Giving Your Best Life
Join Stephanie Jones aka Giving Gal, as she chats about “Giving Your Best Life"! In each episode, she shares intentional ways to give to yourself and others, how giving and gratitude changes your life and ways to go after living your big dreams and accomplishing goals.
Giving Your Best Life
Episode 116: Adventures Await: Your Guide to a Spectacular Summer
Ready to make the most out of summer? Learn how intentional planning and a "summer dream list" can transform your season from mundane to magical. Stephanie dives into her tactical approach to seizing sunny days in Northwest Indiana, a region where winters are notoriously long and dreary. By categorizing summer activities—whether it's home projects, physical fun, or quality time with loved ones—you can ensure every day is filled with joy and purpose. From hiking multiple state parks in one day to pizza and watching the sunset, Stephanie shares practical, often free or low-cost, ideas to inspire your own summer dream list.
Connect with Stephanie:
Get a free resource The 4G Method Journal here.
Shop Stephanie's books here.
Follow me on IG: @Giving_Gal or FB/GivingGal
Hey friends, it's Stephanie here with episode number 116 of Giving your Best Life, and I think I have a fun episode planned for today and hopefully you will take me up on this challenge that I'm going to put out there. And it's really a fabulous summer challenge. I have been doing this for I don't know how many years, but I will say that what I'm going to talk about today has really helped me get the most out of summer. I don't know where you live, but for me I'm in Northwest Indiana and the winter seems so long, so dark, dreary, cold, gray skies, that when summer comes, I don't care how hot it is. I get up so early. This morning I was up at like three o'clock Now. I didn't intentionally get up, I just couldn't sleep, so I was like get up. I didn't intentionally get up, I just couldn't sleep, so I was like get up. But some mornings I am up at four because it's like as much sunlight as I can get from morning to when the sun sets, these long days, which you know summer. Now we're counting down. Our days are getting shorter, even though it doesn't really seem like it, but anyways, how do we get the most out of our summer? It. But anyways, how do we get the most out of our summer and just like anything in life is one we have to be intentional.
Speaker 1:If you know anything about me and my giving journey giving a gift every day for 522 days is one of my like top things. I talk about on that giving journey and what made me successful of accomplishing the goal, which the goal was 365 days and I went beyond. That was being intentional Me one person looking to make a difference in one other person's life each and every day and intentionally looking for those opportunities. If we are not intentional with our day and how we spend our time, life just seems to pass us by and then you look up and you're like what the heck happened? Or where did the past X number of days, months, years go by? So I'm going to talk about how to have a summer dream list. Some people call bucket list. I don't like bucket list If you've listened to me, I've probably mentioned that before but a summer dream list that helps you be more intentional.
Speaker 1:That helps you be more intentional planning your summer, really thinking about how am I using this time? Am I doing things that I want to do? Am I doing things that are building relationships, building community. So I want to go over like things on my list just to give you ideas, um, and then I'll tell you a little bit of how I come up with this, just so you can be thinking about this. Also, as I was preparing for the podcast, I got to thinking is I? I kind of looked at my list and what I realized is I had seven categories. Um, so you might want to think about as you put together your summer dream list is these categories and be thinking about what could go in these categories.
Speaker 1:If you're married, this is something you could do with your spouse. You guys could work on this together. It'd be a great way to grow in your marriage and do something fun together to accomplish it and check some of these things off. And it's not this isn't, I always say is my dream list, is not about doing something and checking it off. It's about experiencing life, living life to the fullest. And it's about again, like I said, is not just looking back and going, oh my gosh, what have I done for the last season or whatever time period in life. This is an activity you could do with your kiddos. And the things on the list too, I want to say is they don't have to be these big things like go to Disney, if you're thinking about with your kids Now, for me, I do have one big vacation on here, but you don't have to. There are so many things in your backyard that you could do that you've probably never done, and a lot of it is free or low cost.
Speaker 1:On one of the previous episodes, zach was talking about when his kids were younger, is they just focused on the parks that were in the area, and there's so many parks that they hadn't went to. So, get creative, get creative. Think about things that maybe you've passed by, or just all. Every year you're like, oh, I'd really like to do fill in the blank. So I'm going to go over my list. Um, I get a pen and paper. This is hey, you're going to be active, right? These um, like, um, what do I want to say? Like groupings down, which is probably a better word for that. I probably used it earlier. Um, but then you know, fill in your own things, and maybe there's some of the stuff that I'm going to mention that you want to do. Put it on your list, um, and then I would love to hear from you about what is on your summer dream list.
Speaker 1:So for me, the seven categories are home, physical fun, friends, spouse, family and travel. So I'll give you some ideas in each of these and I kind of collect these over the year and some maybe from last year that I love doing. It's like that's staying on the list. I do that every year, but I want to be intentional of not forgetting about it and when I'm looking at my calendar and when I have an open weekend or an evening, it's like, oh, I can go do that. An evening, it's like, ooh, I can go do that, um.
