June 2025 Recap

June, where did you go?! June ZOOMED by for me, minus the week we were away in Copenhagen. That week actually slowed down, in a good way, likely due to all of the new experiences.

June 1-10 was mostly spent prepping for trip (and thinking about luggage 😅), finishing up work tasks and Asher’s end of the school year. Asher also had a bunch of longer lifeguard training shifts at the public pool + swim practices, and Ethan was already on summer break. Everything felt a little wonky and out-of-routine that week and kind of a hectic blur.

Then we were gone from June 11-19 in Copenhagen, followed by some days of jet lag/recovery, and then Asher turned right around and left for Virginia Beach on his weeklong swim team trip.

The end of the month felt very nice to me. We had a few kid-free days, enjoyed some fantastic summer weather and “summer vibes” and had the breathing room I needed to get re-set post travel and even begin to tackle some lingering projects.

I still always feel like travel messes with my sense of time, though, and although I really didn’t feel like time flew on the trip, in retrospect, June feels like it went by pretty quickly.

Accomplish List:

• trip prep! errands, pack, etc.
• got haircut/ color
• researched Icelandair carryon sizes, ordered new suitcases…
• dentist appt
• drove Asher to multiple pool trainings
• took Charlie to groomer
• cleaned the whole house
• successfully executed an awesome Copenhagen trip 🙂
• unpacked/ reset the house/ groceries/ etc. post-travel
• took Charlie to the vet (eye infection 😦 )
• saw Asher off on swim team training trip at 5 am
• researched other boarding options for Charlie, including several in-person visits
• started cleaning out my basement storage room!!!! (This is HUGE. This has been on my yearly goals list since 2020. It was out of control. It’s not done yet (my basement rec room where I have currently dragged everything and am sorting things looks like a bomb went off, but I have made incredible progress. A bunch of stuff is already gone- have had success giving away things on local Buy Nothing group, sold another couple items, plus a big Goodwill run and another garbage pile…. Spent close to 10 hours I’d say last weekend working on this!!)
• picked up my parents at O’Hare on Sunday night (returning from my sister’s in Ireland). Ended up getting later than expected due to some storms in the area, so I unexpectedly spent that night at their house in the Milwaukee area and drove home early Monday morning to work.
• weeded my flower beds, some twice (weeds seem so bad this year!)
• ordered a new fire pit cover
• made a little progress on my “photo clean out” project

Happy/Gratitude:

• our Copenhagen trip. See past posts for details, but it was so wonderful.
• hot and humid summer weather! Our weather in Copenhagen was great, but to me, this feels like summer. I love a balmy morning and evening and just NOT BEING COLD (or having dry skin) and running out of the house in just shorts, a tank and flip flops.
• the sound of rain while laying in bed one night
• a cajun chicken pasta recipe I made that the whole family loved (in early June)
• a night when my brother-in-law and young adult nephew stopped by, chatting around the table
• having a gym so close to my house
• Charlie playing with Teddy, the neighbor dog and Charlie’s BFF 😅
• a few pretty low-key days while the kids were both away. NEEDED THIS. (Work was actually really busy but it felt so good to have some relaxing evenings!)
• seeing F1the Movie. I loved this!!
• the new grass we planted is growing!!! It looks so much better. (The grass we planted under the dense shade tree is just annual rye grass, so it will eventually die off and we’ll have to do this again next year, but at least it grew! Unlike regular perennial grass we’ve tried there other years which has refused to grow…Annual grass is an annoying band aid for this problem, but at least that seed is cheap and I’m just happy to have it looking better for now)
• phone- free morning walks, which have become a summer staple. Just me, Charlie, and the sounds of summer.
• walking to a coffee shop with Ivan on a hot Saturday morning for a peach iced tea
• reading by the fire pit
• hot tub soaks on a couple of cooler evenings
• seeing my parents after their long trip to Ireland and catching up!
• a delightful email chain swapping travel ideas, itineraries and dreams with blog reader/fellow travel enthusiast Emily (Hi Emily!). This was such a bright spot in my week!

