My monthly “Just a Minute” newsletter went out yesterday with an essay about getting the right vacation balance. Some are relaxing, some are adventurous. It’s good to have both! My weekly “Week’s worth” newsletter goes out tomorrow morning, and I have to say, I really enjoyed this week’s topic. You can sign up for my newsletters by filling in your email on my home page (for the free time makeover guide).

Over at Vanderhacks I did a kitchen + food theme for the week. I suggested “Don’t store produce in your produce drawers,” and that you can save time, money, and mental space when you “Pack a snack (and water).” The post behind the paywall was “Laura’s little list of kitchen hacks.”

The Before Breakfast podcast covered that you should “Make complete plans, even if they’re tentative,” and that it might be fun to “Run into people.”

Over at the Best of Both Worlds Patreon community page we had an 80-comment discussion on the idea that “Kids need time and money.” I feel like a lot of the discussion of mothers working for pay centers on potentially “losing” time with kids, but there are a lot of upsides to what gaining extra income can afford a family — as many people who grew up in more tight circumstances have commented on. Please come join us!

We are doing celebratory dinners this weekend for good grades in the spring (sometimes it takes a while to schedule things…) and there may be peach picking. Stay tuned…

We will have a few more weeks this summer where various combinations of kids won’t be around and it will be interesting to see the dynamics.

Of course, having different combinations of kids in the house means the background logistics change too. Which brings me to today’s post.

Due to various combinations of kids being off doing other things this weekend, I will be with the 9-year-old, solo, for much of the day on Saturday. He doesn’t need constant supervision, or really much supervision at all, but he can’t stay home by himself yet. Usually there is at least one older kid at home at night or on the weekend so if I want to run to the grocery store or go for a run when I’ve got other coverage for the 4-year-old (like, the 4-year-old goes to his Saturday sitter’s house) then it’s all good. I was thinking through my Saturday plans and then I realized that I would be responsible for a 9-year-old all day so I needed to shift things around.

The little angel on my shoulder was like “hey, mommy day opportunity!” So I asked him what he wanted to do and the answer was…not much. Honestly, I get it. He’s in camp all day every day. We spent all last weekend in the car. So even if it is on offer to go to an amusement park or science museum he was thinking more low key. We may also wind up going to the beach or something next week given that my husband and I will be off the 3rd-5th.

I’m sure if I spent a lot of time brainstorming all the possibilities within 90 minutes of us I could come up with something he’d be enthusiastic about. But I’m also thinking…eh. We don’t have to do anything. I think we will make a farmer’s market visit (donuts/bakery items are on offer as a bribe) and we might stop by the craft store to pick up something for a project. But other than that we might just hang out at the house, and go in the pool, and he can play video games while I do a few hours of work (see the “off the 3rd-5th bit”). It will be fine.

In this week’s episode of Best of Both Worlds, Sarah and I share strategies for planning summer, from booking childcare and camps and vacations to planning fun for you.

In the Q&A we tackle a question about the mental load/time cost of home ownership (I accidentally listed this as last week’s question…whoops!).

Please give the episode a listen and as always we welcome ratings and reviews.

In this week’s episode of Best of Both Worlds, Sarah and I discuss all things summer. We discuss our own plans, and our usual planning tools (yep, the Camp Spreadsheet is back!). We talk travel, Summer Fun Lists, summer fashion, favorite treats, and more.

In the Q&A, we advise a listener who is trying to choose the best after-care option for her soon-to-be kindergartner. Please give the episode a listen and let us know what you are excited for this summer!

In other news: Did you know that Best of Both Worlds has a Patreon community? Lately, we’ve been discussing snacks, teen summer plans, where we shop for clothes, and more in our discussion forum. We’ll also be gathering (virtually) next Thursday May 25 for the next installment in our book club, discussing Gretchen Rubin’s Life in Five Senses. Please join us!

I had a car service booked to pick me up at 7:45 a.m. for a 10 a.m. speech. Normally they show up 15 minutes ahead of time, so I was ready by 7:30 to give us a cushion, since the traffic report said it would take 2 hours at rush hour.

Then I waited and waited. I called dispatch, and got put on hold, then had someone answer who tried to track down my driver, but that took a while for them to get through. Meanwhile the minutes were ticking away.

I (and dispatch) finally found out that the driver had gotten a flat tire. That was in the process of getting fixed, and they could send a replacement car, but of course that was going to take quite a while too. So I got in my own car at a little after 8 a.m. to drive to a 10 a.m. speech two hours away. You always lose time in transit on the NJ Turnpike, and I did too.

