Do you remember growing up how summers felt? I recall them feeling long and leisurely. I remember waking up to the sounds of neighbors cutting grass and that the days stretched on almost endlessly. I think that sensation is unique to childhood since as an adult, for better or worse, I have a much more firm grasp on time, both the hours of the day and the months that seem to whiz by. But yesterday I felt like I was able to experience a little taste of those summers past.

Banana-Free Green Smoothie

First of all, I didn’t set an alarm. This is highly unusual for me and I enjoyed every extra second of snoozing. Hailey wandered into my room at 7:15 and sat on the edge of my bed. We chatted for a bit before heading to the kitchen to make my go-to smoothie of the week.

Tips for Making Amazing Smoothies

Somehow Kaitlyn kept sleeping right through the rocket engine blast of the blender, so Hailey I started discussing her dreams of opening a restaurant.

Side note: she wants to open a farmers market stand to sell people “farm food” then cook up whatever is left over in our restaurant, which is appropriately named “Family Restaurant” since she wants to live with us forever. Then when David and I go to heaven, she will rename it Sisters’ Restaurant.

//insert wide eyed emoji here//

Gosh I love hearing her mind work.

Ok, I digress. Eggs!

Fried Egg, Adagio Earl Grey Green Tea, Lemon Water

Kaitlyn woke up as I finished frying our eggs and the restaurant discussion continued. As of right now, both Hailey and Kaitlyn want to cook, so I’ve been assigned dish-washing duties.

It doesn’t seem much different than my role today…

As you may imagine, an egg and basically a blended cucumber held me for all of 3 hours, so at 10:30 while the girls were upstairs playing with a friend and I was halfway through my laundry project, I took a break on the porch for meal #2.

Two-Bite Mini Italian Meatballs over Cauliflower Rice with Salad

Leftovers heated up quickly and I spent a solid 30 minutes flipping through magazines on the back porch. Talk about a summer indulgence!

The girls’ friend left early afternoon, so we took a rest on the couch. The girls and I split a snack plate and Hailey and I took turns reading library books aloud.

The girls took off to the playroom and I finished up some laundry while I listened to the podcast I recorded with Andrea Claassen. She hosts the Peaceful Power Podcast and you can listen to my episode here.

Andrea is a wonderful host, and I appreciate her having me on and being so kind, as I typically prefer writing to speaking!

The afternoon filled up with some epic fort building and more decoration progress on our homeschool room. During it all, I snacked on a spicy stick from The New Primal that I got in my most recent delivery from Thrive Market. Tasty! Like a giant pepperoni.

The girls had tennis lessons in the evening, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite sports to watch them play.

The evening class was a make-up, but it gave us a taste as to what our schedule may feel like in a couple months, as activities become more early evening based instead of morning or early afternoon.

I thought for sure the girls would be tired disasters, but they really held up quite well, even as we ventured out to a weeknight dinner out at Lake Norman Tavern after practice.

We wandered in to discover they have Tuesday night team trivia, so we grabbed a beer (Sweet Josie Brown for me and a Stone IPA for him) and a pencil to join in for a few rounds. The girls devoured their food and took off to “play” arcade games while David and I chatted with neighbors we happened to run into and ate our tacos.

This is honestly quite a wild Tuesday evening for us, and it felt really great to mix things up. Another sign of the freedom that is starting to creep into our lives.

We got the girls to bed just before 9:00 (who are we?!) and followed suit soon after.

I feel like a broken record when I say how much I’m enjoying this summer. Usually by August I’m itching for a taste of fall, but not yet. I’m soaking in every extended evening I can.

Chat with me about summer!

How is yours going?

Is there anything left you really want to do before fall comes?

Favorite childhood summer memory?

Funny enough, one of my favorite memories from summer was ordering pizza at the pool. We’d stay at the pool for hours and getting pizza delivered felt like the coolest thing to me!