Are you looking for ways to start planning summer activities with intention? Summer is such a short time of the year, so if we aren’t intentional with our time, we’ll suddenly be at the end of summer and realize we didn’t do anything we wanted to do! Here are some tips to help you plan with intention and make lots of memories!
Plan Your Summer With Intention
Summer has many mixed emotions for me.
I love summer. Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays. I love the laziness that comes with summer. I love going to the pool and the lake. So many fun memories are made in the summer.
But summer is also one of the hardest seasons for me as well. July 1st is Sam’s heaven anniversary and July 10th is his birthday. And sandwiched right in the middle is my favorite holiday, July 4th. So many whiplash emotions happen for me in the month of July specifically.
If the summer time holds hard days for you as well, I understand. Those hard days can ruin the whole summer. So I wanted to bring you this post to help you plan your summer with intention! Because the memories we make in the summer will last us forever.
I want this all to be easy for you! So In this post I have a few tips on how to make planning your summer easy. Then I’ll give you some ideas of things you can do this summer – both if you have kids and if you don’t.
Let’s make the most of this summer and make memories that will last forever!
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3 Tips to Make Planning for Summer Easy
Planning summer activities does not have to be hard! However, I do know that walking through grief takes a toll on you mentally and sometimes it can be hard to think of things.
So that’s what I want to help you with in this part of the post. We’re going to make it easy for you, friend!
Let Go of the Pressure of Perfection
In this age of social media, it’s so easy to feel like you’re not doing enough.
Just take a simple scroll on Facebook or Instagram in the summer and you’re bombarded with pictures of elaborate vacations and elaborate summer plans that people are making. It can be so easy to fall into that trap of not being able to measure up.
Well I’m here to tell you, your summer plans do NOT have to be a huge production. And it won’t look perfect – and that’s okay!
I want you to let go of all the pressure that social media has put on you and I want you to pretend that it’s 1990 again. Before you knew what anybody else was doing unless it was someone on your street. You just lived your own life.
I want you to live this summer without that pressure of living up to everyone else’s posts on social media. And actually, you can do yourself a favor and get off social media altogether or at least drastically reduce it. (Your life will be so much better, trust me.)
Even if it’s just for the summer, delete your apps, and spend this summer fully present with your family. See how much lighter you will feel mentally by stopping the scroll.
If this is something you’re interested in pursuing further, here are some steps you can take to reduce your social media use.
Plan Ahead
We have to be intentional with the memories that we’re making with our family. If we just sit around and wait for life to happen, nothing will ever happen.
I know that sometimes it’s hard to get out and do anything after losing your child, so give yourself grace. But if you’re feeling up to it, I know that getting out of the house can sometimes be the perfect distraction to help you get through a hard day.
It’s important to be intentional about making plans. So how does this look?
Gather all of your family together and ask them to help you make summer plans. Ask them if there’s anything they want to do this summer. And then write it down! Make a summer bucket list full of activities that everyone in the family wants to do.
You might have to let your family know that this is just a list of things we’d like to do, but we might not be able to get to all of them. And that’s okay!
Simply by being intentional with writing down these ideas, you’ll be more likely to actually do them.
If you reach the end of the summer and you’ve only done two things, that’s great! You’ve done two things that would not have happened if you didn’t sit down and make that plan with your family.
Keep it simple. Make plans with your family and then do what you have the mental capacity and the strength to be able to do, which will be different depending on where you’re at in your grief journey.
Remember What the Most Important Thing Is
What’s the most important thing? In all the planning and prepping for the summer, the most important thing is not the actual thing that you’re doing.
For example, let’s say you want to to go swimming at the pool. That’s one of the things that you want to do this summer. The important thing is not the actual act of getting in the car and going to the pool.
The most important thing is that you are there. With your family, with your kids, fully present in that moment.
What you’re doing doesn’t matter. It could be anything from going to get ice cream to a week-long beach vacation. Being there, fully present with your family, taking in every moment – that’s what really matters.
