also things that I need to do Transcribed to have more support in the home in addition to my kids during their part.
So I know personally I need a sitter to come for three afternoons a week for three hours is what we have planned. Um, that would give me some set aside time to record interviews for the fall and do other prep that I simply don’t want to do when I’m just around the kids and getting interrupted more.
Even though they’re supposed to be doing quiet time during work time, I’m sure to still have some interruptions. So That would help me feel like I can have that balance. I really need a feeling like I have a clear division of work and home, home responsibilities and work responsibilities and time for that.
In addition, I know that I will need support from Brad. We are so fortunate. He works from home. He also is working like he’s up in his own office and working removed from the family, which is really great. But I know that I’m going to have to ask him for different things. Like I need to run to the store.
Can you keep an eye on the kids? And he will happily do that, but I’m going to be more willing to ask for his support. And he’s always offers to make some meals here and there. So I’m going to say, Hey, can you take, maybe I’ll ask him to take breakfast and I always do dinners, or maybe I’ll ask him to be in charge of one or two dinners a week.
And we can do that together. So I am going to ask, um, and accept. The support that Brad offers and that I will need from him. And finally, supporting the plan for me, a lot goes to my own self care, my own support. For me, that means I know personally, I need those core habits that are going to help me show up.
That to me comes down to two big things. Prioritizing sleep and prioritizing movement and how well I prioritize sleep often affects how much time I have for movement and getting up early before the kids that is a vital. That’s what, when I’m saying movement, I’m talking about my morning movement, getting up before the family, having my alone time, being able to move my body and not worry about trying to finish my workouts, um, or a big part of my workout with the kids around.
So I am really committed to supporting myself in those two areas, especially that I am prioritizing. Winding down at night so I can get to sleep and also getting up early. So I can move as much as I can before they get up. And of course, if you know, I break up my workouts a lot. I’m probably going to have to finish some strength training after the baby and the other kids are up and that’s okay, but I want to do as much as I can before that.
And with that, I also want to make sure that I am feeling supported by having my own time to myself, more, um, downtime and more interests and hobbies and things that I am into. So that means I need to prioritize my own do something list this summer and really make sure that I am, uh, making that happen.
And, um, you know, Even, you know, scheduling some things in advance. Like, Hey, I’m on my me day on this time, uh, during the summer, this day in time, or, Hey, I’m going to go to this place to get out, or, Hey, I’m going to invite my friends over for the gals night that I kept saying I’m going to plan. So that’s going to be him here.
I need to schedule those in advance, um, as well as except that I need my downtime too. And for me, that can just be built into some family stuff too. Like when we do our shows at night. I want to actually sit down and watch the show instead of be cleaning and organizing or doing something around the house.
So as part of that all, I just want to acknowledge for myself and for you that I am the captain of this summer ship and you are of yours. So I know that I need to do what I can to support myself. Yes, I can be intuitive. I can be flexible about what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. But above all, I know that I need to come back to the feelings even more than what we do, that as the captain of the ship, what really mattered was the vision of how we want to feel.
And that if we are feeling those things more times than not, that I’m doing my part and how those feelings can act as my North Star to how the summer goes and how I can then in turn be intuitive and flexible, but also ensure that I’m doing my best to support myself. So what about you? Um, even if your summer has already started or it looks different than mine does, maybe you don’t have kids in the home.
Maybe you do, but you still need to work full time and your kids are doing more summer camps and things like that. Um, maybe you don’t, uh, have a big summer shift, but it is like a seasonal thing. Like maybe you have more vacations planned or because of the summer shift in season, you want to do things a little differently regardless.
with the shift to summer. How can you save it? Come back to these four summer savers so that you can do so. Start with the vision, systemize the vision. Sell the plan, support the plan. And remember those first two savers are kind of about creating the plan and the last two are making sure it’s kind of playing out for you.
That’s it for the four summer savers. I hope this episode gave you the hug and kick in the pants that you need to grow. There are no progress pointers. It’s just those savers that I mentioned. I do want to share that one of the ways I am personally saving my summer is with the podcast and the shift to how I’m doing the podcast in the summer.
There’s only been one summer in the almost eight years that I podcasted that I took A break. Um, that was when I almost completely stopped the podcast in 2021. And I took two months off to really get clarity on if I should continue or not. Luckily, the answer was to continue. Um, but this summer I am realizing that I cannot produce the Three episodes a week because of our premium podcast, more personal ads, and an additional one, and also to do the new ones will just take that precious work time I have in, um, ways that I simply feel like I don’t have.
I’m, I’m also feeling creatively. In need of some rest. So, um, in addition to some other big work projects that need to be prioritized during that precious time. And I really, let’s go back to my vision. I want to feel balanced and that means I want a clear division of commitment to my family hours and commitment to my work hours.
And that means I needed to do some things different or otherwise I will need to be working more during the day and more at night, and I need that. This creative break. So because of all of that, what we are going to do with the podcast is we are going to have, we’re still going to have the podcast going throughout the summer.
And I’m talking about June and July, the podcast will still be here, but instead of two episodes, public episodes a week, we will be just doing one and will it be each Monday, we have our main episode of the week and those episodes will be on court episodes. These will be the best of the best of the episodes.
We have. Again, almost eight years of podcasting, almost 4 million downloads, almost 600 episodes. There probably will be over 600 by the time the summer is over. Actually, I think in just a couple of weeks or maybe even a week, I don’t even know what number we’re at. Regardless though, there are likely a ton of episodes you haven’t heard or some that you’ve forgotten.
There’s also classic ones and crowd favorites, so much good material that we are going to pull out. And I’m saying the best of the best, and I’m still going to Re edit them and polish them up and make them tighter and a little bit better and I’ll do a new intro and outro, stuff like that. But it just simplifies my workload in ways that I don’t think you need to hear about.
So we are doing one episode a week from June through July. So we’ll still be here on Mondays. Our Thursday episodes after this week, we’ll do the messy middle. But after that we will not be doing Thursday episodes. However, There will still be new episodes every single Friday on my premium podcast that is ad free and private, more personal.
This is exclusive to Bestie or Ride or Die supporters, so you can subscribe by becoming a member. a bestie or a ride or die that starts at just 5 a month by going to aboutprogress. com support. You’ll see that there’s way more benefits than just the premium podcast, but that is definitely where I will make sure I’m still producing new content every week throughout the summer.
In addition to that, All supporters will get access to some in person gatherings. We’re having like some hikes and then a garden party. I’m going to be doing. And some fun online meetups are also in the works. In addition to our normal ones, or do you ask me anything nights and office hours, we’re thinking about doing a watch party for some shows, like for summer shows and the sourdough one on one night, we’re going to be doing.
Once we get to a certain number of supporters. So again, sign up at aboutprogress. com slash support to get access to my premium podcast, more personal and way more benefits, because I will still be showing that there every single Friday with a new episode, I hope these four summer savers can help you do just that.
Thank you so much for listening. Now go and do something with what you learned today.
