Some of My Favorite Things – August & September 2025

This month saw the return of the other kids to school (FINALLY!) and our return to homeschooling after a short “break.” Let’s get to those Favorites!

Kids in School

Among the many things that light up a homeschooling mama’s heart are the sights AND sounds of a playground AFTER all the other kids have returned to school. I know I’m not alone in this.

A playground with a couple dozen kids is chaotic, noisy, too stimulating (for me, the introvert, but also for kids), and just plain not fun. Sure, there may be a kid or two that our kids get to meet and whose company they might enjoy, but I’d rather have them play with their usual few friends whom we know.. than have to brave the much bigger kids who chose the day we’re there to “play” with the wasp nest near the slide. -Shaking my head.- Dumb kids.

A new school year

We homeschool year-round using what’s called a “Sabbath” schedule, where we do school for six weeks and rest or do a “Break Week” on the seventh week. Each term lasts six weeks for a total of at least 36 weeks, plus a few more at the end where we supplement with more informal or casual programs and lessons.

Because we finished the curriculum we started in January just this past July, that gave us about two weeks (vs our usual one) to rest, close and document the previous year, and prepare for the new year. And prepare we did! We purchased a few curricula, incl. some in Spanish, and a LOT of educational resources, mainly Catholic ones and others focused on pre-reading skills.

I’ll abstain from including Homeschooling among my favorites this time around because after including in (almost) every Favorites post, I’m sure you get the idea :).

Hiking

I’m SO glad we’ve started hiking! It’s something that my husband and our oldest really enjoy doing, as it lets the former teach the latter some foundational survival skills, along with the wonders of God’s creation and the beauty of our state.

Carole Joy Seid (whom I’ve talked about before, incl. here where I recommend homeschooling resources and here where I list some of my favorite podcasts) states that if they’re not yet super involved in the formal day-to-day instruction, or when the kids are so little that Mom is doing the bulk of the home education, fathers are wonderful teachers of the outdoors. Which works for me because I’m not a fan of exploring trails with the kids by myself, but I’m definitely a fan of doing it as a family or of letting my more experienced husband handle that really important aspect of their education.

Our Anniversary

The end of Summer/start of Fall marks another favorite time of year around here, and that’s because it surrounds our wedding anniversary and the anniversaries of many Firsts in our relationship. It also always brings back sweet memories of our time in Hawaii for our honeymoon

As the mornings get chillier and the leaves start to turn, I can’t help but feel a bit more warm fuzzies than usual due to all the memories surrounding meeting my husband, courting him, and marrying him, all which happened at around the same time in the season across a few years.

The cold is still not my favorite state but fortunately it brings with it some delightful memories and new traditions.

Favorite Podcasts

This time I’ll mention The Homeschooling Connections Podcast (formerly known as Homeschooling Saints) and the Dr. Taylor Marshall Podcast.

The Homeschooling Connections Podcast is for Catholic moms and homemakers wishing to or currently homeschooling, and it’s where we learn of new services, technologies, and faith-filled tricks to nurture our homeschool and lives as homemakers in general. I’ve learned of some really neat curricula and authors through it, not to mention key mind shifts, and I highly recommend it as a primer into the Catholic homeschooling and homemaking sphere.

Dr. Taylor Marshall was an Anglican priest who converted to Catholicism and is now using his platform to bring awareness to recent news and unique perspectives from a traditional Catholic lens. He’s very much for informing listeners (and viewers of his YouTube channel) of questionable happenings from the Vatican and all over. He’s also refreshingly pro-America but doesn’t wear blinders when it comes to the faults of the Right.

In fact, in his latest book, Christian Patriot (which physically credits Yours Truly as an early reviewer!), Dr. Marshall argues that patriotism will–and has to–transcend modern political movements like “MAGA.” He also teaches several ways to help us bring true Conservatism to our families and societies, but I digress. My point is that he delves into Catholic issues through a commonsense approach, and not an exclusively “Right” point of view.

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What have you been enjoying these last couple of months as we transition to the colder seasons?