Small things making life feel slower
What we're loving this June
It’s June! Which means the start of the best season is upon us. Gone are the days of remembering sweaters and washing seventeen pairs of socks in one day. The days are long, the kids are sweaty and sticky and our entire lives have moved into the backyard.
Drinks are iced, the sprinkler is on and I’ve already found myself tucked into bed a few times with the sun still in the sky.
We’ve got a few more weeks of school here in NYC and then my babies are mine–all mine for months. I’m so excited.
I’ve ordered bandaids and sunscreen and rashguards and more snacks than I hope I will ever need.
Life is good.
Here’s what June is looking like for us.
What the kids are obsessed with
We just stumbled upon an absolute gem at Michael’s. Our kids love to go in and pick a craft to do, but when we went last weekend we found a section of boxes that said ‘grab bag boxes’ for $10. We took one home and were shocked when we opened it. There were a dozen ceramic and wood things to paint, decorations, plates, stickers, glitter. AKA everything a mom of young kids needs. We went back and got four more, and apparently they do this after every season.
Last weekend we had friends over with a bunch of kids and took out a box. All 8 kids were entertained for an hour.
We’ve also been obsessed with bringing the chalk off the ground. We made a mural out of our garage and it was the most fun afternoon I’ve had in a while. If you pay attention, your kids are the perfect teachers to guide you back to that presence you want so badly. All they know is the here and now, and to be immersed with them on that project was a glimpse into how actually easy it is.
Adulthood is the great complicating of life.
Kids teach you how to untangle that.
What we’re reading:
I don’t know about you guys but now that we’re outside all the time (for dinner too), the transition to bedtime has gotten…rough. It feels like we’re pulling them from literally moving a mile a minute (many forms of kids-on-wheels going on over here) to tucked into bed and they are mad about it. So I’ve started doing after dinner reading.
I make everyone sit the f down on our outdoor couch and listen to a chapter of one of my favorite books The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I thought they would fight it, honestly. But if I hand them a banana and a glass of milk and sit them on the couch, it seems like their little bodies appreciate the moment to relax. After the chapter we go upstairs and do our regular bedtime routine and this has definitely made it less dramatic.
As for me, my cousin got me the book Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life by Nir Eyal for my birthday and man it’s already changing my life. As you know, I’ve broken up with social media and have spent the last few years or so trying to claw back my brain from big tech. The author of this book is actually a behavioral designer, and before this book he wrote the bestseller Hooked—which taught companies how to build the habit-forming products that we’re all now addicted to. His explanations of how it all works and techniques to pull yourself away are seriously life changing.
There are methods he goes into, like timeboxing (which I plan to spend an hour doing this weekend) to make sure your day reflects who you actually want to be. Nothing in here is drastic.
I really think the future belongs to people who have an attention span, and who are in some sense indistractable. If you’re looking to reclaim your brain too I highly recommend this read.
What we’re listening to
Kids audiobooks on Spotify have been a summer staple in our house for two years running. My kids listen while they color or eat breakfast and honestly it might be my favorite hack. We currently love this dino series.
What we’re eating
Summer is all about minimal cooking. A favorite here is something my mom used to make us called ‘summer pasta.’ It’s whatever pasta you’ve got in a sauce of whatever tomatoes you have that are on the verge of going bad cooked down with some garlic and olive oil. Then we put some mozzarella balls or pieces at the bottom of the bowl, scoop the pasta and sauce in and voilà, a fun surprise in every bite. You can add shrimp or sausage if you want, but it’s a big hit over here as it is. And its ready in the time it takes to cook a box of pasta.
What I’m thinking about
Summer to me has always felt like a bubble. A time where we get to focus on our little family again, with minimal outside observations or worrying about what other families are doing—especially since deleting Instagram. So this year I’m really working on being present with them. I’m hopeful that timeboxing my schedule will help me balance everyone being home with no activities booked and my freelance work.
I’m here for it all, but what I really want is to be here for it. Be here in it.
Summer reminds me that life doesn’t have to be complicated to be good. Popsicles in the blowup pool, a chapter book, bare feet in the grass.
I’m just trying not to miss any of it.
If you’re planning anything fun for June, I’d love to hear about it!
We started doing read-alouds last summer and my daughter was (surprisingly) obsessed. The Narnia books are on my list for this summer!