August Update 2026

August was a hard month. The entertainment world lost so many and each one hit me harder than the next til I was crying over Eeyore (Peter Cullen) dying.  I'm gonna need the grim reaper to take a break on my childhood joys and heros for a bit please. 

 1.  Save more- Not possible this month for a variety of reasons 

1. Big dental bill. 2. Medical bills 3. Moving costs 4. Back to school year costs 

The "Save more" is kind of on hold until Oct when I will only be paying 1 rent instead of the 2 I'll pay for Sept. and I'll be back in a place where saving is the priority. 

I do have Automatic deductions of about 9% net moved into investments ever month that still happened in August and will in September but the whole goal of MORE not happening. 

2. Travel more- July was only travel, so this month's goal was to be low key- 1 trip at the end of the month for a friend's wedding in Bellingham. 

3. Don't cry over men  I've been divorced 2 year now. I've been single for a while and after returning from the road trip, I am trying this idea of dating again. That was a mistake, 1 because of the horrible things men think it okay to say online to people they've never met and 2 because I want someone I cannot have and need to figure out really being alone and work through that before I bring anyone else in. So I'm back to dating myself. 

I did this back when I left my husband back in January of 2024. I went on many dates with myself worked through nearly an entire bucket list of 100 items (I think I did over 80 of them). So now I work on being alone again. Not a bad thing, just another series of life lessons to work on, biases to face and self improvement to negotiate. 

4. Find joy in work Its the back to school season. I'll be honest there isn't a lot of joy at this point in the year. August is almost entirely unpaid, so I'm doing a lot of work for free as well as spending my own money to prep my classroom so lots of work not a lot of reward. 

But the first day with full staff was rewarding. Having people acknowledge the lift and be grateful for the effort- this is good. 

5. Get rid of items I was up to 557 at the end of July and now in August I am packing for a move- which means trying on my closet and doing more declutters. Also continuing the no-buy for beauty, hair and skin care until I use up all products in a category before buying something new. 

Charity Bin:

9 pieces of women's clothing

11 Houseware items

Used up:

1 Body care product

Tossed:

2 pieces of women's clothing

6. Learn more - I didn't do much on Great Courses in July due to educational opportunities in other ways, but wanted to get more into it again in August and they've put out some new courses that interest me. 

Running Total coming into August:    287  Lessons    and   150.12  Hours

Lessons in August:         21                        Hours in August: 10.29 hours

• Ancient Civilizations of North America New in May: As a fervent explorer of America's National Park systems I am very interested in how the land was lived on and used prior to colonization. I find this super interesting and was already 4 episodes in before I realized I had completed more than 1. The lecturer provides background on terminology, concepts, carbon and other forms of dating before moving into different theories about how people came to be in different places. After the scene and background are set he move on to talking about the similarities and differences between groups of peoples that show up in different parts of the vastness that is north America. June Update: Learning about the Mississippian era communities from around 950 to 1400 CE.  In the later part of the month I learned about the ancestral Pueblo peoples. July Update: Made it a few centuries further. 
• Greatest Inventions  New For July Traveling across the rural parts of the US this summer mostly on the rail lines has made me interested in all the invention I saw along the way. This was started at the very end of the month and there are 30 lectures to do. August Update:  I find this very interesting as they are looking at human history as a whole so this month started with the Crossbow. The series does not simply look at the initial invention, but how the initial invention changed over time. Such as the change of printing and the development of paper starting in the East as it moved towards western cultures.  
  

7. Attend more concerts/shows

I saw Cursed Child in it's National Broadway Tour.  Was really fun to know someone in the case and be exited for her joy on stage. The show was magical. When I can't figure out how some of the transitions occur it lets the joy and magic live - its like still believing in Santa that pure joy.