Well, we made it! We are halfway through 2025. To celebrate that accomplishment, I want to share all my June things from 2025.
I hope my list of June things gives you tips, product recommendations, maybe a recipe you want to try, and a little peek into my life as a busy mom.
June Things 2025
Food
We are halfway through 2025 and I still love food. I have a sneaking suspicion that will always be the case. If you read my monthly wrap-ups for the food, you won’t be disappointed this month. I have plenty of food-related June things to share!
Old Standby – Grilling
OK, so I’m starting off my June things post with a bit of a cheat because I just couldn’t choose. We have been grilling dinner as much as possible this month. Hamburgers, hot dogs, steaks, chicken, pizza – you name it, we have grilled it. If you have access to a grill and you’re not using it at least a few times a week, this is your nudge to start and make grilled food your July go-to.
Favorite New Recipe – Caprese Pesto Chicken Burgers
Of course, our favorite new recipe in June was a dinner we grilled. If you’ve read any of my food-specific posts, you know that I tend to gravitate towards Sally’s Baking Addiction when I’m baking. Although the vast majority of her recipes are sweet, she does have some savory recipes and they’re great too! My kids have been into burgers lately, so when I saw her caprese pesto chicken burger recipe, I knew we had to try them. I’m happy to report that they did not disappoint! They were easy, delicious, and just tasted like summer. My kid even asked me to make them again already. Give these a try if you want to mix up your burger nights!
Biggest Food Fail – Chicken & White Bean Enchiladas
The kids’ activities continued into June (tee ball for the boy and dance for the girl), so I had to meal plan accordingly this month. That meant a lot of on-the-go meals and meals I could make on my lunch break and just heat up whenever we could make it to the table. One of the new make-ahead meals I tried in June was Skinnytaste’s chicken & white bean enchiladas. Now, I thought these were delicious. But my chicken-hating son, my bean-hating husband, and my spice-averse daughter all had different opinions. If you don’t have picky eaters, I recommend trying this recipe. If you do, maybe skip this one.
Dessert – Frozen Root Beer Floats
I love to bake, so usually my favorite dessert is something I’ve made from scratch. This month, however, was a little different. My family found a frozen treat that we can’t get enough of, so I had to include it with my June things. The frozen treat in question is Barq’s Frozen Root Beer & Vanilla Ice Cream Float tubes. I found them at Aldi and bought them on a whim, and boy am I glad I did! I love them, my kids love them, my husband loves them. If you can find these at an Aldi near you, buy a box (or three!).
Snack – Hummus
I don’t know why, but I’m always super into hummus when the weather warms up in the summer. Sure, I eat hummus year-round, but my consumption really increases from June through August or so. There are lots of really great store bought hummus options out there in any flavor you can imagine, but if you’re local to Pittsburgh, I highly recommend getting your hands on Pitaland hummus and pita chips. My whole family is obsessed. We usually grab them at our town’s farmer’s market, but they also have a location in Brookline and several items (including my beloved hummus and pita chips) have started to appear in our neighborhood Giant Eagle.
Books
I’m happy to report that I’m back on the reading horse and have books to share in my June things post! In fact, as opposed to last month, I only have good things to say about the books I read this month. Huzzah!
Best Book of June – More Than Words
After finishing the slog that was The Night Watchman, I needed a book that was the complete opposite and something firmly in my comfort zone. I love a romance novel that is anchored by other themes, especially ones that include some sort of family drama. Jill Santopolo’s More Than Words fit the bill exactly, so I was excited to read it. And boy did it cure what ailed me in the reading realm. A little bit of romance, a little bit of family drama, and a whole lot of a woman realizing who she is. If this sounds like something you’d like, I highly recommend!
Best Audiobook – I Feel Bad About My Neck
If you’re looking for a chuckle and you’re a woman of a certain age, please listen to Nora Ephron’s I Feel Bad About My Neck. It’s an older book (published in 2006), but that didn’t dampen its ability to make me laugh out loud. The audiobook is narrated by Nora herself, who reads it extremely dryly, which adds greatly to the humor.
