​​ 5 Holiday To Dos You Can Check Off in June [Episode 31]

Welcome to the Holiday Head Start Podcast, where we get intentional about kicking overwhelm to the curb and bringing the joy back to your holidays and every day. I’m Heidi. And I’m Emily. We’re two sisters and former elementary school teachers who’ve taken the simple strategies and practical tips we mastered in the classroom and put them to work in our personal lives.

 

And we are here to help you do the same. Join us each week as we share how with a little planning and a little prep, you can ensure that the days that make life special don’t become the days that make you stressed. You can check out the show [email protected]. Ready to get a headstart on your holidays.

 

Let’s go.

 

[00:00:53] Heidi: Hey there, friends. Welcome back to the Holiday Head Start podcast. Today we are talking about five simple things. You can check off your holiday to-do list now that it’s June.

 

But first we have a tradition Spotlight Traditions are an important tool in building a healthy, happy, connected life. This week, Heidi has a fun summer tradition idea.

 

Yes,

 

[00:01:13] Heidi: I saw this on Instagram. I thought it was such a fun idea. I had to share it. So if you follow pop culture at all, you know that people are always talking about what the song of the summer might be, and they’re speculating and making all their options. So the idea is to choose your own song of the summer.

 

[00:01:29] Heidi: You could do this for yourself, but it could also be a lot of fun for your family to choose a song that becomes your anthem for the summer. And you know, you could even start a playlist that features your summer songs, pull it out each year, add the new one each year, and it just becomes a little memory that grows with your family.

 

[00:01:44] Heidi: I. Well, you know, Heidi loves a

 

playlist. That is very true, but this actually sounds like so much fun. I’m totally gonna do this with my kids, although there’ll be a fight because Eloise only wants Benson Boone right now, and that is making Neil hate Benson Boone because Eloise is playing it nonstop. But it would not be an accurate playlist without some Benson Boone on there.

 

So,

 

[00:02:04] Heidi: well, maybe everyone gets to have their own song of the summer and your family can have a three or four song.

 

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I guess the, yeah, that’s the question is do we all add it all into a playlist that every year we add more to, or is every year you make a playlist?

 

[00:02:20] Heidi: Oh, that could be fun too. I think adding to it each year would be fun.

 

[00:02:24] Heidi: ’cause you can Yeah. Relive like, you know how we feel so nostalgic every time American Pie comes on because, oh my gosh. The summer

 

[00:02:31] Emily: road

 

trips. Okay. Actually I’m gonna do two. We’re gonna have one playlist that we’re gonna add to. Okay. We’re gonna do two, so I’m gonna do one that’s a growing playlist and we have to all agree on one song for the song.

 

This is the song of the summer.

 

[00:02:46] Emily: Okay? Then we’ll

 

also have a summer 2025 playlist. That we can have more than one song on oh’s. Perfect. And we can each pick a certain number or something. So

 

[00:02:55] Heidi: it’s like a little snapshot of your summer. Yes. I love it. Can’t wait to see what makes a list.

 

[00:03:00] Heidi: Maybe I’ll get to add something. Maybe

 

we’ll

 

[00:03:02] Heidi: see.

 

I’ll think

 

[00:03:02] Heidi: about

 

it.

 

[00:03:03] Heidi: Put some Enya on there. That’s it. You’ll get banned from

 

the playlist. We’d love to hear what you choose as your song of the summer. Come join us on Instagram at the holiday head. Start

 

[00:03:15] Heidi: now this episode comes with a code red warning, meaning if you’re listening to this around any little ears, you may want to put in some earbuds just in case.

 

[00:03:24] Heidi: Yes.

 

Don’t say we

 

[00:03:25] Heidi: didn’t warn

 

you. So we are well into June, and that means we’ve got six months until December.

 

[00:03:32] Heidi: Okay? That is not to make it sound like time is running out because it is not. We have loads and loads and loads and loads

 

of

 

[00:03:39] Heidi: time.

 

And hopefully if you’ve been keeping up with your monthly tasks, you’re at least a little bit ahead of where you normally are at this point in the year.

 

[00:03:48] Heidi: But even if you’ve only gotten one thing done that is still worth celebrating, progress is progress even if it’s small.

 

So let’s celebrate that. But now that we’re moving into the second half of the year, we can focus more on concrete tasks.

 

[00:04:02] Heidi: Yeah. We started here focusing on reflecting in January and February.

 

[00:04:05] Heidi: In March, April and May, we worked on dreaming up our holiday ideals. Now in the summer season, we can dig in with making our actual plans.

