I think I succeeded. July was fun and relaxed and I wasn’t even on vacation! I did a lot of work — running a survey for my next book and doing several interviews for it, doubling up on a lot of podcasting so I don’t have to record much in August, giving speeches, etc.

But there were also a lot of family and personal life highlights. July opened with that epic long weekend (basically July 2-7 for me…) during which we helped set off a lot of (safe and sane!) fireworks at a friend’s house, went to the beach, went on a family bike ride (almost all of us) and SHU and her family came over for recordings, swimming, and an adults-only dinner out featuring margaritas.

After that we sent various older boys off to camp at various points. My husband and I went to Longwood Gardens for the beer garden and the flowers. My daughter and I went to see Olivia Rodrigo, which was definitely a summer highlight. I enjoyed getting to know her music and the show was great! (My daughter was an excellent concert companion — I’m so glad she’s willing to hang out with me.) That weekend also featured the York State Fair where, among other things, I got to see the Flying Cortes act, with Commander Alexander getting shot out of a cannon. I was so fascinated that I reached out and was able to do a short phone interview with him this week. I have interviewed a lot of people about their careers and how they spend their time over the years, but never someone who works as a human cannonball. So look for that in my upcoming content.

There have been solo several bike rides, and lots of swims. As I wrote yesterday, we’ve gone in the pool most nights. I went in last night by myself for a while, then chatted with my 17-year-old in the hot tub until it was pitch black dark. (Theoretically the pool lights have been fixed, finally, but I don’t have the app to turn them on yet…) There have been a lot of strawberry acai lemonade refreshers from Starbucks, and evenings where I open the windows.

So there’s been a lot of summer already, and now it’s on to August, which is a full summer month for us (the kids don’t start school until after Labor Day). I just got an ad from Scandic Hotels this morning informing me that summer isn’t over yet. And it’s true! Just like on Sunday the weekend isn’t over yet. Unlike with July there actually will be vacations this month — both a more relaxing one and a more adventurous one. I’m hoping to use the fact that I’m ahead on some of the day-to-day work to open space for thinking deep thoughts. But we shall see.

I hope you have much to look forward to this August!

That said, I think at the end of Thursday I was like, wait, it isn’t even the real weekend weekend yet…

The kids weren’t in camps this week and we had childcare Monday and Tuesday 9-5, so as of about 5 p.m. Tuesday it was officially July 4th weekend around here. I took the little boys to the zoo on Wednesday morning, which got them out of the house for 3 hours. Then my husband took four out of five kids to Despicable Me 4 for the 3:45 p.m. showing, which got them out of the house for another few hours (can you guess which one skipped?). I took the opportunity to enjoy a 30-minute solo stint in the pool. There was a lot of non-solo pool time this weekend and when you are in there by yourself, no one can squirt you with a water gun…

On Wednesday evening we went to a friend’s house to watch some local fireworks (they have a good view of the neighboring town). They’d put out a display of sparklers and other such fun so even the teens were glad they’d bothered to come. Hey, 90 minutes off their screens!

Thursday (the actual 4th), after red-white-and-blue pancakes, we went for a sort-of family bike ride at Valley Forge. I say sort of because as my husband was putting air in the bike tires and getting them organized on our cars (we require two cars for a family trip of this nature) he was like, wait, are we short a bike?

It turns out that we haven’t done a full family bike ride in like 2 years, and everyone had grown out of their current bikes. The older boys were reasonably good about riding slightly smaller bikes than they should have, but we wound up putting the 9-year-old on the 12-year-old’s bike and letting her stay home as she was the family member who least wanted to go. (I think the quote was “anything but a bike ride!”) We put the little guy in the Burley but took a lot of pictures of it as I think this may be one of his last Burley rides. He’s getting kind of big for it, which my husband, who was the one peddling that thing up the hills, was really feeling. So next summer he might be using the tag-along to ride behind me. This is the end of an era! We’ve had a kid in that Burley for a long, long time…

(Our plan is to buy another adult bike, which the older boys can switch off using, and will be available if either wants to take it to college, and then the 12-year-old can use the bike the 14-year-old was using, should she ever want to bike with us…).

