Summer 2021 Recap (all the fun + photos!)

Sweet treats, more exercise than ever before, and lots of first-time experiences. My summer was amazing.

It also flew by, though. It’s crazy that it’s already time for another school year!

Today, I want to give you a peek into the things that happened this summer (with plenty of photos!).

In this post, I listed 5 things I wanted to do in the summer that I had never done before. You all loved it, but now it’s time to see if I actually accomplished my goals. In all, I did 4 of the things I wanted to do. I did more nail painting at the beginning of the summer and didn’t read a verse novel, but I got a lot of other things done that weren’t even on my list. So, here are the things I did from that list, along with some other things I did this summer! I’m making this list so I can remember the things I did in the summer of 2021 and also hopefully inspire you all to get out there and try new things.

Got my First Paid Writing Job!

I wrote an article about why children should blog and how to make the overall experience go smoothly, and it was accepted to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine! It felt really good to write something I’m proud of and get paid for it. The only hang up: they planned out so far in advance it won’t be published until Autumn/Winter 2022. 😂

Participated in My First Triathlon

This was so much fun. If you want to read about how it went, check out that blog post here.

Made Stuffed Cookies 😋

In my list of new things I wanted to try, I mentioned I wanted to make stuffed cookies, and ohh boy, they were delicious. The ones with cream cheese and chocolate chips were the most popular, but both tasted better frozen.

Sang the National Anthem in Public

I had never sung in public besides a few choir performances years ago, so this was way out of my comfort zone. A friend and I sang the National Anthem to open the championship swim meet (of course we had to choose the one with the most people attending 😆), and it went really well! The only thing that went wrong: the microphones were really cheap, so they couldn’t handle the high notes. XD

Ran 140+ Miles (June 1-August 12) and Did Swim Team

This was a very active summer for me. I swam most days and ran afterwards when I could. I had swim meets, lots of biking, a splash-and-dash, swim practice, and some cross country conditioning in between. Cross country started officially about 2 weeks ago, so a lot of that summer mileage has been pretty recent. The great news is that all the work is paying off, and my times have improved a lot! Which leads me to my next thing…

Broke My 2-Mile Record…

…by one minute and two seconds!! I missed the team time trial because I was out of town, but I had my brother pace me on a bike path near our house. It was painful (especially since I did it after a day of travel and dinner), but I was so happy to get such a huge personal record (or what we call a PR 😉).

Edited a Friend’s Novelette and Got It Published

At the very beginning of the summer, I did some baseline edits for a friend’s book and helped her get published on Amazon. I was very excited to help another writer, and I’m really excited to see where her passion for writing takes her!

Reached Almost 300 Followers

Between my email list and WordPress followers, I’ve almost reached 300 followers! Thank you all so much for supporting me!!

(And if you aren’t following me yet and like content like this, please consider helping me get all the way to 300! XD)

And a little bit of transparency here: I thought of removing the count on the right of how many people are subscribed vs. who unsubscribed, but I decided to share it. It’s important to realize some people will lose interest and unsubscribe. That doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a bad writer or blogger– they might just not fit your audience/content anymore. Don’t let “unfollows” get you down!

Visited my Great-Grandmother

My great-grandmother is 91 years old, but before this summer, I hadn’t spent more than several hours at a time with her. This time, my family and I stayed at her house for 3 days, and I really enjoyed getting to know her better. She always has and always will be a inspiration to me.

Landed a Flip on the Trampoline:)

Random, but I was happy to finally land it. 😋

A Few More Random Photos

(other people’s faces cut out for privacy reasons 😉)

Let’s Talk!

What did you do this summer? Is there anything new you tried or did? I would love to hear from you!!

If you liked this post and would like to see more like it, sign up for my email list . Also, be sure to like, comment, and share!! If you haven’t checked out my podcast, check it out here or on Spotify! Love you guys! ❤

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