Lessons Learned from a Busy Month of June
I feel like I’ve done a lot of complaining about the month of June lately (via email and Instagram. Sorry about that! 😬) So other than to say, “What the actual heck, June?! You came out of flipping NOWHERE!” I am not going to do any more complaining about the ridiculousness called June.
Instead, I figured I’d take what I learned from last month and do some sharing so that you can get some practical takeaways from the mistakes I made. I’ll keep this short and sweet. You’re probably much smarter than I am and have this figured out already anyway.😉
Things I learned from a busy month of June:
Space more things out next year instead of doing it all right away.
Hindsight is always 20/20, right? Well in hindsight, we *probably* tried to do TOO MUCH in the month of June. Turns out (for little kiddos anyway), that most sport camps happen during June and that doesn’t even count ball season. It’s just T-Ball for us right now but I know other Mom’s juggling different baseball and softball leagues going on all at once, in the same month.
Now knowing what I know, next year I plan to keep the sports in June – that’s fine – but move swimming lessons and pretty much any other event to July or August.
I think we just tried to conquer too much right out of the gate this summer so we could get stuff checked off the list. Granted, our July is shaping up to be a pretty quiet and uneventful month, but I was really on the brink of burnout last month. So again, in hindsight, it’s not worth it to me to try to cover all the summer things in one stretch of 30 days.
You don’t have to sign your kiddo up for everything, even if it’s cost effective and seems like a good idea.
Can I be honest for a moment? I struggle with this one. As I’ve mentioned, I am a YES person. Let’s do it all, let’s try it all, let’s learn something new. Let’s go!
To be fair, I don’t think these are bad qualities or ideals to push for when it comes to our kids. I really do want my kiddos to try different things and step outside their comfort zones. And besides, how else do you discover if you like or don’t like something unless you try it?
Unfortunately, though, this comes at a cost. The cost of pushing our kids to exhaustion or pushing them to feel obligated to do. everything.
So before next summer begins, I’d like to really evaluate what’s important to send our kiddos to, and nix anything that can be skipped.
If you struggle with this like I do, just repeat what I keep telling myself: You don’t have to do it all. You don’t have to do it all. You don’t have to do it all.
Evaluate what you need to step back from during this busy season.
Guys, I love to write. It makes my soul so happy, and I feel like God put this gift on my heart so I could share with others through writing.
But I had to let something go last month. HAD TO. And judging by how active I was on the blog (and by active I actually mean not active at all), then you know what was put on the chopping block…
I’ve realized that during busy seasons of life, some things must be put on hold. Regardless of how you feel about them or what you want. Sometimes our mental capacity is worth it and we need to just take a step back to keep other balls in the air. (I wrote this post a while back, too, that takes about how saying yes to one thing means saying no to something else.)
Give yourself grace.
I’m fairly confident this is not the first time I mentioned this point on a blog post. But it bears repeating.
Not everything is going to be perfect. Not everything is going to be well planned out or fall in the exact time frame you need it to. And this is where we need to remember to give ourselves grace.
Listen, NO ONE HAS IT ALL TOGETHER. Not a single person! No matter what their instagram account looks like or what they tell you! So remember that there’s no need to be perfect either. You’re going to make mistakes, and you’re probably going to try to do too much and approach burnout at times. (<– Raising my hand over here!)
Don’t forget to give yourself grace, sis. Don’t beat yourself up. This busy phase won’t last forever, I swear!
Wrapping Up.
As I type this, it’s July 9th, and we all enjoyed a quiet evening at home. I’m watching the sunset on my front porch with my laptop, and I’m grateful. I’m extremely glad the busy month of June is over, but I’m also thankful for the lessons it taught me. Mostly so I don’t do this to myself again! #fingerscrossed
Over to you: How was June for you? Does it seem busier than the other summer months? I’d love to hear about how you manage these busy seasons in the comments below!
