Bookworm Cottage Style

Time is so fleeting. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to actually DO stuff and make the most of each week. I want to enjoy the season I’m in rather than putting fun stuff off for some mythical point in the future when I may have more time/money/etc.

One way to keep days from running together is to introduce more novelty into your life and actively create new memories. 

So, I literally made a list. (Groundbreaking, I know!) One side is the fun stuff. The summer bucket list. When I hear of something fun (like the picnic concerts at Castle Hill), I have been actually trying to pick a date and make it happen rather than just saying to myself, we should do that sometime. When we have a weekend day with no plans, I have been good about picking something off the list, and saying, “The weather looks nice. Let’s go strawberry picking.” Or, “It’s so hot outside, let’s take our little guy to eat in his first restaurant.” 

The other side of the list is the summer chores. Because life admin is important too. I read The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin several years ago and the only real tip I remember is that “tackling a nagging task” makes you feel lighter and happier. So these are the nagging tasks in our household right now. Yours will look different, but we all have them. This summer I found that writing a few concrete chores down in one place helps me to feel focused when I’m in the mood to take care of business. There are of course endless things I could be doing but this system keeps things from feeling completely overwhelming and has led to several wonderful weight-lifted-off-the-shoulder moments. 

This has been such a nice system for our family that I’m already starting to brainstorm my fall lists. Our child-free vacation is scheduled for around Labor Day and then we hit the ground running in September with other work/personal commitments, so I feel like sometime in early/mid September is when I will mentally transition into fall mode. So far I’ve got apple picking, getting family photos taken, and getting my DSLR camera repaired on the list.