Media
I was back on my book game and on my TV and movies game in June. Baseball is really the only sport on TV now, so watching live sports isn’t on my list of June things to distract me from Netflix.
TV – North of North
I stumbled upon a cute little 30-minute program series on Netflix about a woman living at the top of the world in Nunavut, Canada called North of North. I knew nothing about the show, but the premise sounded cute and I love variety in my TV viewing. I am so glad I chose to watch North of North! It’s hilarious and warm-hearted and exactly the escape I need after I get my kids to bed. So glad they renewed for a second season!
Movie – Nonnas
Vince Vaughn plays a man who loses his mom and decides to open a restaurant with Nonnas (grandmas) as the cooks with his inheritance. The idea (based on a true story) is cute and the Nonnas are hilarious, but Vince Vaughn movies that make you cry should come with a warning. Just be prepared and have your tissues at the ready.
Clothing
I’m really trying to update my wardrobe regularly, so I have some clothing favorites in my June things too. Not a lot (I’m no fashionista), but a few.
Outfit
If you read my blog regularly, you know that I have become obsessed with gauze clothing this summer. I have just about every article of clothing they make in a gauze fabric and I wear them all the time. One item rises above the others, though, and it’s a surprising one. I’m not a jumpsuit person. I own exactly one, but boy is it a good one. This gauze jumpsuit is perfect. It dresses up, dresses down and looks great while feeling like pajamas. You need one.
Shorts
It finally started feeling like summer toward the middle to end of June where I live, which meant it was time to start living in shorts. I have lots of shorts that I can wear, but I wear one pair more often than any other – jean shorts. And not just any jean shorts. The Weekend Short by Seven7 is the perfect pair of jean shorts. For me, anyway. I have bought mine (I own two pairs) at Sam’s Club and BJ’s Wholesale. If you don’t have a membership to either of these stores, they are extremely similar to Old Navy’s OG Straight 5” inseam jean shorts.
Rain jacket
April showers turned into May showers and June showers where I live, so we’ve been soggy for months. I’ve had to use my rainy day essentials nearly every day, but the G.O.A.T. when it comes to rain has been my Columbia rain jacket. My exact jacket isn’t being sold anymore, but it is very similar to the Switchback II Lined rain jacket. If you don’t have a good rain jacket, you should get one. They come in handy when you’re having daily monsoons.
Shirt
I’m going to cheat again here. I don’t have a single shirt that I’m wearing on repeat, but the common thread running through all the shirts I’m wearing is that they don’t require a tuck to look nice. Y’all, it’s just too hot to tuck in your shirt on a regular basis. That’s especially true if your air conditioner gives up on you like mine did in June. Whether you have A/C or not, find your perfect no-tuck tops and put them in rotation.
Products
The products section is usually where I share the random June things that I can’t live without. Get ready for some whiplash, as there is no common theme tying these hero products together.
Pool bag
When my husband and I went on our honeymoon to Hawaii eight years ago, we were gifted a pool bag by our first hotel. We used the bag throughout our time in Hawaii and then for the next eight years anytime we needed a bag to tote things to the pool or beach. Unfortunately, in May of this year, I noticed that this champ of a bag had developed a hole in it. With the dawn of pool season around the corner, I needed a new pool bag, fast. I did my typical hours of research before I buy basically anything, and landed on the Simple Modern XL Getaway Bag. This thing is awesome. It fits all the pool toys, all the snacks, all the towels, and all the changes of clothes. Worth every penny.
Box opener
A few years ago, I added a slice mini box opener to my husband’s Christmas stocking. It has sat there stuck to the fridge ever since, but I largely forgot it existed until recently. When a box came in the mail, I would grab scissors or a knife, just as I did for the previous 30+ years of my box-opening life. But my 5-year-old has insisted on opening any box that arrives lately, and I didn’t really want to hand him scissors or a sharp knife and let him go to town. That’s when I remembered the slice. It’s small enough that he can easily handle it, and its retractable safety blade means he’s not going to slash an artery. If you have kids with burgeoning independence, you need to get one of these!
