Summer isn’t just a season, it’s a feeling.

It’s in the scent of herbs warmed by the afternoon sun. It’s in the sound of a screen door creaking open. It’s the way time stretches like honey, slow and golden, inviting us to live a little softer, and notice the small things that make life beautiful.

In a world that tells us to chase more, do more, be more, I’m learning to choose less…but deeper. Summer reminds me how to live with intention. To walk slower. To savor things. To not just grow food, but to grow a life that nourishes.

Here are the kinds of things filling my days lately:

• Hanging linens on the clothesline and watching them dance in the wind
• Letting the sun tea steep on the porch beside a bowl of freshly picked mint
• Writing outside, the pages curling at the edges from humidity and joy
• Baking a honey cornbread that never lasts past the afternoon
• Pressing flowers between old book pages with my son
• Saying “no” to rush and “yes” to rest

And the most beautiful part? None of this is extravagant. These are things anyone can do. That’s the whole heart behind it all: making life feel magical through the everyday.

I think that’s what I’ve come to love most about cottage life…it’s not about escaping real life, it’s about embracing it. It’s about romanticizing what’s right in front of us and choosing to believe that simplicity isn’t lack, it’s abundance, just in a quieter form.

This summer, I’m not planning a packed calendar or striving to check off a bucket list. I’m curating a season of joy in small, meaningful ways. I want to remember the feel of warm strawberries in my palm, the scent of a thunderstorm rolling in, the way my son’s laughter echoes through an open window. I want to live inside the moments instead of constantly capturing them.

So I invite you to join me, wherever you are, however your summer looks, to slow down.

Hang that sun hat by the door. Pick your own bouquet. Write down what’s blooming, in your garden or in your heart. Light a candle in the morning just because it makes you feel good. Let your rituals be your resistance to the world’s fast pace.

Because your days are your life in miniature. And they deserve to feel like you.

I wanted to include a list of small things I’m grateful for this summer.

Sometimes it’s easy to overlook the good stuff when we’re busy or tired or stretched thin. But when I take a second to notice the way the laundry smells in the breeze, or the way the sky turns pink at the end of the day, something shifts. I feel more grounded, more present, more me.

We don’t have to do anything big to enjoy summer. We just have to notice it.

Here’s to a summer well-tended,
full of crumbs on the table and wildflowers in jars,
full of light, quiet joy, and the kind of magic that can’t be bought…only noticed.