So as you’re making these plans, as you’re thinking about things you want to do this summer, just remember what you’re doing doesn’t matter as much as you simply being there with your family.
Summer activities with kids (or grandkids!)
Do you have little kids in your life? Either your own or your grandkids! Here are 7 ideas of things you can do with them this summer!
1. Join the summer reading program at your local library
Most libraries have some sort of summer reading program that your kids can sign up for. Our local library offers programs that the kids can come and enjoy for free!
Every week they bring someone different to teach or entertain the kids. One week they had someone bring amphibians for the kids to learn about and look at. One week was a juggler. Things like that.
Also this encourages kids to read! For every 15 books that the kids check out and read from the library, they get a prize.
Best of all, it’s completely free!
To find out if your library offers this, you can either go to your local library and ask the librarians or look at their website. To find their website, Google search “the name of your city public library” and that should pull it up.
2. Buy a little pool and set it up on your back porch
We did this and it was so much fun – and not very expensive!
We went to Dollar General and bought a little plastic pool for about $10. We have a covered back porch, so we decided to just stick it out there. We fill it up with water and bring a bunch of their little toys out and they have so much fun!
Bonus if you’re a work from home mom, this will keep them busy and let you get some work done!
3. Go to local parks
A local park is a great, free way to have fun this summer. Within a 15 minute driving distance we have four different parks we can choose from!
If you live in a smaller area, I can guarantee you have at least one park in your city.
My kids have always loved going to the park. My oldest son is 22 years old, so I’ve been taking kids to parks for at least 20 years! It’s something that never gets old and it really helps if you’re on a budget, because it costs nothing.
Bonus tip: If you want to add something on to your park day, if you have a Sonic near you and you download the app, you can get drinks for half price all day long. Nothing says refreshing like a Sonic drink after a hot play at the park!
4. Go swimming
Nothing says summer to me like going to the pool! You can either go to a friend or family’s house if they have a pool or you could go to a public pool near you.
One of my goals this summer is to take my kids swimming every week. Again, this is a goal that I probably will not be able to hit and that’s okay!
Even if we only go swimming three or four times instead of every week, then that’s three or four times that we have gone to the pool and made memories and had fun. Whereas if I didn’t make any plans or goals, you know how many times we would go swimming? Probably none.
Making that goal of going once a week to the pool means that I’ll try to actually make it happen. If I didn’t make any plans and was just letting life happen, then we would never go swimming. So that’s a perfect example of making your plans and then being okay if it doesn’t actually happen.
5. Dollar movies
Local movie theaters in your area probably offer summer dollar movies. Every movie theater is different in what this looks like and what they offer.
Our local theater actually offers movies that are completely free. The theater in the town I grew up in offers the movies for $1 and then a $5 Snack Pack, which includes a junior-sized drink, snack-sized popcorn, and fruit snacks.
If you know the name of your local theater, I would suggest Googling “the name of the theater summer movies” and see what pops up!
This is a great option if you want to be able to take your kids to the movies and have that experience, but can’t afford the $10 price per ticket.
Plus, bonus that it’s inside in the AC!
6. At home fun
A lot of these ideas that are in this post are going outside of the house, but what if you’re having a hard day in your grief journey and you just need to stay home? What if you don’t have the strength to pack everyone in the car and go somewhere?
You can have some fun at home! Here are some ideas of things you could have on fun for these spontaneous fun days at home:
+Board games
+Sidewalk chalk
+Craft project (check on Pinterest for ideas!)
+Coloring books
+Themed dinner night
Okay, so that last one might require a little planning ahead, but the idea is super fun!
I saw this idea on Pinterest years ago and thought it would be so fun! The ones I saw were themed around Disney movies. So you plan your dinner around the movie and then watch the movie after dinner.
To make it super easy for you, here are links to some pins that have the menu planned out for you:
The Incredibles
Toy Story Idea 1 and Idea 2
Wall-E
Cars
Moana
Brave
Frozen
7. Make traditions
Traditions are a great thing to add into your family. It gives something for the kids to look forward to and it’s memories that they can carry with them the rest of their lives!
