It’s time for a weekly recap, and look at me, I’m on time for once on a Tuesday. Haha. Here’s how things were in our world last week…
Monday, August 18
Monday morning, I got the kids to school, and I headed to Publix to grab some essentials in between big grocery shopping trips. I unloaded the groceries at home, and then I spent the rest of the day doing laundry, working on my blog post for Tuesday, and realizing that I wasn’t going to finish it on time. Haha.
Brian and I had lunch together, I got dinner in the slow cooker, and then I headed to pick up the kids from school. I did a quick check of Taylor Swift’s website because we had a new countdown, and the countdown had just ended at 2 PM. She had dropped new vinyl variants in different colors.
We headed home after their appointments, and I got my Bible study done while they tackled homework. Then, I finished preparing the ranch chicken pasta that we were having for dinner. The slow cooker had done most of the work, so it was quick and easy because I just had to boil the noodles, steam some broccoli, and heat some bread. I love a slow cooker night!
After dinner, the kids and I cleaned up the kitchen so Brian could mow, and the kids went outside for a bit, too. It was hot as blazes, but they were bouncing off the walls, so I sent them out to burn some energy anyway. Haha.
While they were outside, I put up an “Oops” blog post since I hadn’t finished mine for Tuesday, and then I headed outside to walk. I showered when I got back home, and then I hung out with the kids for a bit. Jacob and Olivia both practiced their instruments – J on the piano and O on the guitar – and it was a peaceful little evening in listening to my babies do what they love to do.
When I went to check on the kids before we went to bed, I saw that Olivia had fallen asleep with her big ol’ Taylor Swift Eras Tour book. Lol.
Tuesday morning, I dropped the kids at school and then I headed home to get stuff done because I had nowhere to be. I finished organizing my photos from the weekend, I finished my blog post for Wednesday (that was supposed to have been for Tuesday), and I finally finished the New Heights podcast with Taylor and Trav while I was eating my lunch. At that point, I’d seen the first three quarters of it three times, but I still hadn’t seen the ending other than all the clips I’d seen on social media. Haha.
After lunch, I caught up on my email inbox, I cleaned out my main list in my List Master app, I started putting away laundry, and then it was time to grab the kids from school.
After school, we headed straight home, and I cleaned up the kitchen while the kids did homework. I also got my Bible study done. I just love reading my Bible from cover to cover again and seeing all of my doodles from the first time around. :o)
After they left, I dropped Olivia off at dance, and then I went back home to grab a quick dinner (a sandwich, chips, and fruit) since I had to be at middle school parent night.
MS Parent Night gives the parents a chance to walk their kids’ schedules, and each teacher gives a brief overview of the class, expectations, etc. for the school year. Two of Olivia’s teachers this year moved to our school when Jacob was in seventh grade, so he never had them, but I was so impressed by both of them. Her history teacher got all of the kids to draw a time capsule of some of their favorite things, and she’s going to give it to them when they graduate from eighth grade. The teacher told us to try to find our kids’ capsules, and I knew this one was Olivia’s the second that I saw it… ballet slippers, a microphone, makeup, and twinkle lights!!!! (And also her school logo that I blocked out.) I just love that she put twinkle lights in her capsule, though. She is her mother’s daughter.
Wednesday, August 20
Wednesday morning, I dropped the kids at school and then I headed to my annual eye appointment. I wear contacts, and it was time to order more, so I got my eyes checked per usual. Thankfully, everything looked great, and I got the all-clear for another year.
After my appointment, I headed home to catch up on blog reading, blog comments, and emails, and I also did some more laundry before I got in the car line.
When we got home, the kids got their homework done, and I did my Bible study. I dropped Olivia at dance, and then I headed home to make breakfast for dinner for the boys and me. Olivia is back to eating dinner in the car on the way to dance on Wednesdays, so she’s no longer at dinner with us again on Wednesday evenings. It’s always so quiet without her. :o(
After dinner, Jacob and I walked 1.5 miles together, and then I continued for another mile alone at a faster pace. I got showered and organized for the next day when I got home, and Brian and Olivia got home from dance a little after 8:30.
