Summertime Confessions
1. For the first time in the whole life, I have a tan. Not a sunburn. A real tan.
2. I started the Couch-2-5K program last week to help tone up this summer. The first day of training required 20 minutes of walking/jogging. I made it 10 minutes and haven’t done it since. But I have the app on my phone, so I think I’ll try again this week.
3. When Bean and Gracie take their afternoon nap, I usually spend that hour on my float in the pool. It is heavenly.
4. We have really tried to stop watching TV around our house so instead we have music playing all the time. We listen to Bean’s music, Disney soundtracks, country, classic rock, big band, alternative, pop, and everything in between. My playlist this morning has Michael Franti, Baby Einstein Mozart, Taylor Swift, Michael Buble, Adele, Jimmy Buffet, and more.
5. Chris built this awesome fence on our back porch that encloses the area with both back doors. Now, if Bean were to somehow get out of either door, there’s still a big fence keeping him from the pool. This area has become our favorite playground. Bean, Gracie, and I spend most of our day out here. The other parts of the day we’re in the pool.
6. We have had fresh corn on the cob and watermelon at every dinner for the past two weeks. It’s awesome! I love summer foods!
7. After dinner, we have bath time and then bedtime for Bean sometime between 7:30 and 8:00. After that, it’s still light outside, so Chris and I sit on the back porch and drink lemonade. Sometimes we talk, sometimes we listen to music, and sometimes we just sit in silence. It is the perfect way to unwind.
8. I’m trying to lose my baby weight by swimming in the pool as much as possible. I swim laps, tread water, and do push ups on the side of the pool. Plus, when I’m playing with Bean, I’m throwing him all around and that’s a work out, too. So far, it’s working pretty good, but I don’t own a scale so I don’t know for sure. But I can fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes! Yay!
9. Bean’s favorite thing to do outside is play with his water table and the hose. He fills his table up with water from the hose and he chases the dogs around the backyard trying to shoot them with water.
10. Gracie sleeps really good outside. I put her in her bouncer seat on our table on the back porch and she snoozes while Bean and I play or swim. I can’t wait until I can take her in the pool!
11. Chris is working on his golf swing and so he spends evenings out in the back yard hitting wiffle balls while Bean chases them.
12. Summer officially starts next weekend, but it began in our backyard a couple months ago.
13. In Connecticut, fall and winter were my favorite seasons and I’ve been surprised at how quickly I’ve grown to love the summer heat down here. It’s going to get hotter and hotter and muggier and muggier, but that’s fine with me. I plan to have an awesome summer at home with my babies!
31 Comments
Natalie @ Queen of Whirled
You are so fortunate to have a pool. Swimming is an excellent way to get it shape. If you can get some gloves with webbing between the fingers and scoop the water around it will really tone your arms and core. And Bean will probably get a kick out of watching you.
Alyssa
I’m so jealous of your pool, and heat. Chicago is an ugly place for spring.
Lisa
Still waiting on Ontario to have a proper spring…all we have had is rain. Boooooo. So jealous that you have a summer routine already!
Mary@My Life in Scotland
I live in Scotland and the weather never gets above 65 degrees. That only lasts about a week, then it is back int he 50′ the whole summer. It rains everyday and the skies are mostly grey. I’m very jealous of your pool. I miss American summers!!!
Jenn
Sounds awesome. Makes me miss Florida and maternity leave! Have fun!
Kat @ Living Like the Kings
I am soooo jealous of your FL lifestyle 🙂 It’s still barely 60 here in CT.
September
We’re in the process of moving from Northern NJ to a suburb of Dallas…everyone keeps telling me I’ll miss the seasons but after this winter I say to bring on the heat! Your post is making me even happier that the new house we bought has a pool–I can’t wait!
Rachel @ Linesacrossmyface
The porch and pool look amazing! We also live in Florida and spend most of our days outside around the water table, sand box, and baby pool. It is really starting to get hot and muggy without a big pool to jump into.
Lori @ I Can Grow People
Glad you are doing Couch to 5k too! I start Week 2 this week, but I currently have a sinus infection so I hope I can kick it quickly so I can stick with it. My friend Sheila, mom of 3 who just had her third in the fall, has started it too. I think we need to start a team!
Julie
Stop it! Stop your wonderful posts about summer! You are making me want to leave Ohio and move to Florida reeeeaaaalllly badly. I told my husband the other night that I wanted to move to Orlando so we could be in warmer weather, closer to Disney stuff, and so that our families could be best friends. He told me I sounded like a stalker, and I thought of your stalking of the Pioneer Woman. Anyways, I don’t think we will be moving south, so no worries on your part. I started the Couch-to-5k program earlier this spring and did the first two weeks before the rain set in. It hasn’t stopped yet, so I’ve got a good excuse. Also, you need a pool sling for that baby girl! I loved mine!
