Ep. 119 Creating Intention for Your Summer

[00:00:00] May is here. We talked about this a couple weeks ago that we were climbing that roller coaster and we finally hit the top and we're coming over that ledge and man it is in full swing. All the things are May-cember, right? The end of year parties, the graduations, the first communions, Mother's Day, birthdays, dance recitals, finishing baseball season. Like let's just cram everything we possibly can into

[00:00:30] you know these last few months. My kids actually only have 14 days of school left. Their summer is going to be here before I know it and in the past I remember trying to create the perfect summer partly out of fear of like my kids are home from school and what am I going to do now and then partly because I felt that pressure that the only way to be a good mom was to have the perfectly planned summer and it always left me feeling guilty,

[00:00:59] overwhelmed and like halfway through just giving up and so today we're going to kick off a series on how to create a joy filled summer. And in this first episode we're really going to focus on creating our summer vibe. What do you want this summer to feel like? So I hope you'll join me in the podcast and let's get ready to create a summer full of peace and calm and intention.

[00:01:29] Welcome to the Nourish to Bloom podcast where your faith meets your health. I'm your host Kara Trochta, a registered dietitian and certified Catholic coach and I'm here to help you cultivate a deeper connection with your body, your spirit and the nourishment that sustains them both.

[00:01:44] In a world filled with noise and confusion about food, health and body image, this podcast offers truth and healing from a Christ-centered perspective. Together we'll untangle the deep roots of diet culture and discover what it means to truly care for ourselves through joyful nourishment of mind, body and soul.

[00:02:04] We're here to dive into the transformative power of intuitive eating coupled with the rich teachings of our Christian faith. With every episode I'll be cheering you on, offering insights, inspiration and practical tools to help you heal your relationship with food and embrace the beauty of your body as a temple of the Holy Spirit with confidence and courage that can only be found in Christ.

[00:02:28] Join me as we journey together towards a more holistic approach to wellness, one that honors the wisdom of your body as God's creation, the teachings of our faith and the unique purpose you're called to fulfill. You were made to bloom, to come into full beauty and health in order to bear good fruit for the Lord with your life. So if you're ready to nourish your body, feed your soul and bloom into the best version of yourself, then you're in the right place and I'm so happy you're here.

[00:02:58] Welcome to Nourish to Bloom, where every day is a sacred invitation to thrive. Hey there, welcome back to another episode of the Nourished to Bloom podcast. So happy to be here with you this week. Like I said in the intro, my kids have 14 days left of school and it is going to go by so quickly.

[00:03:21] And there's so many things that are packed into those 14 days, including another field trip, some substitute teaching, fifth grade graduation, fifth grade party, dance recital. I don't know, probably more things than that. And so you're probably feeling a lot of that pressure and that overwhelm too. And then on the other side of that coin, there's that kind of maybe nervousness or anxiousness of like, oh gosh, summer's coming. What have I done to plan for it?

[00:03:51] And maybe you have done some planning. Maybe you kind of know what vacations you're going on or if your kids are going to go into those into certain camps. But like there's this balance that comes between we feel like we have to have everything perfectly planned. But then we get to the time that summer hits and it's like, well, gosh, our schedule is just as full in the summer as it is during the school year. And we did that to ourselves, right?

[00:04:16] And so when we're starting to experience that warmer weather and school is letting out, we totally are feeling that pressure to have the perfect summer plan. It starts creeping in and it builds. And oftentimes, like we're not even sure or we're not even like realizing that this is what's happened.

[00:04:34] Because there's this unspoken expectation that during the summer we have to pack every day with exciting adventures or crafts or vacations and just have this perfectly organized schedule for our kids. Not too much screen time. Make sure they get outside and play. Eat perfectly healthy meals because we have the time to cook, right? Here's the thing. Those expectations are 100% unrealistic and unsustainable.

