August books (plural)

I did read more than one book in August (unlike July) but I didn't devour anything after like the first week of August. I did DNF a few but I won't list them out here. The transition from summer reading to fall reading, I think, is hard. 

The Drowning Woman by Robyn Harding 

My first book by this author. I've been on a wait list for The Arrangement for months and then the library inexplicably doesn't have it anymore. This was on Kindle Unlimited. I liked it. The style of writing was good. I kept waiting for the twist. It was a good enough story/tale. I could've read it in a day if I'd wanted; I think it took me 3 days. Definitely a long book, though. I recommend it if you like a mystery. 

What Have You Done? by Shari Lapena

I pre-ordered this because I've had a lot of luck with Shari Lapena books this year. Honestly, I liked it enough to read it in a few days so it was 100% worth buying for me. Many seem to be comparing it to The Lovely Bones which, if you've read TLB, there *is* no comparison. It stands by itself as a classic of sorts (if you've not read it, you should).

I didn't love the twist? I did kind of predict it? The writing was good. It moved along quickly. The biggest issue was this, which I put into a Goodreads review:

The Perfect Family by Robyn Harding

Nothing and no one could've made me care about the characters in this book. They all were the worst. I thought the story was far-fetched and an example of bad parenting. I honestly kept going because I was curious, not because I was invested or because I cared. It seemed like there were so many random bits and pieces thrown in (blackmail! teachers who were predators! Oregon! Only F*ns! Hazing! Kleptomania! Guns are bad! Gangs! Vegans! Drug use! Disgruntled teens!) that it was like a BINGO card for a Lifetime movie.  I don't recommend it, but I did finish it. 

^None of that is even a spoiler. I could tell you major plot points and you'd still never guess what was actually going on. 

Middle of the Night by Riley Sager

I wanted to like this. I've DNF'd a lot of Riley Sager books in the past few years. It was better than the last couple of books by Riley Sager (Survive the Night and The Only One Left). I do believe I would've finished it much more quickly if it'd been on Kindle. I hate reading actual books these days. There were a lot of characters and, I felt, a lot to keep track of because I definitely didn't read it in one sitting. Reading it all at once over a few days would've made this easier. 

When all was said and done, I read like 3/4 of it and then started reading spoilers because I couldn't take it anymore. I'm counting it. The characters weren't great, the plot was a slow one. I almost felt like there was a Stranger Things element to it but he wanted to do that without saying so...if anything, it speaks to the obtuseness of 10 year old boys who turn 40 and still think and assume like 10 year old boys. 

Anyway.

The Drowning Woman was good and What Have You Done? was worth the pre-order. 

Linking up with Share Your Shelf!

Memes lately.

(when they met the Governor, around then)

This was on every morning in homeroom on the little tv hanging from the corner of the ceiling. 

This is a Lord-come-quickly situation

I can't tell you how many eggs I've just up and given to a dog because I can't do it.

This will never not be funny:

The number of businesses that expect you to be able to fax them something is unreal.

The most redneck thing I've done lately

I don't do as many "country" things as I used to...I hate the heat, so I don't go outside much this time of year. Throw in two small kids and it makes the prospect of fishing, hiking, hunting, whatever all the more unappealing....cajoling, packing up all the snacks, mosquito bite, ticks...you get it. Maybe this winter. 

The last time I truly enjoyed a walk in the woods was when I was pregnant with Sutton in the fall of 2021 for reference. 

MoDot (the esteemed MO department of transportation) was doing that chip and oil tactic to our main road through town last week (doesn't that just scream redneck to begin with? Main road, through town?). It was honestly a 10-12 mile stretch. I'm on about 2-3 miles of it to get home from work. There was a pilot car and everything. One of those situations where you wait. I'm terrible at waiting and I'm really terrible at waiting for anything by 3:30pm with two grumpy kids and 100 degrees staring back at me from the dashboard. 

