HOW TO HAVE A COZY AND INTENTIONAL SUMMER // FAMILY SUMMER BREAK // CHARLOTTE GROVE FARMHOUSE

hello my friends and welcome back to my channel my name is Tiffany and in today's video we're going to talk a little bit about summer plans summer favorites the things that we have going on this summer things that I do to help keep my children entertained all throughout the summer which is very difficult to keep five children entertained for 9 weeks of unstructured time and just a couple of things that we have planned for the summer things that I goals and and schedules that I hope to follow and hopefully they'll be helpful for you too so if you're here for it let's go ahead and get into it so as I mentioned I have five amazing children my two oldest are in high school um my daughter will be a senior next year my oldest son will be a sophomore next year um I have a middle son who will be in seventh grade next year um my next middle son will be a fifth grader and then my littlest will be in third grade next year so we have a full house my husband and I are both public Educators I am a elementary school counselor and he is a special education teacher and so we are home all throughout the summer as well neither of us do summer school or anything like that so um we are very blessed in the sense that we don't have to worry about like child care and who's going to watch our kids and all of that stuff however we also have to entertain these children for 9 weeks which can be rather difficult I'm sorry if you guys hear my dishwasher running in the background it just has to happen I run it sometimes twice a day while we're home so um you know it's pretty pretty bananas so I like I said I just wanted to kind of talk to you about how we schedule and maintain these 9 weeks while we're home and the ways that we try to make it enjoyable memorable while not putting a ton of pressure on ourselves so that's kind of where I want to start and that is this pressure of romanticizing summer for your children I think back to my childhood in summers throughout my childhood and I have to be 100% honest with you I don't really remember a lot of them until I was probably in high school now my childhood is very different from a lot of others there are plenty of traumatic uh moments that we are not going to get into and so my memory of my childhood may be very different than that of someone who didn't experience similar things as a young mom when I was first you know a a mother um I had my first child at 23 and I felt like when summer came I needed to create all of these incredible memories um I kept seeing all these things you know you only have 18 Summers with your kids and all of these things and I felt this immense pressure to make summer something Giant and when Danny and I were young parents we didn't have a lot of money and we didn't have a lot of you know means to do big fancy things we were really blessed that we had I had family in Southern California we lived in Las Vegas we would do a lot of traveling to the beach and you know things like that that were very affordable um but you know just this pressure and this idea of you need to have something to do every day you need to have you know scheduled time and your kids shouldn't be bored and you know I was seeing friends that were doing these great trips and you know their kids in camps and things like that and the bottom line is we put a lot of pressure on ourselves at in in society in general just as being you know in being a human in today's society but especially as parents we put a ton of pressure on ourselves to make things memorable and what I'm here to tell you is your kids are going to remember how they feel versus what they did uh we just had a conversation about this the other night um at our dinner table actually it might have been breakfast it might have been breakfast on Father's Day actually where we talked about you know my one of my sons had mentioned that he preferred living in Las Vegas over living here in New England and when we tried to question him about why considering our life is dramatically better here um you we were trying to understand what what it was and it it boiled down to these memories he had of swimming in his grandparents pool and um how he felt about things that he enjoyed while he was there and so that is kind of where like what I have in the back of my mind as I'm going into this summer is how do I create these feelings of content of Peace of Happiness just an overall sense of family and well-being and connectedness throughout the next nine weeks that my children will remember it's not about how many times we go to the beach how many baseball games we go to how many whatever it's about those feelings of being connected to the people that you love that they're going to remember so with that in mind that very deep philosophical intro this is kind of you know how we're how I plan to have an intentional summer with my family and that's going to start with romanticizing the everyday things and not trying to create this big extravagant uh summer experience so I did write out a few things first things first I want to talk about like activities that we have we are blessed uh last year we picked up a small little uh you know soft side pool it's just a Coleman you know little pool that we picked up at Walmart on sale and the kids are like Beyond excited about it I'm looking at it right now outside it's fun I don't have to worry about you know anybody not being safe out there because everybody can touch um it's big enough that we can put some pool floats in it and Float around if we wanted to and also small enough that it's easy to care for and it was extremely affordable um we also have a trampoline and that was a Christmas gift from two years ago I believe and this year I picked up this super fun little sprinkler on Amazon that you just hook to a hose hook to the side of your trampoline and it like circulates water um so that's a fun thing for them to do uh but there's tons of old School nostalgic things from my childhood that my kids can do for a very affordable price one is running in the sprinklers we turn the sprinklers on every night um every evening and we encourage the kids constantly almost daily I encourage the kids to go out there and running them um I just I want them to have those memories the other thing is you know uh evening fires so just putting on putting a couple of logs in the fire pit sitting outside for an hour so reminiscing about your day uh just even if you're not talking and you're just listening to some super enjoyable music we listen to a lot of stick figure while we're out there kind of Reggae Vibes and just hang out as a family and just again that connectedness