August 2025 Recap

Welp, it’s September 20th and I’m just getting around to doing my August recap. Obviously I could skip it, BUT doing it makes 8/8 so far on monthly recaps this year! So I can’t break the streak. 😉

Of course the downfall to writing it 20 days after the month ends is that now I feel a little bit removed from my “August vibes”, but oh well.

The biggest event in August was clearly our Panama City Beach trip from August 1-10. Makes the first half of the month pretty easy to remember. 🙂 You can see the actual trip recaps here, here, here, and here.

The rest of the month felt relatively lowkey and enjoyable. We had the usual re-entry activities after our time away, a longer visit from my mom, a good amount of PRODUCTIVITY around the house (back to school energy?) that felt amazing, and lots of great summer weather. High school soccer is back, school started for Ethan, and Asher wrapped up his first summer as a lifeguard. Work for me was typical busy but manageable, we solidified some future travel stuff and had a nice sprinkle of some social/fun things too as a couple.

The verdict? A very solid month! (I don’t know, I never “rate” my months and am too indecisive to try to give them a score or anything. 😆)

Accomplish List:

• a successful trip to Florida!
• bought our plane tickets for Ireland (Christmas 2025!) (*literally did this the day after we got home from Florida… I am noticing a trend that as soon as we get home from a vacation, I often get an immediate and very strong itch to abruptly get more future travel booked! I booked our upcoming spring break 2026 trip the weekend we got home from London last March, too… ha)
• did a lot of cleaning
• pulled WEEDS to high heaven
• got back into the gym, sort of… August was very hit or miss, ugh
• Ethan had school orientation
• dealt with more car/ insurance stuff after Ethan’s accident earlier in summer
• drove Asher to work…. a lot
• attended a college planning webinar
• went to a birthday party for Ivan’s soccer friend
• bought groceries, cleaned fridge, all the usual
• took Asher to 10th grade registration
• attended a high school swim board meeting (I’m on the board now for this upcoming season)
• attended a virtual work conference
• took Asher to a haircut
• filled out school forms, signed things, sent proof to school nurse that Asher is no longer allergic to peanuts, etc.
• worked on site for a day at the hospital, had my annual performance review
• bought a baby gift for my SIL
• sold Asher’s swim parka that he never wears for $50!
• sold our old sunroom table for $175
• attended Ethan’s pre-season soccer scrimmage
• more cleaning
• got a full family trip planned/ booked for next summer/ lots of coordinating/ discussing with my sister (back to Panama City Beach, but all of us!)
• FINISHED CLEANING OUT MY STORAGE ROOM ALLELUIA PRAISE JESUS
• dealt w/ various doctor messages/ appt scheduling
• attended a college planning meeting (not planning to work with a college counselor at this time- they are $$$ and I do not think we necessarily need that bc Ethan’s school also offers a lot of that sort of thing. But this was a free consult, so why not check it out.)
• dealt with some online returns
• bought some new wider leg dress pants! I wanted a couple more options for when I have on site work meetings and events, particularly. Got these Wit and Wisdom pants in both navy and the olive green/grey and they are soooo comfy! Really like them. Bonus, they’re on sale for $52.80 from $88.
• completed a huge financial system overhaul and got officially set up with Monarch Money (quick plug that if anyone wants to try it, let me know and I can send you a 50% off referral for the first year and then I get a friendly kick back too :))

Happy/Gratitude:

• Our Panama City Beach trip was great
• Seeing Charlie again after our trip
• Getting our Ireland dates and tickets finalized and purchased – always the best feeling!
• Getting Ethan’s car back from the shop and it looks good
• A gorgeous sunset in the park
• A relaxing evening
• An appointment being cancelled and getting unexpected time back
• Ethan’s 1st day of 11th grade
• couch snuggles with Charlie
• I played sand volleyball and it was fun
• a hot shower before bed
• Charlie running around in the backyard
• dinner out with Ivan
• Packers pre-season game/ feeling excited for upcoming fall!
• lazily watching Sister Act on some random movie channel on TV on a Sunday night
• a warm walk in the rain
• Ivan’s homemade nachos!
• that the swim board meetings have been virtual (easier to fit in)
• the conference I attended was interesting
• a phone call w/ both my mom and dad
• a good performance review at work
• my colleagues and I all uploaded some favorite travel pictures to use as our Teams backgrounds (for our casual meetings; for more important ones we use the official hospital logo background). I have been having fun swapping out pics from Hawaii as my virtual backgrounds! Sometimes it makes me a little wistful, however, to remember that I am not actually on the Napali coast in Kauai, but rather in a meeting… ha.
• a long walk with Asher and Charlie
• the finger splint helped my broken finger a lot
• a dinner out with Ivan’s brother + girlfriend
• a long stretch of beautiful weather
• an exceptionally efficient “family cleaning” morning
• a long hot tub soak with my mom during her visit
• my new dress pants
• going to a Badger football game w/ Ivan
• a long, open weekend over Labor Day
• several Chipotle visits

