Simple Tips To Savor Fun Summertime and Create Lasting Memories
Remember to Savor Summertime Fun. Winter will arrive sooner than you think and you will be longing for the opportunity to Savor Summertime Fun. The summertime is not for planning lavish vacations or planning hectic weekends every week.
The summertime is for enjoying the weather. For visiting and receiving visits from family and good friends. It is a time to slow down, get outside, enjoy and explore your very own community, enjoy fresh fruits, vegetables, and good food on the grill.
Remember as a kid running around the neighborhood? Going to the beach? Chasing the ice cream truck? Playing stickball and late evening games of hiding and seek? You can enjoy those same summertime feelings as adults and slow down your busyness lifestyle for this season. As a living simple minimalist, I have learned to do this and continue to enjoy the results today.
You can begin to savor the summertime fun by becoming a tourist in your own town and state. See the sights you grew up hearing about and always ignored. Last year I found out there was a Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider in New York State at The Brookhaven National Laboratory.
Say What? I love this kind of stuff and live in New Jersey and worked and traveled in New York all of my life. I finally began to see the sights the world flocks to see and I always ignored them over the many years.
There are many sights to see and I am enjoying living like a tourist in my own neighborhood and surrounding states. This summer I will be taking the time to visit The Brookhaven National Laboratory. I did not take the time to go last year but I am taking the time this year to savor summertime and make the trip.
We all enjoyed the summer so very much as children and we can soak up the same summer joy and spread it around as adults with a little effort. We all love, love, love and love some more the summertime.
I will provide tips I believe will help you remember to savor summertime fun in ways that will keep a smile on your face and loving memories in your heart throughout many winters to come.
Savor Summertime Fun Fruits and Vegetables
I like to take advantage of summertime fruits and vegetables. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) lists apples, peaches, bell peppers, kiwifruit, carrots, garlic, beets, okra, and cherries as some of the fruits and vegetables that reach their peak during the summer months and I love them all. They are not only at their peak in flavor but in nutrients as well. Savor Summertime Fun Fruits and Vegetables
Savor summertime fun by enjoying this summer bounty every chance you get. Don’t forget the street side and roadside fruit and vegetable stands. Visit your local farmer’s markets and experiment with the bounty and try something new.
Smell the flowers
Yes. Take the time to smell the Roses. I know it sounds cliche but it is a practice worth adopting. Don’t just smell the Daisies and the Roses. There are other fragrant flowers and plants to enjoy. Here is a link to some of the world’s best-smelling flower plants. Depending on what area of the world you live you can enjoy the fragrance of most of these flowers and plants.
In the coming winter when there are 2 feet of snow on the ground or the temperature is well below zero degrees you can close your eyes and savor the scent of the flowers and plants you encountered during the summer.
Jump in the sprinklers
Please promise me you will do this every chance you get. You know you want to. You are never too old to jump in the sprinklers on a hot summer day. When walking out of your air-conditioned office building (or the mall), then slapped in the face with moist hot summer air can prompt you to jump in the sprinklers en route to your car. Go ahead, no one is looking. You will not be featured on YouTube. I hope. LOL
I make it a point to do this every time I am at the mall and their sprinkler system is on. It is refreshing and many people just stare. I can tell you I do savor those memories when I am digging my car out of the snow in 30-degree weather.
Picnic In The Park
Enjoy your favorite park or public outdoor spaces. Pack a picnic basket or just bring a bag lunch. Enjoy the sun’s rays. Take off your shoes and wiggle your toes in the grass, savor summertime fun and hear the birds. The park is where you can do many things you love in the summertime. Things like exercise, read, run, walk, camp, fool around, and so on. Do and enjoy them all while the weather permits.
Eat Ice Cream
It may be just me but there are a few flavors of Hagen Daz and Ben and Jerry’s ice cream that work like crack on me. LOL. I enjoy them a little too much. I had to give them up. Now I treat myself to this crack ice cream every now and then. If I do so in the winter I take it home and wait until it melts to the right consistency I like.
The summertime is a different story. Nothing beats enjoying your crack laced Hagen Daz and Ben and Jerry’s ice cream on a hot summer day. It is a great way to savor summertime fun. You can take it anywhere and just wait until it melts to the consistency you love and enjoy. Hmmm! Life is goooooood.
