240 - Summer Prep
Affiliate links have been used in this post! I do receive a commission when you choose to purchase through these links, and that helps me keep this podcast up and running—I truly appreciate when you choose to use them!
Resources from this episode:
Show Notes:
I believe the key to making your summer run smoothly is to do a lot of the work on the front end. So today’s episode is all about summer prep.
For the full episode, hit play above or read through below.
Hey, can I ask you a favor? If you have listened to more than five episodes of Work and Play with Nancy Ray and you’ve never left a review, would you mind pausing and going to leave a review for me? It would mean so much. I don’t ask this very much. I don’t know why I don’t ask it very much. Honestly, I think I just forget, but it really is important in the podcast world. It helps me get in front of other people. If you don’t want to do a review, another way is to share this episode with a friend if you like it. Text a buddy, post something on Instagram, or however you want to share it. It would mean so much, it would help this podcast continue to grow, and I’d really appreciate it. So go leave a review if you’ve never done that before and you have listened to five or more episodes.
Alright guys, we are already on episode three of my Summer in June series. These are short and sweet podcast episodes. There are no guests in June; it’s just me and we’re talking about summer projects, summer play, and today we’re talking about summer prep. Next week will be the final week before I take off for July (I don’t do any podcast episodes in July). Next week will be about summer purpose. I’m hoping to tee us up for a really great summer and I’m excited. All of these are very simple and I think they’re coming together really well because all I’m doing is just talking to you like a friend, sharing with you what’s going on in my head and heart for the summer, and how I’m approaching things.
Today, I want to tell you about summer prep and how I am preparing to have a really great summer. I really believe (and this goes for anything in life; not just summer) that if you can take the time on the front end to stop and think through, plan, and prepare, it allows things to go so much smoother on the back end.
I was talking with a friend of mine. She’s actually more than a friend. She’s my husband’s cousin’s wife. Okay, so track with me. Denae and I are chatting and we are talking about meals on family vacations. More than likely, you’re going to have some family vacation this year. We talked about how we have been on some family vacations where the meals have not been addressed and it is so stressful and kind of maddening There have been some tense moments on some past family vacations for us when the meal plan, budget, and responsibilities have not been addressed beforehand. We have had to learn this the hard way. Now, I can say we have gotten better at it. We talk about meals thoroughly, we assign meals ahead of time, and everyone is responsible for things. When that happens, we do it right. It is so fun. The food is so good. Everybody feels really treated fairly and everything goes really smoothly. We’re not all starving trying to decide what we’re doing for dinner. When you don’t plan things ahead of time and talk those things through, it can be a disaster. Denae and I were cracking up about some recent experiences and how it was so stressful.
All of that to say, that was an example of how important prep can be. I want to talk about it in the context of summer. Planning meals for a vacation with your family totally applies to this conversation, but I want to talk about a lot of different touch points of summer. I am not going to hit everything and I am sure I left something out. Hopefully this will get your mind turning and you can think of some things you can start preparing.
Here are the ways I want to really focus on my summer prep. Number one, and this is obvious, but my calendar. I printed out this calendar that I got from my friend Ashlee who designs beautiful giant calendars on Etsy. You can actually download them on your computer. They are very affordable (I think around $10) and you can order it locally from your Staples as an engineer print for $5. The whole thing costs $15 and it’s beautiful and it’s huge. I got it printed out and hung it on a wall in our kitchen just this week. We’re halfway through the year and I just now did this, but I like, you know what? I want an entire year of 2024 in front of us. I want all the kids to be able to look and see what’s going on this summer, where we are in the year, and give them some context for things. Kids have a really hard time understanding time. I do too. I forget what day of the week it is. I’m hoping this will be helpful and I’ll leave a link in the show notes.
It’s not too late to do this if you are a visual person like me. I really want to map out all of the important dates of our summer on a big fat visual calendar in our kitchen and color code it, highlight it, and do whatever I need to so that I know what is coming and I can start preparing for it the week before. We’ve got summer camps, we’ve got trips to Lake Gaston, we’ve got trips to Myrtle Beach, trips to Nashville. We have a lot of stuff going on this summer just like you do. All of those things require prep work so I want to make sure that I am prepared for whatever is on the calendar the following week.
I also want to prepare well and love Will, our kids, and our extended family well by communicating about different plans that we have. I want to not be afraid to communicate ahead of time, even at the risk of being that family member. You know what I mean? The planner. Let’s just do that. I’m going to embrace that as I can. It won’t always be me. There are some other people in our family who will definitely take charge and help plan at some points. But if I’m not hearing anything, I am going to go ahead and send a text. I want to communicate well. I want to give my kids a very fair heads-up as to what’s coming so that they don’t feel surprised by anything. I guess what I’m trying to say is I want to put on my grownup communication hat and not be afraid to communicate about things. It’s a great way to prepare other people and yourself for things and for getting on the same page.
