August 2019 Family Update

It feels like August has been a month of prep. Summer is winding down, which means we are about to start back to school. But we also have a big season of travel coming up too. And football will be back, which means less Saturdays outside.

I went through and decluttered a lot of our spaces but I’d really like to do it again. Skylar holds on to so much stuff that it near literally drives me crazy. I dare say she is NOT a minimalist, quite the opposite in fact. But my mom called me a pack rat when I was a kid so I suppose she gets it honest.

All of our puppies have gone to their new forever homes and we are down to Onyx + Ace at the BFF. I enjoyed having those puppies but it was also a lot of work. I’m thankful that we now have some sort of routine and predictability again, which is all in preparation to start school.

We unschool, which means that Skylar gets to direct the subject matter, but mama tries to give us some type of routine and order because I can’t function without it. It’s all about compromise and we do the dance pretty well. Give and take is required for all involved. But isn’t that real life most days?

Even though we haven’t “officially” kicked off our school year (the pancakes are coming), she has already logged 21 days thanks to summer camps, a few field trips, and several scouting activities. Technically, we have just as many days completed as Wilson County and Metro Nashville. Gosh, I love homeschooling!

Speaking of field trips, we visited the brand new TN History Museum and it is absolutely fabulous! I can’t wait to go again and focus in on a specific area or era. It’s beautifully curated and I can’t believe how lucky we are to have it available to us for FREE, especially with so many other awesome spaces near by like Bicentennial Mall and the Farmer’s Market. We also participated in a shark dissection at Charlie Daniel’s Park and Skylar did another 2-night campout with her troop. We are also big into recycling right now after sitting in on a class at the Nashville Recycling center. We had no idea that the Nashville landfill would be full in 2-3 years. Skylar has even taught her troop about it and now takes a recycling receptacle on campouts.

…and, speaking of Scouts, it’s incredible to see how much fun these girls are having. They’ve mapped out the entire next year and they have some awesome activities and trips planned. Until this point, they have had to borrow all of their gear but they are currently fundraising to get their own. If you’d like to help out you can purchase popcorn here or make a donation directly to the troop (contact me).

Mike and I celebrated 14 years together this month and I’m hoping for 41 more. We didn’t really do anything special other than having a free weekend at home while Skylar was camping. We did try out Big Bad Wolf Smokehouse in Mt. Juliet and it was great!

In an effort to squeeze out every last drop of summer, we’ve been tubing on the lake and we hit up the Wilson County Fair (this one is a tradition) and ate so many yummy things! Fair Day is always a favorite! We also took advantage of our Nashville Shores season pass one more time and had a blast together.