The Secret to a Happier Summer: Rhythm, Not Routine (and What’s Working For Us So Far)

🎧 Listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music

I kick off Episode 11 with a fresh take on summer structure: forget the rigid routines and embrace a flexible, family-friendly rhythm. With my first week of having all three kids home, I’m sharing what’s actually working (and what isn’t) in real time — from a gamified chore chart to a simple snack system that’s keeping things calm…ish?

Summer Systems That Work

One of my favorite wins? A Daily Five checklist board where kids tidy, read, play outside, and do a worksheet before they earn any screen time. We’re also loving Yoto Players for audiobooks during independent reading, and snack baskets that eliminate the endless “can I have a snack?” questions. Honestly, when are we not loving our Yoto Players? Plus, BIG NEWS — Instacart is back in my life, saving me time and keeping impulse buys at bay.

Parenting Through Anxiety and New Challenges

I get a little personal in this episode, opening up about helping my anxious child embrace swim team. After initially refusing, he’s now thriving. I hope sharing our experience will help any parent navigating that delicate line between gentle encouragement and honoring sensitivity. My main takeaway? Sometimes readiness doesn’t magically appear. Sometimes, we coach them through it, with calm, consistent support.

May R.E.P.O.R.T.

I love this monthly recap so here it is in podcast form:

• 📖 Reading: Blue Mind by Wallace J. Nichols — a science-based love letter to why water soothes our minds.

• 🍽️ Eating: A rainbow pasta salad that’s summer in a bowl.

• 🎾 Playing: I started playing tennis and joined a weekly women’s league. The jury is still out on whether I’m there for the cardio or the social hour after.

• 👕 Obsessing: A surprisingly perfect boxy white tee from Old Navy.

• 🌿 Recommending: Outdoorsy Little Explorers monthly activity guidesubscription.

• 💆‍♀️ Treating: Taking 30 minutes during the day to read — modeling the joy of reading for my kids!

Some of the links in this  post are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission (at no extra cost to you) if you decide to make a purchase. I only share products I genuinely love and use with my own family. Thanks for supporting My Outdoorsy Mom!

Want the full episode? 🎧 Listen to Episode11: The Secret to a Happier Summer: Rhythm, Not Routine (and What’s Working For Us So Far)

• EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

  Julianne Nienberg (00:00)

  We are in the thick of summer over here and I've officially got one full week of having all three kids home under my belt and I thought it'd be fun to share what's working for us so far and what's absolutely not. I didn't get to share my May report yet either because May-Summer. So this episode is also going to be a bit of a casual catch-up and I hope it feels like we're just having a good chat while you're out on a walk or folding that never-ending pile of laundry.

  So let's start with what is working because listen, I need to remind myself of this sometimes when the house is a mess and my kids are eating chicken fingers for the third night in a row. So we started a really simple daily five chore chart this summer and it's been a game changer for setting the tone for the day. It's this plastic checklist board that I got on Amazon where they can slide the button over to a green check mark once they've completed the chore.

  I'll include the link in the show notes. It kind of gamifies chores and listen, I'm not above gamifying it if it means they know exactly what the must do's are for each day. before they get any screen time, my kids gotta have the following five things done. They need to tidy their room. They need to help tidy the playroom, which is really our family room at the end of the day, going outside.

  They read for 30 minutes and then they do some simple worksheets. It gives us all a little structure without feeling rigid.

  I also have to say the Yodo mini players have been a huge help for independent reading time, especially for my little boys. They've been listening to The Wind and the Willows together recently and other audiobooks. The Yodo's make hitting that 30 minutes of daily reading so much easier. I'll include a link to a blog post I did recently with all of our favorite Yodo cards and audiobooks, along with my referral link for 10 % off your first Yodo order.

  The next thing that's working for us are snack baskets. Okay, this one is simple, but surprisingly life changing. Each kid picks out three snacks in the morning and puts them in a little basket on the counter. Once they're gone, they're done with snacks for the day. I don't love that the baskets are just sitting out on the counter, but it's manageable.

  And it totally cuts down on the constant, I'm hungry or can I have a snack request? Also, another game changer is I've started wearing the pantry key on a lanyard. Yes, we've put a lock on our pantry door and we lock it every night because sneaky snackers are very real in our house. And I recently caught one of my kids, I'll let you guess which one in the birth order, stacking a stool on top of a chair to get the pantry keys, which we keep on top of the refrigerator.

