Most of our days are not instagram worthy, or even deserving of an entire blog post, but those ordinary days are where we spend most of our living moments. August living brought lots of warm and delightful moments, times I'm missing a bit just now.
Our peach tree produced some delicious peaches, once again, and I loved slicing them up and eating them with half and half and some whipped cream. Nothing quite says August to me like having a bowl of peaches. We used to go to Eastern Oregon every August for the Linville reunion, and on our way home, we'd stop in Boise and load up every spare space in our car with boxes of peaches, pears, and nectarines. We canned most of it, but oh the delight of peaches with half and half! I still seem to be the only one in my house that likes peaches.
I spent a lot of time reading out in the hammock. I needed a strong reset after all the planning from Europe. It was an amazing trip, but it brought out the worst decision fatigue I've ever had in my life. I stressed and stressed over the planning, and lost so much sleep and suffered so much anxiety. I had a lot of fun planning it, but it was a massive undertaking, and August brought some much needed down days.
Speaking of recovering, I had to have a few rest days, either due to my regular health issues or catching a bug (I don't remember now), and Gracie apparently needed some rest too. She's a good convalescent companion.
I mentioned in the back to school post that Gabe wasn't feeling well. Poor guy got a terrible, terrible ear infection that took two rounds of antibiotics to finally kill off.
Naps in the car only happen when he's not feeling well. Poor guy!
We celebrated Dad's birthday with a trip to the Lehi Bakery. That was the day Jeff and Ruth came to visit so we shared donuts with them.
They say you can take the girl out of the country but you can't take the country out of the girl. Here's proof (though my mom would strongly protest about this statement in this context).
Gracie loves her giant toys (at least compared to her size, they're giant), and leaves them all over our main floor. She's the only one I can't get to clean up after herself.
Brian and I decided to make a ton of freezer meals. We had regrets halfway through the process, but they really came in handy during our crazy fall! We're due to make another round.
We went to church every Sunday, and we felt grateful to be at home with our neighbors, worshipping together in English.
Our "Church at Home" lessons also continued.
We spotted some fires from our house that thankfully got put out quickly.
There were moments of hanging out as siblings and friends. Michael hooked up the projector in his room and watched a movie in there with Rachel. We made it clear that that wasn't going to be a permanent thing, but they had fun doing it while it lasted.
We got stuck in traffic, usually on our runs to the schools for pickup and drop-offs.
More naps were had.
We went on walks among the sunflowers; it's always fun when the sunflowers come back.
There were things that I can't explain now, but probably made sense then.
I bought a cheap earbud set to do some walking while Gabe was in basketball training at the PG Rec Center, and Gabe really wanted me to give them to him when I was done. I said that I wasn't going to do that because he struggled keeping track of his headphones. A week or two after that, I found them missing one earbud. We searched high and low all over our family room (where the case sat on our sectional and not on the charging station where I left them), but we couldn't produce the missing earbud.
School and activities took over our lives in August, and the only carpool we're doing this year is for Rachel. We were counting down the days until Michael would get his license.
Some of us continued being super lazy.
Some of us worked really hard and even got to play in some games.
We learned that part of being on a team means showing up and supporting without complaint, even if the player you come to watch doesn't get to play.
Some of us tried our hand at being window-washers.
There were wrestling matches, tickling, and more fighting than we'd care to admit.
Michael built a new tool box.
I did a LOT of watercoloring and tried being more serious about my surface pattern design.
We found Michael asleep downstairs. Early morning seminary combined with football practice is exhausting!
Brian considered switching up his hairstyle--briefly. Actually, this narrator is lying. He would never consider this hairstyle, but I thought he looked cute so I took a picture to remember.
Marco Polo helped me stay connected to my sisters, and the AI transcripts kept me laughing.
I got my first mammogram, and then had to do a follow up ultrasound. Don't worry; everything came back unremarkable.
We gave Gracie the VIP treatment on a ride home one day.
I met up with my old roommate Tali for lunch in Provo one day. Her husband took a job teaching at BYU so she's back in town! I just adore her!
The football team honored the moms before one of the games. It was really sweet.
I couldn't find Michael in the sea of black, but he found me afterwards and gave me a hug.
I'm so proud of this kid!
Nana and Papa made it to a few of his games.
Brian saw this big semi truck carrying the smallest container he'd ever seen. I think there's a life metaphor in here somewhere.
Soon our ordinary August days turned into ordinary September days, but not before we got another visit from some of our favorite people. Stay tuned!
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