Philadelphia - Summer 2016
A little background:
My husband started summer sales with a satellite company the summer before we got married. We've been doing it ever since (we are celebrating our 7 year anniversary this August!). A few years into it we moved to a pest control company and have been happy here! I don't see us going anywhere else.
My husband's day starts at 7:00 am when he gets out of bed. He runs a training meeting at 8:30 am then they head out to area by 10:00 am. I don't see him again until between 9:30 pm - 11:00 pm depending on the day. That is a lot of hours!
San Francisco - Summer 2011
I'm including pictures from all the places we've been because that is the number one perk to the summer sales life. We have lived and visited so many places and I love it! Another perk is the pay. Some days it's hard to keep the positive in mind when you've spent what feels like a million hours alone or used up all your energy dealing with kids as a pretty much single parent... but if I spend my time counting the blessings from summer sales, I tend to cope better :) If you need to, just remind yourself that it is only for the summer! Your husband is working insanely hard for 3-5 months so that he doesn't have to for the rest of the year!
Chicago - Summer 2012
2. Stay busy!
This will differ as a wife vs. a mom. But I think the biggest key to this is to plan your week so you don't end up just staying home day after day in a funk. As a wife: write your to do list and get it done! Don't just binge watch netflix (though the occasional day like that is totally acceptable!!). As a mom: plan outings to get you and your babes out of the house. Figure out what you'd like to get done for the day so you can balance to dos with any possible moments of relaxation.
Washington DC - Summer 2013
3. Find and develop hobbies.
As a wife, this is so incredibly important! You can only use up so much time cleaning, cooking and baking. Every single year that we did sales before we had kids, I worked for the company that my husband was working for as an office admin. And even still, it felt nearly impossible to fill up all the hours of the day. I'd exercise, I'd nap, I'd go to the pool, I'd cook and I'd bake cookies for the team, and even after everything I could possibly think of... it'd only be 6 pm. So incredibly devastating. It was important for me to find things that I enjoyed doing to fill up my time with rewarding activities and a little less netflix. Even now as a mom, I don't have as much time to do those things but they are still important to take care of myself. Doing things I enjoy is a way to recharge during nap time so that I can go back to being a mom for the rest of the day.
A few of my hobbies just to give a few examples: online scrapbooking, making family videos, blogging (or just writing in general!), reading, exercising (one year I was super into running, one year I was doing P90X, this year I've been doing Kayla Itsine's Bikini Body Guide, so the means of exercise may change but in some way I'm still exercising).
Ocean City, MD - Summer 2013
4. Get a dog! (...kidding, kind of :)
Tristan convinced me to get a dog our first summer after he spent two weeks in an area that was far enough away that they decided to stay in a hotel. It was torture! Getting a dog gave me something to focus on, training. And it also gave me some interaction, maybe not human interaction but interaction nonetheless! Taking the dog to the dog park was a way of making some of the hours of the day go by a little faster and it also was a place that I could talk to other people. I get that having a dog while moving around so much seems daunting but don't completely discount it just because of that. It's totally doable and worth it in my opinion!
St. Louis - Summer 2015
( I spy a baby bump...! :)
5. Make friends.
The first few summers I seriously struggled with this. I'm an introvert and quite shy so making friends isn't the easiest thing in the world for me. Add on the fact that there were literally zero other woman in the office, sales reps or wives, made it feel nearly impossible. The more recent years I've had other wives in the office and that makes a world of a difference. Plan fun things to do together. Explore the city you are living in. Go to the pool together. It's so much more fun to get out when you have someone to do it with and it's a lot harder to bail out when someone is counting on you :) If there aren't other wives in the office and you are LDS, make friends at church. If you're not LDS, talk to your neighbors, try to make friends while at the pool! If you have kids search Facebook for mom groups in that area, talk to other moms at the park or take your kid to reading time at the library and make mom friends there. I promise this alone will make or break your summer.
New York City - Summer 2016
6. Maintain your connections to home.
Whether that means talking on the phone with your mom or your best friends. Whether that means taking a trip home at some point during the summer (Tristan and I can't help ourselves, we always try to come home for the family Lake Powell trip!). Whether that means having family or friends come visit you (that's my absolute favorite!) Maintaining those relationships can help ease the loneliness of the summer.
New Jersey - Summer 2016
7. Take full advantage of your weekends.
From 6 pm on Saturday until we go to sleep on Sunday, Tristan is mine all mine :) I like to plan our weekends with lots of fun things so that we can maximize that time together! We do a lot of exploring the area around us (we'll drive as far as 2-3 hours for a day or if we stay overnight Saturday, sometimes further if it's to see some place amazing!) Plan fun date nights. Spend your Sunday laying out at the pool together. Whatever you enjoy doing together, do it! Get grocery shopping, laundry, etc... out of the way during the week while your husband is working so that you don't have to interrupt your fun weekend with must do tasks.
Santa Cruz, CA - Summer 2017
Overall, just soak it in. Soak in the extra time. Soak in the new places and the unfamiliarity. Because soon enough, you'll be back home. And for most people, this won't be your life forever :)
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