(This is a post for a now page, and if you have your own site, you should make one, too.)

Another month has passed and we’re now squarely in between summer and fall. The days are getting shorter but still warm on the balance (by Scotland standards anyway). The cadence of our days was supposed to change radically after the kids got back in school full-time last month, but with all this (re)mixing that we’ve been doing, we’ve been sidelined by sickness.

First, my wife Kav got a mysterious eye infection from hell that lasted weeks.

Then my son Sam came down with a week-long back-to-school cold.

Next it was my turn to catch whatever baddies Sam had been growing inside him.

No COVID though at least and somehow my daughter dodged everything like some sort of germ-fighting ninja.

Battling sickness was inevitable given that we have been getting out a lot more than we had previously. Still though, it has put bit of a crimp in our style.

Despite all of this, we’ve had some solid adventures over the past month and have some exciting things on the horizon in my favorite season of the year, fall. Bring it on! 🍁🌦️

What we’re doing now

🐎 My daughter Vivian (8) had her first-ever horse riding competition and got third place!! 💥

🥾 Getting out hiking in the hills more frequently and have a couple of hikes lined up for the next few weeks

🏃 Modified my running regime to do two days going 10k at quick-but-not-crazy pace and one day going 5k as fast as I can (mixing in some indoor and outdoor biking on off days)

🥋 Starting a martial arts class again with Sam…it didn’t go so great last time but I’m going with him this go ’round

📺 Watching Bloodline (Netflix) and The Morning Show (Apple TV) and season 2 of Ted Lasso (Apple TV)

📚 I’ve been reading Fallen Leaves (Will Durant) and How to Live (Derek Sivers), while still trying to finish the Miles Davis autobiography

🖼️ Keeping up on weekly painting and drawing and posting things on Five Figures Art

🏠 We have locked in a builder for our house renovation project and start on January 3rd, which means a lot of work lies ahead…I’ll probably try to document this in some way here

🤼 I’ve been threatening to get into either a hiking group or an art class or both as a way to increase my chances of making some new friends…I’ve yet to pull the trigger though

👷 My wife Kav is bravely exploring what going back to work would look like (get in touch with her via LinkedIn or drop me a line)

🎮 Playing Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid (Xbox) with my son Sam, my daughter Vivian is still playing Animal Crossing (Switch), and I am close to finishing Control (Xbox)…looking forward to some new games over the next month like Metroid Dread and seeing if Sam will get into Lego Marvel

For more stories check out new and old Now posts and the What I learned last week series.