Not to dwell on it, but spring wasn’t so hot Chez RF. A flurry of (over)indulging, a lot of should-we-or-shouldn’t-we’s and an assorted pack­age of other bum­mers make this June feel like we’re recov­er­ing from a hang­over. A hang­over that we’re expe­ri­enc­ing in a sauna. A sauna with hurricanes.

As much as it pains my cold and snarky heart to type it, the catch­phrase here is now Be Pos­i­tive. It’s hokey, I know, but it’s not a ter­ri­ble reminder to those of us (yes, I am talk­ing to myself) who can get wrapped up in what we don’t have instead of what we do.

In the spirit of the Sum­mer Bucket List (and because I like to make lists), here’s the plan to enjoy where we are now:

  1. The beach: it’s close. It’s cheap. We always leave happy. We’re not going every week­end because…? (This is from Kay Crain, it’s a pretty accu­rate depic­tion of our beach days.)
  2. More Pom­plam­oose Chan­nel on YouTube, less woe-is-media.
  3. I had writ­ten this whole post about miss­ing limeades from Kansas City insti­tu­tions Topsy’s and Winstead’s and how I’d hap­pily set­tle for Sonic but there is no Sonic here, but there is—in Boyn­ton Beach! So I’m going to get one and it is going to be awesome.
  4. Lighten the load. We just sold off all our CDs and it feels goooood. Books got the same treat­ment a few days ago and will go to the library for dona­tion. The clos­ets are pretty lean and mean already but could stand another edit­ing. Things that aren’t use­ful or beau­ti­ful get the boot.
  5. We’ve been enjoy­ing Salad Week for a few weeks but I think this might just be the Sum­mer of Sal­ads. (Plus, I don’t have to turn on the stove.)
  6. All iced tea, all the time. I just made a pitcher of Har­ney and Sons’ rasp­berry herbal iced tea yes­ter­day and it’s time to make another. No caf­feine, no sugar, just rasp­berry yumminess.
  7. Turn down the noise. I’m so close to pulling the plug on my Dai­ly­Candy sub­scrip­tions but I feel a weird sort of loy­alty since I remem­ber the day they launched (wow, that makes me feel old). I’ve been caught in a cycle of want­ing to try the Next New Thing, par­tic­u­larly when it comes to restau­rants, and, quite frankly, it’s exhaust­ing. There are a few places down here I truly love, and a lot of over­hyped mediocre ones. I’d rather keep sup­port­ing the good than try­ing (and being dis­ap­pointed by) the bad.
  8. Take Harry to the dog beach. This is per­haps more for our enjoy­ment than Harry’s, espe­cially when he has this look on his face. (He doesn’t do that at the beach, I promise.)
  9. Stay cool. I know this seems obvi­ous. I used to shun linen, shorts and any­thing gauzy, but guess what? A lit­tle ven­ti­la­tion makes me a lit­tle less cranky.
  10. Needle­point projects + Net­flix stream­ing = easy evening enter­tain­ment. My mom just sent a pack­age of needle­point orna­ments that I can’t wait to whip up. We might need to get another tree…

How do you keep positive—or keep cool?