So I was like second in the line of cars waiting for the PiLoT cAr to come back and could barely see the flagger so I didn't even know if we were stopped-stopped or if the truck in front of me was just there for some other reason. There was a giant construction truck, it turns out, blocking the flagger with the stop sign so you couldn't actually see him. It was a functional operation, is what I'm saying here. 

Anyway, when I realized it was going to take me 40+ minutes to get home (thanks Google maps!), I thought about alternatives. I remembered there was a dirt road behind my school that loosely connected to the other side of town. I made a u-turn and backtracked. I got on the dirt road, I drove on this dirt road along the railroad tracks, I crossed some side streets until I got to the one I was looking for. I turned left. I drove for 3 miles on a paved, windy country road. I made a sharp right at the cemetery and went up the hill onto the dirt road called "Buttercup".  And I followed that dirt road for about two miles until I had made a complete circle and ended up on the other side of my house. I made it home in 15 minutes instead of 45. 

I only know about this network of criss-crossing dirt roads in this town because of our time on our UTV (also known as a side by side). Everyone here licenses their UTV and drives them on the dirt roads and also on the paved roads. Actually that is probably the most redneck thing we've done since moving to Missouri. 

Upon arriving home, I dragged all the mail into the house and took a picture in front of a dirty mirror mostly because Scott had told me I looked like a bumblebee before he left in the morning and I wanted to document that:

These kimonos from CJLA are my favorite. I untintentionally wore all three that I own last week. This color is on super sale right now if you also want to look like an insect. (I'm wearing a small for reference, at 5'6".)

Teacher Talk Tuesday

How things were going midway through the first day of school. 

This will not be a regular thing but I thought I'd go over a little of what my teacher life is like..mostly because I've worked in more districts, schools, and classrooms than I can shake a stick at and I still find it so ridiculously fascinating how different they all are. 

This is my 11th year in my own classroom, but my 14th year of teaching because I did 3 years of subbing. Pennsylvania, Alaska, Missouri, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri... I've mentioned all that before. I've thought lately about how we've lived in Missouri for 3 years and I've worked for two districts plus I took a year off in that time here. Kind of insane. I've taught mostly 4th grade, but did one year in 2nd and then this is my second year teaching 3rd grade. 

This is only the third time I've done a repeat year in the same classroom. I switched classrooms once in Alaska because I wanted to in order to get a better one. So I did two years in one classroom there and then I did 3(!) years in one classroom in Colorado (Colorado seems like a foreign concept to me at this point). But the last time I walked back into the same classroom in the same school for another year was in 2017, four states ago. 

I work in a district that is Prek-12 in one big extended building. It's still very much split into elementary and high school, though, with two principals. We function as two schools. There's an attached daycare for teachers' kids under age 3 if a teacher wants to make use of it. They have two teachers, a separate budget/supplies, a curriculum, and everything. They also get to participate in things like field day, assemblies, etc. They get to join the preschool for art, music, etc. That daycare is the only reason I can work right now. I couldn't justify paying double (or even triple...I've seen the pricing) for an industrial-style daycare near the military base and driving 40 minutes one way to the school I worked at before Sutton was born. 

As for Wells, he is in first grade now and he is two doors down from my classroom. Last year, he was three doors down in kindergarten. He said he can't wait to be in my class. I don't really want to burst that bubble: I don't think we'll still be stationed here in two years.

But the school is a 7 minute drive each morning, which is about the best I could hope for, you know?

The school day starts at 7:30 for both teachers and students, which I don't love. I'd prefer for teachers to start at 7:30 and students to start at 8:00, but whatever. I drop Sutton off at 7:15 and, I've finally formulated a system: I park behind the building and go in a back door because it's quicker. (Last year was a crapshoot with dropping off/parking/getting everyone inside.)