[00:05:04] So I'm inviting you and in challenging you to let go of that pressure this summer and focus on what you really want your summer to feel like. That is what today's episode is all about. Creating that summer vibe. When you get to August and your kids are back in school and you look back on that summer, what would be the one word emotion that you would want to use to describe it? Do you want to create a summer that was joyful?

[00:05:34] A summer that was realistic? A summer that was spontaneous or intentional or peaceful or just fun? So to start off, I want you to take a step back and think about your own childhood summer. When you think back about the best memories of your childhood and during the summer, what stands out?

[00:05:59] Was it the expensive vacations and trips or perfectly planned activities? Or was it the boredom that came with summer and being left to your own devices? And there's no right or wrong answer here, right? Because trips can be fun. They can be lasting memories. Like I have a memory of going to New York City with my mom and her sisters and my cousins. And we had an amazing time in New York City.

[00:06:26] My uncle had to drive us around in a 14-passenger van in New York City. I want you to picture that. And I was on one of the oldest and I think I was in fourth grade. And there was, gosh, probably 10 of us at the time, 10 kids at the time. So just picture that. It was probably chaos and so stressful for our moms. But that is a summer trip that I remember. And it was so much fun. But at the same time, I can also look back on summers when we were left to our own devices

[00:06:54] and quote unquote bored. And we were just told, like, go play and played with our cousins. I lived in the country. I didn't have neighbors. And so we kind of spent all of our time together with our cousins. And at the time, my mom, my sister, and I were living at my grandparents' house. And my grandfather was a farmer. So we had pastures and he had cattle and there was brush and a farmyard. And there was a bunch of old fence posts laying around.

[00:07:24] And so my cousins and I, we built forts out of these fence posts and we created our own town. We called it Maytown because my grandparents' last name was May, but we called it Maytown. And we had our own rules. We had a sheriff. We had a jail. We took care of discipline. And anybody who was misbehaving, they went to jail. We just built these different buildings in these different homes. And we used her imagination and we just played, right? And another time, my grandmother was so upset with us.

[00:07:53] But like I said, my grandfather had brush and cattle. And so naturally, you would have cattle die. And there was one summer that we hauled a wagon up to the brush line and back and forth multiple times and found all these cow bones, not from the same skeleton because they were kind of scattered everywhere. But we found enough bones to build a skeleton of a cow in my grandmother's yard. And she was so angry with us. But those are really the things that stick out.

[00:08:21] And so what do you want your kids to remember about summer? And if the summers in the past haven't been what you wanted them to be, if you've been overscheduled, if you felt like you've had to entertain your kids 24-7 and you've been exhausted and overwhelmed and overscheduled, you can start to shift. You can start to make a change. So thinking about what do you want this summer to be like?

[00:08:48] Is it more about simple moments that weren't really about being busy or doing more? Just being together, present, and relaxed. And is that what you want your summer to be like? Or do you want to go on these grand adventures? Like I said, there's no right or wrong way. Just doing it and aligning your summer and the way you want to feel about your summer with your expectations and what you want out of it instead of relying on everybody else's

[00:09:16] expectations of what a good summer, quote unquote, should look like. Because it can be really easy to get caught up in all these ideas that summer has to be this whirlwind of activity. And we can feel the pressure to do it all with the epic vacations and Pinterest perfect crafts. Or on the flip side, we feel like sometimes we're just trying to survive the chaos of having our kids home and just making it until they go to school again. And neither one of those extremes is a fun place to live.

[00:09:47] So what if there is another way? What if you could find that balance and create space for what truly matters to you and your family? And so this is where I really want you to lean in. Instead of getting swept up in the rush of all the things you feel like you should do, take a moment and reflect and be intentional and design what you really want this summer, what you and your family want this summer to feel like.

[00:10:14] What are the emotions that you want to feel, that you want your kids to feel? What are the experiences and the memories that you want to create? What how do you want to challenge your kids to grow? How do you want to challenge yourself to grow? What is something that maybe you've been putting off for a while that you want to try to learn? One of our goals for my family and I is to try to start to learn Spanish.

