Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer. And it’s pretty early this year! Next year the kids will have a whole week in September before school starts. But anyway, it’s a good chance to reflect on the summer, and what worked and what didn’t.
I went back over my Summer Fun List, and I’m happy to report that just about everything happened. (You can see my mid-summer check in here.)
I went to a live concert (George Strait) and to two Phillies games. My husband and I took the 18-year-old into NYC to celebrate his birthday. My young adult son and I spent 11 days as roommates on our choir tour to France. We did pretty well together, all things considered, and made a lot of memories in Aix-en-Provence, Toulouse, Tours, and Paris. I hosted the choir picnic, a theater club meet-up, and an event for my husband’s office (in addition to some individual stuff, like hosting SHU and her family, and having my parents over, and things like that). I went bike riding a few times, including once with two kids and my husband. I added to my miniature collection when the farmhouse style bathroom furniture from Australia showed up. I then purchased a farmhouse themed set of accessories from Etsy. I am pretty much out of space on my shelves at the moment, so the miniature collecting is kind of on hold until I rework a few things. I swam solo several times, although the pool is currently a disaster after we were gone for two weeks and the filter suffered something of a breakdown. I went to the Zoo Ale Fest, so I’m counting that as my beer garden experience (it was beer consumed outside!). We did all the beach things while in Ocean Grove, including the ice cream parlor, the lobster place, going out for brunch, running on the boardwalk, the pinball arcade, etc. And this past week I launched the oldest! He seems to be doing well adjusting so far so that is great. I’ve talked to him a few times, but he’s generally running off to other things, which is exactly the way it should be.
The only sort of miss is “write something creative.” I mean, I did. I wrote a sonnet every week over the summer, including a few collections of themed sonnets (a golden hours set, and then a July set). I also edited the manuscript of Big Time twice and it has now been transmitted to copy-editing. But I do still want to start work on another novel. Maybe one set in Ocean Grove, as I’m somewhat obsessed with the town.
I’d say it was a good summer. There were some low moments, such as the poorly executed Peach Fest. The 5-year-old has not been sleeping well, which means I am not sleeping well. I seem to always have some small problem that I become semi-obsessed with, but I am trying to seize moments for relaxation. I am looking ahead to the next summer and figuring out some tweaks. I asked the kids what their favorite camps are, and now that I know, I can be sure to sign up for more of those and less of some others. We may do one week at the beach and one week elsewhere. I’m trying to keep vacations to the end of summer next year as my book will be out in May. My niece will be getting married next summer so that will be a highlight too for sure.
Anyway, I love summer but I think I’m also ready for fall — it was nice to get a little chill in the air in the morning the other day when I went running. Time for sweaters and boots!
Also: Please sign up for the September Reset! From Sept 8-24 (more or less) we’ll track time for a week, and then learn some of my favorite time management strategies for having a more calm and fun life. You can sign up here.
Photo: I’ve made a fire in the fire pit with my 10-year-old for the past three nights.
Here’s how my plans worked out-not perfect, but some good times nevertheless: Pick strawberries. I am 50-50 on this, since it is a short season and we will be away visiting family for part of it. Result-did not accomplish. As you’ve said, Laura, the strawberry season is short. This year, it was also quite rainy in our area. After hearing tales from others about water-logged strawberries, I passed. The combination of soggy and brutally hot weather were not kind to the berries on our deck either.
2. Go to a Broadway show. My daughter is in from out of town this week, so we are going to see “Smash” with my sister and niece. Result: Smash was great, and so was the family time in NY.
3. Knock another baseball stadium off of our list in a quest to get to all 30 stadiums. We drove out to Cincinnati in April for #21 and will see the Seattle Mariners in June for #22. Result: Success-and we will knock off #23 in Miami in September. The Mariners game was fun-they had sing along fireworks and shoot off hot dogs that float into the crowd on parachutes (AKA Hot Dogs from Heaven).
4. Visit Maui/Portland Oregon. We have never been to Maui, so that will be our big trip for the summer. Hitting Seattle on the way to Maui and will hit the Portland suburbs (where my daughter lives with her boyfriend) on the way back. Alaska Airlines is great-we have a companion pass that we are using for this trip, and after the !@&#$ situation that has developed at Newark Airport, they cheerfully allowed us to redo our trip to fly back and forth from Philadelphia with no issue. Result-we made it! Went wine tasting and to the Mariners game with Seattle friends and went wine tasting and golfing with daughter and her boyfriend (I was the beverage cart person), Maui was beautiful, although there is residual trauma from the Lahaina fires..
5. Try to find an outdoor summer concert. Result: Made it to 2 free concerts in a nearby town-nobody famous performed, but it was nice. Also went to an indoor concert in a small venue which we enjoyed-slightly more famous performer from a back in the day rock band (Moody Blues).
6. Visit my sister at her NC beach house for Memorial Day weekend. Result: We made it there too and had some good family time.
7. Host close friends/daily Wordle buddies from Massachusetts at our house in July. Result: It was rainy, but we still had fun.
8. Visit a local distillery, a new to us beer place and at least 2 restaurants that are on the South Jersey Food Scene (Facebook group) Burlington County Hidden Gems list. Result: No beer or distillery, but we got to 2 local gem eateries and one had a speakeasy behind a pocket door, which was fun. They made a great Negroni!
9. Do our annual “gorge on Springer’s ice cream and then watch fireworks on the beach” Stone Harbor visit (and at least 3 other beach visits with my husband). Other local ice cream will be consumed as well…..Result: Made it to Stone Harbor (with ice cream gorging included). I got to the beach 4 other times. Fell down on the ice cream sampling closer to home though. This might be a “continue into September “ goal.
10. Do an early season visit to Harvey Cedars (Long Beach Island, NJ) by myself. I have been doing this for a few years. There is something really soothing about going to the beach with a good book and packed lunch in hand and enjoying the beach on a pre-season day when it is EMPTY! Result: Accomplished this and hope to do a repeat visit in September.
11. Continue my recently initiated streak of walking outside daily (rain or shine). I can thank Elisabeth above (and her blog) for inspiring me to start that habit. Result: About 90per cent successful. I hope to continue this year round.
@Beth- I love this! What a great summer. Yeah, the fruit picking may be better in theory than in practice – but so much else on this sounds great.And I love the idea of off-season beach visits!