Every season brings with it different joys and challenges so I thought I’d share with you what’s on my summer survival list. For most of us, work and life are busy and hard enough, so I care about stuff that is the opposite of that. These are the things that are making my life easier, better, and more fun this season.

  1. Library card – infinite access to books? Yes please! But it’s also magazines, movies, board games, yard games, child, teen, and adult programs and more. All for the low price of $0. 
  2. CSA – Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is food grown by a local farmer that you get to enjoy weekly throughout the growing season. We get to try new veggies (that my kids are excited about!) and have fresh healthy food in the fridge all week. Plus, my kids have chosen to tell a new fruit or vegetable joke every week when our produce is delivered. What’s a chicken’s favorite food? Bok-bok Choy! So yeah, we’re having some fun.
  3. These amazing create your own comic books. My kids can sit for hours inventing pictures and stories and this gives them the freedom to do just that.
  4. Some kind of water fun. We’ve been to lakes at state parks, various splash pads, pools, and more this summer. We also love a good water fight and my kids adore their cooling neck towels on hot days. They don’t mind going on a hike with me if that have those, so it’s a win-win!
  5. Scheduled time off. This is a public service announcement for anyone that hasn’t planned a summer vacation yet. DO IT! Take advantage of the fact that many of your co-workers are also on vacation and enjoy some time away to unplug and recharge in whatever way restores your soul.
  6. Vintage cocktail glasses (image at top). I found a “set” of glasses (basically whatever glasses that have survived many decades of use) and have been enjoying sipping my refreshments out of them. Do drinks taste better in them? You’ll have to locate your own or stop over to find out!
  7. Fancy marshmallows. Want to elevate your s’mores experience? Get some of these. We’ve been experimenting with adding fruit, herbs, and s’more (see what I did there?) to our fire-toasted treats.
  8. Hammock. For years I’ve dreamed of being able to chill in a hammock in the shade. And l finally decided to get one. I have no idea why I waited so long, but I’m grateful to have this to relax in, even if it’s only for a few minutes (it usually is!).
  9. Picnic table. We were gifted a bench that converts to a picnic table last year and have gotten tons of use out of it. I had forgotten how fun it can be to eat outside! And parents, dining al fresco with your littles means less sweeping for you!

 

As the seasons change, we need to find new ways to be able to enjoy them if we want to avoid that feeling of time moving too fast or passing us by. I hope this summer survival list gave you some new ideas to try!

 

The above links are affiliate links, but know that I only link to products I actually like and use.

 

Photo of vintage glass by me.

 

Client Success from Work Authentically Story 1

As the bestselling author of Success Authentically, you know I love talking about success! So for the month of March, we’re going to be looking at stories of success from some of my clients.

I love getting to meet interesting people doing interesting work as part of my job, but what I love even more is to see those same folks overcome the roadblocks and challenges that are standing in between them and their dream jobs.

One such client needed my help with clarity to tell a career story for a future that was unknown. You see, this person had so many amazing skills, that there wasn’t just one job description they would be great at (nice problem to have, right?).

We worked together to hone in on those pieces of their story that would be true regardless of the type of work it was and then continued to build from there. And because this was a unique career story, I coached them on how to activate their network so they could share openly about why they were looking for different types of work.

This client did the hard work of applying and reaching out to many people in their network and the result was 3 job offers before our 6-week engagement was finished!

They had their choice of 3 very different jobs because they were willing to do the extra work and reach out to activate their network. It’s an amazing payoff for the time invested!

 

Image by me