What’s up, One Degree Fam?! It’s finally summertime, so let’s kick it off by telling you everything on our summer bucket list! Hope it helps you think of some things you want to do this summer too. This is a bit more light-hearted and fun of an episode, so let’s dive in!

1. Have a baby

If you haven’t heard, I (Xan) am having a baby any day now… We’ll let you know when he’s here!

2. Visit Xan’s grandparents

My grandparents are getting older and we’ve been talking about visiting them for a long time. They live in Pennsylvania, and there will probably not be a convenient time, so we don’t want to push it off any longer!

3. Camp at a National Park with the kids

We’ve gone to National Parks with them before, but never camped at one! We would love to go to as many National Parks as possible. We’re thinking about Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota because it has more room and less people. Or maybe Rocky Mountain, but the high elevation would make that difficult with a baby. Eventually, we would love to take the kids to Big Bend, but maybe in the future.

4. Keep up with our 1000 Hours Outside goal

Similarly, we want to continue to prioritize spending time outside with our kids! 1000 Hours Outside promotes kids spending time outside- they have a website with resources, Facebook groups, trackers, etc… They even have a plan for people with harsh winters (AKA- us). It’s honestly kind of hard to maintain up to 5 hours outside a day, but we’re trying to make the conscious choice to spend more time outside. (Honestly, it’s also been a fun challenge for me (Xan)).

5. Teach Emmy to ride a bike

She’s four years old and loves riding her bike with training wheels. She’ll whip it around and often bikes up to two miles!

We’ll see how it goes!

6. Potty train Verity

This has been a long time coming and it NEEDS to happen. Verity is just so stubborn- she has peed on the potty and know how to do it! She just keeps telling us that she won’t do it until she’s three… 🤷‍♀️

7. Canning in the garden

I (Xan) would love to learn how to do this with the produce in Nathaniel’s parents’ garden. (Nathaniel is scared about botulism though, haha).

8. Honor the Sabbath and keep it holy

We used to be very consistent in this practice for a few years, but have let it slide when we first moved to Wisconsin. Now that I’m (Nathaniel) working full-time, we decided that we need to have a whole day set aside to Sabbath and rest in the Lord.

9. Pick a new hobby together

We have some ideas: maybe pickleball (super trendy)? Plus, it’ll help with trying to be outside more and it’s something active!

10. Take an RV trip with Nathaniel’s family

We’ve already done a few RV trips with my (Nathaniel) parents and they have been so fun! We would love to do our trip to Big Bend in the RV someday.

One Degree Shift

Let us know what you’re doing this summer!

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