Wednesday, August 5, 2026

Well, it turned August on Saturday, and my mind is still blown! I keep saying this but I lived on a school schedule from the time I was 5 years old and it’s still hard to wrap my head around NOT living life on a school calendar, you know?

Thank you again to Laura for helping me come up with my present participles – once a teacher, always a teacher. Lol.

In my part of the country school starts as early as the end of July. I’m not kidding when I say I already saw first day of school photos on social media last week. My city’s public school district starts tomorrow.

SAVORING

I am savoring the good parts of summer. I am using up sunscreens and using up anything I deem a summer scented product. I need to savor the seasonal summer foods, too. Everything is so green from all the rain. I love shorts, t-shirts, flip flops, and how easy it is to dress in the summer, but I can also tell I am starting to yearn for the early fall transitional pieces.

WRAPPING UP

I am wrapping up summer themed books this month. I have a few more on request at the library so we will see if I can read those. I am hoping to wrap up some decluttering areas that I have been working on, too.

I also want to wrap up summer outfits and wear my summer things before I can’t anymore as I mentioned under “savoring”.

PREPARING

I am preparing to hear the kiddies on the playground and the school traffic. I am hoping the traffic around town will be lessened during the school hours once everyone is back in school, so that will be a benefit. I am preparing to have cars parked on my street at the pickup times.

REMEMBERING

I would say this was 3rd grade:

It’s hard not to be nostalgic for my school days and my childrens’ school days. Gosh, I loved having kids in elementary school. I have so many great memories of their school days and it seemed like elementary would never end. Middle school was way better than I expected and then high school was special because the three of us were in the same school together for four years.

First day of freshman year with mom:

I didn’t get to teach them until their senior year. By then, they were mature enough to handle it!

Personally, I loved school so much. There is a lot wrong with the way we do school, but I thrived. I loved answering questions, being the center of attention (when appropriate), learning new things, getting to know my teachers, and the routine and structure. I loved the competition with the boys, especially. I wonder how I would have done at a girls’ school without the boys? I came home from school each day and taught my dolls and stuffed animals what I learned, or I taught my sisters what I learned. I guess it’s not a big surprise that I became a teacher.

ORGANIZED

I am working my way through each and every space of my home, really. I am doing pretty well. I want to be more organized although many of my friends and family say I am already very organized. I want to have a place for everything in my home and I want everything to be either meaningful or useful. That’s a tall order!

Please link up here for Currently!

And, now for Hodgepodge with Joyce…

1. What’s something on your August calendar you’re looking forward to? Or dreading if that’s easier to answer. 

I don’t have much on my August calendar. I am looking forward to some boat rides and some more summering! I am dreading August weather, but she started out pretty nicely with some really unseasonably cool days!

2. August 5th is National Oyster Day…do you partake? How do you feel about pearls? 

I am not a fan of oysters! I recently went to a bubbles and oysters happy hour and just had the bubbles part. I love pearls. I think they are a classic. I have a couple of strands. I also have some faux pearl earrings.

3. Tell us about a time when you felt like ‘the world was your oyster’. 

I have felt like that since retiring! I have also struggled with lack of structure and purpose, so it hasn’t all been an oyster world. It’s also different when your husband isn’t retired yet.

4. Trip Advisor lists seven islands in the US that require no passport (for US citizens). If you’re answering today from outside the US you’ll still need to produce yours. An-y-way, have you been to any of the seven? Let’s pretend you get an all expense paid trip to one this month…which one do you choose and why? 

Catalina Island California~Martha’s Vineyard Massachusetts~Mackinac Island Michigan~Key West Florida~South Padre Island Texas~or Kauai Hawaii

I have only been to Mackinac Island and Key West. I would love to go to Catalina and Martha’s the most. I think the weather would be fabulous in both, and I like seeing places I haven’t seen before. My sister honeymooned in Kauai. I also want to go back to Mackinac with Tom because he hasn’t been. Key West was one of our family’s favorite trips. Our twins were in elementary school and we surprised them by driving to Orlando and going to Harry Potter World at Universal, then drove to do a swamp boat ride in the Florida Everglades, then drove to all the keys and stopped at most of them to do activities, then ended in Key West where we stayed for a few days.

5. Sylvia Plath is credited with the following- 

“August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.”

Agree or disagree? In other words, how do you feel about this month? 

Like I said, I don’t have much on the calendar for this month. August has always been a month to “get through”. The weather is typically unbearable, and, in the past, I just had to start school very close to the first of August with getting my room set up and getting ready for the kids to come. It was a tiring month of learning new routines and being exhausted and hot. I think I need to do an August Bucket List of things I want to do before summer officially ends.

I agree with “the best of summer gone, and the new fall not yet born”. Well, I would have agreed with that while in the school schedule, but I really have a lot of summer left if you consider Labor Day the end point.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Since today was also Currently, I feel that I have shared enough random thoughts! Ha!

Currently link up is here if you missed it before Hodgepodge!

Amy

30 thoughts on “August Currently + Hodgepodge”

  1. I smiled when I read this. 😊 As a teacher in Sweden, I still live my life by the school calendar too. August has always felt like the real “New Year” to me, much more than January.

    I loved reading your memories of school. I especially smiled at the part where you came home and taught your dolls what you’d learned. Some people are simply born to teach, and you were clearly one of them.