Wells runs off to breakfast and I have like 10 minutes, if I'm lucky, to set up for the day. Kids start coming in at 7:30 and by 8:00, I'm teaching two back-to-back Reading classes. My school departmentalizes 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade. I don't love this or even like it very much but whatever. Apparently they've done it this way for years so it's just what the teachers are used to. I don't necessarily think what's best for teachers is best for kids but whatever. I could outline my thoughts in a dissertation at this point but mostly I keep them to myself :) 

I teach two Reading classes (one to each 3rd grade homeroom), I have lunch duty, I have my lunch, I have my RTI class made up of 2nd and 3rd graders, I have my prep period (50 minutes...last year it was 60), and then I teach two Social Studies classes (one to each 3rd grade homeroom). Last year, I realized there was not enough time to teach all of the ELA standards if I taught Social Studies every day so, this year, I'm doing Social Studies two days a week and Writing two days a week. While I call it "Reading", it's really reading, spelling, grammar, writing, phonics, fluency, research, speaking/listening/presentation. Plus Social Studies. I have about 120 minutes a day, 4 days a week to fit all of that in. (I spent all of last year writing curriculum, rewriting curriculum, asking for curriculum, and doing the math to figure out these minutes. There is no answer that I've been able to conclude.)

Without the departmentalization, I would have a lot more time because Math is generally an hour in every district I've ever worked in, and you don't teach Science and Social Studies every day in 3rd grade. You pick one and alternate. We used to do a Social Studies unit for 2 weeks and then do a Science one for 2 weeks when I taught 4th grade.

This is how quickly I can lose focus and start in on my disagreements with the methods! Literally don't even remember where I was going with that...

On Fridays, we have a 1pm dismissal, so I get an hour with each class instead of 120 minutes. From 1:30-3:30 on Fridays is when we do all of our PD, meetings, etc. Nothing is before school or after school or during preps. It's all on Fridays. I like this but I do think that a full 5 day week would be better for kids and families. Fridays are seen as fun day or not a serious day because for the early release. It's also when assemblies are held. I'd rather go to a 4 day week or a full 5 day week. I'd happily start school at 8:30, having meetings from 7:30-8:30 if we could go to a 5 day week. 

On Fridays, Wells stays with me and goes to all my meetings with me. He usually has a Chromebook to play on and this year he is able to join an after school club so I will do that with him on Fridays and maybe some other days too. I haven't figured it out yet. Sutton is allowed in my classroom under only the most dire of circumstances because she get into things and/or cries or yells and I can't take that. She stays at daycare until 3:45 every day. 

There I am, getting lost in the methods again though...

Monday through Thursday, kids are dismissed at 3:05 and I have to pick Sutton up by 3:45 so I don't stay after school. Any work usually goes home with me. I usually have time to prep for the next day before I leave...usually Wells is asking to go play with his friends in "their" rooms (really their moms' rooms) but I have to get Sutton before 3:45 because the daycare closes. So, more often than not, I am setting up for the day when the kids are coming in at 7:30 :) I can't drop off at the daycare until 7:15, so the timeline is tight. 

Anyway. That's what things look like at this exact season/snapshot of my teaching life. It wasn't always this way, it won't always be this way, and I can't lie: I've daydreamed about what it would be like to maybe send Wells off to school in a new location in a year or two, send Sutton to preschool, and just be at home with the dogs lol. We'll see what the Army decides to do with us. 

Amazon (and general favorite buys) from August

First, I posted about my new workout routine and there's a new calendar for September if you're interested in joining in! 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was caught in a weak moment and I bought this straightener/curling iron after seeing it on Instagram. Truthfully, I've been looking for something else to do with my hair lately...I hate styling it when it's hot out. This is actually really great. I don't use it every day because I rarely heat-style in the summer months but I plan on using it more this fall/winter. In my defense, I only own like 3 hair tools, and I've had them all for years. 

I got this chain in a 20 inch to swap out a shorter chain on a necklace I've had for years. I was a little leery about buying something like this on Amazon but I couldn't find anything I wanted locally so this was the next attempt. The quality is great so far and it's been about a month of almost daily wear. 

This is a bit of a niche product but if you are looking for sentence strips, I found the best ones. Sometimes, ordering online, they're flimsy, or the colors are dull, or I got some that were post-it note style once but they curled up and didn't actually stick. It's a gamble buying paper products online. 

