Your summer fun list - supersized

Over the May long weekend here in Canada, my son and I serendipitously made some fun discoveries of a few businesses and places in the city that were new to us. Having enjoyed our discoveries so much (one of them included some very yummy doughnuts!), we decided that this would be an experience worth repeating. And so we started to think more about the other kinds of discoveries we could make over the coming summer months and ultimately what we’d like to include on our 'summer fun list’.

This led to a trip to the dollar store to get some big poster paper to write our list on so that we could really make a point of being intentional about creating the list, keeping it somewhere visible, and getting the satisfaction of anticipating doing things, doing them, and checking them off the list!

We’ve already been able to experience some more new discoveries (yummy cinnamon buns! yes, there is a food theme here) and are looking forward to crossing more off the list. (ice cream stands, here we come!)

What I’m especially loving about our summer fun list is that it is helping us to be more intentional about how we are spending our time. And it also lessens decision fatigue, as we’ve essentially pre-made lots of decisions about what we want to be doing this summer. But there is still flexibility - and creativity - in when and how we will do the various activities. And most importantly, there is also compassion, in the likely event, for example, that we don’t make it to every public library location in the city before September arrives. It’s a goal that we can still reach even after the summer is over. But in the meantime we can have fun trying to reach this goal and creating some great memories in the process.

I realize if you don’t have kids, making a ’summer fun list’ on poster paper may feel silly and unnecessary. And yet - maybe giving it a try despite the discomfort can help to emphasize how valuable it can be!