6 Ways to Be Less Stressed This Summer: Part 1

I don’t know about you but around here it is officially summer!! Maybe you just heard me yelling for joy… Summer can be joyous for many it can also be a source of stress for many others. I’m here to help give you 5 ways to hopefully be less stressed this summer.

When summer becomes a free for all then it can feel like a huge waste of nothing. Spending way too many days in pj’s. watching TV, not leaving the house, etc. Some days like that are great. But a whole summer? Nope.

Below you will find 5 ways to help you out this summer. These are things that we are going to be doing in our house. Fingers cross that these 5 ways will help you (and me) be less stressed this summer and a bit more organized.

Summer Bucket List

Summer bucket lists are not a new thing. They have been done for many years in different ways. The last few years we added everything, and I mean everything, that we wanted to do. Then we slowly chipped away at our list.

This year I am getting smart. Woohoo! We are still going to add many things that we want to do. But I am not stopping there. We are going to sit down and schedule the fun in on our calendar. This may be with just Eddy and I or we may do it crazy like and have the kids “help”.

So, the first thing you need to do it sit down with your family. Let each member share 1-3 things that they want to do. Then make that list. Or write them on popsicle sticks, post it notes, on a canvas, or print them off on one of my FREE summer 2019 bucket list printables.

Now that you have your summer 2019 bucket list you can get out your calendar and get your summer organized. We will start out with the bigger things: trips, day outings, or things that will cost more money.

Once the bigger things are scheduled in then you can decide when you want to do the smaller things: go get Slurpee’s, have a BBQ, etc.

I’m excited to get to the end of the summer and not have a huge list of things we need to cram in. It will be more relaxing knowing that our summer fun will be spread out over the summer. And less stressful knowing we are doing a little here and there.

You can get your FREE summer bucket printables here and here.

Daily To Do List

Last year was the first time we did a daily to do list. It was life changing!! Okay, maybe not life changing but it was so helpful! It definitely will help you have a less stressed summer.

Each of my big kiddos (my baby got a pass last year and she will also get a pass this year) had a list of things they needed to do every day. Things like get dressed, read, make bed, brush teeth, etc.

The list needed to be done before they could watch a show. And to help get them motivated the kiddo that finished first got to pick the show once everyone had finished everything on their list.

And that’s the plan for this year. I have updated their list, printed them up, and they are hanging on the wall in the kitchen for all to see. 🙂 Each kiddo has a different list but they are generally the same.

My 7 year old needs to: empty the recycle, make his bed, get dressed, brush teeth, put his clothes away (pj’s or if he has clean clothes that need to be folded and put away), cleaning sticks (he needs to do 2), school (this can be Upstart, Core 5, or pages from a math workbook), reading, and clean his room.

For my 5 year old needs to: empty the dishwasher (with her sister), make her bed, get dressed, brush teeth, clothes away (same as the 7 year old), 2 cleaning sticks, Upstart, reading and clean room.

With my 3 year old needs to: empty the dishwasher (with her sister), make bed, get dressed, brush teeth, put clothes away (her dirty clothes or pj’s), 2 cleaning sticks, reading, and clean her room.

This year I also plan on making a daily list for my hubby and I. This will show and prove to our kids that we do in fact do a lot around the house. Haha! Does anyone else go through this?

Weekly Schedule

The next thing on our list to be less stressed this summer is a weekly schedule. I heard this idea from Jancee from Finding Your Fancee. I thought it was a great one. So I made my own weekly schedule.

The idea of the weekly schedule is to have each day be dedicated for something specific. Then each week you have somewhat of a plan and an idea of what you are doing.

Here is our weekly schedule:

• Monday = Water Day
• Tuesday = Get Our Stuff Done Day
• Wednesday = Library Day
• Thursday = Hike Day
• Friday = Fun Day
• Saturday = Family Activity Day
• Sunday = Family Rest Day

Now this weekly schedule doesn’t have to be followed to a T. But it will be a guide as to what we will do each week. You are more then welcome to copy our weekly schedule or you can do your own thing. 🙂

Water day is just that, activities that include water. Some ideas are splash pads, play in the sprinklers, slip-n-slide, or swimming.

Get our stuff done day is a day that we can dedicate to working on our monthly organizing goals. Tuesday is also the only day that Eddy never works. So it is nice to have one day that we can plan for that.

Library day can be just a weekly trip to the library, which my son loves! This will help us have different books for my kids to read each day.

Hike day!! I have had the goal to get in hiking shape for awhile. I have bummer knees and hips. So I have been working on getting better at hiking. It has been so hit and miss. This will be a good thing for my kids and I to do weekly.

Friday, fun day is a day we can plan anything fun to do. It is nice to have kind of a free day to plan whatever we want. Or not plan anything and relax.

With my hubby working every other Saturday we didn’t want to plan this day to be a day to get things done. I don’t want to have to do it alone half the time. We also have some mini trips planned for over the weekends that Eddy is home. So making Saturdays a family fun activity seemed a perfect fit.

We need a day to rest and relax with our family. Sunday is the best day for that. As a family we go to church in the morning. Then we have lunch and do quiet time. In the evenings we go to family dinner with either Eddy’s family or my family.

This started out as one blog post but it was getting too long. So now you get two! Woohoo! Stay tuned for part 2 of 6 ways to be less stressed this summer. Which is something we all could use, am I right?

Xoxo, Steph