So, irony: I was late to my own speech on time management.

It has happened to me before (I joke about it in my TED talk). I imagine it will happen again. I’d sent an email to the organizers and my speaking agent, and they all worked it out so the group could re-arrange the morning schedule. I spoke at 10:30 instead of 10. All was fine.

So at least that wasn’t disastrous, though we shall see what mood my 7-year-old is in when I get him at camp. He opened his lunch and apparently found an ice pack but no food. I know I packed it – I did that last night and put it in the fridge…so where did the food go?? Mysteries. The camp called while I was giving the speech so I couldn’t pick up the phone. They fed him a camp lunch (they do have a purchase option) but given his “selectivity” I suspect it all went in the trash. So I will pack a hearty snack for the car and prepare for the complaints.

Life goes on. Two days until the weekend!

Anyway, last week was not “typical” — with the 4th and associated travel, plus doing Mommy Camp. But as no week ever is, how did I do on the nine Tranquility by Tuesday rules?

Give yourself a bedtime. I did reasonably well here – I was in bed around 11 p.m. every night this week. Even though I didn’t need to wake up at 6:30 a.m. most mornings, the summer light often has me popping up at 5:30 a.m. or so. I go to the bathroom and then try to sleep again and usually succeed. We had one atrocious night with the 2-year-old while we were traveling but other than that it’s been pretty good. He, like most people, prefers to sleep in his own bed.

Plan on Fridays. Even though Friday was a disjointed day with a group dental appointment (my family can fill every chair in an office!) and waiting for the furniture (and going to Dave & Busters), I put planning on the list and did it. I find that life goes so much better when I do. As this week’s childcare set-up is still uncertain I needed to be absolutely sure what needed to happen.

Move by 3 p.m. Not perfectly. We spent all Tuesday morning in the car, so there wasn’t much movement by 3 p.m. that day. However, I did a few unorthodox workouts in the first half of the day during this week — on Monday I played some aerobic games of Ping Pong, on Thursday I did a ton of paddling to get our tubes out into the current, and on Sunday I ran laps with the 2-year-old and 10-year-old at the YMCA while the 7-year-old had basketball.

Three times a week is a habit. In general, I’ve been focusing on running, playing the piano (well, music in general), and eating family meals. I ran three times — all in the mornings. Two weekday short 30 minute runs before everyone was up and moving, and then 6 miles with Jane on Saturday. I only played the piano twice. We had several family dinners with the folks who were here, though they were kind of rough. I’m trying to enforce sitting in the chair, and eating at meal times with less snacking, and there’s a general rebellion underfoot that I am needing to quash. Good times.

Create a back-up slot. Because of the lack-of-childcare situation, I’ve been identifying different spots where I can do things. So I wound up doing my Before Breakfast script writing and recording on Saturday afternoon this week when my husband had the kids.

One big adventure, one little adventure. Plenty to choose from! Seeing the Fourth of July parade near the cousins’ house could be a little adventure, as could seeing the fireworks. Big adventure candidates include taking the kids to Dutch Wonderland, and tubing down the Delaware river. This is a nudge to me to figure out what to do this week, as it is looking a lot less adventurous.

Take one night for you. Choir is done for the summer, but I have been aiming to have some alone restorative time. Yesterday I read on the hammock for 20 minutes during nap time, and I also read a magazine in my bedroom alone when my husband got home from driving the 12-year-old to his sleep-away camp, because I had been on toddler all duty and was feeling a bit done with toddler duty. I even put on the white noise machine so I couldn’t hear anyone.

Batch the little things. Sadly, given that my work is pretty scattered, I’m having to do the little things when I can. I did pay all my business bills in one fell swoop on Friday, so I guess that’s batching. This week I need to fill out a rather intimidating form from my brokerage about my individual 401k – I can’t leave it to Friday since I don’t know for sure if I’ll have the time to do it then.

Effortful before effortless. I spent a lot of time scrolling around. However, I did read A Midsummer Nights Dream in my Shakespeare project, and precisely because it is one of my favorite plays, I found it fairly easy to pick that up when I had a few minutes, and so I read it quite quickly. I’m not feeling quite the same about Merchant of Venice, which is my next assignment.

How was your week? In the meantime, Tranquility by Tuesday will be published on October 11, which is precisely three months away. I’m getting excited!