  Did I mention that this was at 7 a.m.? Okay, moving on. Another lifesaver is I've reinstated my Instacart subscription this summer. Not for every grocery trip, but just when it makes sense. And because I closed my account back in 2022, I had a smokin' deal where the annual fee was only $19.99 for the entire year with Instacart Plus. You get free delivery with orders over $35, which is just about every order.

  So it's something I'm leaning on heavily this summer. it's actually super economical and it saves me a ton of time and energy and it keeps me from making impulse purchases in the stores. Next on the list for what's working so far this summer is having a dedicated beach bag and pool bag. Hear me out. This was one of those small changes that has made a huge difference.

  I finally invested in a second bog bag, so I'm not constantly transferring life jackets, fins, goggles, pool toys between the lake and the pool. The lake bag has our life jackets, sand toys, sunscreen, goggles. The pool bag has fins, goggles, sunscreen, and everything they need for swim practice. I keep them both stocked in my trunk and it's made getting out the door so much easier. I'll link my beloved bog bag in the show notes. All right, so what's not working?

  Because you know I'm all about keeping it real, here's what's not working for us right now. Screen time is a reward for the daily five. Some days we're out of the house, so screen time ends up being 15 to 20 minutes. No big deal. Other days though, it turns into this big veg out session after being outside all day, and honestly, I don't love it. I will say though, when they do get screen time after their daily five is finished, or after a long day of being at the lake or the pool,

  We're choosing slow moving nature

  Animal Planet, Brave Wilderness, Nat Geo, Disney Nature. I'm trying to find a better balance about all of it. Maybe it's a different kind of reward or doing it on different days. I don't know, I'm working on it. Another thing that's not working for me right now is laundry.

  I have absolutely no solution. The other day I posted a picture of my laundry room and honestly, it was the most triggering image I saw on the internet that day and it was my own. My boys are changing outfits five times a day and I'm losing my ever loving mind just thinking about folding all of it. So I'm taking any and all tips if you have them. Seriously, please DM me. Another thing that's not working for me is not batching my solo podcast episodes.

  And this one is totally on me. I pre-recorded all my guest episodes before school ended, but I didn't batch enough solo content. So now with the kids home, obviously time is tight. This episode is definitely an experiment in recording more casually and on the fly. So let me know if you like this format. I also wanted to share something that feels really relevant this summer and this spring.

  especially for anyone raising an anxious or sensitive kid who struggles with new environments or structured activities. My middle child is naturally athletic, but structured sports have historically been really tricky for him. I've always prioritized unstructured time at home, in the backyard, overdoing all of the organized sports. But as he's gotten older, he's expressed interest in playing certain sports, like baseball, for example. He wanted to do it this spring, he had a friend on the team.

  But once he got to the first practice, he was really nervous and wouldn't leave my side. In our experience, sometimes that anxiety for new experiences and struggles with transition shows up as a hard, no, I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to go out there. Before swim team started this summer, he flat out said he didn't want to do it. And as a family that spends our entire summer on the water, swim team and summer swim safety is kind of a non-negotiable for us.

  Now, here's where I think so many of us walk a tightrope as moms, especially if you're parenting an ADHD or sensitive or strong-willed kiddo. There's a lot of messaging out there around waiting for readiness. And in my experience, especially with my anxious kid, sometimes readiness doesn't just like magically appear. I recently read a post from Lauren over at The Connected OT. She's a pediatric OT and I love her content.

  And she really put into words what I felt for a long time. She said, parenting a child with ADHD means playing the long game. You have to do the future thinking for them until they can do it themselves. It's hard in the moment, but worth it in the end. Wow. I mean, when I read that, it really resonated with me

  I realized our job isn't to push so hard that our kids shut down.

  but it's also not to avoid every discomfort. One of my favorite verses from the Bible, John chapter 16 verse 33, Jesus says, in this world you will have trouble, but take heart for I've overcome the world. We cannot avoid every hardship in life. And one of my most important jobs as a parent is to speak life and truth into my children and remind them of whose they are. And that because they have the armor of God on their side, they can do all things through him and nothing is impossible with him.

