Winter is not my favorite season, but yesterday was a beautiful snowy day here in Pennsylvania. I stomped around outside taking many pictures. Some of my kids went sledding.
While it can be easy to feel gloomy in winter, especially post-holidays, this isn’t inevitable. In this week’s episode of Best of Both Worlds, Sarah and I talk about winter fun lists, and different activities that can make it enjoyable. Maybe some day I’ll go on a sleigh ride!
Then we pivot to discussing my annual time tracking challenges. Next week (Jan 13-20) a great many of us will be tracking our time together. I’ll post my logs here, and if you’d like to get daily motivational emails from me, you can sign up here. You can download one of my time tracking spreadsheets here (though as you can see, you could easily make your own!)
In the Q&A we tackle a question that’s definitely on my mind: Do I really need to be figuring out summer camp now? Seriously? In January? Didn’t I just make it through the holiday gauntlet???
Please give the episode a listen! As always, we welcome ratings and reviews. And please consider joining our Patreon community. This week we’re discussing snow day kid coverage and work triaging, among other things. Our next virtual meet-up, on January 15th, will cover travel. Membership is $9/month.
I was so amused by the question – my camp signup opened in October, so my kids have been registered for literally months! That being said, part of why we go with this camp is that a) it’s the same camp all summer; we just pick how many weeks we want (no rush to register at 6am on different days for different camps and risk being waitlisted because that is a real thing in my area), and b) it has typical camp hours of 9-4 by it has a BUS that makes it 8:15-5! For two full-time working parents who go to physical offices most days, the timing is glorious. I did the mad dash camp signup in Jan/Feb exactly one year and swore never again because it is awful and stressful and STILL comes with the challenges of full-day care since most camps are school hours.
We got about 8″ in the storm yesterday (a rarity in MD) and my kids are in snow day heaven! I feel the opposite about winter than you – I love it, so I am delighted by the recent weather!
@KGC – good for you for getting it done. For folks who need full-time custodial care for kids, this is obviously a much more vital matter and needs to get done ASAP. I know there is one camp in my area that is basically the only one still running into the last weekend of August/beginning of Sept (when our schools haven’t opened yet) and it gets over subscribed every year!
Yes, that last week before school starts is always so tough!!! Most camps aren’t open, so I see why it’s a popular vacation week…
Unrelated – but one of favorite books of yours Laura which I am re-reading in 2025 is “What the most Successful People do on the weekend.” It was life-changing to me when you helped me make the simple mindset shift to see Friday – Sunday in blocks. For example, seeing Saturday as the opportunity for two “anchor” type events – Saturday afternoon, Saturday evening. Sunday afternoon, Sunday evening. Friday night…. Very simple, but it totally made me re-think the way I saw my time.
So, if on Saturday morning I did need to run to the grocery or do laundry, etc, it was no big deal! I had two “anchor” events – one for the afternoon, one for the evening. Having that at the forefront of my mind helped me not focus on the menial tasks I would need to get done (which yes, sometimes are able to happen during the week, but not always!), but realize I really do have more time than I think! I could plan 5 meaningful things for a weekend because I had five solid blocks of time! And, that still left 2 blocks (mornings) for those miscellenous tasks which I needed to get done.
A very simple shift, but one that has elevated my life tremendously. Thank you!
@Rose – thank you for re-reading that book! And I’m glad that structure for a weekend has been helpful for you. I know that thinking of a weekend as a big amorphous block of time isn’t helpful for me, so understanding that there are different chunks of time means I can see there’s time for fun, time for family, time for downtime, and yes, time for errands…
It’s so true about winter. It’s one of the things I loved about having a run group for a long time. It’s hard to get out on your own but when I know I am meeting up with someone i will dress appropriately and run all winter outdoors and I usually feel better for it.
These days, my husband really wants us to be a ski family so we go to a local hill (that sometimes struggles to keep its snow) and even though i am still a very novice and nervous skier I feel so great after spending a morning on the hill. Mostly for the similar time outdoors effect. It also makes winter pass so much faster and is more pleasant than wishing it away.
@Jen – it’s always good to try to make time pleasant, rather than wish it away. That’s a motto for life!
I signed my kids both up for camp about 15 minutes after registration opened on Monday. I learned my lesson last year when I waited a day or two and my son didn’t manage to get into the overnight camp session all his friends were going to. He made out fine, but he was INSISTENT we register right away. And what a relief to have that done and in my planner. One major summer/logistical hurdle already out of the way.