Sure enough, I took his temperature, and while he wasn’t technically running a fever (for school purposes, it’s not really considered a fever until it reaches 100.1 degrees), but his temperature was definitely elevated slightly above 99 degrees. Sigh.
After they got into bed, Brian and I watched the newest episode of The Summer I Turned Pretty and it cracked me up and also ripped my heart out. I won’t spoil anything, but the scene when the girls are walking into the kitchen and Taylor says that her mom made out with Dave Matthews and the other girl says, “Who’s that?” I cracked up. Y’all know I am a MASSIVE Dave Matthews Band fan – they are my all-time favorite, and I have seen them live 29 times – so to see that reference on one of my favorite shows right now was the best.
Then the scene on the beach was the saddest AND they played loml by Taylor Swift, which has become my favorite song of all-time that she’s ever written (well, maybe it’s tied with a couple of songs from Folklore, but it’s definitely in my top three) and I wanted to cry a bucket of tears. Jenny Han definitely caters to the Xennials (elder Millennials) like me. She knows we’re watching, too… not just the high school aged kids.
Thursday, August 21
Thursday morning, Jacob still had a sore throat and some congestion, but his temperature was back to normal. We debated whether or not to send him to school, but he said he was tired, so I just let him sleep in and skip school, especially to be considerate to others so as to not spread germs as we think Thursday he was probably the most contagious.
I notified the office, and then Olivia and I hit the road for school. By the time I got home, Jacob was already up and about because he said he couldn’t go back to sleep, so he lounged on the couch all day resting and hydrating. He also emailed each of his teachers to let them know he was sick so they could prep him for what he was going to miss.
I did my entire blog post for Friday from start to finish and then Brian and Jacob and I had lunch together. Brian was working from home Thursday and was supposed to have a half-day since he’d worked so much the previous weekend, but he ended up having to work the whole day due to all of the stuff going on for the project he had coming up over the weekend. He usually does these big “conversions” for his job once every couple of years, but he happened to be on two projects at once this time, and both had similar timelines putting the conversions on back-to-back weekends. That’s very rare, and it makes for a very busy Brian, so he worked a ton these last two weeks.
After lunch, Jacob checked his email and Google classrooms and thankfully, he didn’t miss much Thursday. He did miss one important thing – the standardized testing that they do at the beginning of each school year. His Lit and Comp class had that all last week and he missed the last day of it, so he scheduled with his teacher to make it up one day after school the following week (or this week as you’re reading).
For some reason, my neck tension ramped up Thursday afternoon causing a little bit of dizziness for the first time in a while, so I was disheartened by that. The good thing is that the tension has changed for the better since my atlas and axis have been pushed into place, so it’s not nearly as bad as it used to be. The dizziness isn’t either. But after feeling so good for so long, it still sucked to have it come back. I think it’s because we’re now working on restoring my c-curve, so my neck is still being adjusted every night when I lay on my pillow. I’m hoping it levels out soon, though.
My upper cervical chiropractor did say that these setbacks could happen along the way. And he said that based on the fact that he thinks I was out of alignment for 10+ years, it’ll probably take around a year for me to heal fully. (The rule of thumb is about one month for every year you are out of alignment.) I have a feeling the cause of mine was likely my childbirth with Jacob, so it’s likely that I was out of alignment for about 14 years, so I’m looking at reaching full healing potential by end of the summer next year. Or maybe before. He said people always feel better before the full timeline, but there can be setbacks along the way until full healing is reached.
Anywayyyy, I ended up laying down for a bit to try to calm the muscles, but it didn’t help much, so I got up and headed to pick up Olivia from school. We had another TS countdown that ended at 2 PM, so I checked that in the car line, and it was more vinyl colors.