 

Now this probably isn’t the moment to send out the invitations to your ugly sweater party, but there’s a lot of planning we can get out of the way this month.

 

In fact, we’ve got five simple holiday tasks that are perfect for June. Heidi, why don’t you tell us about the first one?

 

[00:04:29] Heidi: This is a big one that can save you lots of time in December and I’m really excited about this. So now that there are six months until Christmas, you can make in freeze cookie dough and freezer meals without worrying about freezer, bird ruining all your hard work.

 

[00:04:44] Heidi: Yeah.

 

Assuming you

 

[00:04:45] Heidi: have the space in

 

your freezer to store things for six months. Of course.

 

[00:04:49] Heidi: Yeah. That’s always the problem. But you can probably store a couple batches of cookie dough, even in the smallest freezer.

 

[00:04:54] Heidi: If you make sure that you’re laying the bags flat, just make sure that you are labeling everything clearly so that you can unearth it when the time comes. I have made that mistake and yeah, I’ll remember what this vaguely brown bag is full of. I did not remember.

 

Yeah, it’s probably a good idea too, to keep a list somewhere of what you have in the freezer.

 

Yes. So you remember to go get it out and find it, unearth it and go cook it. And if you’re really on top of it, you could even bake some goodies ahead of time. Most cookies freeze well even after they’re baked, but they do take up more space to store that way. Plus you have to heat up your house to bake them, and

 

[00:05:32] Heidi: that’s not really something I wanna do this time of year.

 

No, it’s too hot for the oven right now. But even just having the dough out of the way will be a huge relief.

 

[00:05:41] Heidi: Just double check that whatever recipe you’re using can be frozen. Most dough really does fine in the freezer, but you need to watch out for something that’s like a meringue based dough. In the show notes, you will find a link to an article that breaks down all of the do’s and the don’ts of freezing dough.

 

And I was just thinking if you’ve got teenagers, you could totally have your teens freeze some cookie dough for you during the summer.

 

[00:06:03] Heidi: That is brilliant. Give them something to do and get.

 

That,

 

[00:06:08] Heidi: that’s

 

like some ninja level planning. It’s my favorite kind of planning task. One I can assign to someone else that’s perfect.

 

Who needs something to do because they’re a

 

[00:06:18] Heidi: teenager in summer and it’s actually helpful. So yeah, wins all around. Okay, and what is our second June

 

task? Well, let’s keep on the food theme and talk about menu planning. You might not know all the ins and outs of your holiday meals yet, but unless your situation is changing a lot from last year, you can probably guess at some basics.

 

So, for example, people will need something to eat on Christmas morning

 

[00:06:40] Heidi: and also on Thanksgiving morning. That’s an easy one to overlook. Do what you can now to make at least a rough draft of possible holiday menus.

 

Working this far in advance, it’s easy to let unsettled details hold you back, but try to push past that feeling.

 

Use what you do know to plan as much as you can. The worst case scenario is you draft a Christmas Eve menu and then you don’t end up using it, and maybe that means you lost 15 minutes.

 

[00:07:05] Heidi: But on the flip side, by sketching out menu ideas, now you gain some peace of mind during a stressful time. To me, that is well worth a 15 minute risk.

 

One holiday situation that you can probably count on is the week after Christmas. Unfortunately, people are going to insist on eating during that time when you will likely be very tired. The nerve of these people. I know, right? So our third tip is to plan your non-holiday meals.

 

What’s something easy you can serve on December 23rd?

 

[00:07:35] Heidi: Maybe your plan is just to order pizza so that you’re not stuck cooking or cleaning up that close to the big day. And that’s a great plan. Just write it down where you’ll remember that you made that plan.

 

And it’s so nice too, knowing like the decision is already made. Oh

 

[00:07:48] Heidi: yeah.

 

Such a relief. And you could go above and beyond and buy yourself a gift card to your favorite pizza place. And then not only is the planning done, but it’s already paid for.

 

[00:07:58] Heidi: That has a peak productivity hack right there.

 

[00:08:01] Heidi: If your kids are gonna be home for winter break, can you do something now to figure out all of the extra lunches and snacks? Could you throw together some crockpot meals and toss them in the freezer along with all that cookie dough you’re baking? Then on December 27th, all you have to do is grab a

 

bag and you’re all set.

