June is always the end of something. No matter how much we try to make it about summer kickoff and the start of something fun, it always feel melancholy to me. Melancholy and sunny. We saw the end of lots of things in June: dance class and softball and school. School year commitments eventually fizzled and we are back in the summer groove. It’s a little different this year with our oldest daughter away at overnight camp for the first time.

Making progress in June:

• Exercise (make room for one non-WIP workout per week): 16 bootcamp workouts this month! Had a few strange injuries but working through them and ready to keep pushing through the summer.
• Allowance for the kids: Crickets.
• Read 30 books this year: Read 2 books this month so that means I’ve finished 11 books this year. Will have to push a little harder over the summer. It’s been a great goal to pursue.
  • Beautiful Ruins by Jesse Walter
  • All Who Go Do Not Return by Shulem Deen
• Write regularly: You see, it was a busy month. So there were no new blog posts.
• 1 hike per month, preferably with the kids: Lots of outdoors time but no official hikes.
• 1 date night: Squeezed in two group date nights, including a concert at the casino!
• Donate blood 6 times: Next donation in mid-July.
• Volunteer once a month: We fit in a volunteer day at the end of the month. It was a scorcher but we got to play with puppies, helping them to get adopted!
• Self care (once per quarter): No progress here. I received a birthday gift that will help–three months of massages. Planning to get this taken care of as quickly as possible.
• Experiment with podcasting: Yup, nothing to report
• Find new opportunities to speak in front of an audience: I appeared in a storytelling show during the first week of the month in Holyoke. I was the last to tell my story in a competitive storytelling show–this is a favorable spot in the lineup. I am so super proud of the story I told AND how I told it (specifically without crying). Alas, one of the storytellers filled the audience with supportive listeners and thus I didn’t make it into the top three. It was an exhilarating night nonetheless.
• Capture my “best thing all week” every week all year long (52 total): Going strong.
• Financial planning for the household: Nothing happening.
• Get our unfinished rooms completed: Work to begin in July.
• Crochet regularly: A quiet month for crocheting again but this month there will be more sitting.

Other June highlights:

• Dance recital day for our girls
• Watching my husband chair an event at our JCC
• All of the end of the year stuff for my daughters at school
• Watching my girls finish out the softball season
• Dropping off my oldest at overnight camp for an entire month
• First lobster rolls of the summer
• Pool time
• Moving offices at work (and being around the corner from husband’s office)

Summer is squarely here. It feels like it is slipping through my fingers but I am gripping it with all of my strength. Staying in the moment, not wishing it away, even if we’re in the middle of a heat wave.