Anyway, that afternoon featured some pool time and then my husband took some of the kids downtown to watch the Philadelphia fireworks from his office. I stayed home and got the little guy down, despite the sound of everyone else’s fireworks going off (solidarity for anyone whose small kids were woken up by fireworks this weekend).

On Friday we took our first family beach trip of the summer. Well, sort of a family trip, in that the teen boys elected to not go (something of a common occurrence, but they do indulge us occasionally…). But the younger three went and had fun playing on the sand and in the (cold!) waves for a few hours. We stopped by our usual ice cream place where I had a few licks of oat milk ice cream before deciding this was ridiculous. I’m going to brave my peanut butter chocolate ice cream once or twice this summer, whatever the consequences.

(I believe there was another pool trip that night.)

On Saturday I took the 12-year-old to a local brunch spot as her official reward celebration for good grades. We haven’t really done much grade rewarding in the past but all three of the older kids (the ones who get letter grades) had really good terms this spring so we thought some celebrating might be in order. She had tried this place’s cookie-dough stuffed French toast before, and wanted it again, so we went and had a nice time together.

Then in the afternoon, Sarah and her family came over! Her parents and her sister live about 15 minutes from me, and she often stays with them over the 4th of July holiday. Our husbands took the kids in the pool while Sarah and I recorded some Best of Both Worlds episodes and discussed future episode topics. I had been telling the kids the pool rule that you can only use water guns on people who want to be squirted with water guns when Josh came up with the excellent rule that you show your consent for being squirted by holding a water gun yourself. Brilliant. The kids have now repeated this to me several times so it looks like that one’s sticking. There was then some Mario Kart playing and other such games. We ordered pizza for the kids, then left them in the care of my older ones while the four adults went out to a local Mexican place. It definitely feels like a milestone to be able to do this. Plus the margaritas were good. The kids also had a lot of fun together — the 9-year-old requested a time machine so we could get to November when they’ll be back in the Philadelphia area!

Finally, it was Sunday. On Saturday there had been a lot of packing and organizing in the background, as on Sunday morning my husband and 17-year-old got up and went to the airport to fly to Providence. The 17-year-old will be in camp for the next three weeks up there. My husband got him checked in, turned around, went back to the airport and came home. When air travel works, it works — they left at 9 a.m. and he was home by 6:30 p.m. (Contrast this with my 14-year-old getting stuck in Florida for two extra nights earlier in the week…).

Meanwhile, the 12-year-old and I volunteered in the 4-year-old’s Sunday School class. In the afternoon, I took the two little boys in the pool, then (after a quick grocery trip) brought the 4-year-old to a birthday party at a bouncy place. The family had, wonderfully, rented out the entire business so this was a much more chill experience than usual.

Back home I cooked salmon and green beans for dinner (plus rice with mushrooms) and then my husband took the little guys in the pool one more time. I was honored that they both requested that I come in — I am generally the “not fun” parent in the pool, confiscating the water guns and ending the pool trip when bad behavior has reached a certain level but maybe I am more fun than I realize? In any case, I felt like one pool trip was enough for me for the day and their father was more than capable of handling any second trips so I worked on my puzzle until they came in and I put the little guy to bed. Phew!

I am rather glad to be back at my desk this morning. We had a good time and made a lot of memories…and it is nice to be back to the routine!

In addition to listening to my Bach (BWV 190 and BWV 191 are both excellent, if anyone is looking for some listening), I kept doing my two lines a day in my sonnet. Here’s one called “Tiger lily,” with apologies to William Blake:

Like fireworks, along the road they bloom,
crammed in like sparks and orange as sunset streaks.
A line of yellow dashes through each plume,
as each July they herald summer weeks.

I sit outside — the heat begins to fade,
and welcomes evening. Weary from the hours,
I seek a refuge somewhere in the shade,
just hoping to — unbothered — watch the flowers,

of which a few are babied: water, tend
the beds — but some, lured by the sun, grow free.
To know that hardiness! My bright orange friend —
did he who made the fickle rose make thee?

