The Analog Summer Challenge

An Analog Approach to Presence, Nostalgia, and Everyday Summer Joy

I’ve been thinking lately about how summer used to arrive with a bang.

As a teenager, the last day of school and the slam of locker doors. Yearbooks passed around. Someone actually saying, have a rad summer. Walking out of our air-conditioned school and into a wall of hot Arizona air, released, knowing an adventure was surely waiting to happen.

Waterparks. Mini golf. The scent of piña colada sunscreen. Music playing through rolled-down car windows, cruising.

These days I crave foggy, moody Pacific Northwest weather. But back in the day, I loved the Arizona nights, warm pavement, staying outside for hours because the air itself felt electric.

Me and my daughter, circa 2003

When my daughter was little, I wanted to create a magical summer vibe for her too. There were summer camps circled on the calendar. Trips to the fair. Pool towels drying on the porch rail. The jingle of the ice cream truck drifting down the street. Collapsing into bed at night, sun-warmed and exhausted in the best possible way.

Even if your version of summer looked different, you know the feeling. Summer wasn’t just a season. It was a mood. A personality. A vibe.

Now my daughter is grown and somewhere along the way, the seasons started blurring together. Adult life can do that, I guess. A Tuesday in February can feel strangely similar to a Tuesday in July when your days are mostly experienced indoors — work, screens, responsibilities that never really pause for the weather outside.

As an adult, maybe we have to create summer on purpose now. We have to reclaim it.

And maybe that matters more in midlife, when the years can start slipping past at an alarming speed! When nobody is handing you a school calendar and saying: here is summer, cherish it.

Now we have to be the keepers of our own seasons.

Sooooooo I want an analog summer!

A summer rooted in presence. More sensory. More deliberate about joy. More intentional about slowness. Rad slowness! I want fewer invisible days.

Here Are A Few Things I’m Doing to Bring Back That Nostalgic Summer Vibe

Not to recreate childhood exactly. Not purely for nostalgia’s sake. Just to remember that summer is supposed to feel a little different than the rest of the year.

1. Eating Outside

Now this might sound obvious but despite how much we love eating outdoors, we just don’t do it enough! The smell of charcoal, watermelon juice running down your wrist, lingering outside until the golden hour.

2. Stopping At Roadside Farm Stands

Stone fruits and berries, paper sacks of cherries to eat in the car with the windows rolled down.

3. Creating A Signature Summer Drink

Last summer Bert perfected his lemonade recipe and we had all sorts of versions. One party we decided a watermelon cocktail would be interesting and little did we know that 1. Watermelon schnapps tastes exactly like a Jolly Rancher and 2. it’s disgusting lol.

4. Keeping A “Summer Soundtrack”

Dairy Queen and the windows rolled down, the radio on, driving the back roads home.

The Summer 2026 Mix. What will our playlist be this summer? A little time capsule made of music and memory.

5. Making Summer Food That Only Tastes Right This Time Of Year

Nothing says this like TOMATOES! And I say that in ALL CAPS because it is important. :)

Tomato sandwiches especially.

Corn on the cob.

Super ripe peaches.

Watermelon eaten leaning over the deck.

Popsicles!

My all time favorite mango salad.

A big part of claiming the summer vibe for me is the summer menu. Keeping it seasonal.

6. Buying Flowers At The Farmers Market

Every week, even just one small bundle. Bringing the seasonal colors indoors, so the house feels like summer too.

7. Choosing A True “Beach Read”

We all know about the quintessential summertime “Beach Read” but as I write this I find myself asking what exactly is the criteria to be a “Beach Read” anyway? I guess I’ve never chosen a book with that specific criteria in mind!

So I need a Beach Read for my beach trips this summer! Something to read with sand in between my toes and an iced tea in my hand.

Do you have any suggestions?

8. Taking Drives With No Destination In Mind

With weekends so often swallowed up by errands, chores, and endless to-do lists, taking an afternoon simply to meander can feel almost rebellious! To drive without a destination, wander through a small town bookstore, stop for an iced coffee, linger at a roadside fruit stand, or even to just take the long way home just because the light is beautiful. This summer I want to leave room for more spontaneity, curiosity, and the joy of unstructured time.

9. Listening To Music Outside

Last year Bert and I decided we would make it a point to see at least one concert outside every summer. There’s something transcendent about outdoor music, sitting under the open sky as the light fades, warm air carrying the sound across the crowd, collective effervescence!

10. Letting Things Be Unoptimized

I think part of what made summer magical when we were young was that I wasn’t trying to maximize it, multitask, get stuff done, check off my to-do list.

We wasted whole afternoons. We got bored. We biked around the neighborhood with our friends. We floated in a pool doing absolutely nothing. For hours.

I can’t remember the last time I did that, had a stretch of accounted for time to just relax without my to-do list pulling at me!

I want a little more useless happiness this summer.

11. Creating Physical Evidence That My Epic Summer™ Actually Happened

I was looking through my scrapbooks to find photos for this post and it’s just such a different experience to flip through hardcopy scrapbooks than to scroll through photos on my phone.

Printed photos. Postcards. Handwritten notes, receipts, evidence. I don’t want this summer to exist only as a blur inside my phone.

So I’m curious, what would your version of an Analog Summer look like?

What are the small, ordinary things that would help you actually feel this season?

And more than that, how might you actually begin? What is one thing you could do this month that would make this summer feel a little more... alive?

P.S. We have a lot of seasonal printable freebies on our website but none for summer! How did that happen?? So I’m working on a summer journal for you guys and will release it in one of the next newsletters. Sign up for our newsletter so you don’t miss it!

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This Post Is Part of The Analog Life Project

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