Friends, it’s time – and we are suspiciously on time for this year’s Summer Bucket List! My timeliness likely has everything to do with the fact that I’m writing this in the very wee hours of the morning. I’m up out of habit from the last 12 weeks postpartum, but here’s the thing: my baby seems to be sleeping through the night!? What is this!? What is this gift of quiet and dark and time: all-mine time? (Let’s disregard the fact that I should be sleeping.)
With these glorious, middle-of-the-night minutes let’s talk Summer Buckets. I’ve been making these summer lists for the better part of ten years (2015 // 2016 // 2017 // 2018 // 2019 //  2020 // 2021 // 2022 // 2023), though the blog record indicates that I’ve missed the last two summers as I was treading water in the deep end of fertility treatments and managing little emergencies at this very old house. But this year (!!!) with baby John over my shoulder, it’s time for a sweet summer and a list to make it so.
It’s dawned on me that this summer is not for John to remember so much as it’s for me to cherish. It’s for me to keep the vibes exceptionally, stubbornly high.
This year’s Summer Bucket List is also going to be a video series over on Instagram, so – lock in. We’re going to chase whimsy and joy, stay up with the sun, and otherwise make some really great days. Here’s what’s on my list, and I absolutely insist on hearing what’s on yours.
SUMMER BUCKET LIST sum•mer buck•et list (noun):  a list of things that a person would like to accomplish and experience during the summer months.  If done correctly, should involve water-guns, pool time, and possibly roller-skates.
Summer Bucket List, 2026
1 • Paint terra cotta pots for The Bakehouse with Mom Mom has been quietly carrying me this postpartum season with a long stay here in Texas where she’s momed me while I learn how to mom myself. I keep finding little corners of the house she’s tidied or organized while I wasn’t looking, something sewn, something sorted. There are small acts of her love everywhere – it’s the most incredible thing. One of our very favorite things to do together is craft and dilly dally, and we are going to do both – with acrylic paints and terra cotta pots for The Bakehouse.
2 • Churn a batch of homemade ice cream and eat our way through every artisan ice cream shop in Houston.  It’s not lost on me that the Internet At Large is having a fro-yo summer, but I’m out here sticking with the good stuff. Summer without ice cream is just… hot. I want to pull out the ice cream maker and churn a creamy summer strawberry ice cream (and incorporate basil somehow?), or a peach ice cream? The world is my oyster (though an obvious NO to oyster ice cream). And then (because I’ll always commit to a bit) I want to road trip into Houston and find every small-batch, handmade scoop situation the city has to offer. I’ll report back.
3 • Take John on his first plane ride and trip to California and put his toes in the Pacific Ocean. This one makes my heart squeeze just thinking about it. I grew up running at that cold California water, sand between my toes, guarding my lunch from the very aggressive seagulls on the beach. I want John to feel that for the first time – we’ll start small, by putting his four month old toes in the tide to christen him as a California baby born in Texas.
4 • Open the Little Free Bakery in Bellville. This has been on my heart for a while and this is the summer we make it happen! The idea is simple: a little free library, but made with my baked goods! My husband Will designed and built the box, I’m doing my best to get it painted (in the span of John’s naptime), and we’re nearly there! Bellville is such a kind town, I want to give something sweet back while I’m on maternity leave, before The Bakehouse Texas opens back up in September! (More details coming: follow @thebakehousetexas)
5 • Make a Strawberry Brita Cake I’ve been dreaming about this cake for weeks now, ever since I saw it in Susan Spungen’s Substack. Strawberry are fleeting (well, the good ones) and deserve the reverence of buttery cake and baked meringue. I’m not sure whether this cake comes together for 4th of July festivities or for a random Tuesday night though I’m inclined to throw an entire dinner party with this cake as the star of the show.
6 • Celebrate Will’s half birthday Hear me out – everyone with a winter birthday should experience the glory of a summer birthday by celebrating their half birthday this summer. Will’s birthday is is right around winter holidays and… it just never gets its due. Last year I made a half birthday cake (chocolate layer cake with peanut butter whipped cream and banana slices), finally shopped a birthday present for him, and there we were in full birthday mode on a random Monday in June. Highly recommend!
7 • Give away zinnia bouquets I planted a downright embarrassing amount of zinnia seeds this spring and they hit the ground ready to go! Zinnias are the most generous flowers. Even without a green thumb (and Lord knows I do not have one) they keep blooming their almost cartoon-ish colors as long as I keep cutting. I’ll be collecting bunches for neighbors and friends and likely stock The Little Free Bakehouse with them too…. yea, that’s how many I planted. LOL, hundreds.
8 • Eat a really good sandwich outside. Here’s a truth universally acknowledged: a sandwich always tastes better when someone else makes it for you. I don’t make the rules (and this summer I don’t make the sandwiches either). I’ve never had The Godmother from Bay Cities Deli in Los Angeles and I think that’s where this bucket list item begins and possibly ends. A classic Italian sub eaten outside in the California sun on the same trip I put John’s toes in the Pacific for the first time. Some days just write themselves.
9 • Love big. Everything. I write this one at the bottom of nearly every summer bucket list and I mean it every single time. This year it looks like: the wide toothless smile John gives me when I wake him from a nap. The way he tucks his head into my neck right before I lay him down. Love for the hot, steamy mornings (somehow). The slower afternoons. And come September when The Bakehouse opens back up and this little summer closes, I hope John’s in the baby carrier while we make pies. That’s the whole dream. Everything else is just details and hopes for cake, ice cream, and a really good sandwich.
What’s on your Summer Bucket List this year? Share in the comments below!
I hope you’re enjoying your days, friends.
My love to you.
xo Joy
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