This tiger tiger lily burning bright,
ablaze before it’s swallowed by the night.

That was a little harder yesterday as I spent a lot of time compulsively refreshing the flight status for my 14-year-old’s flight back from Florida. (He is there for a technology competition.) It was delayed and delayed and eventually wound up canceled. The earliest the airline can get the crew back is Tuesday. I am picturing their teacher chaperones dealing with a bunch of middle schoolers potentially running out of patience and clean socks…

For the most part, though, June was pretty good. It certainly had a lot going on. I feel like I was gone a lot but I was only in a hotel or elsewhere 5 nights out of 30 so that’s not really that much.

I began the month headed to NYC for my brother-in-law’s 50th — a trip that involved seeing Six and eating at Aquavit (always a favorite).

That week featured a lot of kid events: school picnics, the third grade wax museum, the sixth grade “genius hour,” etc. That weekend we hosted the church choir party and went to multiple recitals on the same day.

The next week brought the 8th grade graduation, some end-of-year celebratory lunches, and then my trip into NYC with the 17-year-old. We saw MJ (I’m getting to be a Broadway regular!), enjoyed a sunset river cruise, and seeing the top of One Vanderbilt. I also enjoyed running around the reservoir in Central Park (on my Summer Fun List!).

The next week brought the start of various day camps, extreme heat (but early morning runs), and then a night at Citizens Bank Park watching the Phillies. This was also on the Summer Fun List! We made our epic drive to Cape Cod that weekend where, among other things, I bowled for possibly the first time in 15 years.

This past week has been somewhat lower key, though I did go for a bike ride on the Schuylkill River Trail and went to a beer garden (both on the Summer Fun List). My husband met my brother-in-law in NYC to get our daughter back after her week with cousins and they saw The Outsiders, so it really has been a Broadway month…

My day this Saturday with the 9-year-old was fairly uneventful. He really, really did not want to leave the house. I got him to go to the farmers’ market for a sub-40 minute trip, door to door. (Visiting a farmers market was on the Summer Fun List…). He had my assurance it would be quick because I only put a single quarter in the parking meter… But there were some little adventures while we were there — he scored the last two soft pretzels from one vendor and got some apple cider, I bought sourdough bread, and met a Best of Both Worlds listener! I must have been talking loudly or something and she recognized my voice because all of a sudden I heard “Are you Laura Vanderkam?” How fun. The 9-year-old and I played ping pong at one point in the afternoon but other than that he was probably on screens all day. I took an hour-plus nap. The next day we entertained a friend of his who was visiting from California with his mom — part of the serendipity of life. They met while skiing over spring break and have been virtual video game buddies since. They were taking a family vacation up the eastern seaboard this month so we got to connect.

Now, on to July! There will be a lot of shuttling kids to camp this month. Three children are doing overnight camps, which is exciting, but of course they have to get there and back — my camp spreadsheet did not really capture this reality of weekends spent in transit.

But there’s a lot to look forward to as well. Sarah will be visiting me (well, and her entire family, but how fun that they only live a few miles from me!) I’ve got two speeches this month, and my daughter and I will be going to a fun concert together (not Taylor Swift). I might spend some time today brainstorming other things I hope to make happen, because once July is over, then summer is moving into the “Sunday” stage of things.

As of now, though, there is still a lot of time. Now if only I can get my kid back from Florida….

ADDENDUM: I forgot to put this in the original post! I’m looking for people to participate in an evening hour time study as part of the research for my next book. Participating while involve taking a few short surveys (generally between 3-10 minutes long) from July 11th-19th (roughly). I appreciate the help! You can sign up here. Just a quick note that I particularly need some more male participants — my readership tends to lean more female and I’d like to have some balance, so if you are reading this and are male or have a man in your life who might be interested, please pass this along. (More women are welcome to sign up too!)

Photo: Fantastic post-storm sunset yesterday