Despite setting my alarm clock every evening, what wakes me isn't the buzzing of some mechanical gadget, but rather the vigilant woodpecker dedicated to his craft right outside my window. Each morning at around 5:30 he's ready to work on my copper rain gutters, which are obviously not up to his standards. Hearing his beak collide with the gutters, I pull back the covers. It's time to follow nature's example and start the day.

From there, I head to Starbucks with my Portuguese Waterdog, Summer. He waits patiently next the newsstand while the neighbors say their hellos and hand him treats. (I swear that more people know that Muppet of a dog than me some days.) Once that iced skim latte hits my hand, I'm out the door. With Summer by my side, we walk to the shore. The sounds of the sails flapping in the wind combined with the overheard conversations of the sailing crew, known to the locals as the Blue Shirts, we dash for the water.

At first, with Summer living for the waves, we play a few rounds of fetch. He leaps over the waves as far as possible until he can no longer reach the false bottom that the seiche provides. That's when he really shines. Hearing him pant with each stroke he seems as unstoppable and as unchangeable as the season itself. Swimming past buoys and clashing with the water, he finally reaches that tennis ball and returns victoriously to the sand.

After a couple hours lying on the designated beach cloth, we trudge back. Exhausted from the sun, I let Summer recuperate at home while I set up the sprinklers and head for the market with one item in mind: chicken, otherwise known as a little piece of heaven. If I've learned anything from Martha Stewart or Art Smith is how to make a batch of buttermilk fried chicken. For me, it's the perfect end to a perfect summer day. To sit on the front porch with my dinner in hand, watching the lightning bugs slowly appear and hearing the crickets make their musical score of the evening I realize that I couldn't ask for anything more.

Art Smith’s Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Ingredients:

- 1/2 cup plus 1 teaspoon kosher salt

- 4 quarts cold water

- 4 quarts ice

- one 4-pound chicken, cut into 8 pieces

- 1 quart buttermilk

- 1 tablespoon Franks Red Hot hot sauce

- 3 eggs, lightly beaten

- 2 cups White Lilly self-rising flour

- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves

- 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder

- 1 1/2 teaspoons Old Bay Seasoning

- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

- Vegetable oil, for frying

Directions:

In a pot, dissolve 1/2 cup of the salt in the water and ice. Submerge the chicken in the brine; refrigerate overnight.

Drain and rinse the chicken. Rinse out the pot. Add the buttermilk and hot sauce submerge the chicken in the buttermilk and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight. Remove chicken from the buttermilk. Place the eggs and hot sauce in a mixing bowl and add the chicken allowing it to be lightly coated with the egg mixture. Remove from the egg mixture.

In a shallow bowl, mix the flour, thyme leaves, garlic powder, Old Bay, cayenne, black pepper and the remaining 1 teaspoon of salt. Shake the excess marinade off the chicken, then dredge in the flour. Dip the chicken back into the buttermilk and coat again in the flour.

Meanwhile, in a large cast-iron skillet, heat 1 inch of vegetable oil to 375°. Fry the chicken in batches until golden and cooked through, about 6 minutes per side. Drain on paper towels and serve.

Breathe

It's time to put down the iPad and step outside. With the new season comes another opportunity to contemplate our lives. Now, I'm not saying that we all have to follow in Madonna's dramatic footsteps of reinventing ourselves. However, one idea is key for this transformation: family. Over the winter months we've forgotten that there's more to life than work, than surfing the internet, and checking Facebook. We've forgotten how to simply... breathe.

More often than not, it's the simple moments with family that can inspire and catalyst the most profound changes in our lives. For me, given on a particular day, this feeling can be discovered by an afternoon at the beach. The first spring day exciting all of the senses with freshness in the air, and the sun recharging my exhausted and thinly spread life. Even repainting the living room wall, buying a spontaneous bucket of paint with my daughter and bringing the outdoors in. Whatever the case may be, the time has come to make the home the center of your life again. The time has come to take charge, turn up the music, and get to it!

Capturing this sense of relaxation and ultimate content may sound as impossible as catching lightening in a bottle. Yet, it's not only vital for your mental health, but it's as simple as deciding what to wear in the morning. No matter what outfit you end up choosing, it's completely and utterly you. With that in mind, reflect on what graces your home. Do the walls and rooms truly reflect the ideas and moments that you cherish the most? Personally, the color blue has followed my family for decades. It's always let itself be prominent in the memories that I hold most dear. From my brother's desire to become a member of the Air Force, planes contrasting against the sky, to my daughter teaching our Portuguese waterdog not to be afraid of the waves that hit the shore line- blue has always been a part of the story. And with my desire to continue that legacy, I place hints of the playful color in almost every room. It's become a permanent guest in my home.

So, we must return the basics, there we'll uncover what inspires and motivates. Don't complicate the idea by over thinking every little decision. Follow your instincts. It's time to frame that old photo of grandma, repaint the office, reupholster that family heirloom that's been sitting around, and emphasize those little family quirks that make a house a home. After all, we shouldn't feel like guests in our own home. We should always have the time to breathe, celebrate family, home and a new season.