Life Right Now [August]
It has been a minute since I have written a personal blog post…I have so much to say and at the same time nothing to say. So let’s just start with the fact that in a few short days, summer will be officially over. Madic starts Kindergarten on September 6th if I am being honest I have mixed emotions about it. This past summer was in some ways more than I could have hoped for and in other ways a little disappointing.
Let’s start with what went well this summer.
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Adventure
As you can probably guess from the name of my blog, I LOVE adventure and this summer did not disappoint.
Our summer had a bit of a slow start with a rainy May and June but we more than made up for it come July and August. My favorite adventures were:
5 Days in Moab, UT: I had the opportunity to go to Moab with a bunch of my nieces, nephews, siblings, and dad. While I loved all the activities we did while in Moab and came back wishing I could figure out a way to live my dream of being a river guide, what I loved more was being with my family. I especially loved watching my teenage nieces try new and scary things and totally rock them. It was definitely one of those core memory moments.
Impromptu Trip to Capitol Reef National Park: With the Capitol Reef Mom Retreat fast approaching I decided it was the perfect excuse for Dustin (my husband) and I to get away and play. There was some scouting I wanted to do, but mostly I just wanted to spend time with Dustin. For those of you that don’t know Dustin is currently going to school and this summer he was gone A LOT doing an internship. The trip was super short which was a bit of a bummer but we had SO MUCH FUN! A while ago I decided it would be super cool if we could do adventurous things every year for our anniversary. So far we have made that work. In 2021 we went to Park City and went hiking and swam in an alpine lake (in which I almost drowned, but that is a story for another day). In 2022 we went mountain biking at Deer Valley. This year we went to Capitol Reef and hiked Sulphur Creek, dispersed camped, and rappelled off Cassidy Arch.
Coeur d’Alene, ID: For our big family vacation this summer we went to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Dustin’s brother and mom recently moved up there so we figured we better go visit them. We camped at and explored Farragut State Park (mountain biking, Museum at the Brig, and Tree to Tree Ropes Course), went to Silver Mountain Resort Water Park, rode the Hiawatha Trail, and did some epic standup paddleboarding on Lake Oreille. I am hoping to write an in-depth blog post about it, for any of you that have been considering going, but to sum it up…it was beautiful!! I am so glad we will have an excuse to go back again.
Personal Goals
I am no different than the next guy in that I ALWAYS set New Year’s resolutions. I am also no different than the next guy in that I rarely keep my New Year’s resolutions. But this year, miraculously, has been different. I have consistently worked on my goals and have been checking them off my list. I am pretty sure the secret to my success has been quarterly and weekly planning. If you want me to talk more about what that looks like you can comment below, but today I will spare you the boring details. Anywho, this summer I did two big goals that I have needed to do for years!!!
The First Goal – Digitize Dustin and My Mission Letters
Dustin and I both had the opportunity to serve a full-time proselyting mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Dustin served in Anaheim, California Spanish speaking and I served in Boston, Massachusetts Spanish speaking. We have been home for about 16 years. And for all 16 of those years, I have been feeling guilty that my mission letters have just been sitting in a box. But this summer I carved out some time (okay a lot of time) and headed over to the Family History Center where I scanned every last one of them, titled them with the date and sender name, and then organized them into sheet protectors and put them into binders. While I typically enjoy spending as much time as possible outside in the summer it was so fun reliving those memories and listening to some pretty awesome audiobooks while I worked.
The Second Goal – Make Madic and Emma’s Baby Books
Madic, who is almost 6, and Emma who just turned 3 have yet to have a baby book until now. Just this past week, I sat down looked through our hundreds of photos, and made them 0-24-month-old baby books. They turned out so cute (if I do say so myself) and it honestly wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. The hardest part was figuring out which photos I wanted to include. Once I did that putting the book together took no time at all. My goal is to make them a 0-24 month old book, 2-5 yearbook, 5-12 yearbook, 13-18 yearbook. I would also like to make a wedding book for Dustin and me and a family yearbook for every year we have been married. I know, I know…I am going to bankrupt us by buying photobooks.
Summer Reading
Is it just me or does it just not feel like summer if you aren’t spending a significant amount of your free time reading some good book? Anyway, I didn’t read as much as I had hoped but I did get some decent reading in and as I mentioned listened to some fun audiobooks. Here are my favorite books that I read/listened to this summer.