While we were chatting, he told me that the church right next to ours (we share a street) has decided to reopen their school after years of not having one, and they will be starting in September which means that our car lines will share the same route. SOS, y’all. Lol. Back when I attended this school that our kids attend, that school next door was there, but it was tiny (like 6-8 kids in each grade), and our school was muuuuch smaller, too, so we didn’t even have a car line that ran on that side of the campus.
Well, our school now has nearly 900 students, and theirs is going to have nearly 150, so I am picturing a massive cluster for the car line every day starting September 2 when they open. Thankfully, he did tell me that our school met with their school, and they agreed to move their start time and release time to 25 minutes after ours, so I’m hoping that will alleviate some of the cluster. I guess we will find out next week! Cringe.
After school, Olivia had guitar lessons (and Jacob missed his piano lesson – boooo), and she worked diligently on the theme from Interstellar. She shocked Steve and I about halfway through the lesson by saying, “I may take this back (LOL), but I think I might want to play this song in the recital.” I thought Steve was going to fall out of his chair because he was so excited. He has been wanting her to do a recital for the entire last year, so he was thrilled. Plus, Interstellar is his favorite movie and he loves that song, so he said he’s always wanted one of his students to play it for a recital.
He immediately got to searching on YouTube to find a drone (a sustained sound that plays in the background of a song) that he could play behind her for a dramatic effect, and it sounded so cool. We then started joking that Jacob could go up on stage behind her in a space suit and pretend he was floating around. Hahahaha.
After music, Olivia and I headed home. Jacob caught up on his missed work and studied for a couple of test he had Friday, Olivia did her homework, and I did my Bible study. I talked to my friend, Becky, on the phone for a while to catch up with her after that. Since she has a daughter a couple of years ahead of Jacob, she has always been my guru for all things school, and I wanted to talk to her about the high school’s attendance policy and what all we needed to do since Jacob was out. High school attendance is much more strict than middle and lower school as you can probably imagine, and while we have a detailed handbook with procedures, it still made me feel better to talk to somebody who’s been there, done that!
We had turkey and cheese biscuit sliders and fruit for dinner, and then I went for another walk. My dizziness was still present all evening and during my walk, but by the time I got home, it had finally subsided.
Friday, August 22
Friday morning, Jacob woke up feeling much better and the fever had never come back, so he was ready to go to school! I dropped him and Olivia at school and then I headed home. Brian had another conversion this weekend, so he had to go into work rather than working from home like usual.
I spent the day catching up on blog reading, catching up on emails, and doing my entire blog post for Monday. I also wrapped a gift for an upcoming shower, and then after lunch, I lay down for a bit because my neck was bothering me a little bit again.
This little baby showed up in my Timehop and it made me tear up. My, how 13 years has passed in the blink of an eye!
We had the back-to-school social and the first varsity football game Friday night, so the kids and I had hot dogs, chips, and fruit for dinner, and just as we were finishing up, we got word from Brian that he was going to make it home in time to join us at the school.
When he got home, we headed out. The weather was looking v questionable, but we lucked out, and all of the rain in the area parted and went around us.
When we arrived, the kids immediately met up with their friends, and I snapped a couple of pictures before they disappeared for the night. Our Home and School Association had arranged for the gourmet icey food truck to be there so all of the kids could get free iceys, and everyone mingled for a bit before the game started.
While they were doing that, one of the high school girls gave Olivia a Hawaiian lei since that was the theme for the night, and Olivia was thrilled because it was Taylor Swift The Life of a Showgirl orange. We’ve never liked orange in our house because our school colors, college football colors, and favorite pro teams’ colors are all red and black or red, white, and blue, and therefore lots of our opponents wear orange, but TS is making orange acceptable! But only for her. And pumpkins. And fall leaves. And that’s about it. Lol.
They closed up their glitter shop when the game started, and gave the money safely to Maren’s mom, and then they took off with their friends for the rest of the night.
