How did we make it to the halfway point of 2026!?! To celebrate that accomplishment, I want to share all of my June 2026 things.
I hope my list of June 2026 things gives you tips, product recommendations, maybe a recipe you want to try, and a little peek into my life as a busy mom in the summer.
June 2026 Things
Food & beverage
We are starting off my June 2026 things with my favorite topic: food! As always, I have plenty of food-related things to share.
Old Standby – Pigs in a blanket
Pigs in a blanket are one of those meals I love having in my back pocket. They are a great easy vacation meal, a perfect on-the-go dinner, and a weeknight, no-recipe wonder than can actually save dinner when you need it to. It’s easy to always have the ingredients on hand, so I always do!
Favorite New Recipe – Gnudi
I must confess, I had never heard of gnudi before I tried to make it this month. I’m happy to report that it was a success! My kids inhaled it! Mid-meal, my daughter even turned to me and said, “I actually like this, Mom!” If you have picky, cheese-loving kids, give this one a try!
Biggest Food Fail – Freezer meal
Every once in a while, I’ll get the meal prep bug. I just double the recipes I’m going to make for dinner for a week or so and pop the second batch in the freezer for later. This is usually a great system so I can cook extra when I have the time and then rely on my freezer stash when I don’t. Unfortunately, I had a bad experience with a freezer meal this month. I grabbed a freezer meal out of my stash, thawed it overnight in the fridge as directed, and then gasped when I went to remove the foil to throw it in the oven. Tiny pieces of tin foil had stuck to the food. So much for that meal! The only positive is that I’ve learned how important it is to use heavy duty foil when making freezer meals. I won’t make that mistake again!
Dessert – Icebox cake
I am a real believer in no-bake desserts when it’s hot outside. The less I have to turn on my oven in the summer, the better! The highlight no-bake dessert from June has got to be Sally’s Baking Addiction’s Easy Berry Icebox Cake. My kids had a ball assembling it and we all really enjoyed eating it! Give this one a try if you’re looking for no-bake desserts that just taste like summer.
Beverage – San Diego craft beer
We took our big family summer vacation to San Diego in June and had a blast! My husband and I like beer, so we always seek out local craft beer wherever we go. San Diego was no exception. We had three local beer drinking opportunities during our trip, and I’m happy to report that we didn’t have a bad beer while we were in San Diego! I think my favorite brewery of the bunch was North Park Beer Company, if I had to chose a favorite. More on the San Diego beer scene coming up in my trip report, which should be my next post here on Sara in Season.
Books
My book journey recovered a little bit in June. It’s not back up to where I was at the beginning of 2026, but I hope I’ve turned a corner. I’m going to focus only on physical books here this month because I basically listened to one long audiobook all month (and I’m still not finished!). So, without further ado, here are my book-related June 2026 things.
Best Physical Book – The Wedding Party
Gosh, I love a good Jasmine Guillory rom com! Even the bad ones are still delightful. Luckily for me, The Wedding Party was not a bad one! This is as flirty as flirty gets and was just a fun airplane/vacation read. It fits in nicely with its sister books, The Wedding Date and The Proposal (both of which I also really liked). Give the whole series a read!
Not My Favorite Book – Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
OK, don’t hate me. I know that Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin is beloved by many and certainly gets a ton of hype. And although I agree that there is beauty in this story of two friends coming of age, it just didn’t resonate with me. I’m going to blame the video game premise, which is a super foreign concept to me.
TV
What with a work trip and a big family vacation, I didn’t have time to watch much on TV in June. There is one June 2026 TV thing worth mentioning, though.
Tucci in Italy
We had a series of flight delays on our way back from San Diego, which allowed my son and I to start watching a series, Tucci in Italy, on Disney+. I love Stanley Tucci (I’ve sung his praises on this blog before), especially how he loves food. So when I saw that he made a series where he went through the regions of Italy and learned about the food specific to each, I figured it was a good way to pass the delay time. I really loved it and was surprised by how much my 6-year-old son got into it too. Maybe he’ll be a foodie when he grows up and decides to eat more than chicken nuggets?
Clothing
I wanted to highlight the clothing-related June 2026 things that have proven to be workhorses in my wardrobe. These are truly MVPs.
T-shirt dress
I’m not a huge dress person, but when I find a good one, I wear it to death. Last year, I bought a simple little tiered t-shirt dress from Walmart for basically nothing, and it has proven to be an absolute winner. It might just be the perfect dress. I wear it out to dinner, to church, to run errands, as a swimsuit cover-up to the pool or beach. This dress does it all! And for less than $12, you can’t afford not to buy one.
