It’s official. We’re in the final month of “summer” for our family. Technically, summer stretches well past August, and technically, the kids don’t go back to school until early September. Technicalities aside…August always feels like the last true month of summer.
But there’s one final week in July to recap before I move along…
VACATION BIBLE CAMP
I still struggle to call it camp and not school, but I suppose “Vacation Bible School” just doesn’t have the same appeal these days? Maybe calling it camp makes it easier to convince kids to attend during summer break!
Whatever the name, our church hosted several hundred kids this week. It was so much fun. Also? It was extremely exhausting. My brain is complete mush. I was one of the leaders for the Grade 4/5 group and we had 41 kids. That’s a lot of children for two adults and one teen volunteer.
I love our church. It feels like home, and being part of such a vibrant, supportive community brings me real joy.
One of the coolest parts of the week was learning about Bible translation — into both American and Ukrainian Sign Language, and even a waterproof-paper version for Papua New Guinea (because of the tropical climate).
There’s something oddly gratifying about having kids scramble to sit next to you. When your own children see you as uncool and mildly (to majorly) embarrassing, it’s satisfying to be the fun adult for someone else’s kids.
This year’s theme was Christmas in July. You know how I feel about Christmas, right?? I got to dress up, sing carols, play games, and go to church decked out for Christmas…in July!
I painted my nails red, wore dangly wreath earrings, put a bright red bow in my hair, and donned my beloved Grinch shirt (I wouldn’t touch you with a thirty-nine-and-a-half-foot pole). I thrifted it a decade ago and still wear it every Christmas. And, this year, in July.
Another day, same earrings, different look. A lumberjack, perhaps? Is that Christmassy enough?
- We made wooden Christmas ornaments and learned choreography for a new rendition of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.
- We baked Christmas cookies from scratch — in 40-degree weather! (Some kids had never baked before, so despite the sheer and utter chaos of 40+ children baking, it was a real highlight.)
- We had a Nerf war, celebrated “Christmas morning” in Christmas PJs, brought in over 500 food bank donations, made “snow,” and played with black light in science time.
- We had small groups where the kids were both hilarious and insightful.
I’m an introvert who recharges solo, but I can be loud and extroverted when needed. And this week it was definitely needed. I gave it my all: the yelling, the singing, the Minute to Win It games, the answering of all the questions.
The only real downside to the week was my diet choices. I mostly leaned into junk. Not from hunger, just overstimulation. It felt like a coping mechanism for how much noise and energy surrounded me. My body is screaming for veggies and it’s definitely time to reset.
SLEEPAWAY CAMP
While Indy and I were spending our mornings at church, Belle was living her very best life at camp. When I went to drop her off, you’d think she’d been away for years and not two days. She was so. excited. to. go. back. She was (literally) surrounded by friends in her cabin and while I’ve blogged before about how much I detested summer camp as a kid, the very opposite is true for my own offspring and I couldn’t be happier for them.
It’s a home-away-from home for her and she is accepted and loved and has so much fun. I’m really glad she will have these memories to carry with her through life.
HAPPY THINGS IN BLOGLAND
- Nicole has submitted her novel Inhale Exhale for final edits. Woot, woot.
- Melissa’s post about crocheted postbox toppers was delightful. (Snoopy and Woodstock were my favourites. <3)
- Daria is exploring France with her two young kiddos, and the pictures of the pedestrian-only village of Sarlat looked like something straight out of a fairy-tale.
- I suspect we’re all familiar with feelings of FOMO and Kae summarized that experience in such a relatable way.
- Allison wrote about visiting the Experimental Farm outside of Ottawa; it nailed quintessential summer vibes.
- Suzanne’s post about “Secret Single Behavio[u]r” was fascinating. Readers, I’m curious what your answers were/would be. If that wasn’t enough, her post about celebrating two months with Lenny (their new family kitten) will tug at every one of your heart strings!
- Check out the gorgeous pictures Susanne (with an “s”) captured with her new camera extension tubes. (I’d never heard of such a thing.)
