Enjoy the hot months? Is it really possible when the temps keep rising and the sweat keeps dripping? Yup, and here’s how. Embrace the season while you have it, because soon winter will return…
As July makes way for August and the temperature continues to rise, it can be hard to find joy during this hot season.
It’s easy to get frustrated at the heat, believe me, I do too. Yet, when I start to think about all the simple things there are to enjoy the in the hotter months, my perspective changes a bit.
Just like there are ways to embrace hygge in the cold months, there are ways to celebrate the hot months as well. Now if only there was a Danish word for that…
Simple things that you can enjoy as we go through the warmest season of the year can be found all around you, you just need to know where to look.
15 Simple Things to Enjoy in the Hot Months
1. Cool Beverages
Hands down one of the best things about the hot weather are all the cool beverages there are to enjoy!
DYI Starbucks Passion Tea Lemonade and other real food coffee shop drinks that you can make at home are a great place to start! Don’t forget about smoothies, there’s no need to leave the house when you can whip up an orange creamsicle smoothie in no time flat!
It is easy to get dehydrated while you are busy having fun in the sun, so a hydrating electrolyte drink without the not-so-stellar additives is a must on some days.
2. Cooking with an Instant Pot (or other Electric Pressure Cooker)
If you don’t have an Instant Pot or other electric pressure cooker stop what you are doing now and order one. Even if you have to come back to this post. You’ll thank yourself later.
An Instant Pot is an investment, I’ll grant you that, but it will be one of the best things you can invest in for your kitchen. I’m almost positive that it’s going to become one of your favourite kitchen appliances.
When it heats up outside, the last thing you want to be doing is spending time over the hot stove. Slow cookers used to be my tried and true fallback but since my pressure cooker entered my life, the poor thing doesn’t get pulled out nearly as often. It allows you to cook up tasty dishes like shredded BBQ chicken and mild chicken curry without adding unwanted heat to the house in a short amount of time.
3. Main Dish Salads
There are days when it’s so hot out that your body doesn’t crave warm food. It wants, refreshing light foods like salad. Not your little iceberg lettuce side salad kind of deal but a full on main-dish salad packed with vegetables, protein, and healthy fats.
4. Homemade Ice Cream
Is there a sweeter pleasure (pun totally intended) in life than making homemade ice cream while sitting on the back stoop? I still remember my grandpa’s vanilla ice cream straight from the old-fashioned churn.
Nowadays I fully embrace my electric ice cream maker with little remorse. Sure you miss out on the nostalgia and muscle building work out but it’s ready in much less time plus you don’t have to buy ice or rock salt.
There are so many almost healthy variations you can make from traditional vanilla bean to triple-mint cookies and cream, and chocolate coconut milk with brownie chunks.
5. Running in the Sprinklers with Your Kids
When it’s hot out the grass needs watered anyway, you might as well have some fun with it. Cool off and make memories at the same time.
6. Going Bare Foot
Um, hello! Grass tickling your bare feet is practically a must when it’s hot out. Our feet need to wiggle around and enjoy the freedom to frolick without socks and shoes before the cooler months set in again.
Plus, there are health benefits!
7. Catching Lightning Bugs
Is there memory more magical from childhood than catching lightning bugs, or fireflies if you please, as it became dark?
I live in California, but I was born in the heart of the Midwest. Many summers of my childhood were spent in Missouri visiting my grandparents. My cousins and I would run around as evening set in trying our best to capture a few bugs in our hands and watch them glow.
As an adult, I still find joy in them. I can sit on the back porch for an hour watching them flicker, and maybe catch a few too.
Regardless if you have kids or not, if you live where there are lightning bugs go out and enjoy them.
8. Explore Your Area
Warm weather is the perfect time to be a tourist in your own area! Museums, the zoo, and all sorts of other fun locations are just waiting to be explored.
9. The Library
On sweltering days who wants to spend time outside? Take advantage of a hot day and go to the library. Enjoy the air conditioning while discovering new friends on the shelves. Most libraries have programs for kids and adults that you might want to check out.
10. The Movie Theater
The movie theater has always been something I have reserved as a special treat. On a balmy day why not pick out a special movie you or the kids have been wanting to see? Like libraries, movie theaters are generally air conditioned for your fine comfort.
11. Wildflowers
A vase full of wildflowers always brightens the room! I love the simplistic beauty of a few flowers picked in a field (or the side of the road) displayed in an old mason jar.
12. You-Pick Farms
You-pick farms are loaded with produce this time of year. Blueberries might grow in your area, or maybe peaches do. Find an online directory for what is available near you! Since you are picking yourself, the prices tend to be better, and it can double as a fun outing.
13. Sitting on Your Porch
Sitting on the porch often seems like something out of Anne of Green Gables that people just don’t take time for anymore. Treat yourself to a tall glass of honey-sweetened lemonade, watch the kids play in the yard, and try to get in a few pages of your current favourite book. Or you can get back to your roots and snap green beans for dinner.
14. Diffusing Essential Oils
When it’s hot out, fill your home with aromas that will energize and refresh you! Citrus essential oils like lime, grapefruit, sweet orange, and lemon are a perfect place to start.
15. DIY Pedicure
Hot weather equals flipflops which means your toes are going be showing most of the time. Treat yourself to a DYI pedicure. Scrub your feet with this Sea Salt Exfoliating Foot Scrub and paint your toes a fun color.
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