What's Up Wednesday: August 2026

August is always a bit of whiplash around here as I start the month on summer break and end it by getting back to work. The kids are still on break though so it's a few weeks of juggling schedules. This year our schools start a bit later, due to Labour Day being really late, so I'm just heading off for my third day of work today. Sam is up at camp and Rachel is volunteering for dance camp this week. Did I mention it's a bit "what's going on now?" around here?!?! Anyways, on with 'what's up Wednesday.'

Answering these questions monthly helps me reflect on the past month and I really appreciate having a record of what we've been up to. The questions come from Shay at Mix and Match Mama and Sheaffer at Sheaffer Told Me Too.

image from here; since I'm posting late, I can use the new graphic :)

 

What we're eating this week... Rachel and I spent a bunch of time this weekend baking muffins. I always like to do a blitz towards the end of August so we have easy breakfasts and snacks to get us through the first weeks of school. This year we made pumpkin cream cheese, lime, zucchini chocolate chip, and chocolate chip muffins.

It's also bean and tomato season with our CSA so I've made my bean salad recipe. I made it up and you just boil the beans, cool them off, and then add tomatoes, cucumbers, feta cheese, and avocado, if you have one on hand. This year I've also been adding fresh basil. I use balsamic vinagerette dressing and it's so good!

 

What I'm reminiscing about... In two weeks Sam starts Grade 12. I can't even believe it. It doesn't feel like all that long ago he was starting Junior Kindergarten. So I've been reminiscing about Sam's school career. It's gone by really fast.

 

 

What I'm loving... I've been looking for ways to not rush through August and soak up all the August fun. A few weeks ago, we were with Tim and Janice and they recommended we go play a quick round of disc golf. Dave and I had forgotten how much we enjoy disc golf, and how many courses there are around us, so we played again with Rachel this past Friday. She had so much fun, we're going to try and play again this weekend. We're not good at it but we laugh a lot!

 

 

What we've been up to... August was full of all the fun things!!! Sam and I started out the month in Saskatchewan.

Since coming home, we've seen two movies outdoors -- one on the side of a barn and one at a drive in.

We've enjoyed things in our city like the Night Market at the library and a surprise concert at sunset.

 

We've enjoyed playing games with Tim and Janice...

...and quiet moments in our back yard.

We enjoyed a flower farm and apple picking adventure with a friend...

,,,and a brunch with goats with Dave's parents.

Did I mention August has been full of fun?!?!?

What I'm dreading... Well I started back at work on Monday so I'm no longer dreading the end of summer break; I'm slowly easing back into work. So I don't know if I'm dreading anything right now. It's a nice place to be :)

What I'm working on... My August project was to deep clean our laundry room after the renovation. And I did it!!! Dave helped a lot too. It was slow going but our laundry room has never looked better!

This was after I'd been working for an hour. Absolutely everything had to be wiped down and every piece of floor had to be swept about three times.

  

Look how clean and fresh it looks now! We just need to figure out how to hide the pink walls as we can't paint them... That will be a future project!

What I'm excited about... I'm excited about having the kids put together IKEA furniture! We had to buy a few more things from IKEA in July and I got the kids to assemble it! Sam did a shelf for our music books and Rachel did a table for our reading nook.

I'm also excited to spend some cozy winter hours reading in this nook we've created in a corner of our bedroom. I really need to stack some books on that table now!!!

 

What I'm watching/reading... I've been watching some Blue Jays baseball (are they going to snag the last Wild Card spot?!?!?!?) and we watched Spider Man: Brand New Day at the drive in last week. Other than that, I haven't been watching much of anything.

 

As for reading, last week I read Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley (who I just figured out wrote The Guncle!!!) I loved Lily and the Octopus but I don't know who to recommend it to as it's going to be too heartbreaking for anyone who really loves dogs...

 

What I'm listening to... I didn't know what sounds defined August (maybe "quiet") but, as of yesterday, I know I'm going to be listening to a lot of Dolly Parton. I didn't realize how many of her songs reminded me of my childhood.

What I'm wearing... This week, I'm easing into wearing work clothes by wearing capris with fun t-shirts. Next week I'll be meeting with families so I'll have to step up my game a bit but this week it's more casual. Thankfully the weather has gotten cooler so I'm not missing my shorts too much.

 

What I'm doing this weekend... We're picking Sam up from his last stint at camp and then spending some time with friends. We'll probably try and play some disc golf and watch some baseball! Then we're sending Rachel off on one last summer adventure. It's going to be a full weekend.

 

What I'm looking forward to next month... We always hit the ground running in September and every weekend is booked! I'm looking forward to LUMEN, a festival of light and technology in our uptown. I'm looking forward to Gathering Sunday at church and the High Holidays at the synagogue. I'm looking forward to seeing what our fall routine looks like. September brings a lot to look forward too!

 

So that's what's up with us this last Wednesday in August -- a lot of summer fun and some hints of fall. I hope you have a good Wednesday and listen to a classic Dolly song today. For me, it's going to be "9 to 5" in honour of heading back to work this week :)

10 On The 10th: August 2026

Well friends, as of today, my summer break is over :( I have a full day meeting today and then the rest of this week, I will be at the school -- sorting, organizing, catching up on emails, and generally getting ready for school to start. In a month, I will be back into routine, but as of today, I'm just dreading it. Blah.