Traditions are another hard thing we have to deal with as grieving moms. If there are certain traditions you used to do with your child that are just too hard to continue doing, that’s okay. Start new ones!
A tradition we just started this summer is our Friday night tradition – and it’s been so much fun! This was kind of a mix of planning ahead and it was also spontaneous as well.
Here’s how it went down:
Friday night is always pizza night here at our house. As we were getting done eating one Friday night early in the summer, it was a beautiful night and I told my husband, “We need to take the girls to the park.” So we packed them up and drove to our local park.
After they played for a little bit and the sun started going down, I wasn’t ready for the night to end just yet. On that particular day, it was National Donut Day. So we decided to take the girls to Dunkin for a donut.
And that’s how our Friday night tradition was born. Now every Friday night that we can, we do pizza, park, and donuts.
It’s so super simple, but the girls look forward to it every week!
Ideas if you do not have little kids
If you do not have little kids, then you’re in a fun season of life where you have a little more flexibility in your plans. You no longer have to pack a bazillion bags just to go somewhere! So here are some ideas of memories you can make this summer with your spouse, your adult kids, or your friends.
1. Plan day trips
Day trips are a great way to get out and experience a new city, but it’s not as extensive as a multiple day vacation.
If you have a semi-local city that you’ve been wanting to check out, make your plans to go! Maybe it has a cute little downtown area where you can do some shopping. Then you can visit a local restaurant and then get ice cream at the local ice cream parlor. So much fun!
Depending on the day, you might not have the mental capacity to make big plans for this. And that’s okay! All you really need to know is where you’re destination is. You can just drive there and see where the day takes you. Even if all you do is drive around, I believe it would be good for you to get out of the house and distract yourself, especially if you’re having a hard day.
2. Arts and crafts festivals
Summer is the start of arts and crafts festival season! There’s probably one every weekend somewhere near you from the start of summer to the end of fall.
This is actually something that me and my husband talk about all the time wanting to do when all of our kids are grown. Going around and looking at all the booths of local vendors and artists and eating from the food trucks sounds like so much fun!
A few places you can look to find some festivals near you:
Google. You can just Google “arts and crafts festivals near me” and see what pops up.
Facebook. A lot of times these festivals create events on Facebook and that would be a great place to find some in your area.
3. Farmers market
The farmers market is not only fun to experience, but it also supports your local farmers. Plus the produce you get from a local farmers market is so much better. So it’s a win, win, win!
Not only do farmers markets have local product, but a lot of them also have other things that you can purchase as well. Things like baked goods, local honey, coffee from local coffee shops, and more!
This is also something that is super easy for you. No planning needed! Just get in your car and go.
4. Weekly Date nights
Connecting with your spouse is always important, but I would say it’s as important if not more important after you lose your child. Losing your child could take a toll on your relationships in life, including your husband. Going on date nights each week is a great way to keep that connection there. Put your phone away, look into the eyes of your spouse, and talk!
This doesn’t have to be elaborate or complicated. Being together is the most important thing, so even if it’s just driving somewhere to eat and talk, then that’s great!
5. Nightly walks
Walking outside is a great thing to do after losing your child. Here are 3 reasons why walking outside is a great thing to do on your healing journey.
So walking outside with your spouse or friend is a great way to not only bring healing to your heart, but also connect with your spouse or a friend!
You could do this at night after dinner or maybe after you get off work. I love walking at night in the summer. The summer days are so hot and when the sun starts to go down and it cools off a little bit, there’s nothing more peaceful than that!
More Ideas for Living Life After Loss
I pray as you plan this summer and the memories that you’re going to make, that you will do it with intention knowing that all the time it takes you to plan these things will not be wasted. These are memories that you’ll be able to hold on to year after year.
I know that you’ll be so thankful when this summer is coming to an end that you took the time now at the beginning to be intentional and make these plans.
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