Summer Bucket List: Check In

Happy summer (or winter!), dear reader!

Sometimes my timing is just poor. When I started my Summer Bucket List, I didn’t think about the fact that we were still three weeks out from the actual beginning of summer. I jumped the gun and put mine out at the beginning of June. It’s always felt like summer to me once we get to Memorial Day weekend at the end of May. Here in the US, that weekend is the unofficial start of summer, even in places where school goes well into June. Next season, I’ll try to wait until the actual start, and then I won’t be trying to create a new capsule and a fall bucket list all at the same time. (Some lessons I have to learn the hard way. Okay, maybe many lessons.) So that you don’t have to go back and read the original post, here are the original list items paired with its check-in.

1. Try New Restaurants

Hubby and I have decided that we are were in a restaurant rut. We do not eat out often, maybe once every month or six weeks, but we regularly go to places at which we’ve eaten previously. That’s just lovely if you have a hankering for something familiar, but there are oodles of restaurants we’ve yet to try. We’ve resolved to try a new restaurant each month for the next three. I could see this becoming a habit…

So far, so good! We’ve gotten to a good start on this one by trying a new restaurant during the last week of May, and another for Father’s Day brunch with our tribe. The other evening, we went out to dinner with friends at a new (to us) restaurant. For us, that’s an awful lot of eating out in 5 or 6 weeks time. We are taking a mini-vaycay in July, so that should involve at least one other new restaurant, so I’ll call this item complete!

2. Schedule No-Work-Days Twice Weekly

Spring’s Bucket item to schedule dates with my sons had me reevaluating how, and with whom I want to spend my time. That eval brought me to the conclusion that I must schedule days off. When you work for yourself, and much of that from home, it’s too easy to chase your tail and work absolutely every day, all day. I’m also pondering changing my blogging schedule from three times a week to twice a week over summer, to take some of the pressure off and have more time with my grands while they are on summer break.

I’m struggling with this one, but it’s getting better! Not that I haven’t wanted to take the days in June, but I already had events, talks, and the like scheduled that I couldn’t change. So far, July is looking much more 2-day-off friendly! I’ve blocked my Thursdays and Sundays. My coach has been notified, and she’ll read me the riot act if I don’t carry through, so I’m going to have to stick with it! Everyone needs someone who will hold them accountable and call them on their BS. I love mine…

3. Summer Break

Although I blew our opportunity for a last trip to the Mermaid House, we might still manage a little getaway somewhere, or at least a staycation! I want to schedule an entire week where Closet Play Image takes a vaycay. That’s right. No blogging, no Facebook, no Instagram. I’m not sure how that will go, but a week off and the resulting social media detox would be a very healthy thing!

As mentioned above, I have an overnight work trip coming up that we are tacking a couple of days onto for a little getaway. A staycation is also on the agenda. I still haven’t scheduled this; I need to talk to hubby. I’m pondering a blogging break for the month of August. If I had four or five years worth of content, I might have been able to schedule repeat posts, without anyone noticing, but that feels dishonest. I’m all about transparency. Let me know your thoughts! How would you feel about August as an Oldies but Goodies month?

4. Keep Plants Alive

This may sound foolish, but if you knew my track record with outdoor plants (other than tomatoes), you’d know this was a big one! A few weekends ago, we spent some time out on the back patio, getting it spruced up for summer. I realized that I really wanted some growing things out there, but that keeping them alive would require a serious commitment on my part. I have added watering the containers to my morning routine, and taking my breakfast outside before the temperatures get blistering is a lovely way to start the day!

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But THESE are! I’m so psyched about this one, peeps! Look at our back patio herbs! They were looking poorly after the heat this week because I neglected to water them for a few days. It had slipped my mind because we had so much rain in the past few weeks. I kept thinking “It rained last night…” when it hadn’t, but today they are looking much happier. And there’s even a pepper on the pepper plant I bought for hubby! Woo hoo! (Yes, this level of excitement about a couple of herbs is sad. I’m fine with that.)

5. Eat More Fruits and Veggies

None of my outdoor plants are fruits and veggies this year, but I have some herbs out there. This should be an easy enough Bucket List item to accomplish as it is what our family jokingly refers to as “salad season.” We will roast some veggies on the weekend and prep so meats so that we can eat salads most of the week long for dinner since I don’t have any interest in heating up the kitchen in the worst of the day. One summer, our sons accused us of trying to turn them into rabbits. So let the rabbit-food-ing begin!

This one has been pretty easy! Even with poor grocery plans, we have been managing more salad meals, and I have been squeezing extra veggies in at lunch. When we plan the menu, we look at the weather for the week, and now that the temps are pretty much always mid-90’s and up, salads are the first part of the recipe box we grab. That and meats we can cook on the grill. Anything involving the oven or a big pot of boiling water has to be done before ten in the morning, or it’s not happening. I wish I had a beautiful picture of some lovely summer salad I lovingly crafted and placed before our family, but it’s not like that most weekdays. By the time it’s on the table, there’s no photography. It’s generally not photogenic, and we are hungry. Maybe for the end of season post I’ll manage one of those lovely snaps! (Don’t hold your breath, though…) There was a lovely cantaloupe sorbet made with coconut milk, too, but that was eaten before any thought of a camera popped up!

How about you? Did you make a seasonal bucket list? It’s not to late to jump in! Every day is a fresh start. Every minute, actually! Will the world come to an end if I only blog twice weekly? (Don’t worry, I don’t actually take myself that seriously!) How about Oldies But Goodies August? Let me know your thoughts; I do so love to hear from you!

Stylishly yours,