I was astounded when I looked back at my Top Five/Bottom Five posts and realized I’ve never done one about summer. I’m virtually certain I have — maybe on my old blog? Or maybe I’m just terrible at searching my own archives. Either way, it’s long overdue.
So here we go: my very subjective, somewhat contradictory take on the best and worst of summer.
TOP FIVE
- Sleeping in. I loathe early mornings — and the chaos of getting kids out the door for school is definitely not when I’m at my finest. Summer mornings are slower, quieter, and infinitely more humane.
- Fewer clothes. I can wear dresses! No layers, no gloves, no wool socks. As a Canadian, there’s something magical about walking out the door without bundling up like an Arctic explorer.
- Food. Meal planning basically dissolves. Some days that’s frustrating, but mostly it’s freeing. We eat on the deck, and enjoy fresh, local berries and sweet corn. There’s watermelon! And cold sparkling water! And BBQ!
- Lake visits. Going to the lake where my parents live is a decades-long tradition, and it never gets old.
- Possibility for adventure. There’s just a je ne sais quoi about summer — a sense of freedom, a loosening of expectations. It’s easier to say yes to last-minute plans, random outings, or a spontaneous ice cream.
BOTTOM FIVE
- Heat. I hate the heat. I wilt into a shell of a human when it gets above 28°C. Air conditioning helps, but the humidity has been unforgivable this summer.
- Sand. I loathe sand. Even one beach trip seems to spawn a month-long sand infestation in the washing machine. It’s a sensory nightmare.
- Mosquitoes. At home, bugs aren’t a huge problem. But at my parents’ lake house by dusk, it’s mosquito central. The worst is when one gets inside and buzzes around your ear just as you’re falling asleep. Argggghhhhhhhh! It’s pure torture.
- Weeds. Our flagstone paths seem to be a magnet for weeds. I’ve tried boiling water, vinegar, salt, pulling by hand, propane torches, but nothing works for any length of time. They’re my summer nemesis.
- Lack of routine. Hi, my name is Elisabeth, and I love a schedule. I thrive on predictability. So while the freedom of summer sounds great, by mid-August the lack of structure starts to make me twitchy.
Your turn.
- What are your summer highs and lows?
- What’s one thing you’d happily never do again in summer?
- Do you love the looser rhythm of summer, or do you crave routine?
- Do you have any summer traditions? Places you go, things you eat, people you visit year after year?
P.S. OTHER TOP FIVE/BOTTOM FIVE
- Top Five/Bottom Five: Fall
- Top Five/Bottom Five: Halloween Treats
- Top Five/Bottom Five: Christmas Food Edition
- Top Five/Bottom Five: Christmas Movie Edition
- Top Five/Bottom Five Christmas Songs
- Top Five/Bottom Five: The (Canadian) Winter Edition
- Top Five/Bottom Five: Makeup
- Top Five/Bottom Five: Fictional Books
- Top Five Non-Fiction Books
- Top Five/Bottom Five: Disney Movies
- Top Five/Bottom Five: The Condiment Edition
- Top Five/Bottom Five: Ice Cream Flavours
- Top Five/Bottom Five: The Cookie Edition
- Top Five/Bottom Five: The Emoji Edition
- Top Five/Bottom Five: Small Talk Topics
- Top Five/Bottom Five: The Clothing Edition
- Top Five/Bottom Five: Basic Hygiene and Self-Care Routines
- Top Five/Bottom Five: Things I Do/Don’t Miss From My Past
- Top Five/Bottom Five: Kitchen Appliances (Mostly To Gauge Your Stance on Microwaves)
- Top Ten/Bottom Ten: The House Edition (Including a Renovation History)
- Top Five/Bottom Five: Household Chores Edition
- Top Five/Bottom Five: Household Chores Edition
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Oh, these are good!
I was hoping you would mention the mosquitos. We’ve resorted to sleeping under a net – highly effective, until one of those tiny monsters sneaks UNDER it. Then it’s all lights on and a midnight hunt until the culprit is caught. It always reminds me of that line: “If you think you’re too small to make a difference, try spending the night with a mosquito.”
How can something so small cause so much annoyance…
Sadly, it’s also the #1 killer in the world 🙁 I really shouldn’t complain about bugs, I suppose, when for me they are always just an annoyance.
The midnight hunt for a mosquito. I KNOW IT WELL!
things we do on summers: that’s something that our family lacks, traditional, things go back to, given our living style. most of summers we do long trips.
top:
– time becomes more generous with us, I get to fit in diverse type of adventures in short amount of time
– less rushing
– ability to notice on small things
– patience to linger to conversations
– spend a lot of time with the family 24/7
down
– being under the sun. it’s not even the heat that bothers me, but the sun
can’t think of any downside any. I love the balance of routine during normal weeks, vs. non routine or new routines while traveling. it makes me feel like I’m not as rigid as I thought and makes the girls more flexible early on.