Brian and I spent the whole evening chatting with friends and watching the game, and thankfully, the rain held off. We watched our new dance team perform at halftime, and then we rounded up the kids and headed home because we were exhausted and Brian had to get up early again on Saturday. Our team ended up winning, too! Gosh, we are just so excited that football is back, y’all!!!!
When we got home, the kids and I all showered, and then after they went to bed, Brian and I made Manhattans and watched some more of The Leftovers before heading to bed.
Saturday, August 23
Saturday morning, Brian left sometime between 4-5 AM to go to work and the kids and I all slept in. Olivia and I made waffles together, and then the kids did their laundry and Jacob worked on writing his own sheet music for a song he loves while Olivia worked on more Rainbow Loom creatures.
I washed the towels, worked on a blog post for Monday, and then the kids and I all had lunch together.
The rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning out our primary bathroom cabinets, working on my end of the year blog recap, and doing my Bible study, and the kids cleaned their bathroom and tidied and played video games.
On the way home, we stopped by my father-in-law’s house to grab his mail since he was out of town, and then we headed home. We watched a few more minutes of America’s Got Talent with the kids, and then Brian and I finished the evening with another episode of The Leftovers. It’s really a weird show, y’all, but it’s holding my attention so far.
Sunday, August 24
Sunday morning, we all slept in, we had cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and then I helped Jacob make his costume for Monday. Our school does an event every year called Puppy Week, where each senior adopts a freshman, and they dress up every day based on the theme. The theme for Monday was “Dynamic Duos” and Jacob and his senior had decided to be salt and pepper. Haha.
Once she was packed and ready for the two-hour drive and safely in Nana’s car, I showered and got ready, and then I had lunch with the boys.
Jacob and I took off for his Teen Advisors meeting early in the afternoon, and it ended up being such a great afternoon. Teen Advisors is the high school version of Velocity that he was in during middle school, and the purpose is to provide a safe space for the kids to be themselves while connecting with their peers. They get together for fun events, they worship together, they do Bible studies, and they go into the classrooms to talk to fellow students about peer pressure and other big “life” things that happen to make them feel less alone.
They have a retreat soon, so this meeting was the kickoff meeting for all the schools in our area, so kids could meet one another and mingle, and it was also an informational meeting for the parents about the retreat. We were greeted by Forrest Frank blasting from the speakers when we walked in, so if that’s not a good time then I don’t know what is! The kids and I love him!
We met Jacob’s best friend and his family there, and the kids did several organized activities. The administrator had them “circle in” (facing each other) and put their arms around one another indicating that they will always be there to help each other, and then he had them “circle out” (face all of us) with their arms around each other indicating that they’re also there to help others who are not part of the organization.
They did a couple of other activities where they put their hands and toes together and then took several steps back so the kids were literally leaning on each other, and then they put their backs together and took several steps out to show how they can lean on each other in every type of situation.
They ended by filling out forms anonymously to talk about anything that they are struggling with in life, so they can have some discussion points at the upcoming retreat when they do their small groups and such.
It was just a really great experience, and I’m so excited that Jacob is joining the organization. They have done so much for the kids in our community over the years, and I’m excited that he’ll be a part of it.
We all headed to my parents’ house in the evening, and we hung out over there for a couple of hours. My MIL and SIL dropped Olivia off about an hour after we arrived, and my mom made her a plate so she could eat, too.
I finished making the grocery list when we got home, and then after the kids went to bed, Brian and I watched more of The Leftovers.