um riding bikes uh I love to do late night like hide-and go seek or tag where you have the kids wear glow sticks that you can pick up at the Dollar Tree and you can they can wear them around their neck or hold them in their hand you can do flashlight tag which is a lot of fun uh board games you know all of that stuff and all of those things are extremely affordable or free which is you know always a plus we also have the luxury of a boat and a lake where we live um and so that is something we do a lot in the summer too tons of really really wonderful fond memories of just being out there um it's very relaxing and enjoyable we go park out in a Cove the kids swim it's really really great um I haven't been able to enjoy that yet this year because of surgery I'm recovering from a hysterctomy at this um end of May and so have not been able to enjoy swimming yet but that will be coming and I'm very much looking forward to that so A couple of things that I try to do to keep the day flowing smoothly um it is to make sure that my kids are up by a certain time time everybody's allowed to sleep in but everybody has to be up no later than 10:00 a.m. um and some might think that that's a little late some might think that that's early some might think it's crazy to give your kids a wake up time during the summer break but I know for me and my children's well-being and their mental health they have to be up by a certain time and that means by 10:00 a.m. you're up you're out of your bed you're eating breakfast and you're getting dressed and I don't care if it's you literally put on a pair of basketball shorts and a t-shirt and you're not combing your hair but you're you've changed your underwear and you've brushed your teeth and you've had some food to me that just kind of like resets the day right and gets you going I get up and do my hair and makeup every day that's just how I work but for my kids even if they're not doing anything I just want them up and like dressed and feeling better for the day better about themselves for the day and then I do monitor how much snack everybody is doing throughout the day and we have done this a number of different ways when my kids were little my youngest is eight so they're not I don't consider him like little little anymore he's still young um but when they were little I picked up little baskets from the Dollar Tree one for everybody and everybody got to pick out like two snacks for the day and then we um they put in like one or two capri suns in the bath basket and then a piece of fruit um no I don't think we put a piece of fruit fruit was always like I encourag them to eat as much of that as they could but um that was like their snacks for the day now if they were super hungry or we were really active and things like that then we would go back and get more but this was um a way for us to kind of like pre-plan how much eating we were going to do in the day because if you have kids and they're home during summer or spring break or anything like that you know they eat so much food they're like little caterpillars and uh you'll just go through your your grocery you know order uh in a day or two I know at my house with five kids if I buy a box of Capri Suns and there's 10 in them and everybody has two a day that's one box a day that's outrageous right um so instead when they were younger we would like have them pre-pick out you know for the day what they what snacks they were going to eat and so then they could kind of visually see how much they had and figure out throughout the day because really most of the time they're not doing all the snacking because they're hungry they're doing all of the snacking because they're home and they're bored and it's available so we don't do that anymore uh because we don't need to but I do make sure that they're eating because I find that they will skip meals and do more snacking so I make sure that they're eating meals and I will try to have like a lot more uh ready to make lunches available if that's you know pizza bites or sandwich things chicken strips I'll buy um chicken skewers I'll try to like pre make a little extra dinner so that they've got leftovers um but that way they're eating more meals and not just snacks that has been very very beneficial as well the other thing we always keep a ton of are like Otter Pops or those like you know just push-up popsicles they don't have to be Otter Pops but and I my kids can have I I allow them to have like two of those a day especially if they're outside playing if they're outside playing a lot then I'll I'll you know let them eat uh a Popsicle or two um as encouragement to be outside and enjoying this glorious weather the other thing that I do and I do this year around but I do it a lot more in the summer is I will make fruit platters and that just putting out you know some fruit for the day so for today I'm going to push the strawberries because I don't want them to go bad so I'm just going to literally wash and cut up the strawberries and put them on a platter and leave them on the counter so that every time they walk by they see them and they're just munching on them I have found that if I do that they're more likely to eat that and not snack on other things then if they are going to get a snack um they're more likely to choose something other than the fruit fruit so leaving the fruit out as often as possible has been very very beneficial in my house uh it's a great way to make sure that fruit that is like on the verge of going bad gets eaten before it does go bad because there's nothing worse than expensive fruit going bad before it's been eaten um along those lines I will also use a drink dispenser to pre-make like a big batch of lemonade or um just like flavored water you can make a big batch of ice water and put a bunch of frozen berries in it or um you know like a couple of scoops of some Kool-Aid or something and then put a bunch of fruit in it one of the better ones that we've done is like watermelon you can put watermelon in with water and then put like a couple of scoops of um of Kool-Aid or some kind of water flavoring and if you have that on a drink in a drink dispenser I can put it out on my front porch or back here on my deck and my kids that are playing outside can just come and get water all day long and that makes sure that they're drinking the other thing that I have done in the past and I'm considering doing again this year because some of my kids are not very great at their water intake is getting those water bottles that have um you know the hours broken down like this one here and making sure that they are monitoring their own water um and just having that goal of I got to make sure I drink this by this