Bummers:

• packing and just some pre-trip anxieties/ stress getting ready
• jet lag and feeling very tired for almost a week
• Charlie’s eye infection + vet visit
• uncertainty re: dog boarding situation
• Ethan’s car accident at the end of the month!! Huge BOO.
• dealing with insurance has already been VERY slow and VERY annoying
• *there were probably others but I didn’t do all my normal tracking every day so these are the ones that stand out!

Habits/Intentions:

Tracking was weak overall!

I know I worked out consistently up to our trip, and was trialing a solid new schedule including morning workouts that SHU helped me sketch out! Then, as usual, I did no formal exercise on our trip. I did have a pretty hard time getting back in the groove post-vacation, especially with jet lag and just feeling “off”.

But, I am happy to report, I am officially back. My ONE main goal for July is to hit 100% on my workout schedule from July 1- August 1! This should be do-able, and I think my workout schedule is realistic.

I’ve just been generally fairly lax on my workouts the last couple of months (sort of consistent, but not super consistent, a little too quick to skip one, etc.). I am feeling an urge to dial in for a bit! (I know, I said I wouldn’t announce any grand “challenge plans” for a while after my failed Whole 30 attempt, BUT I feel like I have a much higher chance of sticking with a workout related goal versus a food-restriction related goal!! 🤣)

I also did a formal mid-year goals review last week- more on that later! The short recap is: I’m doing okay. Some things have fallen off, some things I’ve decided to remove, and others I feel on track with.

Reading:

I finished Meditations for Mortals on the plane home. I actually REALLY liked it!! I think I heard some mixed reviews from you all, but something about it clicked for me. I actually have been going back through it now and pulling out some quotes that resonated. Maybe I can share some more detailed thoughts in a post or two.

I also started reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which I’ve had on my shelf for years and have been wanting to read (I think my sister read it on the way here once and left it here?). The narrator is a 15 year old boy with Aspergers who discovers that a dog on his street was murdered. He sets out to solve the mystery and “discovers unexpected truths about himself and the world”. I’m loving this!! Being “in the head” of someone with Aspergers is fascinating and he is just a delightful character. I’m about halfway done.

I’m also still not done reading Harry Potter #3!! I’m over halfway on this too, but I took a little hiatus around our trip and am just picking it back up. This one started a bit slow for me as they got the school year started, but has quickly picked up and now I can’t wait to finish it! I’m also looking forward to watching the 2nd movie this month.

Upcoming in July!

🔷our annual 4th of July celebration at my parents (leaving tonight!), will come home on the 5th

🔷a family potluck party on Saturday afternoon with Ivan’s soccer team

🔷finishing my storage room clean out!!

🔷Asher’s Regionals swim meet in Milwaukee (unsure if just one day, or whole weekend? TBD probably today…)

🔷 celebrating Ethan’s 17th birthday!

🔷 Ethan’s high school soccer team is doing a summer league- details fuzzy yet but perhaps we’ll get to some of those games?

🔷 I’d like to get to another movie! F1 was great. I love the blockbuster summer movies that tend to come out! Maybe the new Superman, coming out on July 11? Also not opposed to Jurassic World Rebirth- I’m not a “huge” Jurassic fan really (haven’t seen all the others) but is there ever a bad Scarlett Johansson movie?)

🔷not too much else!! Hoping to just enjoy some summertime. We leave for a beach trip in Panama City Beach, FL on August 1st (CANNOT WAIT) and then 3 days after we get home from that, Ethan goes back to school!! 😲 I will say- I don’t really love the boys’ staggered summer schedules. It makes summer feel oddly short.

(Ethan’s school year runs mid-August to mid-May, while Asher’s runs early September to mid June. So we really only have both kids out of school from mid June to mid-August, instead of the June to Sept schedule we used to always have.)

Happy 4th of July weekend!!

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for a hot, summery 4th of July weekend forecast! That’s our quintessential 4th of July weather in Wisconsin and I’m here for it. Doesn’t feel right if it’s not!