Lindsay (Young Married Mom)
Wow, I thought “Summertime Confessions” was going to be about things in the future, like in June or July, not things you’ve been doing for weeks! New York is just not there yet! Sounds like you’re having a great summer, though 🙂
Jessica
I’ve stared the C25K a couple times. Then I get sick and can’t breathe (because of asthma) so I have to stop. But, my strategy for doing it when I can breathe, that I was told by some friends, is to start out really slow so you can make it the full 20 min. Really, jog as slow as you need to to make it the whole time and the speed will come later. My hubby doesn’t like coming with me because at the beginning I always jog so slow that I can walk faster, but I get faster. Swimming is awesome exercise AND you get to stay cool in the heat!
Mindee@ourfrontdoor
That fence looks great. I hope your landlord gave you some financial credit for it.
Good job on losing the weight and what a fun way to do it.
Alaina
That is one random playlist, lady 🙂 I’m so jealous of your pool…I’d love one! And the weight thing…try to remember, it’s not the numbers on the scale but how you look and how you feel that counts. Keep it up!
Christina
I’m on week 7 of the Couch 2 5K! Stick with it! You will get there. It’s all self-motivation and it is an awesome sense of accomplishment when you run 25 minutes for the first time. Sign up for a 5k now so you have some other motivation. I’m actually doing a 4 mile race Thursday night! You can do it.
Pheeny
I love it! I have used my C25K once too! I started jogging last summer (my husband is a nut who loves this stuff), and have gone ‘jogging’ maybe four times this spring – I just don’t understand why people want to push their lungs so hard and sweat so much! Not for me. Congrats on fitting your pre-pregnancy clothes!
Ashley @ A Recipe for Sanity
🙂 I love this post for how simple yet personal it is. Corn and watermelon at dinner every night sounds excellent! And I love just being with the person you love and not having to say a word if you don’t want to. Some of my favorite times with Rob are when we are reading in bed together.
Sarah H.
I’m totally jealous! Sounds super wonderful!
Jen @ Caved In
Swimming is a fabulous way to lose weight. I’m still working on mine but there’s progress. Summer in the Lou means killer humidity but so far this year, spring has meant killer tornadoes (including one last night in Joplin) so those can stop coming anytime.
Sara @ embrylovescookies
You sound so happy!!! I’m happy for you!
Angela
#11 was the best!
“11. Chris is working on his golf swing and so he spends evenings out in the back yard hitting wiffle balls while Bean chases them.”
Cracks me up.
I’m glad you’re so happy, I want to move somewhere where winter doesn’t exist.
Waiting for Bulgaria
Looks like an awesome way to spend your summer.
Tabitha @ From Single to Married
That pool is gorgeous – I have to admit that I’m a bit jealous! 🙂
Betty
Wow, I am really impressed with all your doing to lose your baby weight! Good luck with the 5K program, I need to do that too! Y’all are going to have such a great summer!
Sharlee
Sorry, don’t know what happened to my last comment. I am a new reader and I love it. I am still pretty newly married and I find that I am able to laugh more at silly little things, from reading your posts. So thank you! I really enjoy reading. So much I loved about this post. 1. The tanning while the kids are napping 2. The corn on the cob and watermelon 3. How you and Chris unwind every night..sounds blissful! 4. I like that you’re trying not to watch so much tv. We don’ t pay for cable. We decided we would save money, and it’s made a wonderful difference. 5. I LOVE that you don’t own a scale. LOVE IT!
Jenna
I so admire your relationship with Chris. It is so nice to see that you make spending time together a priority. It is definitely something my hubs and I want to make important after our little Ellen arrives.
Jenna
momofmanyhats.blogspot.com
p.s. I noticed that you had looked at my blog the other day. Thank you so much! I take it as a huge compliment as you are one of my inspirations!
Tressa
This post is awesome! Great way to spend your summer. I’m happy for you Katie, cause your happy!! I’m so jealous of your pool. It’s beautiful. That first picture of the float in the pool with the palm tree reflection in the water is beautiful!! I’ve started my tan for the summer, but it’s from yard work! I’d rather it be from laying out!! 😉
Maureen
I started that couch-to-5k program twice last summer and got to week 3 and quit both times. I just really really don’t like running I guess. This year, swimming is sounding like a much better option.
Joanne
I’m a new reader and your post made me homesick for FL! We just moved to NC a year and a half ago from Jacksonville, FL and I miss it. It’d not like NC is that cold, I just miss every house having a pool in the backyard! My mom is appalled that my kids can’t swim unassisted yet and they’re only 3 (triplets) and 2 years old!
on the flip side, everyone in NC thinks they’re too young to be in swim lessons! It’s so great to introduce your kids to water early on … they’ll love it for life. Thanks for the great posts!
Jen at Cabin Fever
It definitely helps if you have a pool for enjoying the muggier and even muggier weather 🙂 Cabin Fever in Vermont
Rebecca @ The Reluctant Housewife
love me some Adele! But, I’m the complete opposite on the heat…this time of year is when I’m pretty sure I complain the most about the weather and I try, if possible, to not go outside at all! But that’s all gotta change now that I’m home all the time…outside is the only way to escape the house.