time because it's so easy when you're just out of your routine to stop doing things that are normally routine like drinking water or eating regular meals right one of the things that I find to be the most important it's not one of the things the thing that I find to be the most important thing to have um an intentional peaceful calm and memorable summer is to have some kind of routine some kind of schedule I probably don't have to say this but people and especially children thrive on having a routine something to do without that we can feel lost purposeless um it can create these senses of hopelessness and um it it just is so not good for your mental health to not have a routine and something to do every day um it just it breathes reads uh discontent and um in my mind that's kind of where that boredom kicks in and where people will start to feel bored when they don't have a routine working with children um and having five of my own but but more working with kiddos something I have discovered is kids really value downtime but when they have too much of it it doesn't feel like downtime so having those moments in your day that are unscheduled where you don't have anything to do and the kiddo gets to just pick what they're doing whether that's watching a movie or a TV show or playing a video game or you know playing with their friends or scrolling on their phone whatever that looks like whatever their downtime looks like it's going to depend on their age of course I have older kiddos so that's what downtime for them typically looks like but when they have those blocks of downtime in their day like a 2hour block that feels rejuvenating refreshing it feels like it's charging their battery where if that's just all they're doing it's actually battery depleting I know that sounds strange but maybe it goes back to the laws of physics like body and motion stays in motion right so like if there's nothing to do all the time and they can just do whatever they want all the time it can feel very depleting my cat is on the scratch Pad right now of course so having some kind of routine now it doesn't have to be like super rigid but it can it can be if that's your jam if you feel better like having a super rigid routine we have done that in the past very rarely is it um stuck to for a significant amount of time but for me again just going back to that word of the summer just being intentional with what we're doing um making sure that every day we have one goal something we want to accomplish talking about that writing it down or discussing it with me or with their dad um Danny and I will do that with each other every morning we we sit out on the porch and we have our coffee and we say what's your plan for the day what's your plan for the day what's something you want to get done what's something you want to get done is extremely helpful so you know having like a direction and something we're working towards so making sure they're up by a certain time whatever that time is for you making sure that they eat breakfast a good solid breakfast and they get dressed make their bed um I'm not always super strict about making the bed to be 100% honest with you I make my bed every day but I'm not like super strict about the kids making their bed all the time maybe I should be but you know whatever that morning routine looks like so that they're up and moving have them do something good for their brain so reading or drawing coloring doing a puzzle and something good for their brain that's going to um you know enrich their their their brain just keep it Sharp um my kids all have like a reading expectation for the summer so they'll be plowing through that um I plan to be doing a lot of reading this summer I think I mentioned that in a previous video so I hope that by example it will be you know good for them I did just pick up a court of thorns and Roses to read so thank you for everybody who recommended that I liked that it was a series so that I could just pick up the next one of course having like a daily chore list we have a daily chore list anyway but having a time that it has to be finished by is very beneficial so I try to just have that done you know by lunchtime so it's just over with and then like the chores that they have after dinner cleaning up the kitchen and emptying the table and all that stuff can be done later and then you know they have the majority of their day to do whatever they want a lot of times they'll plow through all those things and be done in an hour and then their day is free and they have friends come over or they're swimming or they're playing outside or they're doing whatever you know that's great that time feels meaningful and enjoyable and earned versus every single day just I don't know what I'm going to do today so I feel like that's just very very beneficial um one thing we shy away from and this kind of goes back to that putting pressure on yourself is a bucket list I think that bucket lists are a lot of fun um sorry if I'm repeating myself I just had to take a little break for the kids but I think the bucket lists are a lot of fun they're a great way to like brain dump ideas of things that you want to do however I also feel like they can be um like putting so much pressure on yourself so when you have all of these things written out and you write them in like a checklist it can create this feeling of um dissatisfaction discontent when you're not checking things off the list or when the end of the summer is done and you've only checked off three things on the list but that can like alter the way you feel about how your summer was so your kids might have had a really wonderful summer but then the end of the the summer they see that only a couple things are marked off the list and they see all the things that they wanted to do but didn't do it can completely negate all of the things that you know were wonderful that's kind of just how you know the human brain works and so although I think bucket lists are a lot of fun and I think that you can get a lot of really great fun ideas from them I just caution you know how you do it I think maybe writing down a a brain dump of things that are fun make sure that they're very realistic and you only put big items you know sparingly so things that you can do like going out and looking at the fireflies or you know going on a nature walk things that you can just do very easily and don't cost money and you can just um you know very easily check those things off the list great but big things like camping trips or um you know trips to amusement parks or things like that just make sure that uh you're very um intentional and wise in what you put on those bucket lists so that's kind of where I stand in