The summer is the perfect time to be intentional with family memories, making time for family, and slowing down (just a little bit). But if we are not very careful, it's easy for our entire summer to go by before we know it. So this summer, we are working on being intentional with our time, energy, and resources! Come along to listen: 

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What we are focusing on this summer

Our Morning Basket Routine: 

This is the newest thing in our routine and it's a fun one!! We started implementing a morning basket time. My #1 goal with this is to sing a hymn or two with the kids (and get them to memorize more songs) and do our Bible reading together. But we also have a poetry book, a book about how things work, some fun chapter books, and more in it. 

The goal is to cycle through a couple different books each day (but not all of them each morning)! We are implementing this right after breakfast and it's been a fabulous habit to start cultivating. 

You can check out a great podcast on the topic: Your Morning Basket episode #1. And my friend Victoria does this for herself with a Bible basket. 

Being More Intentional To make memories as a family: 

Here's a quick list of what we want to implement more this year! 

More trips to the parks in the evenings (eat dinner at the park) 

Picnics outside on our lawn

Roasting marshmallows on the deck

The boys want to watch the stars one night on the trampoline

Letting the kids do a "sleepover" on the floor

Doing a few camping and day trips

Summer Hospitality:

I have a lot of fun family plans this summer, which are important! But I want to make sure I am making more time for hospitality as well. 

We just got a Hibatchi grill - makes hospitality so much easier (You can also plan a BBQ!) 

You can host a potluck! 

Make good use of Crockpot meals during the hot and busy months

Host a Smores dessert fellowship

Use paper plates - and make it easy! 

Host a Watermelon party - This is a fun tip that I got from Katie and I think it’s brilliant!! Invite people over in the evening after dinner, and crack open a watermelon. Let the kids run around and play in the backyard and enjoy a sweet (and inexpensive) treat!

Make meal time EASY with our new sponsor! 

Please welcome our brand new sponsor to the show, Hello Fresh! They are a meal kit delivery service that delivers fresh and delicious ingredients to your door that you can make into meals in about 30 minutes or less. 

We got our first Hello Fresh box last week, and honestly, I had no idea what to expect. I've been intrigued by these box meal kits in the past but with so many options, it felt a little overwhelming. So when I got the chance to try Hello Fresh, I jumped at the chance. 

Well Jason and I both have been extremely happy with the box! It has been really fun to cook with Hello Fresh! Okay so how does it work? You get three meal options to choose from: Classic, Veggie, or Family. We got the family box and as a huge plus, all of our kids devoured the meals!! 

Each of the meals comes packaged in it's own bag with all the ingredients in the perfect portion for that recipe. So you literally just pull the bag out of the fridge for that recipe and everything is ready. I did not anticipate this being one of my very favorite things about the service. 30 minutes before dinner,