Summer Series Part 4: Final List of Summer Fun

 I've written about food and fun and family.  As I sit on the edge of August, a week and a half into the start of school, now seems like the perfect time to write about the future -- but to do that I first have to look back.

Summer Series Part 3: A Stop Along the Road

Summer, at least as far as I'm concerned, usually revolves around three things: fun, food, and family. I've already shared my fun experience on the beach and my various food experiences this summer.  So that leaves this post for capturing a moment with my family -- and there were several as you can probably guess. I said I was going to do four or five of these blogs and (darn it) even though school has begun I am determined to capture some sweet, sweet summer moments on my blog before they fade even more.  

I think for this particular post, I want to focus on sharing with you some highlights from my family trip to Branson, Missouri and specifically the drive up.  You see, my mom had planned this trip for some time -- a chance for us all to be together in one of those vacation houses people often rent with enough rooms for my mom, dad, 3 siblings, brother-in-law, and two nieces.  We would stay here for a few days -- enjoying the local sights, playing games, and of course a trip to Silver Dollar City.  

What Does Back to School Have to do with 10 Things I Hate About You?

Today I am going to take a pause on the summer series because something major is on the horizon: the first day of school!  Not only that, but it's the start of my tenth year of teaching as well.  As much as I love blogging about the summer, I did not want to miss my opportunity to capture those first day jitters.  But how to celebrate and pay homage to all of that?

Immediately my mind went to one of the teen movie classics of my youth: 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), a Shakespeare re-telling of Taming of the Shrew set in (you guessed it) high school.  This seemed an appropriate jumping off point given my own role as a high school English teacher (we do love our Shakespeare re-tellings).  

Summer Series Part 2: Flavors of Summer

Last week I tried to recapture the details of my solo trip to the beach and a snapshot of how my summer vacation began.  

While I definitely enjoyed the traveling I managed to do this summer (making up for last summer I suppose), what fun is traveling if you aren't celebrating the unique food to be found along the way.  Watermelon, ice cream, and grilled meat are just a few of the foods quintessential to the enjoyment of summer.  So, for part two of my summer series, I thought it would be a good idea to share with you some of the food experiences I had this summer:

Summer Series Part 1: My Kind of Beach Trip

My last blog post occurred on May 11, 2021 which in hindsight is quite a bit of time to go without posting a new blog.  Apologies, Readers, but I was working on other writing writing ventures such as notebooking and noveling.  I had a busy summer in other regards as well and as we reach the end of it, I believe it's time to dust off this blog and return to posting on a more regular basis.  

August seemed like the perfect time to return, but it left me with the question: what to blog about?  

The usual Slice of Life challenge seemed like a good place to start and I found that they were in the midst of celebrating their favorite things.  Inspired, I thought perhaps I should use August to begin my own kind of series, a sort of summer wrap up and reflection rolled into one where I could focus on my own favorites from the past few months and catch my readers up on some events in my life.

I decided that my goal moving forward will be to write a blog post once a week and have each of those posts focus on a different moment from this past summer.  Not only will it be a nice way to reflect and capture moments that were important to me, but it will help me get back into the practice of blogging.

So, welcome, to my four (or five) part summer series.