Picture an Hour: August 2024

Hi friends! The school year officially begins for the big kids in our house today (kind of… as I mentioned on Monday, we have a staggered start for Ryder and he only goes for an hour today)… but still, back to school is here! The beginning of our week was dedicated to enjoying every last second we could of our summer break and peppering in some back-to-school to-dos. This meant Monday included a trip to Sea Life Aquarium (the boys’ final request of the summer) as well as an ice cream social at the big kids’ school.

(T-shirt: Amazon / Jeans: Free People / Sneakers: New Balance) 

As for yesterday, I’m planning to share a picture-an-hour recap of our Tuesday with you for today’s blog post so keep on scrolling to catch up!

Picture an Hour: August 2024

6:15 a.m. Wake up, let Pepper out, coffee, devotional, work e-mails

Oh how I’ve loved (mostly) alarm-free wakeups this summer break. My body still has me up a little after 6 a.m. every day but it been nice to be able to wake up when my body wants to wake up and not have to worry about getting out the door before 8 a.m. for school drop-off. That’s all gone beginning this morning but yesterday I eased into my day with coffee, my devotional, a little walk up and down the street with Pepper before Ryan left for work and some work emails.

7:30 a.m. Breakfast, random household chores, dinner prep

The boys were up right around 7 a.m. and while I’ve been immensely jealous of friends whose kids sleep in past 8 a.m. all summer long, I’m hoping the fact that our kids wake up before 7 a.m. will make the back-to-school transition a little easier. Hopefully? Maybe? That’s what I’m telling myself at least! Once everyone was awake, I toasted up some waffles I prepared last week (I make a whole box of Simple Mills waffles in our waffle maker to toast in the toaster on weekday mornings) and while they ate and played, I chopped up some veggies for dinner and did some random household chores (laundry, unloading the dishwasher, etc.).

8:30 a.m. Get dressed, pack snacks, head out 

(Top: Vuori / Leggings: Lululemon / Socks: Hanes / Sneakers: New Balance / Sweatshirt: Amazon)

I registered Chase, Ryder and Rhett for a three-hour drop-in summer camp at MyGym on Tuesday morning so we had to head out around 8:45 a.m. I needed some childcare help in order to meet with Ryder’s teacher one-on-one later in the morning. (The big kids’ school does this at the start of every year and I love the ability to connect with their new teachers before the school year begins so much.) Once the boys were running around and having fun at MyGym, I made my way to Burn Boot Camp for a strength training workout that focused on biceps, triceps and shoulders.

9:15 a.m. Burn Boot Camp

Arm day/Upper body day will forever be my favorite Burn Boot Camp protocol so I was loving every minute of Tuesday’s workout!

10:20 a.m. Returns + back-to-school shopping at Old Navy

My appointment with Ryder’s teacher wasn’t until 10:55 a.m. so I had an awkward pocket of time to fill in the mid-morning and figured I’d use it to my advantage and do a quick return at Old Navy. Of course this lead to a little back-to-school shopping for the boys (a couple of these hoodies + this tee + this zip-up hoodie + these shorts + these joggers) and I couldn’t resist a cozy pair of sweatpants for myself. I am forever and always drawn to all things cozy when I’m out shopping.

11:15 a.m. Meeting with Ryder’s teacher

My meeting with Ryder’s teacher went well yesterday and we discussed the upcoming school year, any questions or concerns I had leading into the year and general logistical stuff. I’ll return to his class tomorrow for a lemonade drop-in before he officially begins on Monday. Ryder is especially excited his classroom pet is a leopard gecko like Lucky!

12:30 p.m. MyGym camp pick-up + Whole Foods pick-up

After saying goodbye to Ryder’s teacher, I swung by Whole Foods to grab my pick-up order before picking the boys up from MyGym and heading home. I did most of our grocery shopping on Sunday but still needed a few extra things to get through the week so this was a fill-in-the-blanks kind of order. Once we arrived home, we ate lunch and hallelujah the big kids actually tried and liked sliced turkey. Small victories, my friends.

1:30 p.m. Free play

The boys often do well with free playtime when we arrive home after we’ve been out and about and that’s what happened yesterday. They were content to build with blocks, play with Legos and listen to their Tonies. While they entertained themselves, I finished dinner prep which looked like chopping potatoes and seasoning a chicken to roast.

2:50 p.m. Trip to the library 

Yesterday was dreary until close to dinnertime and when the boys and I were ready for another activity later in the afternoon, we figured the library would be a good option since it was still a little drizzly outside. We spent a solid hour at the library, reading and returning books and checking out some new ones to bring back home.

4:45 p.m. Outside playtime and a little gardening

By the time we made it back home, the sun finally came out so we spent a little time in the backyard, picking cucumbers (and our first shishito pepper!) and running around outside.

5:50 p.m. Dinner  

When we were in the mountains last weekend, I made a roast chicken with chopped carrots, onions and potatoes for dinner for everyone on Friday night and we loved it so much that I wanted to make another one yesterday. I followed the whole roasted chicken recipe from The Whole Smiths Good Food Cookbook and I am 99.99% sure I haven’t made another roast chicken recipe other than that one since I first discovered it years ago. So easy and so, so good. There’s a reason it’s one of my go-to meals to make for guests! (I just make 3x the amount of veggies and add potatoes when I make it.) Plus, it makes the whole house smell amazing!

7:10 p.m. Boys’ bedtime routine 

A little after 7 p.m., Ryan and I began the boys’ bedtime routine. I read a few stories with Rhett and got him settled before joining Ryan and the big kids for prayers and their goodnight routine. And yes, Rhett is absolutely still in his crib and we won’t be moving him into a big boy bed until he asks to be moved. I will be forever grateful to the blog reader who told me to keep Chase in his crib as long as possible when I was thinking of moving him out when I was pregnant with Ryder. She said “a big kid bed is not a milestone” and encouraged me to embrace good sleep habits if he wasn’t climbing out of his crib.

We had zero issues with sleep for Chase when he was a toddler once he was in a big kid bed and I truly attribute this to the fact that he stayed in his crib as long as he did. We’re hoping for the same from Rhett! (Ryder was our little monkey man and climbed out of his crib early so we transitioned him out of his crib earlier when he was around 2.5 years old. Thankfully Ryder adjusted well to his big boy bed but I’m fairly certain that was because he moved into the bottom bunk bed below Chase and it thought it was the coolest.) Aaand that was a lovely little long-winded little crib update no one asked for!

8:00 p.m. First day of school prep + Reading time with Chase

Once all the boys were in bed, I made Chase’s lunch for school and did a little first day of school prep before Ryan and I let Pepper out one last time. I then worked for 30 minutes or so before joining Chase and Ryan in bed to read a little bit more. Once Ryder is asleep in their room, Chase is allowed to sneak back downstairs for some big kid reading time with us every night until 8:30-9 p.m.(ish). We’re currently on book number five of the Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew series with him and he’s loving it!

9:15 p.m. More reading

Once we said goodnight to Chase, Ryan and spent some time reading our respective novels before we could no longer keep our eyes open. I’m almost done reading The Berlin Letters which has been an interesting one for me, as I love historical fiction but have never read a historical fiction novel that centered around the Cold War.

And now it’s officially the first day of third grade for Chase, so I’m off to give an extra big hug to my third grader and join Ryder for a one-hour lemonade drop-in at his school this morning, too! I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday and for those of you with little ones going back to school this week, I hope everyone adjusts well and has a fantastic school year. And to the teachers out there — thank you!!! The work you do is so important and we are so grateful for the time, energy, knowledge and effort you pour into your students.

Have a great Wednesday, my friends!