Joanna Gaines Reveals Why She’s Going to Be ‘Thrill-Seeking at Home’ This Summer (Exclusive)

Natalia SenanayakeThu, May 14, 2026 at 1:00 PM UTC

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Joanna Gaines at her home in Waco, Texas
Credit: Joanna Gaines/Instagram -

Joanna Gaines reflects on finding adventure in the “ordinary” at home with her family in the Summer 2026 issue of Magnolia Journal

The Fixer Upper star shares how staying home helps her family recharge and reconnect, especially with her 2 oldest kids home from college

Joanna believes the greatest adventures can happen close to home by appreciating life's simple, everyday moments

Joanna Gaines is happy to be a homebody this summer.

PEOPLE got an exclusive first look at Magnolia Journal's Summer 2026 issue, in which the Magnolia Network co-founder, 48, reflects on her idea of adventure in a personal letter titled “A Note from Jo: Chasing the Ordinary.”

In her candid message, Gaines admits she's looking forward to finding excitement in the “ordinary” at home this summer, as it's the one place where she can truly relax alongside her husband Chip, 51, and their five children: daughters Emmie, 16, and Ella, 19, and sons Crew, 7, Duke, 17, and Drake, 21. It's also always evolving, as the couple have expanded and adapted their longtime home base to suit their growing family over the years. Currently, Joanna has been documenting her extensive kitchen renovation at the farmhouse.

“I have always been more enticed by a slow weekend at home than a weekend anywhere else,” Joanna writes. She adds that her family's “dreamiest moments have rarely been the places we went or the big splashy plans we made," but rather, “the way we lived out the days in between. The terrifically mundane, quietly compelling, profoundly ordinary days of summer.”

'Magnolia Journal' Summer 2026 cover
Credit: Magnolia Journal

The designer reflects on how her family is not usually the “go on vacation” type, as their Waco, Texas, farmhouse is where they're able to “recharge and reconnect” together. Spending quality time as a family over the summer is especially important to Joanna, as her oldest kids Ella and Drake have been away at college this past year.

“I'm likely to blame for our staycation state of mind,” she admits, joking, “I think I may have unintentionally turned the kids (sorry, Chip) into bona fide homebodies just like me.”

While Joanna questions whether being a homebody is a good thing, she explains that doubts like those lead her to be “more adventurous in the classical sense,” and sometimes take a chance with “arms stretched wide.”

However, she admits that those big leaps don't always satisfy her, and that “sometimes, we end up on vacations that don't quite restore us the way we need.”

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Thus, she's learning that adventure can still be found at home, especially when she intentionally takes a moment to “truly notice and listen and feel.”

“As I thought about it more, I realized the distance between ordinary and extraordinary is a matter of outlook, and we see it clearly when we split a moment open and find its spark,” she explains.

While she notes that her family may still find themselves on a getaway this summer, she hopes to be “chasing the ordinary” over the next three months.

Joanna Gaines with her kids when they were younger
Credit: Joanna Gaines/Instagram

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“I'm calling for a summer of thrill-seeking here at home, among the ordinary and the everyday,” she says, adding that she's most looking forward to all of her kids being under one roof again.

“It's my kids coming home, or staying home, and settling back in,” writes Joanna. “With a few of them off to college, this is our season to come back together, to explore side by side. Maybe we'll stay out late. Maybe we'll fall asleep beneath star-filled skies. Either way, I'm believing this to be true for me and for you: Our greatest adventures can begin closer to home.”

The Summer 2026 issue of Magnolia Journal is available on newsstands Friday, May 15.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”