[00:10:42] Because we live in Texas and it would be so beneficial. But then we're also maybe planning a trip to Rome in the next year. And Spanish and Italian is pretty close from what I hear. But overall, in the long run, Spanish would benefit us more. So I don't know. We'll see. But that's kind of something that we've talked about as a family that we want to learn. The other thing I'm challenging my kids to do is each one of them has to plan and prepare a meal every week.

[00:11:09] To help them build those skills, those life skills of cooking. And we can do that in the summer because we have the time. Because we've sat down and we've intentionally planned about this is what we're going to do. And this is how we want our days to feel. But we don't have that pressure anymore to do it all the way that I used to. And so I want to offer you this kind of practical journaling tool to help you really create that summer vision or that summer vibe.

[00:11:37] So all you have to do is grab your journal or your phone or a voice memo and ask yourself these three simple questions. What do I want this summer to feel like? And you can even simplify this even more. What is the one word emotion you want to feel this summer?

[00:11:59] Because when you know what that one word emotion is, that emotion has the ability to help you plan the actions that you're going to take, plan how you're going to show up. And then it also helps you understand what are the thoughts that you need to have? What do you need to be thinking? What does your mindset need to be in order to achieve this emotion? Number two, what are three main things you want to focus on creating with your family?

[00:12:28] And you can kind of think about this is in like kind of categories, right? Maybe you want to have maybe you want to allow everybody to sleep in and you just kind of have a slow, peaceful morning where, you know, maybe you are sleeping in late and you're waking up and you're spending time together in scripture. Just that slow, peaceful morning. Or maybe you want to be able to have an outdoor adventure one time a week. And what does that look like?

[00:12:56] Does that mean going to a nearby lake or river? Does it mean going to an amusement park? Does it mean going on a hike? What does that look like for you? What are three main things you want to focus on creating with your family? I already mentioned two for me, right? Helping my kids learn how to prepare and cook, get more of those kitchen skills, and then kind of work on maybe learning a new language. Those are kind of two things that we're focused on.

[00:13:25] I haven't really thought about the third one. But this is where it's fun because you can invite your family to be a part of this too, right? And here's the last one. Because we tend to overschedule and because we look at all these camps that seem like, oh, the most amazing adventure for our kids. And so we want to sign them up. But really asking yourself, what do you need to say no to this summer in order to say yes to the things that matter? To the things that you want to make a priority.

[00:13:54] Those three main things that you want to focus on. And remember, this isn't about perfection, but it's just about really learning to let go of expectation and creating a space for what is really important and what really matters to you and your family.

[00:14:10] And learning to say no to overcommitment or unrealistic expectations so you are saying yes to things that align with your values and that will really bring you a truly joy-filled summer. So that's your homework. Spend 10 minutes journaling or praying about what you want this summer to feel like. Not what it should look like on the outside, but what you want it to feel like in your heart and your soul.

[00:14:37] And like I said, once you get that vision locked in, that's going to be your anchor for everything else this summer. That is going to drive what you are going to do and the decisions that you are going to make. Just picking that one word emotion is going to give you the clarity that you need to make the best decisions for you and your family as you start to plan this summer or as you start to just live this summer. So, like I said, we're starting this series and this is just the beginning.

[00:15:06] So, in the next couple episodes, we're going to dive into how we can practically start to bring that summer vibe, that summer vision to life without feeling overwhelmed. So, for now, just sit with that vision, sit with that vibe and let that be the foundation to guide your way this summer. Thanks again for joining me this week.

[00:15:29] I would love for you to share the podcast with another friend, someone who maybe needs some healing when it comes to their relationship with food and their body or maybe needs some work in their mindset and really learning how to live that Christ-centered perspective or someone who is looking for help in how to create a joy-filled summer. I would love for you to be able to share this podcast with someone that you know. And thanks again for tuning in this week and all the other weeks.

[00:15:56] Remember, beauty held is the seed, beauty shared is the flower. It is your time to bloom. Hope you have a beautiful and blessed week and I will see you right back here next week. Talk soon. Bye.