What I'm Into (August 2015)

Oh, August.  After spending the majority of July on the road, most of August was spent at home.  We lounged (as much as one can with an extremely active toddler), we settled into our fall homeschool routine and began working our way through our new curriculum. We hiked and kayaked close to home.  Jason took each of our big kids on backpacking trips.

The poor neglected garden has begun to offer up tomatoes and green beans by the bowl full and Elijah loves to check in on the "pun'kins" every chance he gets.

Also in August I wrapped up my summer art classes for kids, which was such a delightful experience.  I've already got plans for the next class and can hardly wait til it's time.

One huge benefit of living in a tiny town like ours (I think we have less than 1800 residents) is the annual city celebration of Apple Days.  We joined in the kids' bike rodeo and parade, the city parade and huge carnival this past weekend.  We sat down 15 minutes before the parade started in a lovely shady spot right on the parade route with tons of room on either side of us. The parade was about 20 minutes long and our kids got more candy than they usually do at Halloween.  Everything was free, by the way. It was perfect!

Notice all the candy being flung from the car.  And Elijah's mouth completely full in the foreground.

We're reading aloud The Wind in the Willows and The Phantom Tollbooth and it's been so fun to witness as my kids experience these classics for the first time.

I've been bingeing on the While She Naps Podcast as well as the super-inspiring Read Aloud Revival podcast.

Also currently listening to Cutting for Stone and  Black Like Me. I have no words for Black Like Me yet; I'm still processing. The issue of racial prejudice is difficult to fathom anyway, and it is very personal for our family (have you met our sons?  They're amazing!).

Jason and I finished White Collar and have started watching Parenthood. I feel like after each episode I have so many insights into various relationships in my life. We'd never seen Parenthood before but when I asked friends for recommendations (on Facebook) for a new show, it was among the most popular.  Now I can see why.

Our family has been enjoying America's Got Talent recently.  We're watching on Hulu so we can fast forward through parts that are risque, but so far we haven't had too many iffy parts. We've never watched this before, but already it's seeped into our family culture.  Ethan is constantly working on new routines on his bike and asking us to decide whether he gets to "go through to the next round." He always makes it, if you were wondering.

Still slowly but surely making my way through Gilmore Girls while I iron and do other small projects.

Planning and prepping for the new school year and our homeschool co-op courses.  I'm on the board of our very large homeschool group and organizing registration and fees and class schedule is one of my duties.  This is a busy time of year for that.

I'm currently in the middle of approximately 97 different projects.  My brain is pretty great at thinking of new ideas, but not so great at finishing.  The plan for September is to work my way through my in-progress projects and actually check some off the list.