#17 - Design Your Summer
Kara Monroe
Design Your Summer
Gayle and I had the pleasure of being guests on a podcast about our most recent cruise. I’ll share it after it is released in July. One of the points we made in that episode is about the importance of intentionally planning for what you want out of a vacation. We wanted a restful and relaxing trip and we achieved that with a lot of fun thrown in. We do this through the simplest of processes - a 4 x 6 index card that we make a list on of what we want to do. We stick it to the back of our stateroom door and usually each evening I take great pleasure in taking a quick inventory of our day - adding tick marks to items we did and reminding us of things still on the list that we haven’t done yet.
This reminded me that it’s time to Design My Summer. This is an idea that comes from Gretchen Rubin. She’s talked about it for years on her podcast - Happier. The idea is to decide what you want to do and plan it so that you don’t get to the end of the season and regret getting together with friends, going to a favorite park, or starting a new family tradition.
I’m still working on my list of things I want to include in my summer this year but here are a few that I have been thinking of including:
Take a picnic lunch to Fort Harrison one weekday
Use my firepit and read outside several evenings
Read at least two books by C.S. Lewis
Pickle my own cucumbers and cherry tomatoes
Use some of my cherry tomatoes to make slow roasted cherry tomatoes to serve caprese style
Go to the pool mid-day on multiple weekdays
Reach out to at least five new/potential clients each month
Plan outdoor coffee and dinner meetups with friends
Cookout with the family
Move newsletter to new publishing platform
Click reply and let me know something you want to add to your summer! And…better yet…send me a whole list of things you plan to do.
What I published this week
I got back into a bit of a swing of publishing things this week. Here’s a roundup of what went out this week.
Wednesday Walk - Central Park in New York City | PeakD
Time has gotten so far away from me. It’s now been well over a month since my trip to New York City and a month since my… by iwannabeme
I built a resource about summer reading that I put on Hive, Medium and even experimented with a cool tool called pictory that creates a faceless video from a “script” - or in my case an article. Here are the Hive and video versions of that.
Looking to Kickstart your Summer Reading? Here are Great Resources | PeakD
Check out some great resources to inspire your reading in summer or any season. … by iwannabeme
Kickstart your reading with these 4 ideas
Gayle and I will probably start releasing the blog from our trip this week. A lot of background work happened this week including loading this video up to YouTube where she surprised me with the trip.
Disney Surprise - We're Going On A Disney Cruise!
What I'm Reading
I have an idea for a novel that is centered around how the Bible was formed so you’ll probably see several Bible history books here in the list in the coming weeks. I also went to the Indy Library monthly book sale this weekend which is one of my very favorite things to do and loaded up with a few new books that will show up here over time.
Jen Wilkin presents a practical approach to Bible Study that I’ve really enjoyed starting to use. This is a five star book in my opinion.
Twitter friend Tracey Winchell recommended this. It’s wonderful if you want to think about how you make decisions. Nerdy but also entertainingly written.
The Blue Zones: 9 Lessons for Living Longer
Several of my friends have been talking about this book so I decided to check it out. I’m skimming large parts of it but the photos and stories from other parts of the world are really interesting
C.S. Lewis has been on my reading to do list for far too long. It’s time for me to finally enjoy a couple of his books.
Diversion
I had this on the list to share last week and then decided to go with Jim Nabors at the Indy 500. So, while Memorial Day has passed it’s still appropriate to listen to the Star Spangled Banner anytime.
The National Anthem (Star Spangled Banner) | 4TH+MAIN
Ways You Can Support Me
There are lots of ways you can support my creative work. One of the easiest is encouraging others to subscribe to my newsletter. Anyone can do so here: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/iwannabemewhenigrowup.
Want to support my work in a tangible way? Consider “Buying Me A Coffee”. Your support for my creative endeavors helps keep newsletters like this free.
In order to unsubscribe, click here.
If you were forwarded this newsletter and you like it, you can subscribe here.
Created with Revue by Twitter.
Kara Monroe, 11640 Winding Wood Drive, Indianapolis, IN 46235