These are heavy, bright colors, AND double-sided. I use sentence strips every year, without fail. These are the ones you want to bookmark. 

American Eagle jeans. I feel like I've fallen down a time-warp hole into 2014, but I don't care. I started looking around AE's site for jeans after being so disappointed in the trendy jeans I've seen around me and the, I think, unflattering looking of the big brands: Old Navy is a no, always and forever; Madewell I had luck with a few years ago but the last pair I got were constantly stretching out and falling down; I splurged on some Carly Jean Los Angeles and while they're perfectly wearable, I don't think they're ah-mazing. I also wanted something that wasn't a barrel jean and also wasn't deconstructed and wasn't that awful ridged denim.

This has had me at a jean standstill for two years. 

Anyway, I checked out AE after being lured to the site for something totally unrelated and here we are:

I make no apologies. Are you still wearing skinny jeans too? (These are on sale through the long weekend!)

Awhile ago, I got these cushions and this tablecloth from Walmart. Their Better Homes and Gardens line is high quality!

This past week, I found these pillows. I've been looking for a few new living room pillows for months. I couldn't find what I wanted anywhere but came across these randomly on Walmart's site. They're great. I wish they had removable covers but I can buy covers. I've had our same pillows since 2019(?) with covers on them. 

I needed a bigger bag for school. I wanted something I could fit everything in and not have to carry anything separate. I'm on this constant quest to make life more streamlined; I don't want to juggle bags on the way out the door. I looked for weeks and weeks. I finally tumbled across this Harper Tote from Simple Modern. 

I got the Cordura fabric in a size large. It's a lightweight, water-resistant fabric. I dot almond birch because my last bag was olive green. This, I will say without hesitation, is the perfect work bag. It has a spot for a tumbler, a laptop pocket, two front pockets, numerous inside pockets, and comes with a cross-body strap if you want to use it that way. I can't believe it's only $55. You'd easily pay $100+ for something of this quality from LLL or Athleta. I really like the brown vegan leather too. It'd made a great diaper bag or travel bag too! In reality, I was also looking for something I could easily use as an overnight bag or day trip bag with kids. 

Linking up with Tanya for Prime Purchases!

How to work out every day in August

Two more days in August but I actually kept a goal for the first time in months of letting goals slide by me, so I wanted to share.

I have a Lindywell membership, I canceled my Peloton membership awhile back (a year+ ago), and I know I have access to a whole wide world of workouts for free on the internet. 

Last school year, I was so run down and exhausted that I physically did not have the strength to exercise. I did nothing over the summer because, let's face it, why would I? I knew something had to change if I wanted to feel better in August as the new school year was starting. I initially bribed myself with i-can-buy-a-treat if I keep up with it. Then it was more like i'll-probably-buy-the-treat-anyway so I might as well keep up with this. So I did (on both accounts).

I found Pregnancy and Postspartum TV led by Jessica when I was pregnant with Sutton. I don't really remember when, I just remember watching her videos and doing some of the workouts in the 3rd trimester. The summer after Sutton was born, I swore by her videos; I don't have lasting muscle damage from a csection but so many moms do and I didn't want to jump back into what I'd normally do (barre/Pilates/the bike at that time) without going this route first. I didn't really know what was best for that kind of recovery. I did these videos for a few months and noticed a difference and then I moved onto Peloton classes.

Then, it turns out, I still get PPTV workout calendars sent to my email. Jessica sends one out every month with the videos linked. Trust me when I say I've "intended" to "do" these calendars for a year now. I decided August was the time.

My qualifications for a workout right now are:

-can't get very sweaty

-20 minutes is the sweet spot for time

-mat-based with light weights

-not repetitive, no repeats in the workout

While I don't need the pregnancy or post-partum modifications, her workouts are perfect for me right now. They are not easy. They are also ideal if you don't want to dedicate more than 20 minutes a day or don't *have* more than 20 minutes a day. While I could get 20 minutes a day from my Liindywell app, I didn't find the workouts challenging enough. Yes, Pilates is challenging but I need more right now and I need it to be faster-paced. Laying down on my mat at 5:30am is not productive if I'm not well-rested (rarely am I well-rested). I need something to give me energy. If you check out the PPTV site, seriously just ignore the words "pregnancy" and "post-partum" unless you are obviously those things. These are challenging workouts, if you start here. 