Speaker 1:The other thing too is like you could start this list on your phone. Um, I love the iPhone because in the notes you know you got the little bubbles and you can check it off, um, and you can also start thinking about other seasons. So we're just talking about summer, but you could start on your phone, you know a um or a. Maybe you got a journal or wherever. You kind of document life stuff or things that you want to remember is you could put the other seasons down and, you know, start creating for the future also. But we're going to focus on summer.
Speaker 1:So I'll give you some ideas of what I have is in home. I have a hammock. It was up at our lake house and then, when we remodeled the house, it's been in the garage and my husband put it up for me a couple of months ago, and so I try to go out on the hammock at least three days a week. I just love it. It's so relaxing. I also this isn't on the list, but one thing that I've been doing a lot of research around is getting morning sun and just having your face in the sun in the morning and what it does for your circadian rhythm and your sleep. There's a lot of good benefits. Obviously, vitamin D is so good for our body, and so a lot of times I'll go out and get in the hammock when the sun's like shining on the hammock, killing two birds with one stone.
Speaker 1:Also, I've already started a container garden. That's something. I've had big gardens at homes. We just haven't done that. We've got so many critters around here that it just seems almost impossible. It's not, I know it's not. I honestly just don't want to put in the effort, and so that's what you have to think about. Also is like what effort do you want to put in? How much time do you have looking at budgets and your finances? So when we think about this dream list, is it's not something you're going to do, so you go in debt or you go broke. You know some things on the list.
Speaker 1:I've been planning for a while, I've been budgeting, I've paid for it and you might have a great idea and you're like you know what that's going to have to go on next year or two years from now, and so you can set a budget, you can start planning for it and you can pay for it without going in debt. I read an article the other day about how families are going in debt just to take their kids to Disney, and I don't talk about it a lot, but one thing I mean my husband and I, before Dave Ramsey came out, I feel like I was living the Dave Ramsey plan and we don't have any debt. You know we pay cash for everything. We don't make purchases if we can't pay for it, and so maybe sometime in the future if that's something you'd like to hear I'll talk a little bit about is you know money and how do you manage money and budget? Because then it allows you to do the things that you want to do, pay for the things that you need to pay for, and then sometimes you just have to be patient and, you know, put a little money away here and there.
Speaker 1:I had dinner with a friend the other night and it was interesting because she and her husband are going to do a trip. It was overseas, maybe England or something like that and she talked about how her husband got a second job I think bartending or being a waiter just so that he could save for this trip. And she said one thing that was interesting about it was they thought he was going to have to, like, have this extra job for two summers and really he was able to save what they needed in one summer. And she and I were having this conversation about isn't it interesting when you get focused on, you know, something that you want to do and you put your mind to it and you put a little extra effort into it is you can quickly one cut out expenses that maybe you need to cut out, maybe it's no longer serving you, no longer important. You can make decisions differently, like do I really need this? Why am I buying this? Why am I spending this money? But then also like if you're working extra, maybe you work a little harder but you work shorter. So, anyways, that's just a little sidetrack, but I was talking about the garden.
Speaker 1:And then one of the things I've never done this and I haven't been consistent yet, so I'm going to be very transparent is I've only done this one week, but I want to pick this up, especially as we start to see more food available from farmer's markets is I want to meal plan around food that I can get at the farmer's market, so it's local. I'm supporting small businesses, I'm supporting small farmers in our community. I meal plan on Sundays, so what I'll do is go to the market on Saturdays, see what they have available, buy what I think you know my husband and I would like could be meals, and then do meal planning on Sunday and then have our food for the week. Obviously, I'll probably still have to go to the grocery store and get some things, but I love this idea of just shopping and supporting our local farmers. The other thing, too, is the week that I did this is, you know, our grocery bill went down, because sometimes I'll do Instacart and I love purchasing that way because I don't get distracted when I go to the store, end up buying, but also in Instacart, though, I can see what I've previously bought. So it's like ooh, yeah, that was good, and sometimes I might fill my cart with a little bit more things that I don't really need. Same if I go to the grocery store. I don't go to the grocery store that much just because Instacart saves me so much time. But you know, going to the farmer's market you're really limited on the food and so even though I might pay a little bit more for like my meats or my fruits and vegetables, is probably not going to spend as much as if I went to the store, to Instacart. So you might want to think about that, and if you have a local farmer's market of, maybe you could put that one on your list.
Speaker 1:The next one on my list is physical. So I always want to make sure Zach and I talk a lot about this is, you know, part of giving your best life is you have to be healthy, you have to be taking care of yourself. You guys know I've had a major battle health over the last two to three years, and if you don't have your health, you don't really have anything. You can't do anything. You couldn't do a lot of the things that are. I couldn't do a lot of the things that was on my summer dream list, and so one way to keep me working out and to keep me moving is to have physical goals, and so I have three.