- Cal Newport’s article on “engineered wonder” really made me think. A great read for any Disney lovers out there.
BONUS HAPPY THINGS
- Clean windows. I have fairly low standards when it comes to home cleanliness. I mean, things aren’t overtly dirty, but I’m willing to tolerate quite a lot. Our windows were outrageous. It’s not really a job I’m keen to tackle myself but since moving in almost 8 years ago, we have had our windows washed once. ONCE. Not only did we find someone to clean our windows, turns out they also do other repairs around the house. When I stood in the kitchen doing dishes the other night I could not believe the difference. It was like looking out at a completely different view. Everything was so crisp and bright!
- In addition to cleaning windows, he can do minor drywall repair. Remember the hole in the wall I have blogged about various times but did nothing to fix. It is fixed!!!! Hallelujah.
- En route to taking Belle to camp, we stopped at Starbucks. This was my first time having something from Starbucks!!! We split a Venti and it probably had enough sugar to sustain a linebacker for a week, but I did thoroughly enjoy it.
- This T-shirt. It 100% fit the personality of the kid wearing it, and when I read it for the first time I laughed out loud.
- Indy had a friend come for a sleepover this week. When I walked through the living room (they ended up ditching the guest room for the living room late-evening), his friend had neatly folded the blankets. WHEN CAN HE MOVE IN AND TEACH MY KIDS A THING OR TWO???
- One day they ate their lunch while sitting in a tree. Look at those little dangling feet!
- Cherries. Corn on the cob. Lemon bread. Pecan tarts. Spicy dill pickles. Coffee on the deck.
- One evening we had friends visit for a BBQ supper and it was lovely.
- Another evening, I managed to fit in a walk with Joy. Always great to connect and she wisely suggested a time near dusk so the weather wasn’t quite so oppressive.
- My glorious post-VBC nap yesterday.
- Good books. July was packed with great reads (recap coming soon!).
Happy August, everyone. We still have a month of summer vacation her, with fewer organized activities to give our day structure. We’ll see how I fare…
Your turn.
- What’s the weather been like where you live this week?
- Favourite type of Christmas cookie?
- What’s your favourite summer fruit?*
*I think mine are cherries. I love raspberries so much, but there’s something special about cherries to me because I didn’t grow up eating them, so access to them now still feels like a luxury. They’re a little indulgent, a little nostalgic — even though I have no childhood memories of them. Maybe that’s the charm? Every handful feels a bit like summer is saying, “Here, enjoy this.”
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I love cherries too, because they have such a short season, and it coincides with our Christmas, so I always associate them with celebrations. You are very brave being one of the leaders for the kids’ camp at your church, that must have been mayhem. You really got into it though. I guess if you’re going to do something like that you may as well be all in. Good on you for taking a big nap at the end. You know I love naps. Clean windows make such a difference, but you don’t realise how much until they are done. Since we are in an apartment, the outside is cleaned once a year as part of the body corporate maintenance schedule. It’s scheduled for November, just in time for Christmas parties and summer entertaining. I do need to remember to clean our sliding doors regularly because Riley makes a mess of them. The weather here in Noosa has been about 20C all week, but in Melbourne it is 12-15C maximums. It will be a shock when we get home in a week or so.
It was mayhem, but in a good way. The kids are excited and have oodles of energy, but they’re also so honest and sincere. It’s invigorating to be around them…and then I want to collapse in a heap and sleep for a week.
Cherries at Christmas! Very out of season for us here in Canada, but I do love Cherry Cheesecake for Christmas 😉
15C sounds pretty good right now. Things are hot and dry and I’m nervous about forest fires if we don’t get some rain and cooler temps soon!
It has been so hot this summer, it is very hard to enjoy the outside. Our garden is growing out of control with a lot of green tomatoes. Hopefully I can make a batch or roasted puree soon. And the lawn has a ton of crab grass and weeds.
