Welcome to The Girl Next Door. I'm Kelsey. And I'm Erica. In every episode, we bring our different

perspectives to candid conversations that feel like chatting with good friends. We started this show

years ago when we were next door neighbors and still haven't run out of things to talk and laugh

about yet. Today, we are chatting about a topic that I love,

and it's very seasonally relevant. It is designing our summers. I first heard this phrasing on

Gretchen Rubin's happier podcast, and I immediately loved it because it combines two things that I

love, living seasonally and making a plan. It was like made for you. Yes. And we have

both found that with kids, summer brings a lot of changes in routine. So taking time to think

through the season and make even loose plans is really helpful. In fact, I think I might enjoy

designing my summer more than the actual summer. Oh, 100%.

This is just my happy place that I want to stay.

So we'll get into all the details of how we both do that and what we're thinking about for this summer.

On Patreon, we'll be chatting with friends of the show about how we design great summers for ourselves as well.

Okay, let's talk about designing our summers. To start, can you give a brief

overview of what your summer will look like in any plans that you already have and also how old

your kids will be so that other moms know how to compare their summers? Okay, yeah, all summers are not

created equal. Absolutely not. If you have littles, hang in there. If you have teens and tweens hang in there, enjoy that sweet spot in the middle.

We'll get to it.

Okay.

But this summer, I will have a 12 and 13 year old.

Julia will have just finished sixth grade and turned 12 at the end of the school year,

actually.

...