And now for some current things…
Currently
Reading
In August, I read 2 books, and I’m about halfway through my third. I read Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez, and it was so good – 5 stars! I loved it. After that, I read Scars of August by Ashley Pierce and, y’all, it was not good. I saw a discussion about it in a Taylor Swift fan group that I’m a part of on Facebook as it’s fan-fiction book based on Taylor’s Folklore album. Well, the Folklore album happens to be my favorite TS album (and one of my favorite albums by any artist ever), so I had to read it. I purchased it from my friend Khristina’s local bookshop, and I had fairly high expectations since it was supposed to be about the Folklore album, but y’all – it was so bad. The storyline itself was fairly solid, but the writing was mediocre, and the grammar was AWFUUUULLLL. And when I say awful, I mean, truly heinous. I have never, ever seen anything like it and I’ve read loads of books throughout the years. The grammatical errors were not only major errors, but they were ABUNDANT, and I just could not get past that. A few examples – there were numerous times that the author used the incorrect verb tense for “see”, and she wrote something like, “I seen him at the beach.” It. Was. So. Bad. There were also multiple times where the incorrect use of to, too, or two was used. There were instances where there were, like, 5-6 spaces between words. There were misspellings. It was baaaad, y’all. I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads, but only because it was TS fan fiction and the storyline wasn’t terrible. The ending also wasn’t predictable, which I appreciated. 3 stars is VERY generous, though. If I was not a TS fan, I would have given it 0 stars. Haha. I’m now making my way through The Small and the Mighty: Twelve Unsung American’s Who Changed the Course of History, from the Founding to the Civil Rights Movement by Sharon McMahon and I cannot recommend it enough. I don’t even like history, but this book is fantastic. And I have found zero grammatical errors. Haha.
I’m also still reading my devotional for 2025 – Everyday Gospel by Paul David Tripp. And I’m reading my Bible along with The Bible in a Year with Father Mike Schmitz.
Currently
Watching
With B: In August, Brian and I are still making our way through The Summer I Turned Pretty – Team Conrad forever! We also finished the Trophy Wife documentary (although I checked out because it was so dumb IMO), we’ve watched a little bit of Friends reruns here and there on Nick at Night, we watched Happy Gilmore and Happy Gilmore 2, and we watched My Oxford Year. We also started and finished A Man on the Inside and we loved it. We’re also still watching The Chosen.
With the Kids: In August, we finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blooded Prince + Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1. We’ve started part 2 of Deathly Hallows + we’re still making our way through America’s Got Talent. We also watched the movie Interstellar and both kids loved it. Oh, and Olivia and I started The New Heights Podcast episode with Taylor Swift, but she hasn’t finished it. I’ve watched it three times, though. Lol.
Alone: I finally switched from The Wedding Planner to How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days every Sunday afternoon while I work in my office and I’m loving it. It’s one of my favorites of all-time that I’ve seen a gazillion times. :o)
Currently
Listening To
I listened to a LOT of Teddy Swims in preparation for our concert this month, and of course, I’ve been shuffling lots of Taylor Swift since she dropped the news this month that she has a new album coming out. Also, forever shuffling some of my favorite playlists that I’ve curated over the years.
Happy Tuesday, y’all!
I think maybe you should adopt that puppy...ha.
ReplyDeleteSlow cooker meals are the best! I’m ready for the temps to cool here so we can start our rotation of slow cooker soups and meals. I didn’t know “My Oxford Year” was a book first. Now I want to read it. I felt like the movie was rushed and I didn’t even know about the book. Makes sense! Olivia’s time capsule is precious!! Twinkle lights make my heart happy too, sweet girl.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely treat for the kids after the orthodontist appointment. My eldest used to be driven mad by the wires poking her when she had her braces.
ReplyDeleteI loved My Oxford Year but I think it was because I hadn't read the book.
Aww! Olivia's time capsule is just the sweetest.
Eek to the car line! I remember the parking always being so bad around my girls schools when they were little. I was glad I was in walking distance to drop them off and pick them up.
That is so sweet that Maren and Olivia wanted to raise money for the shelter. They are so kind!
That is so sweet of Olivia and her friend to raise money like that for the animal shelter! It sounds like everyone had a fabulous week. I'm so glad Jacob was only sick for the 1 day. It does get hard to miss too much high school work as the pile up can happen so fast with multiple sick days.
ReplyDelete