A More Magical Summer (in the time of Covid-19)

Summer is our family's favorite season of the year: it's weekends spent at Cedar Point, picnics on the beach, trips to the West Side Market, visiting the Cleveland Flea, countless festivals in our city, and Saturday morning walks for coffee and vegan donuts. We make a Summer Bucket List in May and check off items as we go.

This summer looks completely different than what we are used to and what we love to do as a family. As the number of Covid-19 cases steadily increase around the country, our family will continue to shelter in place at home. We have been home since mid-March,and feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to work from home. In four months, literally the ONLY place I have been is inside a UPS store for approximately 30 seconds to ship a package that couldn't wait any longer. We go for drives and have had a picnic at a local park. We have done grocery delivery and curbside pickup only. We have necessities sent through Amazon (we joined Prime last month specifically for Whole Foods pickup), Target, and Walmart.

Is this fun for us? No. Do we enjoy staying home constantly? No. Do I miss family and friends, and the summer activities we love so much? Yes. But for health and safety, we feel that remaining at home is important right now.

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We have a four year old who has been home with us since mid-March, and we have gotten creative with our strategy for providing her special memories and simultaneously keeping ourselves sane. (In the beginning, cake helped, but then I gained 10 lbs and started Weight Watchers.) Lucky for us, she is one of the most easygoing kids I have ever known, and is quite happy spending hours a day making crafts and drawing. She's definitely watching more television than we'd prefer, but with mom and dad both working (I am part-time) it's temporary and fine. 

I wanted to give you a list of specific ways we are finding the joy each day, even when it feels like joy is just out of grasp.

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Some days, I have to work at it harder than others.
​Some days, the tears come. 
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​We are all doing the best we can.

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How our family is making this summer special:

Please note: This is NOT an SEO-driven list. These are actual items we have purchased and are using. I was not compensated by any of these companies for mentioning their products.

inflatable pool ($25, Walmart) and rafts ($10, Target / $11 Amazon)

Having a swimming pool that is large enough for both my husband and I to enjoy has been a game-changer this summer. Our pool gets sun until 1pm, so we enjoy mornings outside, floating around and playing with our daughter, all with the sounds of steel drums piping in on Spotify. My husband and I love floating on our raft (currently unavailable online) and our daughter likes her fish. 

small bluetooth speaker (about $15, Amazon)

Our lazy pool days in the sun began resulting in an overheated phone that would power down, leaving us without tunes. After the third time this happened, I took to Amazon to find a small, inexpensive speaker we could take out with us. 

in my ears

With all of us home, all day, everyday, I cannot even believe how much time I spend now in the kitchen. Prepping meals. Eating meals, Cleaning up from meals. To make this endless time tolerable, I always make sure I have something to listen to on my wireless earbuds, which permanently dangle from a hook on the fridge. It's usually a podcast and sometimes an audiobook, but it's really making the kitchen time happier for me. Some of my current favorite listens are posted here.

I had been using $5 connected earbuds from Five Below, but treated myself to truly wireless earbuds about one month ago. Not wanting to drop the big bucks on Apple's version, I took to the ChooseFI Facebook group and purchased these recommended Anker earbuds instead for about $45.

playlists and channels that make us happy

I love hunting for playlists on Spotify and channels on Pandora to find songs that perfectly accompany our activities. When we're out in the pool, I mostly turn to steel drum and Bob Marley lists, because these sounds carry me off to my favorite places in the world - Mexico and the Caribbean. For general summer listening, we really enjoy Sunshowers, Sunny Day, Summer BBQ, Feel Good Summer, and Easy Summer. (I am not embarrassed to admit my favorite music is 70s light rock.) 

special plates, napkins, and cups ($2 per pack from Walmart)

We have a four-year-old who loves having special napkins and plates to use at meal times, so this is an extremely inexpensive way to give her a little joy. I have ordered packages of unicorn plates and napkins in our Walmart grocery order, and recently purchased trays ($4.50 each) for our family to use to easily transport our meals out to the porch for lunch and dinner. I have some red, white, and blue melamine plates from last season that we use for much of July, just for fun.