Frequent the pool
We all plan to visit the pool and the beach regularly during the summertime but often fall short. Don’t let the busyness of life spoil your plans. Target a pool you can easily gain access to and put it on your weekly schedule.
If you have a pool in your backyard or in your Home Owners community you are far ahead of the game. If you have a friend or neighbor that owns a pool let them know you will be hijacking it once a week and that is welcome to join you. LOL.
I don’t care if you have to soak your feet ankle-deep in the baby’s pool while the baby is crying in protest, a schedule that as your weekly summertime pool visit. I believe that regular pool and beach time goes a long way in helping you Savor Summertime Fun and create lasting memories.
Enjoy Watching Clouds Go By
If you are like the average working stiff there are months of the year you will be cooped up inside going back and forth from home to work. Accepting this existence can lead to tension, stress, and unhappiness over time. Periodically take the time to enjoy watching the clouds go by.
You can do this any time of the year but summertime is a very important time to do this. Be it in the morning, at lunch, or after work, visit one of your favorite places, relax, contemplate, re-visit, clear your mind, and enjoy watching the clouds go by.
Once you have mastered this it will be easier to do during the winter months. You can drive to the park in very cold weather and enjoy watching the clouds go by. Can sit on your couch with tea in hand, soaking up the sun’s rays, and enjoy watching the clouds go by through your window. You enjoyed it as a kid and you can enjoy it now. You can even enjoy it with your kids or grandchildren.
Go slow
This sounds simple but when done consciously can be powerful. Sometimes we trust ourselves into intense focus, the zone, autopilot. We believe we need to do this to get things done. Are there times you get to work and don’t remember driving there? You don’t remember the route you took or NOTHING about the experience of getting to work. You don’t even remember where or if you parked your car at all. LOL. You were in the zone and let chunks of life go by.
Go Slow! That is the time you don’t remember any time you will never get back. Slow down, be intentional, stay conscious, and get in the long line. Learn to be in the moment to fully enjoy all the sights, sounds, smells, weather, and people of the summer. You don’t have to be thinking three steps ahead all of the time, enjoy being in the now and savor summertime fun.
Say no
Sometimes you have to say NO to be happy. The summertime can be filled with things you should do before it is over. It is ok to say NO, even to some of the things above. It is all about you and the things you believe will help you savor summertime fun.
If it does not make you happy or serve you is some way, you have the right to say NO without guilt. If it will not matter a few years from now feel free to say NO. Choose what will help you savor summertime. The clock is ticking. In some areas of the world, you will rake a mountain of leaves, shoveling snow, or both shortly after summertime. Say yes to savor summertime fun.
Share With Friends and Family
There is no way to savor summertime fun without sharing with friends and family. Family and good friends are some of the greatest joys of life and sharing summertime with them should be the goal. Get after it and get it in. Get outside and savor summertime while you can 😉
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This is so true! We usually pacing through life thinking that we don’t have time any more for silly simple life pleasures. There are so many duties and adult things to be responsible for and we loose simple curiosity and will to slow down and smell the roses. Thanks for the reminder!
Excellent to-do list Tony! I try to make the most out of summer, and inevitably miss my mark. I hate being inside during summer, but sometimes I have to. Well, in these months I make it a point to limit my indoor time. Now that I look at it, I used to do all these things, until I just… stopped. This really opened my eyes to the changes I need to make.
And forget about year-round Ben & Jerry’s and Hagen Daz, Spider-man and Spongebob Popsicles are the summer ice cream truck exclusives!
Tony,
This article was a great read! I always find myself moving too fast and not taking time to step back and watch the clouds go by. You had some great tips in here that I am going to start implementing in order to enjoy the rest of my summer. Thanks so much for the awesome content 🙂
Along with your jumping through sprinklers tip how about water gun fights! Or water balloon fights! I used to love those then I was a kid and I’m sure i’ll still love them now. But nobody does it anymore! Maybe I’ll be the first 🙂
This was a fun article to read – Thanks Tony.
Wow Matt! How could I forget about water gun fights? I was not trying to be politically correct, I just had a brain fart. LOL. Count me in Matt.