My favorite summer fruit is peaches. Never really ate fruit growing up, but now I do. There is a farm that comes to town every Friday during the summer to sell their peaches and they are the best. I will be buying a lot this week so I can cut up and freeze some.
And a first trip to Starbucks. Hope you don’t get addicted!!!!
I do love peaches, I just find them hit-or-miss in terms of flavour where raspberries and cherries tend to almost always be good? I wish I lived handy for your farm peaches. Because a good peach is VERY hard to beat!!!!
I will not get addicted, solely because of the price. Wowzers. Those things are not cheap. But it was delicious and yet another beverage to cross off my list (so far I’ve tried Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew, and Starbucks for the first time in 2025…and none of which will become go-tos for me!)
Christmas in July is VERY Elisabeth-Coded! I love that for you! I also grew up calling it VBS and I don’t know, CAMP does not sound the same. But I guess it’s potato po-tah-toe.
I loved sleepaway camp too so I’m excited for your girlie!
Thanks so much for the shout-out, friend!
It’s been beautiful here – a little hot this week, low to mid-thirties, but lovely. Favourite Christmas cookie: gingersnaps, my grandma’s recipe. Favourite summer fruit: anything berries. My raspberry bushes are producing a lot! It’s peach season here, which is also yummy. Cherries are done now for the year but I also love them. I guess I love everything? I don’t know!
You love everything and I am secretly jealous (maybe not-so-secretly?) of your garden. Such a delicious bounty of produce!!!!
And Christmas in July was pretty darn awesome for this holiday-loving gal <3
Oh my goodness! And here I was thinking dealing with football crowds was stressful… but 41 kids?! You deserve a medal, Elisabeth. Or at least an uninterrupted nap and a lifetime supply of earplugs.
Also, your hairstyle with the red bow is adorable! Did you do it yourself?
Your clean-window story now has me side-eyeing ours. We usually tackle them together…well, Kai tackles them while I hand over the occasional cloth and call it teamwork. It takes about two hours… no excuse not to finally start with it!
Hope August brings you pockets of peace, plenty of veggies, and a few more dusk walks with Joy. Bring on the gentle chaos of late summer!
I did do my hair myself (just a basic French twist!)
Our windows require some equipment in terms of extendable rods and/or ladder and…that just feels like too much work. Hence me not doing it. But now that we have someone we know is inexpensive and does a great job, I forsee cleaner windows in the future.
it’s great that Belle has a different experience at the camp than you. We should never assume how our kids perceive the world, right? Sofia tried camp in 2021 and had a good experience. yet, when I ask her if she wants to go back, she says not if she’s not going with a friend, but would be happy to go to day camp. She loves spending time with the family so I understand where she comes from.
I love your new blog world news segment, it’s so helpful to spot new bloggers.
Fav summer fruit: peaches although we don’t have any in Brazil. Watermelon, berries, plum would come next.
“Blog world news segment” – this made me so happy. Love your description 🙂
I live in an area with lots of plums but I rarely eat plums. Not sure why; I often find them a bit tart, I suppose and we didn’t eat them much growing up but I really should make more of an effort to find varieties I enjoy!
I think a big difference for Belle vs myself is her friendships at camp. I was homeschooled at the time I was going to camp which meant I knew almost no one. It was always so scary and intimidating and, of course, most other kids WERE there with friends so I was excluded. Not in mean ways, but just in the way it will work if people already have established friendships. I do wonder if I would have loved camp if I had gone with an established friend group. Probably?
CHRISTMAS IN JULY!!!! You knew I’d be all over that! It looks like so, so, so much fun! And- you finally had a Starbucks drink! I haven’t had those fancy ones, but I imagine they taste like a dessert (which is not necessarily a bad thing).
While you have another month of summer left, we’re gearing up for school. I can’t decide if I’m happy about that or not. I feel like you have an “extended” summer but that’s not really the case- you just got out of school later than us.
I love your Happy Things in Blogland segment!