At the same time, I know so many of you don't get a long summer break from your jobs and I am so thankful for mine -- time to rest and recharge, time to get stuff down around the house, time to spend with my family, and time to have a lot of fun. So I go back to work today with mixed emotions.

Today, on the blog, I am looking back at a couple of weeks ago, how I spent my day on August 10th. I've been doing "10 on the 10th" posts for awhile and I take ten pictures of the 10th day of the month (and sometimes the 11th day of the month or the "weekend of the 10th" of the month but I digress...!).

This day started with coffee-hot chocolate on the deck with Dave. This is always one of my favourite parts of the day.

I love having ivy on our house; however in August it drops all its seeds. So I swept up four shovelfuls of ivy seeds. I have to do this about two or three times over the course of a couple of weeks and then its done.

I don't know if I've mentioned this on the blog or not but in July 2024, we lost our doctor when they closed the local office. We were without a doctor until this past February. We finally have a doctor again and both Dave and I have had minor health issues checked out this summer. So I was at the doctor's office. Yay?!?

After my appointment, I weeded some of the day lily bed and then ate some leftover salad on the deck.

My July project was unpacking boxes in Dave's office and my August project was deep cleaning the laundry room as it was still covered in renovation dust. This was an intensive project which involved going through things, wiping absolutely everything down, and reorganizing. I spent about an hour starting this project this day and made some progress.

This was one week when both kids were around so I gave them things to do each day. Sam assembled an IKEA shelf for our guest room while Rachel made lasagne from scratch for supper. I LOVE having helpful, older, kids! 

After supper all four of us walked up town and volunteered with a local venture for a bit. Then we stopped at Starbucks for a treat for the walk home. The local chamber orchestra was performing an outdoor concert in our square so we listened in for a bit.

I took a picture of Rachel taking a picture of me on the path! Hahaha!!!

 

And that was my August 10th -- getting things done and enjoying a slower pace of life. It was a very good day.

Savouring August (Friday Favourite Moments)

I'm writing this post on our deck while three loads of laundry are drying on the line, I'm drinking a cold Coke, and Rachel is deep cleaning our car. Life is really good right now!!! Here are the ways I savoured August this past week. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, go read this post here where I explain what I'm trying to do this month.)

1) Sunset Session in downtown

 

Our local business association hosts free outdoor concerts each Friday night in the summer. There are always two acts and the acts are a surprise until they start playing. It's called Sunset Session and I've always wanted to go to one. My family had agreed to come check it out with me and then the kids decided they were too tired. So Dave and I went on our own. One act was an indie punk rock group and the other was a solo artist who does Afrobeats. Neither of them was a concert I would have intentionally decided to attend but Dave and I had so much fun!!! Part of it was how random the music was! We really enjoyed the music, even if it was outside of our preferred genres, and it was a fun, unexpected, date night.

2) Starbucks with the girls

 

Rachel invited her best friend over for a sleepover on Saturday night. We walked uptown to get Starbucks, inspired by the Unicorn Frappe, and I had a lot of fun talking with them.

  

3) Sunday with our best friends

 

Sam headed off to camp again on Sunday and our best friends' kids gave him a ride up. He had to be at their house at 7:15. So we hung out with Tim and Janice and enjoyed tea together. Then we made a plan to meet up for the afternoon. We played disc golf, watched the inaugural Worlds Pairs Disc Golf championship, ordered pizza together, and ended the evening with a really fun game! It was just an organic, hanging out, day and we loved it!

 

4) Time for yard work

I really love doing yard work but it can't be too hot, or too dry (too hard to weed), and I have to have good energy. I especially love having time to do yard work on a Monday morning when I don't have to wake up early!

Left: our front yard tree on Saturday; right: our front yard tree on Monday morning.

So much better!

 

5) CSA salad

 

I invented a random salad a few years ago to make when it's bean season for our CSA. I boil the beans (then cool them down) and then add tomatoes, cucumbers, avocado (if we have them), feta cheese, and balsamic vinagarette. It's so good and such a great way to use up a lot of beans. This past week, there was basil at CSA so I threw that in too and it was delicious!!!

6) More games!

 

On Sunday when we were playing games, Janice mentioned another game they had, and then invited us back to play it later in the week. So on Wednesday night, we ended up back at Tim & Janice's playing Blank Slate. It was really fun!

7) Drive-in movie

Our neighbour mentioned a drive-in theatre in a city not far from us so last night we went out for supper, wandered along the riverside, watched planes take off and land at a small airport, and then saw Spiderman:  Brand New Day. It was really fun!!! Although we did discover that it's hard to watch a driveiin movie from the back of our car!

 

As you can see, sometimes we go and have an experience to savour August and sometimes it's just noticing the little joys at home. This intentionality has really helped me change my mindset about this month. Here's hoping I can keep it up next week when I'm back at work!