 

If you haven’t done much batch prepping in the past, June is a great time to dive into it because the pressure is off. You don’t have to have everything figured out yet. You can just dip your toes in and see how it goes. If

 

[00:08:29] Heidi: you have been following along with our monthly tasks back in April, we suggested listing all of your fourth quarter grocery needs, this can be a great place to start.

 

[00:08:39] Heidi: Looking over that list might help you spot some food situations that could benefit from some extra attention ahead of time.

 

You can find that grocery needs list in the holiday headstart playbook. There’s also a whole bunch of pages to help you make your baking plan. If you’re wanting to freeze any dough now check out the show notes for a link to the playbook.

 

All right,

 

[00:08:58] Heidi: this is where the code red comes in, so pause now or put the air buds in

 

since it’s just the grownups now. Right?

 

Our fourth get ahead task for June is to figure out your ELF plans.

 

[00:09:11] Heidi: Now, I know you definitely don’t wanna be thinking about this now, but if a certain little visitor from the North Pole arrives and adds to your December headaches, this is the moment to get ahead of that problem.

 

We have a whole system for making the elf more manageable.

 

The key is to make different tiers of elf setups, gather your ideas and categories them by how complicated they are. The easiest is just moving the elf to a new location. You can up the fund by adding a prop if you really want to. Wow. You can create a whole elf scene.

 

[00:09:41] Heidi: Mix up how often you do each type of elf setup to keep expectations reasonable.

 

[00:09:47] Heidi: This is the key to the whole thing. That way when you forget to move the elf until 2:00 AM it’s not gonna be strange if your child wakes up and finds that it has just moved rooms. Nobody wants to be cutting out toilet paper snowflakes or freezing bowls of cereal at 2:00 AM Just don’t set yourself up for

 

that nightmare.

 

We dive into this in detail back in episode 10, so make sure to check it out if you want all our best tips and tricks. And you can grab our elf planner with our holiday headstart playbook if you want. Lots of lists and calendars ready to go.

 

[00:10:19] Heidi: And that brings us to our fifth get ahead tip for June, which is to make your minimum upkeep plan, or as I like to call it, your mop.

 

[00:10:27] Heidi: We talked about this in a past episode as well. So check out episode 13 for all of the details.

 

But if you need a refresher, your minimum upkeep plan breaks down the amount of work it takes to keep your home in a livable state. We’re not dusting baseboards here. We are just keeping everything more or less clean. And guess what? There are a whole bunch of pages in section nine of the holiday Head Start playbook to help you figure this out.

 

[00:10:51] Heidi: Start by figuring out what your definition of a clean home is. Next, you list all of the tasks necessary to maintain that comfort level of cleanliness, and then you choose what type of cleaning schedule works best. Given your time and

 

energy based on what type of cleaner you are. There are pages in the playbook tailored to helping you figure out your best cleaning schedule.

 

[00:11:14] Heidi: This is the perfect June task, and I want to grab you by the shoulders and shout. Do this now because you won’t want to do it later.

 

Yeah. Cleaning around the holidays can be a huge source of stress. There’s so much to get done and nobody is moving fast enough, and even though you just mopped, the kitchen floor is already a mess.

 

And it looks like we live here and the guests are almost going to show up right now. I can’t handle it.

 

[00:11:40] Heidi: It’s so hard to show up as the best version of yourself when it feels like every single person in your home is making your life harder. Mm-hmm. And I just would like to say to everyone, it is not your fault.

 

[00:11:51] Heidi: I live alone and I cannot manage to stay on top of it all. So those of you who are sharing spaces are fighting a losing battle. There’s no way to win it.

 

Well, thank you for acknowledging that. . So make life a little easier for your future self by figuring out your minimum upkeep plan.

 

Now, if you wait until December to figure this out, it’s going to feel too hectic to stop and reflect on what should happen. You’ll end up defaulting to your past patterns of coping however you cope in a way that I’m sure doesn’t involve yelling or threats, or just living in mess. Oh, no, of course not.

 

[00:12:25] Heidi: I bet you could pause this episode right now and make your minimum upkeep plan in 10 minutes. Think how happy you’ll be on December 15th when you can just pull out the list that you have already made and know exactly what tasks need to be done when, so that your household doesn’t fall apart, or all of your hair doesn’t fall out from trying to keep everything together.

 

So those are our five. Get ahead tasks for June. Make and freeze cookie dough. Draft holiday menus. Plan the non-holiday meals that fall near the holidays. Schedule your elf antics.

 

Make your household’s minimum upkeep. Plan.

