How are we here?!?! How is July OVER?!? Somebody please come hold me! Theo looked at me the other night and said “Wait, summer is OVER?” We just can’t believe how fast it went.
(Yes, I know that many people still have a couple weeks left of summer. But we are a “school family”- employed by a school- so summer is officially over for us on Monday. We still have 2.5 more weeks before actual school starts for the students.)
July was a full month – we celebrated the 4th of July, the three big kids went to day camp (a new experience for all of us!), and we had our family reunion up in Northern Michigan. Then the last two weeks have been simply slowing down and finally having nothing major on the calendar- just the minor things like tutoring, XC conditioning, math camp, playdates, back to school supply shopping, lots of animal chores, pool time, friend time, etc. So, you know….calm and chill. HAHA.
But let’s go back and revisit all this with some pictures:
July started with the 4th holiday weekend, which I already recapped in some detail here:
We went to two parades, ran a 5k, and hung out with family at their off-grid property.
While the big kids were at day camp, Ori and I had lots of one on one time together. We went to the library, we had a playdate at the splash pad with a friend, and we got lots of small jobs done at home. Day camp was a new experience for all of us. I was really nervous going into it, but all three kids really enjoyed their experience and I was refreshed by having a little less on my plate for that week. I’ve been a Mom for 11 years and besides one or two yearly get-aways, I am with my kids pretty much 24/7, so like I said…this was a new experience for me!
Of course, we watched a lot of the World Cup in July! There was some amazing games in there! I am so glad that we got to watch so much this summer. I will remember the nostalgia of summer 2026 including the feel of watching many games together as a family.
My two favorite games were Argentina vs. Cabo Verde and the France- England game for 3rd place.
You know what, guys? Young people these days get a bad rap, but I think the kids are gonna be alright. I have met so many mature, lovely and responsible young people lately. This is Theo’s cousin’s daughter, and she is getting ready to go to college in the fall. We ate over at their house and she and her brother had endless patience helping my kids fish in their pond.
Endless sunflower content coming your way! In July, I got my first sunflower blooms and my field is doing pretty great overall! My sunflower field is very wild and free and honestly, I love it that way.
Game Closet Refresh
I gave the kids the job of pulling out all the games from our game closet, categorizing them and then we put them all neatly back. Now we have a list of games that we are working through- we hope to play them all soon!
A friend invited us out to Cow Appreciation Day at Chik-fil-a. She even printed these cow masks for us! It was a lot of fun. If you aren’t familiar with this, basically if you dress up like a cow, you get a free sandwich!
Of course, one of the highlights of July was our Hines Family Reunion!
I got some good time in with friends this month. Summer can be pretty lonely for me as an extrovert. I don’t mind being home a lot, but I do miss being around people and adult conversation. Seeing friends really lifted my spirits. Also, TWO of my friends gave me totally random but very lovely gifts, which is my love language!
Things on the homestead front have been rough this month- the opposite of sweet and romantic. We’ve had a chicken fiasco and we ended up needing to catch all of our chickens because they all decided to wander and roost way too far from home. We had to do this late at night when they are sleeping- multiple nights in a row. We had to build new chicken hoops for them. And then the pigs got out and would just flip the hoops over and release all the chickens, starting the whole dang process over again. Our pool turned green and annoyed us to no end. And while the weather has been breezy and cool for July, there honestly hasn’t been very many good swimming days this month! I got stung by a horsefly right under my eye and it was PAINFUL. Basically, we jokingly/half seriously wondered if we should just quit homesteading and move to the suburbs.
Sunday was a fun day- we went to church, then had my parents and brother over for lunch, then headed over to school for a playground work day. There were so many people there to help that all the work went so fast! It was a huge blessing, because last year when we did the same work day- almost no one came. Theo and I were SO discouraged trying to do it with only 3 other adult helpers, so this year was exactly the opposite and so, so encouraging to see all the help out there!
We’ve only been to the pool once this month! When the kids were at camp, they went everyday. And then we were in Michigan for a week. And then it was cold for a week. And then this week we finally went back again. I would love to have a week where we go everyday, but that has not happened yet.
The last big thing we checked off our list this month was back to school supply shopping. It was a feat, but we did it- and I’m so glad that it is done!
And that is a wrap on July! It was a full month, and like I said- it went by WAY too fast!
On Monday I’ll have my July reading recap 🙂 For now, here are some of the other blog posts that I wrote in July: