My Summer Bucket List

When I was a kid I loved the freedom summer brought to my life. No more school, fewer activities, and all the time in the world to ride my bike or read a book were some of my favorite things about summer.

Since I’ve become a mom, I still love the freedom of summer. However, I have sent my kids back to school in August too many times realizing we did not get a lot accomplished during their time off.

That’s not saying every moment of summer vacation should be planned. I do think, though, that there is value in intentionally pursuing some goals during that time.

Even though my kids have been out of school for about a month already and we’ve already taken our summer vacation, I’ve decided to create a bucket list for what’s left of our summer to ensure that we intentionally pursue goals that will refresh us or move us ahead to where we want to be in our lives.

Here is what I’ve got planned:

1. Take the kids on a vacation to a place they’ve never been. Ok, so I’ve already said we’ve taken that trip. I wanted to share this on my bucket list so it may inspire you to do something different this summer. If you go to the same place summer after summer, you may want to expand your horizons and go somewhere different. Even if it’s just for a couple of days.

Our family went to California. We flew into San Francisco and stayed there a few days, then we rented a car and drove down to Los Angeles where we spent a few more days before flying home.

This was definitely one of our best vacations. We got to see a lot of things we don’t see here in Arkansas. And, the kids got a chance to see more of our beautiful country.

2. Visit our local farmer’s market regularly. My husband and I have been trying to eat more “clean” foods in our quest to be healthy. He is much farther along in this process than I am. So, I’ve been searching for meals to make from scratch using fresh ingredients that will fill us up without artificial ingredients.

Our city has a great local farmer’s market. Actually, there are several. I plan to visit often to get fresh, locally grown produce.

3. Raise tomatoes and peppers in my own backyard. We received tomato and pepper plants at a fundraising dinner we attended a few weeks ago. My mom kept the plants and put them in pots for me while we were on vacation.

I have put them in my backyard where they will see lots of sun. Hopefully if they grow well, I can develop my own small vegetable garden in the future.

4. Study in-depth the book of Proverbs. I mentioned in my post on Wednesday how easy it is to get out of the routine of studying the Bible during the summer.

I’ve completed 4 days of study so far and am really enjoying color coding my Bible. Check out my post if you want to learn more.

5. Teach my kids life skills. My son is now 15 and will be a sophomore in high school. Yikes! My daughter will be 13 the day before school starts and will be in 8th grade. While I’ve taught them a few things that will certainly serve them well to know in the future, there is still much more they need to learn.

My plan is to have them start doing their own laundry. Right now they bring it down and sort it for me, then they put away their clothes when they are clean. I want them to learn the whole process so they will feel capable when they head off to college.

I also want to improve their cooking skills. Currently they are pros at heating pizza rolls in the oven or making Ramen noodles. They need to learn more basic cooking skills as well as menu planning and grocery shopping.

We’ve struggled for years about the whole allowance thing. We’ve never really come up with a good way for the kids to earn money because we feel there is so much they need to do as a family member without expecting to get paid for their chores. So, we will work on a way to teach them money management skills as well as increase some of their responsibilities around the house.

Hopefully by the time they go back to school they will have begun learning these important life skills that they can continue to learn more about in the coming years.

6. Start building our new home. We have had plans for years to build a new house. We finally bought a lot earlier this year. Hopefully we will break ground on the new house by the time school starts back. We’ve already made a ton of decisions and know for the most part what materials and supplies we want to use in our home. It’s just a matter of getting the little details together so we can start building.

7. Sell our current home. One of those “little” details that need to be taken care of is selling our current home. Tomorrow marks one year since it has officially been put on the market. To say we are discouraged is an understatement. However, we know God’s timing is perfect and He has the right people picked out to buy our home.

8. Begin training for another half marathon. I haven’t really ran/walked or exercised at all since the Disney Princess 1/2 Marathon back in February. I have a goal of completing a half marathon that will be held in November. This week I’m starting over in my training where I’m working up to running more than walking.

What ‘s on your summer bucket list?