Speaker 1:One I actually wrote a social media post on this was to hike five state parks in one day. That was my mom's goal. Another one of my friend's goal is she wants to go to all 24 state parks in 2024. And so we knocked that out. We did 10.5 miles, but having that goal got me moving because I was like, oh my gosh, we're going to be walking, hiking. A lot I want to do. I've slowly got back into running and I'm so slow, so slow. It's very humbling as somebody who ran competitively, but I would love to do a 5k, a charity 5k. So if you know of a charity that's local to Northwest Indiana and they're doing a 5k this summer, I'd love to know about it. And then I want to go kayaking. So I used to kayak all the time when we had a lake house and just haven't done it that much. I have a kayak and would love to get it in the water somewhere. So physical.
Speaker 1:Number three is fun. I like to think of things that are fun that doesn't cost a lot and I can do locally. So one of my things is going to the drive-in. I haven't done this in a couple of years but I love it. It always seems so nostalgic. It reminds me of my childhood. We had a big drive-in theater where I grew up, but it was funny. I was talking to my cleaning lady the other day and she took I think it was her daughter and some of the friends is. I'm like I might not have to rethink this goal. I don't know about you, but the movie starts so late and she said like the second movie wasn't going to be over till like one, I think it was Friends.
Speaker 1:Some nights I go to bed at nine o'clock, especially if I'm getting up at four in the morning. Five in the morning is I'm going to bed early. So, um, I might have to take a nap so I can go to the drive-in and then a picnic. I love going on picnics. Um, I don't know if they still do this, but if you're in Northwest Indiana, anderson's winery, um had where you could do picnics there and I think, get the food. If I remember get some wine.
Speaker 1:My girlfriend and I did this last year or the year before. We had a fabulous time. I mean, it was hot Probably should have went on a cloudy day, but it was just fun. We had fun having a picnic, you know, putting a blanket out, sitting out there and just having a good chat. So that's something, and that could go into other categories. So that's the other thing, is some of this. You could swap around in categories because besides fun that could, that's something you could do with your spouse, your boyfriend or your girlfriend. You could do with family and you could do with friends, like I talked about. I did it with one of my girlfriends. Speaking of friends, that's another category and I have started a book club, which that started before summer but it's continuing summer. We just had another one and if you're Northwest Indiana and you're interested, you should join us for the book club had somebody show up that hadn't even read the book. That's okay. We're all about like fellowship, growing our faith and having some good food. So that's something that will continue through this summer.
Speaker 1:But for me, one of my girlfriends has a lake house and she's invited me there, and so I have to be very intentional, though. She and I talked about this, but we just haven't, like, looked at our calendars, put it on the calendar, um, and then you know me, go over there and spend a weekend. So I want to do that, so that's friends. And then, um, actually under friends, I don't have this on my official list, but some of my girlfriends we are they're going to come up here. They don't live around here, and so they want to come up here and just do a girls weekend. That will be great. We're trying to get it scheduled. There's always so much going on in life. Again, you have to be intentional and just you know, keep at it. We've been texting the dates and with this work and with this work, so think about how you're spending time with your friends.
Speaker 1:Number five for me I am married and so I have a spouse, my hubby, and one thing we love to do is go up to New Buffalo and have dinner on the rooftop at Stray Dog, and then we love just to walk around New Buffalo. I love to get ice cream at Oinks, and so think about your spouse. Like I said, plan that with them. And then the other thing my husband and I love to do is get pizza and go up to Lake Michigan and watch the sunset. So get pizza, go up there and watch the sunset. Again, it's a cheap date, cost you the pizza and we have a park pass, so it doesn't even cost us anything to get in the park.
Speaker 1:And then next one is family. So this would be like my mom, my dad, you know this could be with your sisters, your niece, nephews, whatever. Fill in the blank, whoever your family is, it doesn't have to be blood. You know, a lot of people consider people family that are friends. They're kind of more than friends. But I've always loved going on a four-wheeler ride with my dad and going on a run with my mom. And then we did that big family weekend where we did the five hikes or five state parks in one day, and that was with my mom and my dad and my sister and my niece. So that was a really fun day.
Speaker 1:And then the final one is number seven, and this is travel. So on my list we are doing a trip to Montana and visiting Glacier National Park and doing some things in Montana, and this has been on my list for years. So if you look at my big dream list, I have a goal of spending the night in all 50 states and I'm down to three left, so Montana, south Dakota and New Mexico, and so this is the summer. I am checking off Montana Now. I've been to Montana because when we went to Yellowstone, but for me I don't count it unless I spend the night.
Speaker 1:So I would love to hear I know everybody has different rules of how they count their state, like some people are, like I just have to drive through it and that counts, um other people are, they have to have like a meal, um, or have some type of experience there that is like relevant to that state. So I would love to hear from you of what is considered a state when you can check it off your list. So, friends, I hope you found this fun, informative. This is how I'm going to be spending my summer, being intentional, and this is just another way because you think about it. This is a way that you can give to yourself, you can give to others, be grateful for the warm, the long days, the sunshine, the things that we don't get in the winter, and just really take in all the beauty and everything that God has given us. And, friends, this is just another way that you can get to giving your best life.