They do taste like a dessert. It was very delicious but nutritionally devoid of anything decent, I’m sure.
We get out much later; this year it was the last day of June.
I love your happy things posts! Indy’s shirt is great, My Maggie needs it. The other night said I was 50/50 about something and she said “Oh I’m more like 50/40” D’oh! Your church is thriving to have that many kids signed up for VBS whoops VBC 🙂 My fave summer fruit is nectarines forever!
Ha! 50/40. That would be something I might say.
About 40% of the kids that come don’t have any affiliation with our church, so it’s a big event and draws from a wide area (I know some parents use it as a “free camp” and they go around between different churches week after week). Regardless of who makes up the group, it was a big and it was wonderful! A little over 200 kids across the various age groups. Phew!
Ignoring your prompt questions as usual because your photos and commentary always trigger responses from me. (“Trigger” didn’t used to be a bad thing, so please don’t view it as bad here.)
1. I’m with you on not often bothering to wash windows and not having high standards of home cleanliness. What I cannot abide is clutter! But it is thrilling to occasionally have spotless windows, and I love a truly clean house. The problem is that everything is connected so I never know when it is done. Dust the window sill, oops the curtains need washing, now the windows look dirty, look at all the spider webs on the outside, oops I need to weed/prune/water. . . it is ENDLESS.
2. That drink from Starbuck’s looks lethally good, slobberingly so.
3. I’m with Belle about summer camp; it provided me with a place I loved, something to look forward to every year, a goal for a job, a comfort level with strangers and in the mountains. In summary, it set the stage for the rest of my life.
Ignore away! Sometimes I struggle to come up with anything remotely interesting for the “prompts” and they are there to be ignored as desired!!!
1. I also hate clutter. I also love a clean home. But it is endless. I think what’s most demoralizing is how quickly it can go from being clean (and having spent hours to get it that way) and dirty/cluttered.
2. It was so good.
3. They literally just drove in the driveway from camp, so I am bracing myself for hours of stories, and a whole lotta dirty clothes to help wash 😉
Christmas in July! How fun!! That is very on-brand for you, but also made me think of Jenny, our Christmas enthusiast!
August kind of feels like “true summer” for me because we have our annual vacation to my parents’ lake home. Large swaths of the country will be back in school when we head to my parents on the 18th! I’m really looking forward to it. The kids will be up there for over 2 weeks so are very much looking forward to it!
The weather was horribly hot and humid at the start of the week and we have very strong thunderstorms. But the air really dried out on Wednesday – just in time for Canadian wildfire air to move in. Womp womp. Luckily I am not sensitive to the poorer air quality so can still do my normal activities but it’s a bummer to see the smoky, hazy skies and I feel a bit depressed knowing that things are not going to improve w/ all the climate change deniers at the helm of our country…
But this is supposed to be a HAPPY THINGS post. So a happy thing was getting my airpods back from Delta this week! They found them (but not the charger they were plugged into?? but I’ll take what I can get). I had ordered new airpods as the cheapies I got were not good enough so I am glad I can return them! Hurrah! I was also cleared to not have a colonoscopy for 7 years! Another hurrah! The process was quite horrible so I am glad I won’t have to do it again until I’m 51!!!
And my fave summer fruit is a tie between cherries and watermelon! Cantaloupe is a close 2nd.
Things are so hot and dry this summer. We haven’t had any fire issues where we live…yet. But if not this summer, then surely soon. It’s so sad and terrifying. Yes, that’s not the happiest thing but it’s truth and horrible and something we need to pay attention to!
Yay for getting your Airpods back!!! John forgot his iPad on a plane and got it back. SUCH A RELIEF.
I’m so glad your colonoscopy appointment is behind you and yay for not needing to go back for another 7 years. Not a pleasant process, but such an important one!
I’m a little sad, my daughter starts kindergarten next week!! So early, but I know from working in the schools is was common to go back in July.
I absolutely loved summer camp- my husband hated it! I’m curious to see where our kids land!
