August

For me, August is always a month of savoring and anticipation. It starts with my Brother's birthday and basically ends with my parent's Anniversary on the 29th (43 years this year). In between is the emotional roller coaster of savoring the remains of Summer while anticipating the arrival of everything I love about September.

As I have mentioned before, I have themes for each month. I have a daily theme but each month has five core themes. Those core themes are what I used when choosing my monthly decorations. I also have three core season themes that I use when choosing Seasonal decoration. During each month and season I find myself drawn to things that represent those themes.

The July themes are fireworks, watermelons, islands, camping and Summer fun. There are a lot of Patriotic and watermelon decorations around. The September themes are apples, back-to-school, sunflower seeds, owls and Fall fun.

In between you have the August themes which are Palm trees, clouds, pineapples. coconuts, and Lemonade. The main inspiration I used for these themes was the idea of the classic laid-back Summer. Palm trees, pineapples. and coconuts all came from a Tiki base theme. I use beach and ocean themes in June but I like the idea of keeping the tropical Tiki separate. I separate island from July and Tiki from August by sticking to the facts. The island theme refers to thinking about the different types of islands. Tiki refers to tropical things. Clouds and lemonade come from this picture that always pops into my head when I think of August. Sitting on an Adirondack chair looking out as the clouds go by over a beautiful lake while sipping Lemonade and just enjoying the natural beauty of Summer.

August days feel like Summer and August nights feel like Fall. It was on one such night a couple of days ago when I rearranged my garden again, thanks to one Sunflower. In the Spring I had planned to have Sunflowers in my garden. I got three from a nursery I don't go to that often and they didn't work out. Deadheading Sunflowers is hard to do and I was learning the right way to do it. When I gave up on them, I got a Miss Sunshine Sunflower from Home Depot and removed the old ones from the planned garden. I decided instead of including Sunflowers in the garden I'd just get a special flower each year, type unplanned. But that Miss Sunshine Sunflower is beautiful now and I have learned the right way to deadhead a Sunflower so I found myself taking out the special flowers and putting that Sunflower back in the plan. Home Depot reassures me they get them every June. I smile every time I look at it.

 

 Just walking through the Home Depot garden section a couple of days ago reminded me that August is a month of transition. They got small Mums in. Originally, I put them in front of that Sunflower. After I moved the Sunflower, I needed something to go behind the Mums. Enter Rubekias (Annual Black-Eyed-Susans). This is what August looks like. Black-Eyed-Susans, like Sunflowers, are Summer flowers that last into Fall.

July is usually the month for Summer activities. Camps are usually in July and most older kids don't start their Summer homework until August. July is also more likely to be filled with Graduation parties and 4th of July parties.

August is a month of preparing for Fall. We finally do that Summer homework and we start shopping the Back-to-School sales. Teachers start preparing their classrooms and parents start planning what after school activities their kids will take part in. Kids start missing their friends and the routine that the school year brings while wanting Summer to last forever. Zach is currently in that stage. He misses his school but loves that camp is over so he can spent five whole weeks uninterrupted with Mommy.

This year, we're covered for Zach. He doesn't need school supplies yet and is still in 5/6 cloths. We have all but the bigger robe waiting for him so if he grows more and needs bigger cloths, we're ready. Today we went through some workbooks we have for him. His own version of "Summer homework" We did the Sunflower and Grocery Store chapters from the August Preschool Worksheets book I made (link below) and a few from store-bought books. I learned that he needs to work on patterns and tracing letters but he's great at story sequence, alike, different, finding hidden pictures, counting, number identification, and sizes. We'll do more of these pages together in August.

http://preschoolworksheetsbyfran.blogspot.com/2013/08/august-and-bonus-4-6-summer-lesson-book.html

August means something different to everyone but we can't ignore that the Summer lawn and patio displays in stores are slowly being replaced by back-to-school supplies. Reminders that Summer is slowly coming to an end. I like that August tends to be a slow month. When we say in July "we have plenty of time we'll get to that before Summer is over", we get to those things in August. We should all make time for that lemonade while looking at the clouds passing by over a lake this month. Even a few minutes on a lunch break can make a difference for stress relief. Savor the Summer while preparing for Fall.....................August.