I’m impressed you could only come up with 1 downside! Yes, the sun is overwhelming at times and can be downright dangerous. Especially as our summers get hotter and hotter.
I also like how time feels different in the summer. I think part of it is also the number of daylight hours. In early July, it’s light from before 5 am until after 9:30 pm. That’s a lot of daylight!
Top things? I don’t have to worry about emails from teachers.
Bottom things? Heat, humidity, what activity to do. ( I was better at this a few years ago. Lately I’m out of ideas.)
We usually get a swim pass for the city pool so we go swimming most ays, later in the afternoon. ( I can’t do the midday heat.) Less crowded usually.
I don’t want to go camping ever again. The bumpy ground, the bugs, the sweaty nights in a crowded tent- no thank you.
Not having to think about school concerns is such a positive aspect of summer.
How to fill the time in summer is such a hassle. But it means I’m always relieved when school starts back up.
I have zero desire to go camping. I loved it as a kid, but my own kids have only slept in a tent a handful of times and if I never tented again, I’d be fine with that!
Best bits of summer – less rush, we did fewer camps this year and it was really nice for all of to sleep in til 7:30 most days (and later when we were at my parents). Swimming in the ocean, lots of ice cream, reading books on the porch at my parents house. And the absence of school interpersonal drama. I’ve got a sensitive soul who finds the argey-bargey of the school day a bit exhausting. I didn’t hear complaining about F all summer, and now that school is back, it’s started up again.
Worst bits – I always feel like I should conform to traditional academic patterns – summers are for writing. But actually I don’t really write well during the school holidays when our routines are out of wack. This year I embraced this and concentrated my annual leave. I also hate hate hate dry skinned sandy feet. The absolute worst.
Same on the weeds. Elisabeth, you should see the state of our backyard pavers. Mine will definitely make you feel better, I’m going to send A out to mow them.
Send me a picture of your weeds to make me feel better. They are my nemesis!!
Yes, the break from school drama is such a relief.
I’m proud of you for pausing the academic work and enjoying the best that summer has to offer. Three cheers for ice cream and beaching and reading and sleeping in!
Great points on summer!
Top:
Being off work
Travel/trips/local adventures
Time to [fill in any verb]
Beach and Jersey shore
Mornings!
Bottom:
Being off work
Being “on” at home
Being off routine
Missing the feeling of earning money
Missing validation that I get while at work
This is genius: “Time to [fill in any verb]!” So true!
Being “on” at home is exhausting. That’s one good thing about summer – it ends. If it was year-round, the perks wouldn’t feel like perks and we couldn’t look forward to fall and a return to routine.
Interestingly, the humidity is different in NS compared to here in Haliburton – must be the ocean. It seems a little more bearable up here. I love sunshine and light – as it starts to get dark earlier and earlier, I fret that winter will come too soon – every year! On the plus side, it rained for most of the past 24 hours, not hard, but enough that the world feels damp this morning. Hope NS gets the same soon.
Hooray for rain. I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited for precipitation.
I’m never ready for winter. Never!
I love summer and now that we are retired, we just stay home instead of travelling. Kelowna is such a great summery place to be. I love having people come visit US. I love outdoor parties and my garden and going outside without a coat on! I guess the only thing I don’t love is mosquitoes.
I am so glad you really get to experience summer, now. Calgary doesn’t necessarily always provide much predictable summer weather (and winter is loooong there). I can see why you want to stay in Kelowna and enjoy it!
Remember how summers as a kid had NO DOWNSIDES??? It was just pure relaxation and fun- at least, that’s how I remember it. It is different as an adult, isn’t it? I love sleeping later and the more relaxed mornings. I love not having to pack lunches. But as the summer goes on, it get hard to have everyone home all the time (my husband is a teacher so he’s off in the summer too). And then there’s the heat, which is terrible in the spring, summer and fall here. Summer is just not a time for outdoor activities, unless it involves water.
As you know, school has started here, and I’m happy. I love getting back into the routine, and this is my favorite time of year (ha ha, have I mentioned that, ever?) I love all the “fall” activities- football games, homecoming, etc. Bring on the pumpkins!
Yes! I loved summers as a kid. They were basically perfection.
I’m ready for winter and spring to be over, so that means I’m excited for summer. And I love it. But then I’m excited for fall to come so we can get back to a routine. I just wish fall wasn’t ruined by the onset of winter. I know we see eye-to-eye on this!