We only have two kids and they both love camp, but I had insisted they would NEVER be forced to go because of how much I hated it! I’m so glad they’ve loved it as it’s a wonderful experience and a nice break for me as a parent 😉
I can’t imagine starting the school year in July or early August…but then again our last day before summer break was literally June 30th which is almost 2 months after some schools in the US get out.
We had a couple of glorious less-hot low-humidity days, which I jumped on to spend the day outside. Then back to a heat warning (which is still Canadian heat and I think not as bad as people in the southern U.S. but still. Hot).
I feel like we’ve been really lucky in July, we did so much summer stuff that it feels like we’re getting away with something still having another month of ‘summer’ (agree totally with your assessment).
I remember being at Girl Guide camp and there was a knitting station where my mom and another girl’s mom were doing the instruction. When I went up with the other girl, her mom said “we should switch daughters because I’ll be more patient with you and your mom will be more patient with Vicki” and I was astounded by this VERY CORRECT insight.
I never thought having windows cleaned was such a big deal. Then one of those student-run operations came around and it wasn’t that expensive and I wanted to give them the work, so I said yes. I was looking at the back screen door as the worker cleaned it and was like HOLY CRAP, has the world always been that clear? And YAY for getting the hole fixed.
Helping someone else’s kid is soooo much different from full-time parenting your own. I am so much more patient. I also think the layers of expectations and emotional baggage are so different. When a kid acts out and is disrespectful at camp, I don’t take it personally where I WOULD with my own kids.
Exactly. It was honestly bizarre how different the view was from our kitchen window. It was $60 to do all the outside windows and it was worth every. single. penny.
Watermelon. Give me all the watermelon, please! 😀 Although I’ve also eaten a shocking amount of cherries this summer as well (I never ate them fresh until I got married, because Mr loves them).
Our weather continued to be insufferable, but we finally got a *little* bit of rain last night, as a “cold front” moved in, and it’s been overcast and cooler today with even cooler temps to come … we may even get down to 60*F tomorrow night! I haven’t seen tha cool in … months? Probably months. We’ve been in the 70s at night for weeks now, and I – and my chickies – are melting.
VBC sounds so fun, but also totally exhausting, haha … Love that Christmas in July theme! All the churches around here end up doing the same 2 themes/kits, and I miss the days when I was coming up and every church came up with and did their own theme.
I never had fresh cherries until I left home, either! When I was in university, I remember trying them and loving them and so in the summer I would buy giant bags and devour them (cherries were pretty inexpensive at that point).
We got a tiny bit of rain, too, yesterday, but it feels scarily dry and hot. It’s lovely for a few things (beach days!), but mostly it feels like a tragedy waiting to happen as forests are so dry, creeks are cracked and empty.
I know some churches locally that rotate teams and they literally go church to church week after week doing the same program. HIGHLY efficient and I can see why it’s such a “hit”, especially with smaller churches, but does seem very different from how it was when I was growing up. But as far as I know, we were the only church doing Christmas in July this year and it was very fun.
I love Christmas and was so excited to see Christmas trees in your summer post! I am also a huge Grinch fan and that t-shirt is so cool!
We have wonderful warm weather that has allowed us to get out for a beach day that included paddleboarding and BBQing with family and friends, sitting on the deck in the evenings as the sun goes down and enjoying raspberries, my favourite of all the summer berries. With rain predicted for later next week, we’ve got plans for a bike ride tomorrow and more deck time with our neighbours on Sunday for dessert and coffee.
I can’t believe we are now at August and want to soak up all the summer fun I can.
I’m happy to be in August. We’ve had a fun July, but I’ll be anxious for the routine that September brings and I can only handle all the energy that having the kids home takes for so long.
I’ve been so enjoying our deck time; most mornings we have coffee and/or breakfast on the deck. It’s been entirely too hot to eat noonday meals outside, but that will come around eventually and I’d love to get back to eating lunches outside, too.