Bummers:

• some subpar weather during the beginning of our Panama City Beach trip (though luckily, it turned around and really didn’t impact us too much)
• I forgot the checkbook when picking up Charlie from boarding and had to make a special trip back another day (~15 min each way)
• feeling nervous in a meeting with some more “challenging” participants
• general life overwhelm, ha. The usual….so many things to do all the time.
• we all skipped Ethan’s pre-season soccer team party (for various reasons) and I felt guilty about it.
• I broke (I think) my finger
• Charlie won’t let me brush his teeth and I think they need it!
• having my finger splinted, difficulty using my left hand, and general finger pain basically all month (it still hurts, but is much better)
• the same old non-bloggable extended family situation, still super annoying/ ongoing intermittent stress with this…
• missed way too many workouts, gah. Also, I seem to be increasingly incapable of altering/ improving my diet in any way which is just NOT good especially as I get older and this will likely become more important. Seriously I need Sarah J’s iron clad resolve in the nutrition department. (On the plus side, Sept has been MUCH better on the workout front for me than August was.)
• some disagreements w/ a certain child about some certain different-than-I-would-do-it approaches to schoolwork and studying 🙃
• I spent way too long playing around with budgeting apps/ systems over Labor Day weekend! Just felt like a huge time suck, but, overall, I’m glad I did it. Just wish it hadn’t taken so much time!
• my lingering dry cough all month

Reading:

I am basically going to have to skip this section. I have been in a serious reading rut/plateau and I don’t know that I actually completed a single book in August. I got into one of those situations where I somehow got multiple books going at the same time, which is fine, but makes it hard for people like me (who do not read constantly) to actual finish a book despite… reading books.

I guess stay tuned for my September recap where I can hopefully list a few titles?! Reading in general has just felt really hard lately! I’ve been choosing to use “free time” to do other things, basically. Such as, clean my storage room, write blog posts, work on our finance system, journal, walk, and Ivan and I watched basically the entire series of Anne with an E on Netflix in August. lol.

My early morning time slot doesn’t really seem to have enough time to read (because I do other things, which I don’t want to give up, such as journal, read blogs, plan my day or get a jump on work stuff and newer- I have been shifting some workouts to the a.m. lately.) My before bed time is also not the best for reading because I tend to fall asleep!!! haha. Oddly, watching a show does not seem to have the same effect (though we do not always watch shows at night, just sometimes). I also like to go in the hot tub before bed, when it’s not crazy hot out, or I’m just busy with things right up to bedtime some days. At lunch time I usually either: exercise, do misc tasks around the house, prep dinner, walk Charlie, or run a quick errand.

Anyway, obviously there IS time, I know… I guess I’ve just not been prioritizing it and that’s okay. But I do have a bunch of books I want to read, so I want to make sure to keep up with it at least peripherally, too!

Upcoming in September:

This section works best when I do the recaps on time, lol.

But, here goes:

🔷 our 18th wedding anniversary! ✅

🔷 Asher starts 10th grade and resumes club swim team ✅

🔷 my mom’s 75th birthday! ✅

🔷Ethan’s soccer season and many games, including an overnight in Milwaukee with his team (they left yesterday, actually, and he comes home later today)

🔷Ethan’s Homecoming dance! (tonight!)

🔷2 on-site full day work events for me (next week)

🔷my in-laws are coming for a few weeks!! I think. This was sort of a last minute thing, and may actually be occurring tomorrow?! 🙃Eeks, off to go clean the house.

That’s a wrap on August. See you again soon for my September recap in, oh, 10 more days. 😁