Fan
As I mentioned above, we were without air conditioning for several days in June. For most of the time we were without air conditioning, we had power, so we had ceiling fans, but they could only do so much. That’s when I remembered I had an oscillating fan that my parents had bought me when I was in law school and living in an apartment that had the worst climate control possible. I dug that puppy out of a closet and breathed a sigh of relief. I could work at my desk without sweating to death – hooray! The moral of this story is that you should have an oscillating fan buried in a closet just in case. It’s worth the investment to have one in case of emergency. The fan I have is no longer being sold, but this looks nice and a whole lot sleeker than mine.
Experiences
What’s a monthly wrap-up without highlighting the experience-based June things that truly made this month special? I don’t know because we aren’t going to find out.
Birthday
I have a June birthday, so the highlight of my June things was my birthday. I’m long past making a big deal out of my birthday, but we did get to celebrate a little bit. The weekend before my birthday, my husband and I got to go out to dinner at my favorite local brewery, Cinderlands. Then, on my actual birthday, the brewery theme continued with an afternoon beer at a newer brewery and then dinner at a third brewery with the kids. Can you tell I like to try local craft beer?
The only unfortunate part of my birthday this year was that we witnessed a car accident directly in front of us on our drive home. I called 9-1-1 and my husband jumped out to make sure the people involved were OK. My kids were traumatized for days, but I used it as a teaching opportunity for the importance of knowing how to call 9-1-1.
Dance class
My 3-year-old daughter has had her first extracurricular activity this month – a 4-week introductory dance class. It is so cute. She loves to wear the little sparkly leotard and ballet shoes. She’s still about as coordinated as a llama, but she had fun!
Father’s Day
My husband loves to have a very chill Father’s Day with his dad and brothers that consists of steaks on the grill, the U.S. Open, and kids having fun outside. We usually host this get-together and had planned to do it at our house again this year. Unfortunately, our A/C died the day before and then we woke up on Father’s Day with no power, so we had to pivot. Thankfully, my brother-in-law was flexible and offered to host. We had to pivot again because flooding rains crashed the party, which moved us indoors. Even though we pivoted more than the Friends moving a couch down the stairs, we still had a nice Father’s Day for the dads.
Kid stuff
If you have young kids, here are all the kid-specific June things that stood out from the month that you might need in your life too.
Wet/dry bag
If you don’t have a wet/dry bag (or several) and you have kids, I highly recommend that you get one. We use them often, especially in the summertime. We take them to the pool for wet bathing suits, the kids take them to water day at their summer program, and I keep one stocked with extra clothes in my car for just in case. I’ve tried a lot of wet/dry bags over the years, but the skip hop brand is my favorite one.
Pool balls
My 5-year-old has officially entered his play in the pool era. He’s getting way more confident in the water, so he’s all about diving for pool torpedoes, seeing how long he can hold his breath, and all the other things that kids love to do in the pool. His favorite pool activity, though, is playing catch with a pool ball. He could do this for hours, and I am happy to play catch with him as long as he wants. You can pick up these pool balls basically anywhere. I got ours at Five Below.
Volleyball
My son continues to be into all the sports. Early in June, he saw me setting a soccer ball like a volleyball and asked me what I was doing. So I showed him the fundamentals of bump, set, and spike and he was really into it. He asked me to get a volleyball so he could practice what he learned. As someone who played volleyball for many years, I was happy to oblige. Since I bought a volleyball, I think we have played with it every single day. He loves it, and I love that he loves it.
Blog posts
Phew, we have made it to the end of this June things post. If you have missed any of my other posts lately, here are the Sara in Season posts my readers enjoyed most in June. Check out any of them you might have missed!
And that’s a wrap on June Things 2025! I hope you were able to find some inspiration. What were your favorite June things? Please share down below or tag me on Instagram – I’m @sarainseason!