I was supposed to do this yesterday but my brain was absolutely fried after a marathon of driving. I feel like long-distance driving is an absolute test of one’s endurance, just like running a marathon.

Anyway, hello September 2025! I am strangely looking forward to this month. Maybe because it’s my birthday month and even though I do not like the thought of knowing I’ll be another year older before the end of the month, I feel it’s something that’s inevitable for not only me but for everyone.

I mentioned in the intro I did a marathon drive over the weekend. Even after fulfilling the crazy idea in early August, my mom is still not giving up on her dream of winning the lottery. In my opinion, if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be. I got dragged into driving to Evanston, Wyoming again on Saturday to buy lottery tickets. So round trip was about 140 miles and after running some errands, it was nearly 200 miles.

Then on Sunday, I got dragged again into driving to Crater of the Moon National Monument in southern Idaho with her sisters in the back seat. This time, we hiked the Big Crater. Along the way, as I drove, her sisters slept, missing all the beautiful scenery along the way. When they’re not asleep, one of the sisters would ask, “Are we there yet?” I just about wanted to kick her out of the car for asking such a question. When she’s not asking stupid questions, she’s stuffing her mouth with food.

It was the second time I did the 500-mile round trip in a day. The first time was early August. By the time I got home, I just wanted to get into bed and sleep off the giant headache I got from driving exhaustion. I typically enjoy driving but this was too much.

Anyway, I feel like I’ve spent every weekend in August driving to the border towns in Wyoming and Idaho and I hope this doesn’t repeat in September.

The garden felt very static in August, like not much happened, just watering and fertilizing. I began planting the fall and winter vegetables sporadically because I don’t want everything to come to fruition at once. I am trying to also practice succession planting, waiting for the plants to size up before planting the next batch as well as making sure everything is alive and well. If something needs replacing, then I’ll put a replacement plant in its place.

Here are a couple of my favorite garden photos from August.

As I mentioned, September is my birthday month and for the first time ever, I’m taking two days off for my birthday and not because I’m going somewhere special, but because I want give myself time to rest and recharge. The other thing I’m looking forward to in September would be the work activity I’m going to do with the department.

We are going to take a pottery class and make a cup, a bowl, or a vase. I haven’t played with clay since middle school and even then, I never got to make anything with the pottery wheel. So I’m looking forward to seeing what I’ll make.