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A softer, slower season — intentionally.
There’s something that happens when you stop waiting for summer to be a big event and start letting it be a daily experience instead.
I used to treat summer like a destination — something that would really start when we went somewhere, did something, had something planned. And then this year I caught myself sitting on the porch with my coffee at 7am, the light coming through the trees in that golden early-morning way it only does in June, and I thought: this is it. This is the thing I was waiting for.
So I’m romanticizing it. All of it. The ordinary Tuesday mornings. The slow evenings. The nothing-on-the-calendar days. Here’s what that actually looks like.
It starts with a real morning
I’ve been guarding my mornings this summer like they’re sacred — because they kind of are.
No phone first thing. Coffee first, always. I switched to the Nespresso Vertuo Pop+ a few months ago and it changed the whole ritual. It’s fast enough that I’m not standing there waiting, but making it still feels intentional — choose a pod, listen to it brew, smell it. I take it out to the porch if the weather cooperates, or I sit by the living room windows where the light comes in early and bright.
This is my time before the day has any opinions about itself.
Getting out — but doing it slowly
Romanticizing summer doesn’t mean staying home. It means going places with your whole attention on.
I’ve been doing more farmers market mornings — showing up early, taking my time, buying whatever looks beautiful even if I don’t have a plan for it. My husband and I have been doing more Sunday drives with no destination. And I’ve been saying yes to things that feel low-stakes and lovely: a new coffee shop, a walk somewhere I haven’t been, an afternoon at a farm stand just because it’s there.
The bar for a good outing this summer is pretty low: good company, no rush, something worth noticing.
Slowing down long enough to write it down
I’ve always been someone who thinks better when I write — I just stopped making space for it somewhere along the way.
This summer I’m bringing that back. I picked up a LEUCHTTURM1917 notebook and I’ve been using it loosely — not journaling in any structured way, just writing down what I noticed, what I’m grateful for, what I want more of. Sometimes it’s two lines. Sometimes it’s two pages. There’s no rule. There’s something grounding about writing things down by hand that I forgot I needed.
The evening wind-down I didn’t see coming
A few months ago I added a Hooga red light reading lamp to my nightstand, and it quietly changed my whole end-of-day routine. It clips right onto the book, gives off a warm red glow, and the whole time I’m reading it’s supporting melatonin production and doing light therapy on my face and hands. I didn’t change anything else — I just swapped the lamp. And I sleep better, my skin looks better, and the reading-before-bed habit finally stuck because the setup is so simple.
The most effortless wellness habit I’ve added in years.
What romanticizing summer actually means to me
It doesn’t mean everything is perfect or picturesque. The house is mid-renovation in two rooms. Some days are chaotic. Some evenings I’m tired and I do absolutely nothing and that’s fine too.
What it means is that I’m paying attention. I’m choosing things that make the ordinary feel a little more like mine. I’m letting Tuesday morning coffee feel like a small celebration instead of just a caffeine delivery system.
This chapter of life — the one where my daughter is launched and the house is becoming what we always wanted it to be and I’m starting to figure out what I actually want — deserves to be romanticized. Summer is as good a time as any to start.
What’s one thing you’re doing this summer just for yourself? Tell me in the comments.
Shop This Post
- Nespresso Vertuo Pop+ — the coffee ritual upgrade
- LEUCHTTURM1917 Notebook — hardcover, beautiful, worth it
- Hooga Red Light Reading Lamp — the sneaky wellness habit
- Daily Skincare Favorites on Benable
For my full daily skincare routine, that post is here →