essential oil blends

I love bringing summery scents into the house, and I have found the easiest way for doing so is dropping oil blends into my diffuser. Sometimes I craft my own, but I also really love the seasonal blend sets that Plant Therapy releases four times per year. This is my first summer set, and I am in love. Sunshine, Beach Day, and Mountain Air are all incredibly fresh and beachy. This company makes great oils, has great customer service, and has extremely fair pricing. 

movie goals

We have two movie list challenges happening in our house right now:

1.) As a family, we are working our way through the entire animated movie collection on Disney+ (checking them off on this list I printed) as we watch. On Thursday mornings, if we can't do pool time, we have pajama day and my daughter and I watch a movie together while my husband works, but we normally watch one Disney movie each week, together, in the evening.

2.) My husband and I haven't really seen the Marvel movies (we have both seen Avengers; he has seen the Guardians movies and Avengers: End Game) so we decided to watch these movies in the chronological order of the Marvel timeline. I first saw this idea from (IG) and screenshot the graphic of the order to use. (Our next movie is a rewatch of The Avengers.)

​summer reading

I absolutely love summer reading (check out my blog posts on the topic and make sure to follow my page dedicated to Vacation Reading) and although I am staying away from the library this summer, my Kindle is getting quite the workout downloading ebooks. I am an avid user of my library's Overdrive system, but I am also reading books via NetGalley for review in advance of publication. (I post reviews for some of these on this site.) 

I love, love, love summer reading lists. Here are a couple of my favorites for 2020. 
Travel and Leisure Magazine: 20 Most Anticipated Books of the Summer
Popsugar: 30 Best Books to Dive Into This Summer
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activities for the kiddo

Our daughter is currently taking online phonics classes twice per week with the company I teach for, so she focuses on two letters per week with a review every ten classes. (If you're interested in details, please email me.) To go along with her classes, I print a couple of letter writing practice sheets for each letter, and use them as the first pages of her two weekly packets. I add a couple of fun colorful pages from workbooks we own, and finish with a couple of puzzles from the jumbo pad I mention below. When she finishes her letter packet, she gets to check it off on her list. My husband and I like goal-setting and teaching her to be accountable with her work; she likes seeing her progress and working towards a purchase of her choosing (within reason). 

We don't have tablets, but most days we allow our daughter some time to play games on the computer. Our favorite sites for this are: PBS Kids, Highlights Kids, and ABCYa.

On Sunday mornings, when I am done teaching classes she joins me in the office and selects the free coloring sheets from Crayola she'd like me to print for the week. I also usually look for a couple of mazes too.

She is really into High Five magazine right now, and especially loves the activities where she can spot the differences, identify silly things in a scene, and search for hidden pictures. I purchased this Jumbo Pad of My First Puzzles from Target, and she likes to sit and work on the pages.

the crafts basket

I keep an eye out for sales on Michael's website (our local store has curbside pickup) or peruse Target and Amazon, stocking up on craft kits. our daughter can do herself or with us. We store them in a giant basket under our office daybed so our daughter can choose what she's like to work on, and she happily spends most of her days crafting and coloring...she is NOT a toy kid. Big hits have been: mosaic sticker kits, pony beads and string, and pom pom animals, but honestly, I bought like 25 kits.

family BINGO sheets

We haven't been great about keeping up with our BINGO sheets, but they hang on the fridge, ready and waiting for us. My husband is a big fan of the ChooseFI podcast/blog, and he likes to check in on The Accidental Homeschooler. There are options for BINGO sheets for the youngest kids through adults, and while some of the activities are driven by the FI lifestyle (and have a financial-education focus), there is a nice variety.

game night

Board games are an important part of our family culture, and we have long waited to turn our daughter into a little board game geek like her parents. We play games before bedtime most evenings (we rotate who selects the game of the evening) and on Friday evenings we each select a game. We strongly prefer co-op games with our kid (games where you work together to beat the game) and have some current favorites. Peaceable Kingdom makes great co-op games for families - we really like Cauldron Quest and Hoot Owl Hoot right now. Some of these I have picked up at Savers, but we will also be investing in new games for fall and winter at home. 

I hope this gives you some inspiration for ways to make your time at home special.
My next post will feature how we organize our days, along with our methods for cleaning, meal prep, and education. 

I would love to hear your ideas for memory-making at home!