At the start of every week, I always take a few minutes to plan out my daily schedules for the week ahead. It's maybe the most important 10-15 minutes of my Monday, if I'm being honest, and even more so during the summer months.

Last summer was really tough on my work schedule thanks to the pandemic. Alexis was home all day every day because all of our usual summer activities had been canceled. Then, I had major surgery, which restricted my movements even more (literally).

This summer will be closer to normal, thankfully. We've signed Alexis up for three week-long art camps to help foster her budding love for creating. We've started going back to the library, which is a mommy-daughter activity we've really missed over the last year. We have plans to visit our local water park, as well as the lake and hopefully the beach, and we've got a small blow-up pool and sprinkler/splash pad set up in the backyard. We'll also hopefully get some play dates in with some of her school friends.

We actually spent a lot of time in the backyard last week. Thankfully, I can set up my laptop on the backporch and work while she plays in the water. It has the added benefit of keeping her from being glued to her tablet or the TV...or complaining/whining to me every 10-15 minutes about not knowing what to play while I try to work.

Things pick up work-wise for me this week as I really get into putting together our most popular issue of the year. We weren't able to do our birthday issue last year because of the pandemic, so I'm optimistic that this year's will be a welcome sign that life is returning to normal.

Speaking of returning to normal, I'm working on revamping my summer activity guide for this year so be looking for that. I'm also working on a post about my favorite reads so far this year and my current favorite beauty products. Is there anything you'd like to see on the blog this summer? Let me know here.

Okay, well, I've got to get Alexis to her first day of camp. Wish me luck. She's excited and I'm nervous.

Happy Monday! I hope you have a great week!