Okay, this is a fun one. This is a great summer prep tip, especially for moms of little kids. You can take this and apply it in many ways. I am going to prepare my car for summer. What I mean by that is I am going to have these really giant bottled waters in my car at all times to refill their little portable water cups. I feel like they’re always extra thirsty in the summer and I feel like they’re always running out of water. I am going to have a bag of snacks that stays in my car all summer. I am going to have a little caddy full of drive play clothes for each of my kids and it’s going to stay in the car so that they will have a change of dry clothes. If we’re driving down the road and there’s a splash pad and they all really want to do the splash pad, I can say yes. Maybe I’ll throw in some old bathing suits that might be a little too small for them but would work in a pinch and those could be the car bathing suits.
I want to be prepared in my car this summer. I also have been given these sticky trash bags. It’s a good way to contain the trash. I want my car to feel organized and not like a trash heap in and of itself. So I am going to really try to get my kids to implement the use of the sticky trash bags. They can stick them on their windows and then put trash in them as needed. My mom got those for us. Maybe I’ll also get a car trash bag that hangs on the back of the seat. I want my car to feel like we’re ready for anything. I need to replenish my first aid kit in the car. Definitely going to do that. So waters, snacks, change of clothes, old bathing suits, and a first aid kit.
This is another one that I have really loved. You should definitely get this for your car for the summer. It’s called The Bug Bite Thing. I keep it in the middle console of my car. It is this little contraption that if you get stung by a bee, wasp, or get bitten, you can actually put it on your leg, arm, or whatever and it creates a suction that sucks out whatever venom or stinger is in you or in your kid. It really helps with immediate relief from the bug bite. It’s really cool. We bought two so I have one in my car and I keep one at home. I want to be prepared!
Sunscreen, bug spray, hats, goggles, swim bag (I’m thinking of other things). You take from that what you want to. It doesn’t have to be everything. But hey, maybe I will keep towels, floaties, and the pool bag in the car. Maybe that will be my thing and I will have a whole trunk full of changes of clothes, floaties, swimsuits, goggles, etc. Maybe all of it is going to live in the car so that we can just be ready. I want to be prepared and I don’t want to spend my whole summer gathering things all the time.
Moving on! Here’s another way I am going to prep for my summer. Food. Let me explain. We got a Blackstone and I am very excited. It’s a whole movement, a whole thing, I know. We have only used it about four times right now. I want to really prepare for some tasty summer recipes on the Blackstone. I am very excited to try new things, but I want to prepare. Here’s how I am going to prepare for using this grill and trying new recipes. My friend Kate, over at Naptime Kitchen, has just done this whole thing about planning your meals in 30-day increments (doing a monthly meal plan versus a weekly meal plan). She sold me on it. I am here for it. It seems so simple. It takes more time in the beginning, but it frees up more time later. She said it has been life-changing for her and so helpful. So I am going to start planning my meals in 30-day increments. I am going to factor in travel, lazy off days, pizza nights, our Blackstone grill nights, and our fun summer meals. I think if I had 30 meals to think about, I would get more creative and have more fun with it.
I also really want to have more smoothies this summer. This is also inspired by Kate. I want to get everything on hand for smoothies. I want to prepare for that. I want to go to Sam’s Club and get the bulk fruit. I want to buy the healthy things I can toss in the smoothies. So those are a couple of food things I want to prepare well for the summer.
I want to pack ahead of time. I want to have pre-written packing lists (I actually have these saved in my computer already). I want my kids to be able to pack themselves. They each have a duffel bag. We LOVE their new duffel bags. Y’all, this is such a side note. I feel like I’m talking about so many products. None of these are ads. I’m just sharing. I think it’s called Walker Family Goods. My mom got them these duffel bags for Christmas and they are so great! Quality, beautiful colors, and each of them have their own so I’m trying to teach them to pack for themselves. I almost want to get a laminated packing list that stays in their suitcase for typical weekend trips. Then they can just get that out, start packing for themselves, and I don’t have to print it out every time. Just thought of that. This prep work is inspiring me. Again, if you do this on the front end, it is going to save you time later.
Going back to meals and food, I do want to prep lunches in bulk ahead of time. In the very last May is for Mamas episode, my friend Sheyanne was one of the first ones that I read her advice on that episode. For her four kids during the school year, she pre-prepares their sandwiches and then freezes them. Then they can get them out of the freezer and throw them in their lunch boxes. I want to be ready for on-the-go lunches a lot. If we go to the pool, a park, a friend’s house, I want to be able to just grab them and go. So I am going to be prepping a lot of sandwiches that we can just grab out of the freezer.
The last thing is I am going to prepare their wardrobes. That is something that I did kind of earlier in June. I want to go through, buy any new bathing suits they need, buy any shoes they need, go through any hand-me-down stuff we have to make sure they have everything they need for their summer wardrobe.
That’s it. Those are the ways that I am planning to prep well for this summer. I hope this will continue to spiral off in your mind in a good way; in a way that helps you create so much margin in your days, the ability to say “Yes”, the ability to have fun, really delight in the food you’re making, enjoy your people, and have a lovely summer.
I am going to close with a quote from Jenny Han who said,
“Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August.”
Happy summer and I’ll catch you next week!