I love swimming outside, so my top thing would be swimming in a pool or lake outside! And my bottom one is the opposite, lol- swimming indoors. I used to go to swim practice everyday inside in the summer and it just made me so sad, especially when the weather was nice!
I’m not a fan of pools, either!
Though I’m now a wimp about cold water. As a kid I spent hour upon hour in the lake/ocean, but now I get goosebumps just looking at it.
I love summer so much! It does not have much of a different feel for us since our kids are in full time child care but that means our routines remain in place which I prefer!
Top 5:
– longer hours of daylight
– it’s peak running season (in Minnesota)
– less clothing to manage/keep clean for the kids (like no mittens, hats, etc)
– it’s easier to entertain the kids since we can go to parks and pools
– time at my parents’ lake home
Bottom 5:
– putting sunscreen on the kids.
– sand. I loathe it.
– humidity can be quite oppressive, even in MN
– mosquitos
– thunderstorms which can result in power outages
We so rarely get thunderstorms, but where my FIL lives they get brown outs all. the. time. What a nuisance!
Especially with younger kids, the lack of gear in summer is so nice! No one to get crammed into a snowsuit. What a relief!
The other benefit to fewer clothes is less laundry during the summer. I don’t think that this benefit can be overstated.
The heat is my main complaint. I like warmth, but when we have weeks on end of high temps and high humidity, that really cuts back on the number of activities that I can do. It’s not pleasant to go hiking, biking, or any other outdoor activity. At that point it might as well be winter.
I feel like I do more laundry in the summer because I sweat so much more and go through more changes of clothing. That said, I guess the clothes tend to be skimpier/lighter.
Yes, if I have to stay inside to avoid my blood literally boiling, it is too hot. John loves it. I find it so draining physically. It exhausts me.
Favourite things about summer:
-more light in the mornings and evenings
-time to relax on the deck
-paddleboarding
-BBQing – clean up is so easy
-garden blooms
Only downsides are the occasional very hot days, mosquitoes and wasps that appear in August!
We are visiting my parents at the lake this week and have been eating our meals outside which is lovely, but that’s the same thought the wasp population had. Thankfully they have a screened in little shed and that’s where the kids have been heading to avoid any stings.
Would you believe I have never paddleboarded? I think I’d love it!
We are very different in many ways, but in terms of summer WE ARE THE SAME. Love relaxed summer mornings, love going on summer adventures, LOVE not having to take my life in my hands every time I step outside onto the icy unforgiving ground. HATE heat, HATE bugs, and as sad as I feel when summer is ending I do feel the need to re-establish a routine.
The big Top One is having the kids home, all summer and then part of the summer for Angus and all summer for Eve, and now …. let’s not talk about it.
Ice is so dangerous!!!
Aww. I’m so glad you get to enjoy the kids home over the summer. I’m not at the stage where my kids are away from home, but I know my parents love seeing their kiddos over the summer, so I’m sure that will be on my highlight list in a few years when we’re empty nesters.
Also I hate when I’m sure I’ve blogged about something and then can’t find it. It makes me feel even crazier than usual.
This happens to me more than it should. Though, to be fair, I had a blog for 2+ years that all was deleted, so some things I DID blog about, but I’m never quite sure if I’m not searching properly, or if it doesn’t exist on this current site 🙁
oooh I do remember you posting this on your blog ver 1.0. I remember because you mentioned mosquitoes and I also hate mosquitoes. I’m glad you have this version now!
Hmmm… top five:
-longer days of sunlight, especially in the morning.
-peaches
-pool time and swim team. I complain a lot about how all encompassing swim team is, but I really do love it – I love the community, I love watching my kids swim, I love cheering them on.
-not having to wear socks or pants. (I mean sometimes I wear pants to work, but mostly I don’t.)
-Boba tea and lemonade. Even though I drink it all year round, it’s particularly lovely in the summer
bottom five:
– The summer camp shuffle and constantly changing schedule. The way drop off changes week to week. I guess this is also a pre-summer thing, but one thing I hate about summer is doing camp sign ups in the first place.
– the commute to my summer job. Soul sucking. Also not being able to take time off and impulsively travel during the summer because of work.
-mosquitoes.
-direct sunlight. I don’t mind the heat when I’m in the shade, but when the sun is beating down on me, I’m quite miserable.
-getting into a hot car.
Thank you! Now I know I’m not going crazy. I was sure I had written a post about this before, so it’s good to know I’m not going crazy, just that it was on my old blog.
Your commute does sound so rough and I’m with you on HATING getting into a hot car. Though, to be fair, I also hate getting into a cold car. The only time I enjoy the temperature of my car is in the fall which I’ve already established is the absolute best time of the year.
