My summer 2020 review

One thing that became obvious when I started working on this summer 2020 review is this summer didn’t really go how I thought it would.

It feels fitting. I think it’s safe to say 2020 as a whole has not gone the way most of us expected. Still, after how long spring felt, it’s hard to believe how quickly summer came and went.

This post is not really a personal finance post. But considering I basically fell off the face of the internet for the entire summer, I wanted to talk a bit about what I got up to during this very different summer.

So here we go.

My summer 2020 review

In June, I shared this post outlining my to-do list for summer 2020.

The list included 10 items, ranging from a 30-day yoga challenge, to starting our Christmas shopping, to reading all the unread books I own.

When I posted the list, I had every intention of crossing all 10 items off the list.

But in true 2020 fashion, summer 2020 was a little different than I expected.

My summer 2020 to do list

In the end, I only crossed off one and a half items from my summer 2020 to do list.

Yikes.

If you’re curious: I finally busted out my popsicle molds and used them…once. I ended up making blueberry yogurt popsicles and they turned out pretty good! I’ll definitely make them again.

As for the half item, I did end up spending a fair amount of time working on blog maintenance this summer. This included updating my categories and tags and starting the tedious process of reviewing my backlist posts. I’m calling this a half-complete item because I’m not finished yet. Even though I went into this knowing it would be a big job, I don’t think I really appreciated just how big of a job it would be. It’s going to take a little longer than expected, but at least now I have a plan.

So…1.5 for 10. Not ideal.

What I actually did this summer

Instead of doing most of the items on my list, here’s a review of what I actually did during summer 2020.

Worked

I can’t write a list about what I did during summer 2020 without including work.

For the first time in years, I didn’t take a full vacation during the summer. It just felt…sort of pointless? I don’t know how to explain it.

As opposed to taking a full week, I decided instead to create a few long weekends during the summer and I felt like that worked well.

But when I wasn’t on a long weekend, I was working. And work was so, so busy.

Visited St. Andrews

We used one of our long weekends to take a trip to St. Andrews.

This has been on our to-do list for a while. Jeff hadn’t been there since he was a kid and my only experience in St. Andrews was work-related. So we booked a hotel, hopped in the car and made the trip. It was a lovely, relaxing trip — and, added bonus, New Brunswick introduced a staycation rebate program, which means we will get some of the money we spent back!

Went camping

We used another long weekend to go camping with some friends at a nearby campground.

Again, this is something we have talked about doing for ages but kept putting off. We borrowed some gear from Jeff’s family, including the family tent that was at least 10 years old. It held up well and we had a really wonderful time with our friends.

Watched hockey!

I won’t lie: I was skeptical about the NHL’s return to play plan at first but boy, did I ever enjoy watching hockey in August!

My Columbus Blue Jackets won their play-in round…before going down in round one to the Tampa Bay Lightning. A bit of a bummer, but it was so much fun watching them play again.

Plus, how often do you watch a game go to 5OT?

I haven’t watched as much hockey since hanging up my jersey (an early birthday gift from my wonderful husband), but I’ve continued following the results and I’ll definitely tune in for the Cup finals!

Watched Modern Family

Our summer 2020 show. We started watching Modern Family years ago through a streaming site until it went down. We didn’t have cable at the time (still don’t) so we stopped. Honestly, I didn’t think much of it.

Until I saw it pop up on Netflix.

We decided to start right from the beginning and it’s been so fun! We usually watch a couple episodes a night during dinner. Given how busy and stressful work has been lately, it’s been the perfect, light distraction.

Read

While I didn’t read all my unread books during summer 2020, I did read some of them! I ended up reading six books during the summer and only one was a library book! I’m going to keep working on getting through my unread books.

Talked to my long-distance friends

This was the summer I embraced the video chat as a way to talk to friends.

I’ve always been a text message person. Given the option between making a call and sending a text, I will always, always choose a text. Typical millennial, I know. I just communicate better that way.

But moving through this pandemic situation, I realized…well, I miss seeing my friends. Specifically, the long-distance friends I usually get to see in the summer.

So this summer, I spent some time video chatting with them. Not the same as seeing them in person, but it felt good to connect.

Cut myself some (necessary) slack

This might be the most significant item on this list. During summer 2020, I gave myself permission to just…relax.

What did that look like?

Sometimes, it looked like sleeping in on my days off and embracing the nap as needed. Other times, it looked like not worrying about hitting 10K steps — especially during the ridiculously hot, humid days in July.

And yeah, this year, it looked like taking a longer-than-expected blog break.

My intention was to get back to writing in August, but…well, here we are. I felt bad about it at first but sometimes you just need a break, you know? I’m glad I took the time to do that this summer.

On that note: it is my intention to get back to a more regular blogging schedule. As I mentioned, I still have some maintenance work I want to do, but I’ll be working on that more in the background. That said, it might take a bit of time to get back to my twice-a-week schedule, especially if work continues at its current pace. I’ll be working on it, though!

Final Thoughts

So much like the rest of the year so far, summer 2020 didn’t go exactly as planned. I didn’t accomplish as many things on my list as I wanted to, but that’s OK. I still had a pretty good summer overall, which I think comes across in my summer 2020 review.

How did your summer go?

Photo by Shopify Partners from Burst