A Few of My Favorite Things (July 2021)

Pool parties, summer camps, s’mores, new craft supplies, thrift stores, anniversaries, and long afternoons spent reading a good book are just a few of my summer favorites!

This week marks the halfway point of summer for Dave — it’s bittersweet since I sort of wish everyone could just be home all the time.

That said, I know by the time September rolls around, I’ll be ready to get back into my daily routine again (and have clean bathrooms for more than 20 minutes!)

These sweet summer days will always be one of my most favorite things — I’m sharing more favorites below.

FAVORITE ACTIVITIES = Summer Day Camps

Dave’s schedule is fairly demanding during the school year, so we aren’t overly eager to involve our kids in many extracurricular activities from September through May.

We make up for our lackluster participation during the summer months, though!

With both Dave and I home all day, we let our kids pick and choose whatever camps they want to go to over the summer (within reason!)

The boys already had a week of tennis camp and swimming lessons, while Nora enjoyed an art camp, some crafts at the library, and taking less frequent piano lessons.

They also just finished up a week of Vacation Bible School. Now we’re gearing up for soccer camps, basketball camps, another art camp, and a few more library events.

I know many parents dislike driving kids around during the summer, but for our family, summer camps have been a really fun way for the kids to try new things, develop new skills, and make new friends without the massive time commitment of a full season (or an entire year).

We cart them around in the mornings and enjoy relaxing afternoons at home by the pool (see my next “favorite thing” below…)

FAVORITE ROUTINE = Long afternoons outside.

Never in my years of pool planning did I ever expect our entire family to enjoy spending so much time outside together by the pool!

I figured we’d go for a swim and then get on with our days… but for the last month, we’ve all basically lived outside from 11 am – 7 pm (or whenever we’re not at one of the camps I mentioned above.)

Thanks to the fact that our deck now connects our pool to our outbuilding, we essentially have everything we need to spend all day outside (without technology!)

We eat the majority of our meals and snacks outside these days, and we even ended up bringing a bunch of games, books, and craft supplies to the outbuilding so we’d have more reason to stay outside.

I know the newness of the pool, deck, and “pool house” hasn’t worn off yet — but the last few weeks have almost seemed magical. I’ll take it for as long as it lasts!

RELATED READING: Frugal Family-Friendly Summer Fun

PAST FAVORITE = Tiny Lights

For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved the cozy feeling of a home with tiny lights in every room — especially if those tiny lights come from faux wax candle bulbs.

Without all that much effort, I’ve figured out a way to incorporate wax candle lights into almost every room in our house — most recently, the new laundry room (we got our wood counter, now we’re just waiting on the cabinet doors!)

We don’t use our tiny lights as much during the longer days of summer, but whenever I have the chance, I flip on our tiny lights and enjoy the instantly cozier atmosphere.

RELATED READING: How to Create a Cozy Clean Home

FAVORITE ART/OFFICE SUPPLY = Mr. Pen Products

We stocked up on art supplies before summer break… including our FAVORITE Mr. Pen brand highlighters, markers, colored pencils, pens, and more.

These pens and highlighters are the best, and very frugal compared to many other brands.

Also, their highlighters are gel-based so they don’t bleed through (even really thin Bible pages).

We also really love their acrylic paints (for rocks or clay pots) and their fabric markers.

I’m personally not ready for back-to-school shopping yet, but if you’re the type who loves to get everything you need in the middle of the summer, I’d highly recommend picking up a few Mr. Pen goodies from Amazon!

RELATED: Browse all Mr. Pen products here.

FAVORITE CLEANING PRODUCT = Canister Vac

For the last few years, I haven’t had a vacuum with attachments… for the most part, it’s been OK.

I like my current bagged vacuum for carpets and rugs, and I love sweeping my hardwood floors. 🙂 However, over the winter months, I decided I wanted attachments again (and I didn’t want to spend a lot of money).

I eventually decided on a lightweight Black+Decker canister vacuum — so far, I’ve been very happy.

I love how small and compact it is (I actually store it in my laundry room cabinets!) and the various attachments are just what I need to reach in between the couch cushions, behind furniture, along the baseboards, etc.

It’s great for my hardwood floors (when I don’t want to sweep) but I don’t use it for carpet as it doesn’t have a beater bar.

Best of all, it’s SUPER easy to maneuver — which means the kids love helping!

FAVORITE RECIPE = Caprese Pasta Salad

I’m normally not a huge fan of cold pasta salad… but every summer, once the tomatoes and basil start to ripen, I haul out this recipe and enjoy the taste of summer in a bowl.

Seriously, it’s SO good!

GET THE RECIPE: Caprese Pasta Salad.

Whew — that’s all for me this month.

If you’re interested, you can scroll through ALL my Favorite Things posts HERE!