Top things about summer:
– longer days with lots of evening light
– gardening
– windows open at night
– going to the beach and people don’t get cold after 20 minutes
– not having to put winter gear on the small people (iykyk 😂😅)
– the weather is usually incredible
I am looking forward to more structure in the Fall and (though it does contradict my first point), having it be darker earlier so the kiddos are more willing to go to bed earlier. Have been trying to embrace seasonality/not minding that they find it HARD to go to sleep when it’s light out/enjoying the evenings with them, but also… I can’t wait for them to start going to bed earlier again!
I do know. Putting snow gear on tiny humans is soul sucking. Even worse, in my mind, is dealing with all the wet snow stuff when we come inside, wrangling it to get it dry, and then repeating the whole process a few hours later.
It is easier to get to sleep when it gets dark earlier, for sure. And the natural rhythm of things naturally shifts. I really appreciate the break from late nights! (Though now that the kids are older, they have lots of things that happen later in the evening – SIGH.)
I am in awe of how many bottom 5/top 5 you have done. Your “hi I’m Elisabeth and I need a schedule” made me cackle.
My top 5 for summer would be:
1. Me having no work in the summer
2. Having college kids home
3. Having no schedule (see not working)/time to write
4. Warm pool like weather
5. Lounging by the pool and reading
Bonus: coach grilling take the stress off of me for always cooking.
Traveling to Curly’s bball tournie sans little kids.
Bottom 5:
1. Possible stress fracture in my spine- this sucks bc I had to stop running and I have to do time consuming back exercises that I do not think are helping (shh- don’t tell my PT husband)
2. Younger kids (I’m looking at you Kay) who didn’t have enough structure and are exhausting
3. Not working means not getting paid
4. Curly babysat one of my tots in my house this summer so I had to cover for her when she had camps, etc.
5. Tank moving out
Bonus: swim meets. Such a time suck and our friends have all graduated from this activity. Lots of car repairs$$$.
Oh no!!!!! A stress fracture sounds horribly uncomfortable. Ugh. And I know how much you love running.
We have LITERALLY 9 unscheduled days this whole summer and I am being such a baby about how awful they are. LACK OF ROUTINE is the WORST.
Sing it, sister!
I mean, I appreciate the lack of routine for a while, but then I start to lose my mind.
I will never kayak again, but that was more of a thing we did on tropical vacations than summer. My favorite summer foods are BLT’s and corn on the cob.
Corn on the cob is something we only have seasonally and it’s a big hit in our family (though Belle can’t eat it on the cob right now because of braces…)
Great lists, Elisabeth. I would have to say at the top of the top 5 — No snow/ice to shovel or drive in. 🙂
At the top of the bottom 5 — mosquitos and ticks 🙁
Ticks. Eeks. They are a growing problem and actually scare me. Mosquitoes in Canada are simply an annoyance, but Lyme disease can change someone’s life 🙁
Honestly, there is not much I love about the summer. It’s hot (dyinggg at you wilting at 82F… that’s a breezy fall day over here!) and the humidity is miserable. And my routine doesn’t change at all since I don’t have kids so it’s not like I get to ENJOY the lazy days of summer, bah!
I will try to do a top 5/bottom 5, though:
Top 5: pool time, afternoon thunderstorms, iced coffee szn, summer fruit szn, andddddddd that’s all I got. Even the summer fruit is a stretch for me.
Bottom 5: the heat, the humidity, the mosquitoes, going outside into the heat and humidity, and my outrageous electric bills because I’m blasting my AC
I am such a hot-weather wimp. As much as I dread winter here, I know I would be a complaining MESS in Florida in the summer.
It is insane how much it costs to cool down a space in the summer! And we have to cool in the summer and heat in the winter, so there are just never-ending electric costs. But I am so very thankful we have AC.
I love it. But am also suprised it’s never been on the blog.
A top: early sunny mornings sitting outside sipping coffee listen to the wind, the birds the bumble bees. And no humans. Bliss
A bottom: heat. which means more migraines.
Ha! No humans. I also often find that blissful 😉
It’s interesting – summer, for most people, revolves around kids and summer break, and leisure time. Since I rarely take time off during the summer, I never have that association with. Sure, we have a summer and it’s usually HOT and there are more outdoor activities, but it doesn’t have a distinct seasonal vibe for me.
As you know, I definitely crave routine, although I wouldn’t mind a few weeks of a more leisurely approach to life! My highs of the summer have been getting to the beach (when we were in SoCal) and to our pool on occasion (it’s been nice to have access!).
Yay for pools! Especially in the heat of the summer. I think that is the only big thing our town is missing – an outdoor pool!