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.

I feel like I would normally be starting this post with what it feels like to finally be in summer. it’s official. Writing camp at Western Michigan University wrapped up last week, and I started to work on the anthology this week with a renewed sense of feeling (more) free from obligations. While I always stay busy, summer is a freedom of sorts from time. However, this year has been so different. We had five weeks off in between schools closing down and starting online learning. We then ran through online learning at a sprinting pace, and June hit all of a sudden before I could even register that I wouldn’t be able to say goodbye to my students. I can’t honestly say the number of Google Meets I have been on since April. I miss my classroom. I miss my students. Now, it’s July. I am just as tired. I feel just as drained. However, I am wondering if it is for other reasons than the weird way the school year ended.

I think I am exhausted because I was not feeding my own creativity and growth in terms of reading and writing during the time of online learning. I felt so frustrated with online learning and the systems and processes in place that I realized that my own goals in terms of creativity just weren’t there. So, after figuring this out about myself, I made July’s plan-with-me post a mid-year check-in review and inventory of where I am at in terms of goals, habits, and dreams. This post outlines how I set up my productivity pages for the month of July, and it also includes how I am doing a mid-year check-in. If you want to also do a mid-year check-in, follow along with the prompts. I hear so many people in the teaching profession and in my own personal life saying that they have “given up on 2020” and “I am already looking forward to 2021.” We have this time, and I know that living in the present moment has been the necessary water my life garden has needed for each phase of my life.

Let’s grow in July.