I'm heading into June feeling summery which is to say light in spirit and ready for fun. A world away from last June. I re-read my June 2020 goals post and sat for a moment thinking about one year ago. We were facing a summer at home, Arizona was making national news as a COVID hot spot, Chris was about to be back at work (from his home office) after parental leave, and I spent my days holding and nursing Maeve. And yet I was publishing blog posts?? I honestly don't remember where I found the time and I'm laughing at my own tenacity. Slow clap, past Kelsey.

In June we'll settle into our summer groove. Chris has had meeting-filled days at work and hopefully June will bring some relief. We'll find our summer daily rhythm, get reacquainted with our favorite public pool, and seek out cold treats on Wednesdays. This month I'm especially looking forward to disconnecting and recharging during two nights in beautiful Sedona with my dear book club friends. Yes, yes, yes.

Late May brought us warm – but not blazing hot – days, clouds, and even some cool breezes. Any year that we can finish May with pleasant weather is a gift. I looked back at my line-a-day journal and read that on May 29 of 2020 it was 111 degrees!! One hundred and eleven! No thank you! The Arizona summer heat is not my favorite but over the past few years I have worked to change my mindset about it. In 2017 I wrote about how to find summer hygge and I'm revisiting my own recommendations. This summer I'm so excited to not be stuck at home that I'm feeling benevolent in general including toward the heat.

On to to goals...

May goals update:

+ Publish one blog post/audioblog episode each week. I was able to write and publish four posts/episodes this month which I'm pretty happy with. I'd love to have a new post and episode out each Monday and I'll keep aiming for that goal.

+ Make decisions about kitchen renovation. Not really. I thought I wanted to go forward with Lowe's but by chance I ended up connecting with a local cabinet company and instead want to go forward with them. I'm really happy about this change but it means we aren't ready to move forward with the project quite yet. I need to price out countertops and talk to a contractor about rebuilding our pantry which is a tricky space.

+ Finish 2020 family photo book. Yes! Plus Blurb was having a 40% off sale (I always wait for one of those) so I ordered our family photo book and the photo book I made of Cedric's art. They arrived this past weekend and look great.

+ Clean out/organize closet. Yes! While my parents had the boys for an overnight Chris and I were in a super minimizing mood and tackled the whole closet in the office/Dash's room. Afterwards we made a trip to Goodwill and hazardous waste and it felt great.

Big things happening in June:

+ Travel. Chris will take the boys to Seattle for four days and I will go on my book club retreat to Sedona. My parents will be keeping Maeve at our house – it'll be the first time anyone other than us is keeping her overnight. I hope it goes well for all!

+ Day trip to Tonto Natural Bridge with my parents and the boys.

+ My sister and nephew visit! They'll be staying with my parents here for about five days. I love being able to get all the little cousins together.

+ Father's Day.

June goals:

+ Daily read aloud with the boys. I haven't been doing as much bedtime reading with the boys lately because I'm so tired at the end of the day. But I miss reading to them. I'd like to try to shift our read aloud time to during the day, perhaps while Maeve is napping.

+ Get additional kitchen quotes. Like I mentioned, I need to talk to people about countertops as well as about our pantry. Once we understand all the components and the cost we could move forward, hopefully this summer.

+ Finish a photo book of Maeve's first year. I started this one right after finishing our family photo book so I'm on my way.

+ Weekly budget meetings with Chris. We fell out of the habit but are putting these back on the calendar. We always feels so much more on top of our finances when we touch base regularly.

Wishing you a summery June, friends!

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