    I hope you enjoy every bit of August—boat rides, summer books, and those last easy days in flip-flops – maybe in combination with jeans!

    Have a wonderful week!

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    1. Yes! It’s hard not to when so much of society is centered around the school calendar.
      Thank you! I did! I also played piano teacher.
      Thank you! I need to make myself a schedule and a list of fun things to do. I need to do more on my own and not wait for companions.

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  2. I wonder why Trip Advisor picked those 7 islands and not, you know, any of the other Hawaiian islands, or Nantucket, or the Virgin Islands… I have been to Martha’s Vineyard but that’s it from the list given.

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  3. Quite a few of our answers were the same or similar… great minds and all that for sure!! Our random thoughts were definitely on the same page, lol. We both posted photos from first days of school from yore. It’s fun to look back- I honestly don’t get misty eyed- it’s more like I enjoy seeing photos of the kids and remembering the good times from those days (I think I’ve blanked out most of the not so good!). Our weather has been pretty darn good and I hope it stays that way!

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    1. Yes! I don’t get misty eyed most of the time but I have great memories and I loved parenting that age. The good far outweighed the bad. I was a full time teacher but able to walk my kids to school and home from school and be a room parent.
      The weather has been so nice this week!

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  4. Way to go on the organizing! I’m still on that kick myself, and I’m working on things as often as possible. I’m sure it’s still slightly strange to be able to savor this month instead of rushing like usual! I love the pics of you with your boys on their first day of high school. What a fun family vacation in the keys! I’ve only been to Key West, and it was beautiful. Thanks for hosting us today!

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    1. Thank you! I need to get down to the basement storage room and then it would be great if I had kids home to haul the donations up the stairs. I think that is what is making me procrastinate. It is still so strange. It was a great trip. Key West is so beautiful. Driving all the keys is quite spectacular and only takes about 1,5 hours.

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    1. It was just a sweet spot of parenting, right? You can feel the energy in the air, right? Traffic here has been so bad. I think people were frantically preparing or savoring or something!

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  6. This is the first year we are not living on a school schedule and it is very strange. It will probably hit me more when the schools open back up in September. Aww! What a sweet photos of your boys. I don’t think I could ever bring myself to eat an oyster but pearls are beautiful!

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    1. Isn’t it? It will hit you then, for sure. There are some good things like less expenses at this time of year for the school stuff.
      Thank you!
      Yes, pearls come from something so ugly, no?

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  7. Your area might be the only one I have heard of that starts earlier than Texas schools! The Florida road trip sounds like so much fun and a great memory. I also look back fondly at each of my kids’ phases/stages and enjoyed them all. I also loved being a student! Thanks for the fun link up!

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  8. Love that pic of you and the boys in school- I am sure it feels like yesterday! Do you find, now that you are retired, you are enjoying August more? No more summer/Sunday scaries right? 🙂

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  9. I still think it’s not too late for you to find a cushy part-time teaching gig somewhere! Looking at elementary pics from the 2000s makes me nostalgic for the first groups of kids I had. I started in 2010. I love that you had them dressed alike but in different colors.

    But anyway, July is my month to get through. August brings the promise of fall lol.

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    1. I don’t think that’s what I want right now but maybe in the future. I could easily turn part time into full time. I don’t want to be out of the house for more than about 4 hours. I always dressed them like that.
      I feel differently about August now, for sure!

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  10. Even though you didn’t write anything about The Paris Match, I just put it on hold. It looks so dreamy to read. Thank you for hosting “Currently.” I also really loved school and can’t imagine not functioning on a school schedule.

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  12. I like champagne with my oysters so the event sounds like fun to me. I grew up where the weather started to turn a little in September, but here it still feels like full on summer. I’m okay with that. I loved the elementary years, my own and my daughter’s too. So much sweetness.

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  15. I am always a little sad when the summer comes to and end as it’s my favorite time of year. Your schools starts so early and I guess ends early too. I’m still enjoying everything that summer brings. Your boys are so cute and my brothers are identical twins too. I organized my bathroom and got rid of some towels to donate to Goodwill.

    I’ve been to London with my daughter at the end of November 2023, and it was such was such a nice time of year. Everything was decorated for Christmas and the weather wasn’t too cold. I went last year in the beginning of June and it was kind of cold. I had to wear a long sleeve top and a top over it and a jeans jacket and I was still cold. I didn’t have a rain coat and that would have been good to wear. I went again for a long weekend in the middle of this past June and I packed as if it was going to be colder weather but it wound up being heat wave there. We were so HOT! I should have packed better. We stayed in an area called Kensington and we both loved it. I liked going the beginning of winter as it was festive time of year there. I think June is a great month to visit. I hope you get to go to England. I want to explore more of the countryside the next time I visit as I’ve seen a lot of the city. Take care Amy and enjoy the rest of the summer.

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  16. I just can’t get behind the idea of school starting at the beginning of August! Even though when we homeschooled, we often started some subjects around the second week of August, but our goal was to get a head start so we could take a big family vacation in October without losing ground.

    I was very much the same growing up as what you described – loving school and learning, and wanting nothing more than to become a teacher myself. I did it as a home educator instead of a school teacher though. What fun memories of your school days, and the school days shared with your boys!

    Thanks for the link-up – hope you’re having a great summer! Enjoy the relaxed pace you’ll have this August!

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