Did You Have a Summer To-Do List?

Time for my annual question that haunts me every year: WHERE DID THE SUMMER GO?? And, perhaps more importantly, what has become of my summer to-do list?

Honestly, it’s the same story every year. Like sand through the hourglass, I watch the summer months pass by in a haze (sometimes literally if it’s been a hot summer!) and by mid-August, I’m left sitting here with just my collection of memories and dreams of what could have been. Things I wanted to do. Fun I wanted to have. I mean, it’s not that I didn’t have fun — it’s just that I had all these grand plans for celebrating my favorite season of the entire year.

Maybe you’re like me and struggle with this time of great transition. Or maybe I’m just really feeling the weight of it today because Ms. Bear heads back to work and we are forced to switch back to our “school year routine,” which means no more leisurely games of Yahtzee in the mornings while sipping an ice-cold Diet Coke and enjoying a refreshing Peppermint Patty. Oh, yes, life sure does get in the way of the actual living sometimes, doesn’t it?

To that end, I thought I’d look back on the few summery things I wanted to accomplish this year. Let’s see how I did…

Sit on the patio

OK, so apparently, I’m not starting off too well. In May, I proclaimed that I was going to sit on the patio every single afternoon and read magazines.

“No, you won’t,” my mom scoffed with a laugh.

Turns out, mothers really do know best. I probably only sat on the patio ONCE in the last three months! What’s worse? I don’t even have a good excuse for why I didn’t. Because I like my cool, artificial air better? Yeah, that’s a sad, pitiful excuse.

Go to The Field Museum and take a selfie with SUE

YESSSS!!! Here’s something I actually and truly accomplished! I had such a fun birthday celebration in Chicago and it felt really wonderful to get to spend it with my family. For years now, I’d been saying how much I wanted to go to the museum for my birthday, so now I’m thinking of making it an annual tradition. I’m thinking of going to the Adler Planetarium next year. Thoughts or suggestions?

Spend plenty of time with family

Pffft, I’ve got this one in spades, obviously! You know there’s nothing I love more than spending time with the people most important to me, and my mom and Janelle are most definitely the people I love most — and the cats too, of course! Whether we were playing Bananagrams or binge-watching Law & Order: SVU, there’s a certain comfort in knowing you’re surrounded by the people who just get you. And my family? They surely get me and I am so thankful for that!

So, I suppose two out of three isn’t so bad after all. Did you have a summer to-do list, friends? What sorts of things were on it? Did you accomplish everything you wanted to? Anything still left unchecked? Let’s chat… xoxo

[GIF via Giphy; photo via We Heart It]