Magical Motherhood Monthly: How to Romanticize July (Without a Screen)
The July Edit: Little analog ways to reclaim your time, beat the heat, and fill your cup.
Welcome to the very first edition of Magical Motherhood Monthly! This is a new, light-hearted listicle series I’m so excited about. Each month I’ll aggregate little analog ways to reclaim and romanticize your time with low-cost, low-effort, screen-free ideas to help you step away from the digital noise, and actively make magic in ordinary days.
Whether you are looking for solo ways to fill your own cup or easy activities to do with your kids, these ideas are designed to help you lower your screen time and raise your creativity!
hobby ideas just for mom 🤗
🎨 Joy Journaling
If you’re anything like me, you probably hate tossing out the mountain of artwork that comes home from school or gets created on rainy afternoons. I love using those front-opening picture frame displays, but once they get full and it’s time to switch them out, what do you do?
Enter the Joy Journal. Take your kids’ old masterpieces down, cut out your favorite vibrant shapes or scribbles, and glue them into a blank notebook. Write a few little scrapbook notes next to them to capture the memory. It honors their creativity, clears the visual clutter, and gives you a beautiful, zero-guilt keepsake to flip through.
🧶 Mini-Knits
I have a few friends who have recently had babies (or have them on the way!), so I’ve been wanting to knit some handmade gifts. To skip the overwhelming pressure of knitting a massive baby blanket in the summer heat, I’m opting for monogrammed burp cloths instead.
Keep your yarn and needles in a small canvas pouch right by your favorite chair. They are quick to knit, highly portable, and you can finish them off by embroidering a sweet little monogram or patch. It’s a deeply thoughtful, low-stress baby shower gift you can chip away at while resting your eyes from the little screen.
🖍️ Monochrome Coloring Pages
You don’t need an expensive or complicated art setup to unwind. Grab a cheap, soothing monochrome coloring book and exactly one colored pencil or marker. By using a single color and varying your pressure to shade in the designated areas, you get a deeply relaxing, meditative activity for your hands with a gorgeous, high-contrast final result.
Low-prep, high-engagement activities to keep little hands busy inside.
🖌️ No-Mess Water Painting
A few weeks ago, I visited a Japanese peace garden attached to a WWII museum and spotted a Buddha Board (a specialized board you paint on with water that fades as it dries) in the gift shop. I thought it was such a genius idea for kids!
You can recreate this magic at home on a budget. Simply lay out some old flattened cardboard boxes on the floor then hand your kids a small bowl of water and a wet paintbrush, and let them paint mess-free designs!
Pro-Tip: On cooler mornings, you can take this exact same activity outside and let them “paint” the wooden fence or the concrete patio with water!
🌱 Windowsill Propagation
Don’t throw out your kitchen scraps just yet! Before your groceries go bad, turn your kitchen into a science lab. Take the cut bases of things like celery stalks, green onions, potatoes, or bell pepper seeds and pop them into small glass jars of water on a sunny windowsill.
Kids love checking the jars every morning to see if any new green shoots or roots have sprouted. If you don’t have veggie scraps on hand, you can do the exact same thing with clippings from your favorite houseplants!
💐 Grocery Store Flower Arranging
This is an absolute family-favorite activity in our house. On your next grocery run, let your kids pick out a few inexpensive bouquets (ask them what colors they think would look beautiful together!) and round it out with a filler like baby’s breath or extra greenery.
When you get home, put on some music, trim the stems, and work together to build tiny bouquets for their bedrooms or the dining table.
For Toddlers: If your little ones are too young for real stems and water, swap this for a trip to the dollar store! Let them pick out colorful faux blooms and a plastic vase. It’s a fantastic sensory learning activity they can do over and over again!
What’s making it into your July routine?
Do you have a favorite way to keep your hands busy and your phone tucked away during the summer months? I’d love to hear how you’re romanticizing these midsummer days in the comments below!
Love always,
Sarah
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