Summer 2026 - that was a wild ride, random musings from the last few days and for the next few days

Somehow we are at the almost end of summer holidays. Last week I was in work 3 days, and then my dad arrived for a visit and I took Thursday off work to adventure with him at the big kids. We went to the cinema which was showing the Parent Trap - the adorable 1998 version with Lindsay Lohan when she was oh so cute

I'm fairly sure the last film I saw before this was Mary Poppins returns in 2019 with baby Ezra.

September starts Birthday season, which I am trying not to think about too much, except that Lily turns 6 on September 2nd and then we have birthdays for every other person in my family between September 2nd and October 30th.  It's a lot.

But this is not a looking forward post! This is a random Sunday night post.

My lack of Rachel time has meant my planning remains terrible, and I am hopping from one thing to the next without much thinking at all. This weekend I had a somewhat truncated Rachel time where I used ChatGPT to help me figure out what to wear to an upcoming wedding.  I had already bought the dress, but it guided me to a handbag and earrings.  Since wearing earrings was a 2026 goal of mine I felt this was a OK use of time and money (I currently own 3 gold ball earrings and nothing else)

Hopefully everything arrives in time,  I realize I haven't blogged about it but the wedding is in New York and the attire is "Semi-formal cocktail attire" (the people are younger than me) and ChatGPT accused some of my suggestions of being a bit too "British preppy" which is funny but also... ouch and I guess that's the style I aspire to.

Here's what I went with:

I also realized that if I wanted to look put together it would probably take a lot of work to think about what to wear all the time so perhaps my recent musings on looking a bit meh all the time are because I only have time for meh at the moment.  But style would be a fun thing to play with someday when I have more time / when it is a bigger priority.

Although last week was technically the last week of summer, this week feels like summer with school not starting until Thursday.  It's a 3 day weekend for August bank holiday.  Today we crossed a someday adventure off our life list and took a steam train into the mountains on the Brecon Mountain Railway

Tomorrow we are going to a Roman museum, and then depending on weather we will think of other adventures for Tuesday and Wednesday.  Then school Thursday and a Rachel Day, which I have already filled with gym, lunch, and a nail appointment.  

I could really have used that Rachel Day to plan birthday season and get caught up on the rest of life, but there is never actually a "caught up on the rest of life".  I have forever and never to get caught up.

Speaking of being caught up - have I mentioned that I am all caught up on kids photo albums?  That is a major gold star achievement of the summer!  I am 6 months behind on the family album still, but 4 of 5 is not bad.

Oh and one final note on this random blog post - I read two excellent books in August:

Now I feel the pressure to pick my next book because these were both soooo good.

Any great August reads?  Have you ever used ChatGPT for fashion advice?  What's your next "season"... fall? Back to school? other?