Oh, summer days! While this week has been quite hot (upper 80’s) with random rain showers each day, which we desperately need because our grass is so dry and slow-growing – the boys and I are trying to spend a good bit of time outdoors each day.
That often looks like playing outside, going for walks, picking summer berries, reading on the hammock, shooting what remains of this year’s firecrackers, working in the garden, and so on.
When we’re outside, we’re doing our best to safely soak up the sun. I’m a big fan of vitamin D, and its many health benefits, and not such a big fan of sunscreen (at least the chemical kind), so most times, our skin is exposed to the sun’s rays, growing slightly browner with each passing day.
Now, I know there are different points of view on skin damage from sun exposure, but I find myself falling on the side of the sun being a good thing, all while using common sun safety sense at the same time. If we’re going to be outside for long periods during the hottest part of the day or around water (which tends to lead to burns more easily), we use my homemade mineral sunscreen and reapply it often.
You can read more about my thoughts on sun safety, vitamin D, and sunscreen in the following blog posts.
- Grasping the Importance of Vitamin D
- Is There Such a Thing as a Healthy Tan?
- What Exactly is Safe Sun Exposure?
- 3 Ways to Prevent a Sunburn Naturally (Plus A DIY Herbal Sunburn Relief Spray)
- “Skin Quencher” After-Sun Skin Cream (member’s only)
- Oops! My Kid Got a Sunburn! Now What?
- 4 Must-Have Herbs to Help with Summer Skin Damage
I’ve also been harvesting plants here and there that grow on our property, drying them, and making foundational preparations with them. I store these in my natural medicine cabinet, use them throughout the year, and put the dried extras away in my herbal apothecary for future use.
I like to shoot for harvesting only what I need for the coming year. This ensures that my plant material is fresh and most effective when I need it, and it also cuts down on storing large amounts of plant material that end up not getting used.
I always try to pay attention to what herbs are currently in season and keep an eye out for them when I’m walking around my property. If I see something I use regularly, I can easily harvest some of it to bring back home to process and store for the coming year.
You can learn more about summer herbs and foraging practices in the following blog posts if this is of interest to you:
- 9 Summer Herbs to Forage This Year
- A Foraging Supply List (member’s only)
- Using Herbs: Wildcrafting and Preserving Herbs
Lastly, if you’re anything like me, you have some extra time during summer to indulge in some extra reading. While reading happens daily for me, in the summer, I like to fill my summer reading list with novels, particularly best-selling ones, because I find that I tend to enjoy those most.
I have a stack of books in my bedroom that I’m currently reading.
Yes, a stack.
No, I do not read them daily.
The books here are mostly non-fiction and, therefore, easy to dip in and out of whenever I sit down to read. However, come summer, I make a list of fiction books I’d like to make my way through as a part of my summer reading list.
Most years, I borrow books from friends or order used copies through Amazon, but this year, I stumbled across a free way to access some of the newest, best-selling novels of the year, and I love it! In fact, I wrote a blog post about it that you can check that out here.
Here’s what I’m planning on reading:
- The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
- The Water Keeper
- Sold on a Monday
- The Venice Sketchbook
- The Last Mrs. Parrish
How are you embracing summer this year? What are you focusing on this season?
Love and light,
Meagan