When the Day Comes – I thought the premise of this book was so interesting and thoroughly enjoyed listening to it. It’s about a girl who is a time crosser (not a time traveler). She in essence lives two lives but has the same consciousness. So when she goes to bed in one life she wakes up in the other. When she reaches her 21st birthday she has to choose which life she wants to stay in. Not only is the book very engrossing but it is squeaky clean which I like!
Die with Zero – This is a self-help book and I will admit that I didn’t love the writing but it was interesting to learn about the concepts. As the title indicates, the book is about living so that you spend your money when it will best serve you so that you die with zero. What I liked about the book was his emphasis on investing in more experiences in your forties and fifties while you have the health to do what you enjoy instead of waiting until retirement. He also talked about intentionally giving your children a set amount of money when it would best serve them vs. waiting until some random date to give them a random sum of money (as is often done with traditional inheritances). If you are into self-help books I would recommend picking it up.
A Heart Worth Stealing – This is your typically proper romance (set in England during the Regency era) and is about a heiress who is having troubles with her estate. When her father’s watch is stolen she hires a thief taker and I am sure you can imagine what happens next.
The Body Guard – I am currently in the process of listening to this book and am loving it. It is about a female body guard hired to protect a famous actor. While I am sure it will follow the lines of a typical rom-com book I have loved the writing so far. The author has done a great job. Just be aware that there is a bit of language but from what I have heard there are no crazy love scenes.
Regular Alone Time
With Dustin working the swing shift, I have been taking advantage of him being home in the mornings and have been going on weekly hikes and mountain bike rides. I am a major introvert and I have found that my day goes way better if I can have some alone time in the morning before the kids wake up. It has also been a great way to start my day and enjoy some of my favorite trails.
Now let’s chat about what didn’t quite meet expectations this summer
Ms. Productive
Last summer (2022) was the quintessential summer. We went on hikes every week, ate outside for almost every meal, rode our bikes regularly to the library, and went on some sort of adventure almost every day. I should have figured that summer 2022 couldn’t be beat, but naively I went into this summer thinking I could perfectly replicate what we did last summer. But boy was I wrong.
I have been thinking a lot about why this summer has felt so different and what I have concluded is that the main difference has been that I have had more on my plate this summer. So when we have been home, instead of going outside to let the kids play while I weed or riding our bikes to the park, we have been stuck inside with me on my computer trying to get everything done. This has made me realize that I have a problem! I am addicted to…being productive. It is sad but true, and as a result, I take on WAY too much stuff. To the point where I get burned out, stop doing everything, get bored, and then pile my plate full again. I have spent quite a bit of time the last couple of weeks trying to figure out what I can offload but currently, I haven’t come up with a viable solution. But with the upcoming change (which I will talk about in a moment) I need to find something to take off my plate or I am going to quickly crash and burn! Any suggestion on how to break the cycle would be greatly appreciated.
Change
I am not entirely sure how it happened but somewhere along the way I fell into the homeschooling crowd. I am not sure if it is just because homeschooling moms are the only ones I could make friends with, if there is just a plethora of people homeschooling in my area, or if the places I like to frequent attract mostly homeschooling moms. Either way, I have been nose-deep in the homeschooling culture/community since Madic was about two. It has been an interesting experience. And until recently, I had always planned on homeschooling Madic. But then something changed. I think I realized deep down that being an introvert I couldn’t handle having my kids constantly home with me and being a perfectionist I couldn’t handle being the main person in charge of my children’s education.
But I didn’t necessarily feel good about sending them to public school, either. So as you can imagine trying to decide where to send Madic for kindergarten this fall has been a bit of a trial. I am sure I will look back on this moment and roll my eyes at the thought that I spent so much time trying to make this relatively simple decision, yet here we are. Deep down I don’t think it is really about the location so much as it is about me struggling with taking this next step in our life. I just don’t feel ready to send Madic to school. I just want things to stay the same. And I also feel like I am being overly dramatic about all of this.
In the end, we decided to send Madic to a local charter school that has a flex program. How it works is Madic goes to school for a minimum of one full school day (Thursdays 9 am – 3:30 pm). On those days he is taught science and history. Then at home (the rest of the week) we work on language arts and math with the curriculum the school has provided us with. So in the end it is a little bit of both. A little bit of homeschooling and a little bit of traditional school. The best of both worlds, right?! Let’s hope so because right now looking at the two huge boxes the school gave me for teaching Madic at home I am feeling pretty overwhelmed. I will have to let you know how it goes…
Goodbye Summer
So I guess this is goodbye to summer. Are you happy or sad summer is over? Do you like sending your kids to school or miss the craziness and flexibility of summer? Any advice on making the transition to having kids in school? Please comment below. I am all ears.