the bucket list item I prefer instead of making like a big summer bucket list to have a discussion you know once a week about what's something something we could do this week and then pick a day sit down look at the the weather look at everybody's schedules does anybody have camp this week you know Sports anything like that and then pick a day say you know if you're having a conversation and you decide you know what let's go to the beach this week this would be a good week to go to the beach pick a day everybody knows they can put it on their calendar and then they have something to look forward to you already know when you're going to go um and it's at the top of their mind then instead of just this like big when we when we're trying to create a big running list sometimes we will put a little bit too much you know on the list versus something that we actually want to do right then and now and then also I think it it feels very um satisfying to think of something you want to do do it right away it creates this extra layer of satisfaction and then it's done and then you've created this meaningful memory and um you're not you know over scheduling or putting too much pressure on on you and your kids so that would be my recommendation and how we plan to do it this summer this summer is a little bit different for us considering I am recovering from surgery we did not plan a ton of things Danny and I have um a long weekend with friends away uh in a couple of weeks we have a uh graduation party to go to in July and then in August we have our annual big family camping trip Dany does take the boys on at least one uh boy's only camping trip that they do without Mom and without their sister they go just uh the five of them which I absolutely love and they love it um so I don't really have anything to do with that planning and I think Danny was saying he was going to try to do that more than once this year uh the kids really want to sleep out on the trampoline one night this year so hopefully we can make that happen they've said that for many many Summers but we'll see what happens looking at my list here to see if there was anything else that I was forgetting so some of the things that we are looking forward to doing this summer um is lots of just family time outside like I mentioned with fires hanging out in the pool um I love to go on a little walk around our property at at dusk when the fireflies are out it's absolutely beautiful it's cooling off not like today today is going to be 90° but sorry I had to pause again for the kids but as I mentioned just pouring myself a cold drink you know going and doing a little walk around the property is a lot of fun another thing that I love to do during the summer is rewatch stranger things from beginning if you're not a stranger things fan then you can just think of some other kind of nostalgic show for you but I love stranger things because it reminds me of growing up it it's set like in the time that I grew up as a kid and so it's very goon esque to me if you like the movie Goonies um I'm not a big Goonies fan my husband is but stranger things just kind of gives me those same Vibes and um a couple of summers ago I don't think it was last summer I think it was the summer before when season what four season three or four I can't remember what's how many seasons there are but when the most recent season came out we all like binged it over the summer and my cousin came out it was just so much fun and so that's something I want to redo this summer too is rewatch um cuz that's a lot of fun and it's something we can all watch together and um you know you forget so much about it and it's just for me it's nostalgic for the kids it's fun I'm holding the dog now because she just keeps barking at everybody that keeps walking by the front door and so she's going to stay right here with me but um one of the things that I would like to do this summer is a lot of cooking I want to try some new recipes and try to I figure I was telling Danny I have all these like videos saved on Instagram and all these recipes I want to try and I'm thinking what I want to do is like try them over the summer so that I can get good get good at them so that I can put them in rotation for when we go back to school so that is definitely something that I want to do I love to cook and having the time time to try out new recipes is always enjoyable so that is definitely something on my bucket list I want to start that series um that book series I told you about I would like to go to the beach I Pro like four or five times this summer I know that probably sounds like no big deal over nine weeks right but if you think about it once a week um is a lot to go to the beach like you have to it's about 40 minutes for us 45 minutes for us to get to the beach and you've got to pack everything for the day and food for everyone and seven of us is a lot of people to get out of the house so it's a it's a feat but that's definitely on my bucket list as well so those are some of the things that we have planned and again just my goal is just to spend as much time together as a family intentionally having quality time without putting pressure on the things that we are doing together as a family I'm really looking forward to that as um as a family and just you know enjoying a leisurely slow paced peaceful and rejuvenating battery charging summer so that we're ready come August to go back to school and put our best foot forward um I'm going to have a senior this year I am not ready to have a senior I know it's going to be a very emotional summer or emotional school year so preparing myself for that as best as I possibly can and yeah and of course also spending as much time as I can with my friends as well I went across the street to my friend's house yesterday just for lunch and it was so much fun I just enjoy spending such you know quality time with um my sweet friends and I love that they all live so very close except for my one bestie sweet Anne if you're watching I love you and she lives in Las Vegas and I don't get to see her anywhere near as often as I would like to so that's what on that's what's on our plan for this summer I hope that you got some ideas or maybe you heard something today that's going to help you have a more peaceful and intentional summer give yourself a little bit of Grace a little slack and until the next one my friends take here [Music]

Channel: Charlotte Grove Farmhouse

Views: 13,190

Keywords: farmhouse, farmhouse style, modern farmhouse, new house, new home, summer, summer favorites, summer plan, summer break, family summer break

Id: pDggV4SO1s0

Length: 29min 35sec (1775 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 21 2024