I am enjoying all of the summer-themed content, particularly the posts exploring summer goals / intentions / etc.
And, like Sarah J, I’ve been enjoying some of the summer-themed Lazy Genius podcast eps, plus the annual Happier Design Your Summer.
Plus Jenny posted about her summer schedule. And I’m sure there were many other summer-themed posts I’m missing!
I have to admit I have high hopes for Summer 2026. I hope this doesn’t backfire. (Admittedly, sometimes it does!).
But seriously, so far things are pretty good. We’re in a transitional week, sort of; A started geometry, but G/C are just off hanging out, plus doing things like going to annual PCP appts (side note: I had all the school/sports forms filled out and had to pay $70 cash! Is this a universal thing now!? I am happy to say my office has never charged for this particular service– of which I do plenty of!).
I am, happily, finding there is a little bit more margin compared to the school year, and I am HERE for said margin. For example: A’s gymnastics practices end at 7:30 instead of 8:45! A doesn’t have to be at school until 8:30 (rather than 7:50). These margins are absolutely temporary but I will enjoy the next 5.5 weeks while I can.
(Then we travel and then we have a week where the kids recover /I have a week of call and then school starts. But we won’t dwell on those things now!)
SO, what is happening in this magical margin? So far:
- slightly more sleep, hooray! I’ve set my alarm a little bit later on some nights if I knew I’d have time to work out the next day without a 5:00 wakeup.
- a lot of reading; I started The One Day You Were My Husband a few days ago and now I’m almost done. I definitely see my reading pace picking up compared to the school year which is good because my TBR pile is HIGH (and a bunch are library books!).
- I went to the actual gym for strength training!!!!!!! Like, an LA Fitness. And I lifted some heavier weights including some machines (hip thrusts on the Smith machine, leg press, abductor machine). (I watched a little bit of YouTube in advance to quell my anxiety but I found it actually wasn’t that bad; you can learn a lot by just watching others. Also, apparently things have not changed THAT much since my high school senior year weight training class!). I haven’t committed to joining yet but I probably will, once I find out how I can quit if I need to (apparently they make it hard).
- playing more piano. I finished the piano book I bought which was a bit too easy, and ordered a book of Bach inventions (an AI-generated suggestion, what can I say).
- I also FINALLY set up my phone to record overhead and RECORDED A YOUTUBE VIDEO, a task I had procrastinated for oh, 3 years or so because I had built it up to be way. more. complicated than it actually was. (This will be out next week as a combo podcast ep/video situation.)
Oh, and I made some really good muffins:
Oh and two more things:
- The dance show went so well, both girls were excellent and both are considering doing some more dance next year (not competitive team at this juncture, just more classes. I love the studio where they go!)
- I AM STILL TRACKING TIME (using Apple Notes and then Google Sheets). WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENING. But I’m finding it kind of interesting (and also weirdly centering).
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I don’t know if this is an option for you, but we joined a local community center gym purely for ease of cancellation! At least where I live it’s a month-to-month deal and they only required a 30 day notice to cancel. We were really happy with all the equipment etc that they had there.
Today is the kids’ last day of school so it will really feel like summer has started now that they are done with school. But our schedule really doesn’t change between the school-year and summer. They still get dropped off around 7 to their childcare program. The biggest difference between the summer and school year is the wider array of options for the weekends since we can hit up local pools, go hiking at state parks (which we could do in the other seasons but it’s more enjoyable in the summer for us), and try new parks. Plus is the time of year that we go to my parents lake home. The boys will be up there for 3 full weeks this summer! We’ll be with them for one of those weeks as we go there every August. So they have a pretty great summer ahead of them. Aside from those 3 weeks at the lake, they will otherwise be in fulltime childcare but they both love their care programs so everyone seems happy with the set up!
Also #1 for a community center gym. Ours also has the benefit of being a few blocks from our house and boasting the ridiculously absurd price of $5/month but I imagine that low cost is not super common particularly in more suburban areas (we are in the city and it’s heavily subsidized). Like you, I am loving the more relaxed pace of summer so far especially the later start! This is the first year I’ve had both kids in middle school, which starts at 7:30, and they’re both in camp this week but we don’t leave for camp until over an hour later than they had to leave for school. That extra hour in the morning has felt so luxurious for all. So far I’ve enjoyed the extra sleep 2x and done an early workout 1x. One thing I’ve noticed the past few summers is that my reading quantity actually goes down in the summer, which I wouldn’t have guessed prior to tracking. I think it’s just because it’s our good weather season so even though I am less busy at work and the kids are less busy with activities, we just lean into lots of time outside, dog walks, pool time, etc. and I think I end up with less time overall to read.
Hooray for all the summer things!! I feel like we have less time because my kids have to be on the camp bus at 8:15, whereas their elementary school doesn’t start until 9:25! (I KNOW OMG IT’S SO LATE) They love camp, but may not be thrilled about getting up an hour earlier. We still have a week and a half of school remaining for them to ‘sleep in’ – ha!
Also – $70 for forms?!?!! WOW. My pediatrician charges $12/form. $70 seems like a lot! It’s pretty normal in our area to charge, but usually a reasonable (in my view) amount.
Hope summer 2026 turns out as well as you hope!!
I took my son for a physical and noticed a new sign in his peds office about how they are now charging $5 per form that needs to be filled out. I couldn’t believe it! We don’t typically need them, but I will in a couple of years and it’s going to annoy me so much to pay that haha.
Our ped charges $20 per form. Can’t say I blame them as it’s probably a good chunk of time that they don’t otherwise get compensated for. Fortunately just one kid needs them and they last 2 years. Honestly, I’m not really sure why school sports requires them, but my kid has also not done uber competitive sports. From an equity standpoint though, it does bother me (and yes there are free options in the area, but it’s yet another barrier for families).
Might be worth checking your health insurance for gym memberships. Mine has reduced cost options and since you sign up with them, you don’t sign up directly with the gym so might be easier to cancel? (Also, you can join multiple gyms for 1 cost, and there were several barre studio chains in there). BCBS for reference .
I’m honestly enjoying my summer schedule so much, it’s going to be a crushing blow when school starts again. It IS nice to have more margin.
Nice job getting to the gym!!! It is intimidating at first. I actually have yet to use the Smith machine, partially because I’m afraid to deal with it (I like your trick of watching Youtube videos) but also my gym is crowded and they’re always in use. Anyway, the gym is definitely the place to lift heavier weights. I can’t even imagine how complicated it would be for me to cancel, because I go to EOS where my daughter and I have a “family” membership. I’m probably stuck there for life.
We have 2 more weeks of school – and they are absurdly busy for me workwise so I’ve not got that summer vibe yet. Also we had a great visit from Elisabeth, which was a nice little break.
Re. gym – do some of the gyms in your area do Classpass? I wonder if that’s a way to get access flexibly without having the faff of cancelling a membership. I’m a yoga girl but there are definitely weightlifting/normal gyms in my classpass where you can book for an hour, etc.
You might check and see if your hospital system offers gym membership access. Mine offers paid access to LA Fitness (and others) through a program called Active & Fit – it saved me a little money, but more importantly, its easier to cancel! I think Planet Fitness might be easier to cancel or have a 1-year no-subscription option also.