"One Day Down...

 

179 more to go (or is it 184?)  I can't remember.

I survived the first day of school.  No one missed the bus, went to the wrong school, or waited 90 minutes for the bus.  

Yay. 

That is all.  

End-of-Summer Life

 

Reading so far this year.  I'm kind of surprised I read eight books in August, but three of them were Diary of a Wimpy Kid audiobooks (two hours each) so the chart is deceptive...

Fall Plans:

Usually in September (and October and into November) I have a large PTA project that stresses me out and takes up a lot of my time, but since I'm not doing that project anymore (PTA politics, if you think you can do better the project is all yours, I'm out) who knows how my reading will go.  

I have 2.5 hours of soccer practice, and at least one 4-hour cross country meet a week (and sometimes two) from now until early November which is a lot of reading time... also a ton of time in the car.  

Series September.  I am participating.  I have a book series I have one book left to read in, and plans to make progress on other series but... mood reader... so who knows.

Really wanting to read all things ships, oceans, lighthouses, sea creatures... and want to turn it into a 2024 reading goal, we'll see if that idea sticks.

Writing.  My copy of Word expired (with basically no warning time, last time they gave me three years...) and all my writing is being held hostage. I suppose I should pay up, get my stuff out of there, and switch to some other word processing platform that is not stupid...

School starts tomorrow.  For some reason, my phone decided to start dinging at me at 5:11 am this morning, even though I had no alarms set, and it was not lost.  I was planning on enjoying not having an alarm set on the last day of summer vacation.  Thanks a lot stupid phone...

What I did on my summer vacation:

Yesterday, I took the kids (the ones not in college) to the end-of-summer trip to the river.  Because our "home" cross country location is at a lake (not the high school) and you have to pay to park, and the park by our house is also not free to park at, I have a parking pass and am not afraid to use it at the four places it's valid for... (I bought the wrong pass one year...oops.) Anyway, fun was had by all.  Picked up at least 5 lbs of trash, played with rocks, waded, went to the playground... all the fun stuff: for "free." 

Other projects:

The previous owners of our house decided to paint all the doors (except two for some reason) off-white, and didn't sand them first.  The minute we moved in and touched a door the paint started to peel off... Operation remove a door, strip and sand it, and repaint it has begun.  One door down, ten more to go.

I grew a 1 lb 7 oz pineapple tomato.  It was delicious.  

New idea where the kids plan make dinner on Sundays.  In an effort to make sure they can feed themselves when they move out (and so I don't have to cook one day a week, shhh don't tell anyone.)  The 16-year-old went first and made basically a potato quiche without the crust. We named it Alfonso.  Alfonso was delicious.  The 14-year-old volunteered to go next... God help us all :P  

And 

I've been (slowly) repainting my kitchen cabinets and poly-ing them correctly.  I'm about halfway done and then the drawers need help...  This one is upside down and belongs on the other side of the sink... I should fix that.

I hear the sounds of people in my house waking up... I should drink more coffee while I have a chance.  

August 2023 TBR

 

Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers.  Beat the Backlist challenge, give an author/book a second chance.  I tried to read this book a few years ago, and didn't get very far.  This is also part of the Read Your Bookshelf challenge as last month I read a sci-fi and this month I need to read another book in that genre.  

Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen: Buzzword Challenge "other."  I specifically bought this book because I don't own a book with that word in the title.  I have read most of the author's other (ha ha ha) books.

The Inheritance Games.  Beat the Backlist-- a book where a house plays and important role.  

Unnatural Exposure and Cause of Death: my series making progress challenge, I didn't read my July Scarpetta book so I need to catch up.

The Silent Patient: still working on it...

Mistborn: still working on it, so slooooow.

Length of a String: I picked this up for some reason and forgot what it was...

Bitter Falls: I have two books in this five book series to read and then it is complete.  Me finish a series, what?

Not pictured: Amari and the Night Brothers.  Beat the Backlist book with a fairy in it.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer (reread, audio) so I can read book two in the series next year.  

Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Rodrick Rules, audio, reread) I did not listen to this the previous time I read it, but am enjoying hearing the books without the illustrations.  Great for long boring car trips.

And that is what I will be reading in August.  Go me.