  So after vehemently rejecting the idea of swim team, he went to his first practice and thankfully he had just finished the spring baseball season and we all saw how quickly he overcame the anxious voices in his head and he actually had fun. So after the first few swim practices, he found his groove. He's having fun, he's proud of himself and he's really good, which gives him a confidence boost. And it's been a good reminder for me as a mom that sometimes they do need that push and it's not in a forceful,

  bulldozer type of way, but in a way where we're coming alongside them and coaching them through it, reminding them that they can do hard things. And in just a few short weeks, I've seen his confidence grow not only in the sport, but in other executive functioning and social skills, like speaking up and asking for something he wants when we're out at places, ordering his own food and things like that, making new friends. And swimming is great for sensory seekers.

  As my son described it, he likes it because his body feels like a silky ribbon moving through the water. Those were his words, not mine. I mean, what a beautiful and vivid depiction. So after all that, I wanted to also share my May report with you because I missed it during the craziness of May. And it's one of my favorite things to do here on the podcast. If you're a new listener, I share monthly reports or recaps of the things I'm reading, eating, playing.

  obsessing over, recommending, and treating myself to. So what I was reading in May, Blue Mind by Wallace J. Nichols. I've lived almost my entire life around the Great Lakes, and there's a calming peace that washes over me when I'm by the water. It's one of the biggest reasons I love nature and being outside because not only can I see God's creation all around me, but I can feel his presence when I'm outdoors.

  This book is all about the science of why being near water benefits our brains and our bodies. Sadly, the author passed away last year, but as a marine biologist, he leaves behind his life's work in water and wildlife conservation through his book. Next up, E is for eating. I made the simplest pasta salad ever, and it was phenomenal. Basically, you chop up the rainbow. I did red peppers, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, some olives, some radishes.

  I tossed it with pasta, olive oil. I chose feta, you could do mozzarella and you're done. It's perfect for park picnics or back porch dinners while the kids are running out in the yard. I brought it to my son's preschool picnic and I got a ton of compliments on it.

  Next up, P is for playing and I recently took up tennis. I never played as a kid, but last spring I signed up for beginner clinics at our athletic club and now I'm in a weekly women's league. Is it intense? Sometimes. Is it fun? Absolutely. Is it cardio? Technically, yes. I can barely keep score, but I keep showing up each week. Next up, obsessing.

  Have I been living under a rock or has old Navy all of a sudden been pumping out some really cute and classic basics? I found this white boxy t-shirt there that I shared on Instagram recently. It's affordable. It has a heavier weight to it than a normal thin tee. And it goes with everything from bike shorts to maxi skirts, linen, sports, you name it. You all loved it when I posted in the stories and I totally get why I'm going to include the link here in the show notes.

  R is for recommending and I'm going to share a little plug for outdoorsy little explorers. This past week we took a walk to our favorite free little library.

  or what we call the book house in our neighborhood. My daughter walked beside me, my sons rode scooters and bikes, and it hit me that we are well past the stroller and bike trailer season of life. Our outdoor adventures last all day now instead of 20 to 30 minute intervals squeezed between nap times like they used to be.

  And it's that feeling that I used to have when I had three littles under five, that wondering of what do I do next to get the kids outside is exactly why I created Outdoorsy Little Explorers. It's for moms who want their kids to have a childhood outdoors, but don't always know how to start or what to do. Outdoorsy Little Explorers takes all the guesswork out of it. It's a monthly subscription that gets delivered straight to your inbox at the start of each month. I'll include the links in the show notes so you can join today.

  Lastly, T is for treating. I have been treating myself to reading for at least 30 minutes during the day, even while the kids are playing outside or playing independently inside, playing with one another. Some days it's a novel, some days it's my devotional, but I think it's important that my kids see me enjoying reading and not just telling them to read. It's been a small but really lovely gift to myself this summer.

  So that's where we are right now. Some things are working, some things are not. And I'm leaning into rhythm, not rigid routines to help summer feel fun, joyful, and a little less stressful. So if you've made it this far, my outdoorsy challenge to you this week is to think about one small shift you can make this week to help summer flow more smoothly for your family. Maybe it's starting a snack basket, creating a daily five list for your kids,

  giving yourself permission to treat yourself to a midday reading break, whatever it is, tag me on Instagram at my outdoorsy mom and tell me about it. I love seeing how you're making summer work for your family.