 

[00:13:00] Heidi: We would love to hear what you are working on this month. Connect with us on Instagram at the holiday headstart.

 

Now it’s time for a get a Head Start tip. Each week we leave you with a small actionable tip to help you get started on your holiday planning. This week’s get a Head start tip is wash berries and hot water.

 

Tell us more about it, Heidi.

 

[00:13:19] Heidi: Okay. I know this isn’t really a way to get ahead, but this is such a handy tip for summer and I have not seen it talked about in a lot of places, so I had to share. So there are lots of tricks online for how to clean berries with baking soda or vinegar or special berry sprays or combinations of all of those things.

 

[00:13:35] Heidi: But I came across a trick last year that suggests using hot water, I was skeptical at first ’cause it doesn’t seem like berries could withstand that. But I have done it several times now and it has worked great. So in the show notes, there’s a link to a New York Times article from 2009 where food scientist Howard McGee explains how to do all this.

 

[00:13:56] Heidi: But if you don’t have a subscription to the New York Times, there’s also a link to an article on the kitchen with the same directions. And I actually think kitchen article’s a little easier to follow. Anyway. Basically, as soon as you bring the berries home, you just heat some water for a quick dunk. So for strawberries, it needs to be 125 degrees Fahrenheit.

 

[00:14:12] Heidi: The water from my kitchen faucet gets about that hot.

 

[00:14:15] Heidi: While the water is heating, I have a whole system now. I put the strawberries into the basket, little like colander liner thing of my salad spinner. And when the water’s hot enough, I fill up the bowl of the salad. Spinner in the sink,

 

[00:14:27] Heidi: and then I just dunk that basket full of strawberries into the bowl for 30 seconds. Then all I have to do is lift the basket back out and dry the strawberries on paper towels. The same process works for raspberries and blackberries. He also says you can clean blueberries and stone fruits the same way, but the temperature needs to be 140 degrees.

 

[00:14:43] Heidi: And I haven’t tried it on those two, so I can’t vouch for that. But the other berries work fine. Once everything is dry, you can store them in the fridge and they are gonna last way longer than they will with other cleaning techniques. ’cause you’re actually killing all of the mold. Well, I am impressed. I mean, I have to give it a try.

 

[00:15:01] Heidi: It’s a whole science experiment. But I’ve been really impressed and he talks about the experiments he did to test this out, and the berries that had actual mold growing on them, when he did it the next day, it didn’t have any mold on them anymore, so Wow. Does seem pretty effective.

 

[00:15:16] Heidi: Crazy. Yeah. So let us, let us know how that goes. Yeah. Okay, Emily, let’s share what we are working on this week as a way to keep ourselves accountable and give you some ideas that we can do in advance for your own celebrations. We’re gonna share our to-do list. Emily, what have you got going on? I’m

 

getting ready for my son’s birthday.

 

Aw. Turning 12 and he has already been planning out like a minute by minute of how he wants his birthday to go.

 

[00:15:43] Heidi: I’m not surprised it’s

 

cracking me up. It’s heavily related to the food he wants to eat at each meal and then what we’re gonna do in between. So it’s gonna be a fun day.

 

I am excited for him and he has been saving up his money to get a Nintendo switch to, and I am paying for a small portion of that. He actually really is paying for almost all of it. But he doesn’t know yet that I was able to find one. And he doesn’t listen to this podcast, so I can

 

[00:16:10] Heidi: say, I was talking to him today and I’m like, oh, what do you want for your birthday?

 

[00:16:14] Heidi: And he told me and I was like, oh, those are really hard to find, knowing full well

 

that you already had one. That I have been maintaining that very firmly and I keep almost slipping to when he talks about it and all. Like almost act like, yeah, yeah, we’ll do that when you get it. And then I’m like, no, no, we have to have to maintain the facade.

 

Yeah. I hope we can get one. And I have to say I got so lucky getting one because they have been hard to find. But I found a thread on Reddit where people were updating when they found one so somebody posted on that thread that there was a website that had restocked it, but you couldn’t find it unless you search for it by item number. And that worked. Added it to my cart, came a few days later.

 

Oh, birthday miracle. Yep. I was so relieved too, ’cause I did not have the time to be running around to stores every day checking for restocks, which is how a lot of people were getting them. So anyway, that’s what I’m working on, is getting ready for that birthday. Oh, he’ll be so excited. What are

 

[00:17:10] Heidi: you working on, Heidi?

