Living Unabridged

In the interests of regular blogging, I'm planning to make the last Saturday of the month a wrap-up.

Where We Went in August

We had a week long family vacation in New Albany, Indiana. This is just across the river from Louisville, KY. We stayed in a building that had a bakery on the ground floor. Which meant daily donuts. (If you go, get the maple-bacon. It's a-may-zing)

We spent two days at Kentucky Kingdom. This vacation was a gift from my in-laws and my father-in-law bought tickets that included these wrist bands that gave you unlimited drinks at the park. (And by drinks I mean Coke, lemonade, etc.) I think that may have been my children's favorite part. "I'm getting ANOTHER Sprite, Mom!"

Philip had a "business" trip to Gen Con. He looks forward to this game convention in Indianapolis every year. Stay tuned to see whether any new board games designed by him come out of it. In sad news, we learned that Revolution! (his best selling game) may not be reprinted. The board game business is fickle, so if you've ever wanted a copy, maybe buy it now.

I took the kids to the "Solar Eclipse Party" at our local library. The two oldest girls volunteer there so they were helping. Our area had something like 91% coverage so it didn't exactly get dark but it was still impressive to see. And the temperature did drop, too. My husband was working on residing our house and he appreciated the cooler temps.

Favorite memory: The iBoy looked up in his eclipse glasses for the first time and said, "Mom! There's something on the sun!"

What Happened in August

Ballet classes. Library volunteering. Back to school. (Watch for back to school posts in September.)

Oh, and Daughter #4 got glasses. Turns out, she has astigmatisms in both eyes. This makes 3 out of six kids wearing glasses now. Daughter #3 has her fingers crossed pretty tightly.

(P.S. You can keep up with our life, what we're reading, and lots of homeschool inspiration by following Living Unabridged on Instagram.)

What We Watched

While on vacation the kids watched quite a few movies. One I remember: Mater's Tall Tales. EVERY DAY. Not sure why it was so popular, but I'm glad it didn't come home with us. (I'll go on record here: I really just don't GET the whole Pixar Cars thing. I love almost any Pixar but this series is a giant nothing for me.)

Philip and I watched the latest season of Endeavor. I've seen every episode of Morse and Lewis and now I'm caught up on Endeavor. If they ever do a series about Morse as a child, I guess I'd watch that too. And if they made a Hathaway spin-off from Lewis, I'd probably watch those too. JUST TAKE MY MONEY, already.

When Philip was away I introduced the girls to two 90's favorites: Angels in the Outfield and Sabrina.

They enjoyed Angels in the Outfield (of course we did have a quick discussion about what angels are really like in the Bible). I loved this movie as a kid but hadn't seen it in a long time so I was surprised to see a very young Matthew McConaughey and Adrien Brody as ball players.

Sabrina: The girls got a kick out of Han Solo / Indiana Jones as a romantic lead. This movie is...very 90's. It felt like a time capsule for me. (I did have to fast forward a part or two, because the six year old was watching. With my older girls, I probably would have just had a talk about what we were saw.)

Also notable on the entertainment front: we have finally broken down and gotten a Prime membership.

On the Blog

Not much! I really took the summer off in July and August. But I'm refreshed and I have what I hope will be helpful and fun content planned for the coming weeks. But just in case you missed them:

• Teaching Early Modern History to Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric Stages
• Mystery Series to Binge Read

One year ago: 52 Family Game Nights: Tiger Stripes. My daughter's game didn't really take off and become a bestseller, but it was an interesting experience for her and us!

Two years ago: The Gift of Time: 10 Reasons I'm Thankful for Homeschooling. Our life is busier now than ever, but this is still true!

Top affiliate this month:

I had honestly forgotten I was an affiliate for this, but August must be planning month for Living Unabridged readers because the notifications started rolling in while I was on vacation. That's always a nice surprise. {wink}

Pinterest Board of the Month:

Links for this Week:

• Race, the Gospel, and the Moment by Tim Keller
• Generation X Will Not Be the Savior of Civilization by Leslie Loftis. Thought-provoking.
• Made me laugh: Romance Novels, Generated by Artificial Intelligence by Elle O'Brien. Probably goes without saying, but content warning for some of the titles and images.
• Here's a helpful list of Storm Prep items from a few years ago. (We're not in Texas or on the gulf coast, but a few years ago Hurricane Ike managed to have enough strength left to knock out our power for a few days so I like to be prepared.)

What did you do in August?