With tomorrow being Independence Day in the good ol’ US of A, I thought I’d take some time and think about about how we can celebrate our own independence. Right now I’m on summer break, so most of my days are spent alone. It’s not so bad, but sometimes I get bored and sometimes there is only so much TV I can watch. Obviously I sometimes do other things, but right now I’m really into the “relaxing” part of summer. It’s hard because I feel like I’m on for nine months out of the year, so the change to summer is always an interesting transition.

If you don’t know what it’s like to be a teacher on summer break: sometimes I have to force myself to leave the house at least once a day.

Some days are more productive than others, obviously. I’ve managed to workout or run almost every day which is kind of a big deal for me. Sometimes summer brings a twinge of depression which basically stems from me not having anything to do and my mind getting away with me. It’s fun finding things to stay busy, though, and here are a few things I’ve been doing.

Crafts

I don’t tend to be a super crafty or patient person, but I’ve recently been in the business of making little button portraits of my favorite characters. I can listen to a book or binge watch a show while I work with tiny buttons and a lot of glue.

Thrift Stores

I’ve been in the market for a new bookshelf for my classroom and I’d rather grab something secondhand than something brand new. Of course, when I can’t find what I need, I find things I want. Like some cute new shoes or a final book in a trilogy I was collecting.

Workout

I touched on this earlier, but I’m having a lot of fun with the Nike Training Club workouts in my garage. They have a great variety of different workouts for different levels of athletes.

Movies

The only movie I’ve seen this summer is Avengers: Endgame and I’m okay with that. I love going to the movies alone and matinee prices are always a little bit better than regular movie times.

Parks/Beach

Living in South Florida we had no shortage of nature preserves, parks, and beaches. The heat index has been at least 100-110 these past couple of weeks, so I haven’t really been outside much.

Reading

Last summer I started an book club on Facebook and picked that up again this summer. We’ve already read one book together and are getting ready to start a new one. I read a lot of books during the summer and I usually blog about them over on my book review blog. It’s nice to have someone to talk about the book I’m reading with.

Those are a few things that I’ve been trying to work on.  I’m  still managing to be lazy and not do much of anything, however!

Oh, and naps. I take a lot of naps.

What are some things you do alone or to take care of yourself?