 

[00:17:12] Heidi: Well, I’m doing a pivot. I wasn’t gonna do this until I saw the forecast this week. So tomorrow’s supposed to be 102 degrees, but over the weekend, it’s supposed to be down in the seventies. Ooh. And I thought, oh my gosh, what if I made sugar cookies? Where? Christmas. That’s a great idea. In the middle of June.

 

[00:17:32] Heidi: I’ve never been that on top of it. But this might be my moment. I think this could be your year. So I bought the tube of Pillsbury cookie dough, because I’m hard not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Where in my head it’s like, well, I have all this extra time.

 

[00:17:46] Heidi: I got six months. I could just make the dough from scratch and it’s not like I have a signature recipe or anything, but, I’m just gonna let the easy be the win for this.

 

[00:17:55] Heidi: Yeah. Make some cookie dough. ‘Cause I So you gonna bake ’em then and then just raise them already baked? Yes, because I know myself, I know myself, it’s the rolling out of the cookie dough and having to cut out all those shapes. Oh, 100%. That the worst part of Yes. Of sugar cookies. That will be the part that breaks me.

 

[00:18:12] Heidi: Mm-hmm. So I have to do that now. That’s smart. And my freezer’s pretty full, but I can make it work. I need some people to be my boss and hold me accountable. ’cause I know when Saturday rolls around, I’m not gonna wanna do this, but I have to, I have to do this.

 

[00:18:26] Heidi: Future self will be so happy. All set a

 

reminder in my phone and then I’ll

 

[00:18:30] Heidi: yell at you. Bully me excessively.

 

[00:18:33] Heidi: Last year I put it off so long, I just ended up grabbing a cookie kit from the store. And they were so bad. Yeah. ’cause they’re probably months old and

 

they have the worst kind of frostings, in it that are gross and like stain everything.

 

Those kits are just a nightmare. So yes, you’re gonna be so smart to do it early. To wrap up the show, we are sharing what’s on our nice list. Emily, what’s on your nice list

 

[00:18:56] Heidi: this week?

 

I am putting my new collapsible laundry baskets on my nice list. They are from Clever Maze and I got them on Amazon. They come in a set of two, which is great because you always need more laundry baskets.

 

And the thing that I love about them is they fold truly flat when you’re not using them. And if you’ve tried other collapsible laundry baskets, especially the kind that kind of have like a, what would you call it, like. Silicone sort of, is that what you call it? Those do not go flat.

 

These go flat. And also I feel like a lot of collapsible laundry baskets are too flimsy or they’re just too bulky. This is like the Goldilocks of laundry baskets. It’s perfect. I love it so much. And I’ve been using it for several months now and they’re a hit. Well, that’s great to hear. They hold up.

 

What’s on your nice

 

[00:19:43] Heidi: list, Heidi? Well, I just finished listening to John Green’s new book. Everything is Tuberculosis. Now, if you know John Green, he has such a gift for taking heavy topics and finding a way to shine a light on the human heart at the center of it all. I kind of think of his books as like a stained glass window with lots of little pieces, letting in the light and all these separate pieces

 

[00:20:04] Heidi: don’t make sense separately, but then you see this beautiful image overall. And this book was no different, we really take for granted how much of history has been shaped by tuberculosis. It’s killed more people than any other disease, which is just astounding to think about.

 

[00:20:19] Heidi: And tragically, even though it’s been curable for 60 years, more than a million people a year shall die of it. It’s really a sad topic and really heavy, but he is really able to write about it in such a way that it’s still very life affirming. And I know you’ve listened to it as well,

 

Emily. Yes, I loved it.

 

It was so good. I mean, John Green just makes anything easy to listen to and digest, and he. Makes it human and it doesn’t feel totally hopeless even though it could feel hopeless when you hear about all the hard things that are going on just now with tuberculosis. But I really found the book to be inspiring and motivating.

 

Yeah, same. Excellent. I mean, it’s not much of a beach read, but I think everyone should read it.

 

[00:21:01] Heidi: Yes. Should be required reading. That is it for today’s episode. Get started on your task for June, and don’t forget our tip for cleaning your berries in hot

 

water. Thank you so much for joining us, and we hope to see you here next week.

 

If you enjoyed this episode, it would be so very helpful if you gave us a five star rating and review on Apple Podcasts.

 

Thanks for tuning in today. Use this week to get a headstart on planning for what’s ahead. And remember, don’t get it perfect. Get it going. Come follow along on Instagram at the holiday headstart. We would love to hear from you. If you liked this episode, head to Apple Podcast and leave us a review. We’ll see you here next week.