I've noticed a different in how I've felt, specifically. If nothing else, if the rest of the day is all downhill from when the kids wake up at 6am onward, at least I accomplished this.

I wanted to share in case you are also looking for something incredibly easy to fit into your schedule but will give you a lot of bang for your buck.  

In the last week...

 

More dog photos....We ordered two of these dog beds a year ago. They have held up remarkably well, and are the only ones our dogs haven't destroyed. Mav uses them a lot because he likes to gnaw on the sides. Realizing now that all my pictures of Mav are on these beds because it's the only time he holds still. 

I about came undone when I learned I had to now pack Sutton's breakfast and lunch every day. Last year, she got free school food. However, I've managed it for two, going on three, weeks now without pulling my hair out. The hack is to pack two at a time so you're not packing a lunch every night. We do have two bentgo boxes and Wells eats school lunch, so Sutton uses both. I don't know that you *need* the chill version, but it's good for road trips. 

Had a puppy visit and shot last week. Wouldn't sit still for a picture. 

We had our first day of school last Wednesday. 1st grade and second year of daycare. Sutton has a curriculum this year.

Scott picked up BWW the other day. He doesn't even ask what I want, he just knows. 

I took Sutton to Costco on Saturday. 

I got a few things to hopefully make meal-prep easier for the week. This is really good. Would easily feed four. I think it was $10? I just added rice and naan. You could add any veggies you want to. 

Mav patiently waiting for his dinner. 

Don't worry, the other dogs are around, doing whatever they please, whenever. They, I think, like that I monitor Mav so closely because they can do whatever they want. 

All that really matters ^^

This tree is outside my classroom window. I monitored it turning to "fall" last year and it gave me a lot of satisfaction as we had 90 degree temps in September. A true symbol of hope, those orange leaves are. I'll keep you posted.

A few favorites lately...

This was a TJ Maxx sweatshirt I got a few weeks ago when I was dreaming of fall. 

Last weekend (not this past weekend) it was cool enough to wear long sleeves. A true favorite. 

Someone I worked with once grew up in Germany and then moved to upstate New York. She said it was so weird to her the way everyone wore shorts with long sleeves on the east coast. Since I did that a lot, she said I reminded her of that lol. 

She is so happy to be back at school. 

He loves chewing on the sides of this bed. 

Still getting so many tomatoes from the garden. I keep making marinara sauce.

I think this was on Tuesday after my first day back at school. 

We all got Samsung Interactive Displays so I'm looking forward to using technology this year. Otherwise I have a projector, a document camera, and my own sound bar. 

I took Sutton to a birthday party yesterday. She loved it. 

I took Wells to a pool party last week. He loved that too. 

I got these at the post-exchange on base the other day. SO COMFORTABLE. Was not expecting that when I randomly tried them on. This is not the same color combo but it's the same shoe. 

I finally put on my Bubble Pop nails. I love this method so much. I think it's because of my erythromelalgia, but nail polish actually kind of hurts and makes my fingers swell up the first day I have it on. Even the super-crunchy non-toxic kind. Toenails, I'm fine, but even getting a professional manicure leads to this. 

These gel wraps are so much better in that regard...no weird side effects at all. And if I can do it, you can do it. Very easy application. 

I splurged on this Free People jacket. Since I don't wear a heavy winter coat most days in the fall/winter, I thought it would be a good everyday jacket. I originally got black, then didn't love-love it so I pre-ordered the champagne. It's supposed to ship 9/2. We'll see. The black, I thought, would be more practical, but I don't love the look of washed out black jeans and that was the color. 

Again, so happy to be going back to school each morning. Sutton started last Tuesday with me, but Wells doesn't begin until Wednesday. 

Happy (happy?) Monday and hopefully I'm back before Friday.