New Mom Routines, Giraffes, and Summer Planning in July
A New Kind of Summer
This summer marks my first summer as a mom. The school year ended abruptly with virtual teaching coming to a close. School ended by saying goodbye to kids over the internet. Little circles with initials on a Google Meet screen. Many of whom I have never seen their face throughout the whole year. Most of my students were relieved that online school was over, but there was also a handful of them that didn’t want to log off on that last day. It was hard in many ways. I was ready to be done because I was ready to start summer with our new baby. The last day of reporting for duty all teachers were emailed our assignments for the fall. This email brought up uncertain ideas, assumptions, and predictions about what it would be like to return full-time in-person.
I have no idea what the fall will hold.
I am going to be taking our baby to daycare for the first time, we will return in-person to school in masks and go back into my classroom, and we are going to navigate what school looks like after being online for over a year. I miss my classroom more than I can tell you. I miss the way kids would browse books in my classroom library. August comes with so many uncertainties. I am planning on keeping my bullet journal for regular journaling and ideas as I enter the new year, but I am looking to move back into a Passion Planner for August to get myself organized for the school year. This post outlines how I am approaching the middle month of summer as a teacher and new mama, and it shows some key pages that are keeping me organized and motivated. In the past, I have used the month of July for a mid-year check-in. This year, I am taking it one month at a time to learn how to adjust to motherhood.
Welcome Summer, Hello July
July Cover
This month features giraffes as my theme because they are popping up everywhere in my life. Our baby loves her giraffe pacifier more than anything, and my best friend’s birthday is this month. She loves all things giraffe. It only seemed right to draw inspiration from two of the things that I love and use the pattern to create my July layouts.
July Month Layout
“Living in the moment is learning how to live between the big moments” -Morgan Harper Nichols
Create Your Summer “Intentions” Menu
A summer “intentions” menu is a list with categories about what you want to do with your summer. Think of it like a menu you choose from each day and week if you are a teacher (Also, non-teachers can create summer menus). I love summer menus because they give you a choice about what you want to accomplish and enjoy. Your summer menu may look a lot like my old summer menus: hyper-productivity, reading and research nonstop, and trying to enjoy summer staples like the beach, ice cream, and walking through Target with a hot Starbucks caramel macchiato. I chose this month to focus in on the things that I also felt like would also help me adjust to life as a new mom.
BODY-I want to continue to focus on my own personal physical health. I want to keep recovering from the birth of our baby.
MIND-I want to continue to focus on my mental health as I navigate the balance between how the old Stephanie did things vs new mama Stephanie. I want to revisit old habits and thought patterns that focus on being productive and thinking of nothing else besides teaching. My mind is a busy one. Being a new mama, I am relearning how to balance mama concerns and skills with wanting to still think about teaching.
BOOKS-Reading seems overwhelming right now. I am focusing on poetry books and novels-in-verse to do chunks of reading at a time. I am currently rereading the Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo and How Far You Have Come: Musings on Beauty and Courage by Morgan Harper Nichols.
FAMILY- I am jumping in to all things mama. I want to soak up each moment of being a mama and being able to be at home with our new baby and my husband who still works from home for the time being.
HOUSE-I want to clean, organize, and work on as many house projects as I can.
The plan is to make a list of the things I can do under each category. Then when I am planning out my week, I can choose from the activities that seem excited or doable for the week ahead.
Summer Savings Plan
I will use these two pages to layout my four paychecks and find where I can save money. I like to review my bills for the month and look at my spending. I also like to look to the future and see where I know I may have some larger expenses coming up. If you would like to see more how I use a bullet journal to budget, check out the post “How to Make a Simple Budget Using Your Bullet Journal.”
Weekly Layouts
I am keeping it simple this month by using a standard vertical layout on the left side and tasks/summer menu options on the right hand side. I repeated this for each week.