August is probably my least favorite month of the year, and has been since I was young. It’s just too damn hot here in August. We had weeks and weeks of relentless heat this August – temps over 100 with heat indexes of over 115 – and no rain at all (though really high humidity, ugh). Major drought happening here. And on the home side of things, we’ve just been sitting back and waiting for most of the month, not knowing exactly what was going to happen next, or when. Usually, the biggest highlight of August is the last week or so, when my boys go back to school, but this year is of course different with Morrigan’s situation. I’d looked forward to the return of routine and schedule…but no.

Reading and Watching
Very little has been happening in these categories this month. In reading, I read three mediocre books. All of them had flaws, and none of them really qualify as a favorite. As for watching? Also not much. Some NFL preseason games, a few random Netflix shows that didn’t really appeal to me enough to continue, and a cool documentary from a few years ago called From Fat to Finish Line. A blogger that I’ve followed since 2011 (Katie from Runs For Cookies) is one of the participants in the documentary, so that was fun.

House
We’ve had a few house projects on our list for awhile now, things we could do low-cost ourselves, and a few of them finally got done in August. Our stairwell banisters, which I sanded back in May/June, finally got painted. Took us long enough, right? Jason immediately moved on to the kitchen, where we wanted to replace a particular cabinet with something smaller and extend the counter into the new space. This was one of the larger projects since it involved cabinet construction, new countertop, disconnecting and reconnecting the sink, adding more tile backsplash, etc. Unfortunately, partway through this project, we had to stop and tend to several places in the yard where we suddenly had new chinaberry trees growing with deep roots (sigh), so the kitchen and yard sort of seesawed in importance and neither is 100% finished yet.

Health
My health in August was focused entirely on adjusting to my new Ozempic injections. Nutrition has consequently been all over the place, depending on whether or not I had stomach pain and/or food aversions. I added gluten back into my diet because wheat was one of the only foods I could tolerate. I barely exercised due to the combination of ridiculous temps and all the injection side effects. Generally: not good or fun this month.

Highlights of August
The good from August can be wrapped up in a very short list:

• Harry Potter Community Day
• Morrigan joining the Navy
• the boys going back to school
• underwater body composition analysis
• My cousin had her new baby, Ben!
• My brother-in-law got married! Wish I could have been there, but at least Jason got to go.

Coming up in September
Fingers crossed that Morrigan gets his security clearance quickly and can ship out soon, or that he can get a job in the meantime. Anything rather than continuing to be stuck at home in a waiting pattern, unable to do anything, the way he had to do in August! Also fingers crossed for some cooler weather (hell, I’d take 80s at this point!) and some decent health improvements. I’m looking forward to RIP, new seasons of The Great British Baking Show and NCIS, Siclovia, and a foam glow run that my friend Stephanie and I signed up for.