Summer Recap and a Daily Dose of Pancakes?

Happy Back to School days to all my teacher and student friends!! The start of the school year always feels more like New Year's to me than January 1st. Probably because after many years of being a student, I went straight into teaching (and so did both my parents) so for more than two decades my life has followed the rhythm of the school year. Even though I've been out of the classroom since Calvin was born, the start of the school year still has the feeling of a new beginning, a new chapter. This year even more so because it looks like Calvin is going to be starting pre-school in a few weeks! I say "it looks like" because I am still in disbelief/denial about it, and also because the program he's entering is brand new and doesn't have a start date yet... which is only adding to my feeling of uncertainty about this whole pre-school thing :/ More on that in a later post.

We had a great summer, and I hope y'all did too! We spent the 4th of July weekend with some of James' family in South Carolina, and then my parents came to visit us here in California. We did lots of fun day trips to our favorite places around the Bay Area. James and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary, and we celebrated some family birthdays including Henry's!

On Uncle Stephan and Aunt Vanessa's boat

Calvin and Grandma Bea

A visit from Granny and Danpa! 

Celebrating our anniversary by watching our favorite team win! Go Giants!

Happy Happy Henry Day :)

Trip to the zoo with cousins. HBD Evan!

Though I didn't keep up with blogging throughout the summer, I did post some updates on Instagram and Facebook, so check those out for more summer pics!

I've been having a hard time getting back to blogging. It was like, the longer I went without posting the harder it was to figure out where to begin. But the Back to School vibes are making me feel inspired for a kind of fresh start with this blog. I started thinking about using daily blog themes to help me write more frequently. When I am only posting once or twice a week I sometimes get bogged down because I have too much stuff to catch up on, or because I feel like I don't have anything important enough to merit a precious post. I am hoping that by aiming for a quick post a day, I'll be able to keep it simple and updated with a little less pressure. In the past, I've been resistant to using daily blog themes because I thought it would feel cheesy. But if I'm really being honest, I actually really like cheesy things and I really like themes, so here we go!

Monday Funday - Why not brighten up Mondays with posts about some fun family outings and events?

Tot Play Tuesday - A chance for me to share some home play ideas for littles.

Wellness Wednesday - Quick updates about Calvin and Henry's health and therapy progress.

Thankful Thursday - Because a thankful heart is a happy heart!

Friday Favorite - I'll keep the theme pretty loose on this one. Could be any kind of favorite for any member of our family - favorite foods, songs, toys, etc.


Disclaimer: This is not a contract and is in no way a binding requirement for me to actually post every single weekday forever and ever. I do promise to try to write each day and to use these themes as inspiration. Until it starts to feel lame or I get a better idea ;)

Happy Monday! Hope it's a Monday Funday for you!