Utility shorts
I mentioned in my recent summer mom uniform post that I go through phases of my preferred shorts style. Lately, I’ve been all about a looser, drawstring style. They just hit the right mark for me as an almost 40 mom of young kids. I’ve been especially impressed with a pair of Eddie Bauer utility shorts that I bought from BJ’s Wholesale. In fact, I was so impressed by the navy blue pair that I went back and bought a khaki pair.
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find them on ye olde internet to link them. If you’re a member at BJ’s please go in store and see if you can find them. The closest pair I could find that I can link is this pair from Kohl’s, but I haven’t tried them so I can’t vouch for them.
Hat
I am a baseball cap person, especially in the summer. It keeps the sun off my face without being fussy like so many women’s hats can be. But, it can be hard to find a good baseball cap that fits well and looks nice. Well, I found one, and it was totally by accident. I was ordering a Father’s Day gift for my husband from Life Is Good and needed to spend a little more money to qualify for free shipping. I went directly to the clearance page and selected a mama bear hat in a beautiful blue color that got me over the hump and called it my birthday present to myself. Shockingly, this little impulse purchase is the perfect hat. I absolutely love it. If you need a new baseball cap, browse the Life Is Good website!
Products
Most of the random products that made the cut for my June 2026 things post were travel related. I mean, we took the longest flight and trip with our kids that we have ever taken. Travel items were important!
Zip pouches
I love a pouch for organization! This holds true in my daily life, but especially when I travel. On trips, everything gets assigned a pouch. Clothes get packed in packing cubes, toiletries get shoved in toiletry cases, and everything else gets shoved in a zippered pouch. I particularly love these cheap mesh zip pouches that come in a multipack with a variety of sizes. In fact, I think I need to order another bundle!
Ear buds
I can’t believe I haven’t talked about ear buds on one of my monthly round ups yet! These little suckers are such a constant in my life that I guess I’ve started taking them for granted. Well, that stops this month! Ear buds are far from a novel item to share, but they are fantastic! I love them for travel, of course, but they are also great just in my daily life. I pop them in to listen to a podcast while I’m walking the dog, to listen to an audiobook while I’m making dinner, and to listen to music while I’m folding the laundry. They’re ever-present! I have the classic Apple AirPods, but there are a ton of great options out there.
Clorox wipes
I am not a Clorox wipes person in my normal life, but I am a devotee when I’m traveling. The first thing I do when I board an airplane is wipes down the tray table area with a Clorox wipe. When we stop at a public restroom, the Clorox wipes come out again. Because I use these predominantly when I travel, I am partial to buying the little packs that can easily fit in my personal item. You can pick them up in the travel toiletry section of your local big box store.
Experiences
June was packed this year! We had lots going on to start the summer, but I’ll stick to the highlights of my June 2026 things.
Birthday
The first week of June was a doozy, capped off by my last birthday in my 30s. My 39th birthday also happened to coincide with the last day of school for my son, so much needed to be celebrated this day! So, to celebrate, we went out to dinner with our neighbors (and friends!). We ate good food, drank good beer, and had good fun!
Family vacation
This year, we headed to San Diego for our family vacation. It was the absolute perfect destination for our family this summer. Our kids are 6.5 and 4, and they loved every single activity we did over our six days there. If you have kids around the same ages as mine, I highly recommend looking into taking a family vacation to San Diego!
Father’s Day
We had just returned from our vacation this Father’s Day, so we kept things pretty low-key. I made breakfast (French toast) for my husband, then we went to look at paint samples for our basement bathroom before heading to my brother-in-law’s house for a family get-together. He had a good day!
Kid stuff
If you don’t have young kids, feel free to skip my kid-related June 2026 things. But if you do have kids at home, keep reading!
Paint by stickers
I have found the perfect screen-free travel activity for 4-year-old girls! Before our trip to Great Wolf Lodge Sandusky over Spring break, I bought my daughter a paint by stickers book. She loved it, so I knew we had to take it with us on our cross-country flight to San Diego. And thank God we did! She was happiest when she was working on her paint by stickers book, especially when we experienced a ton of delays on our way home.
Rubik’s cube
My 6-year-old chose a Rubik’s cube as his souvenir when we were on vacation this month, and he has been obsessed ever since! For now, he’s having fun messing with it, but I’m hopeful that it’s teaching him critical thinking and patience in the long term.
Spray sunscreen
I must admit, I’m not typically a huge fan of spray sunscreen. It feels wasteful and it doesn’t evenly apply the sunscreen for maximum protection. But, in an effort to teach my son a little independence, I bought some spray sunscreen so that he could be in charge of his own sunscreen application. So far, it’s working! He has managed to apply his sunscreen as needed and hasn’t gotten a sunburn, so I’m calling spray sunscreen a win!
Blog posts
Let’s round this June 2026 things post out with the most popular blog posts of the month! If you missed any, I’m leaving links below for easy clicking.
What were your favorite June 2026 things? Share down below or over on Instagram @sarainseason!