It was a great July, I’m hoping for a great August…AND THEN BRING ON ALL THE FALL STUFF!!!!
What a great idea for a bible vacation theme. It sounds so very busy, and I can imagine how draining it was – but also, your Grinch shirt was the prefect wardrobe piece. That 97% t-shirt is hilarious. My favorite summer fruit? Hmm, probably berries, but I eat them year round from Costco , so it feels like that doesn’t count. I don’t like fresh fruit very much. Weird, I know – but I didn’t grow up eating it. I have been buying peaches at Costco though and the kids cannot get enough of them. Fun/unfun fact: I hate watermellon. Ew.
Our weather has been so VERY hot and humid, and then we’ve had horrible rain that’s ended in flash floods. There were a few days the caddies couldn’t caddy. But the end of this week has been incredibly mild. Temps are in the low 70s. No AC necessary. Sunny and breezy. Really lovely.
A fresh, ripe, delicious peach is SO hard to beat. I think the reason it’s not my favourite summer fruit is because it’s so elusive. It can be hard to find a “perfect” peach!
I love watermelon, but only if there is a salt shaker handy 😉
The weather here has been quite rainy. Which made the temperatures OK, but destroyed some of our plans. We wanted to paint a shed, but that was impossible so far because of rain every day (we had four days of sun in a row, but were travelling then, of course…). Fruits: Cant decide between cherries and apricots but leaning towards cherries. And all of the summer berries!!
Weather can make or break the best of plans. While I am loving all the sunshine we’re getting, I’m very nervous about the forests and water supplies. It is HOT and DRY and there is no rain in the forecast.
I’ve never had a fresh apricot before! I love dried apricots, but will have to add fresh apricots to the list of things to try.
A great but busy week!
My favorite summer fruit is the peach.
It was really hot at home, so I packed up and went to BC! The weather at Nicole’s is lovely.
I’m going to pretend I’m not insanely jealous you’re hanging out with Rex and Nicole right now. (BIRCHIE, I’M SO INSANELY JEALOUS).
I do love a good peach, they just seem so hit-and-miss in terms of quality.
Jealousy aside, I really do wish the two of you the most wonderful time together. And, of course, respectfully demand you write ALL ABOUT IT <3
I love that your church camp collected so much food for food banks! I know ours suffer in summer with donations, everyone is in a giving mood at Christmas but July is rough. And people have to eat all year, right?
What kind of cherries do you get there? The local cherries here are bing cherries, they are delicious. I remember picking them from a cherry orchard one year and bringing them to my mom for Mother’s Day. Technically I stole them, which made her feel really conflicted. I was a teenager, so she said, “You know what you did was wrong, right? OK, good.” Then she enjoyed them. I took maybe a cup or two of cherries, not a lot.
I think my first Starbucks was a frozen latte, and it tasted like a coffee milk shake. So much sugar. So delicious.
YES! We also do a huge collection in October and again in December.
I’m not actually sure what kind of cherries they are. Dark red ones…haha.
I did not look at the calorie count for the Starbuck drink. I do NOT want to know!
My birthday is Christmas in July!–which is how I describe it to people when they ask when it is. 🙂
I remember loving leading vacation Bible school when I was in high school. B is going to a very traditional summer camp run by a Christian organization, and I am really hoping he has a good time!
Awww! That’s so special and I didn’t realize you recently celebrated your birthday. Consider this my very belated Happy Birthday greeting <3
I hope B has a great time!!!!!
Favorite summer fruit: blueberries! Or plums! Or maybe raspberries? Or strawberries? Grapes! Are grapes a summer fruit??? Zucchini!!!!!!
Your favourite is a fruit salad of sorts <3
I confess, I was a bit confused by the Christmas trees. Thank goodness you clarified! Were you up all night after your Starbucks treat? 🙂
Ha! Yes, Christmas trees in July (en masse) aren’t typical.
I slept fine, I think? But last night was another story. I mistakenly used caffeinated coffee yesterday afternoon and paid the price. *Eeks*