If you’ve been wondering where I’ve been this week, the answer is basically:
Everywhere. 😂
I haven’t disappeared. I just haven’t managed to sit still long enough to write.
We’re leaving Saturday for one last family trip to the beach before summer officially comes to an end, and school starts the day after we get home.
And this year, I’m not just getting kids ready for school.
I’m teaching Algebra II and Entrepreneurship.
Yes. You read that correctly.
Apparently somewhere in the midst of Patriot Academy, election integrity, Community Night, writing this Substack, raising kids, and all of the other rabbit holes I regularly drag you guys down with me...
I decided I needed lesson plans too. 😂
So much of this week has been spent getting ready for that new season.
And honestly?
I’m excited about it.
I’m tired. But excited.
And that’s probably the best description of life right now.
There is a LOT happening.
Community Night Has Become One of My Favorite Things
One thing I absolutely don’t want to get lost in the craziness is Patriot Academy Community Night.
You guys — these nights have been SO good.
When I started this, I knew what I wanted it to become: a place where people who love God, love this country, and genuinely want to understand what’s happening could come together every week and keep learning.
That’s exactly what is happening.
We’ve talked history.
We’ve talked current events.
We’ve talked election integrity.
We’ve wrestled with big questions.
We’ve laughed.
We’ve gone down some pretty fantastic rabbit holes.
And every week I walk away thinking, This is why we’re doing this.
If you haven’t been able to join us live, I’ve put the recordings on my YouTube channel so you can catch up whenever you have time.
Watch the Community Night recordings on my YouTube channel.
And Speaking of Election Integrity...
This week was a perfect example of why I’ve learned never to write “Victory!“ too quickly when it comes to election law.
On Monday, the Supreme Court lifted a lower-court injunction that had blocked portions of President Trump’s election-integrity executive order.
But there was an important distinction that got lost in some of the headlines:
The Supreme Court did not rule that the executive order itself was constitutional.
The Court’s decision dealt with whether the states challenging the order had established standing at that stage of the litigation.
True the Vote initially shared the news as an important development.
And then...
Things changed again.
A federal judge has now temporarily blocked the new Postal Service rules associated with the order for 14 days while the litigation continues, with another hearing scheduled for September 3.
Welcome to election integrity.
If you’ve followed me since the Audit The Vote days, you know this is exactly why I’ve always said we have to pay attention beyond the headline.
Court cases matter.
The details matter.
What happens after the big announcement matters.
And sometimes the story changes in 48 hours.
So I’ll keep watching this one.
There’s Something Else I Want You to Watch
My friends at True the Vote have also been working on something for a long time that I think you’re going to want to see.
It’s called TRAPPED: Detroit.
True the Vote describes the documentary as an investigation that follows voter records into Detroit neighborhoods and talks with people connected to the records they uncovered. They’re preparing to premiere the film in Detroit and then release it online for free.
Here’s the trailer:
I’ll have much more to say about this as it comes out.
Meanwhile... Something New Is Brewing
There’s one more thing happening behind the scenes that I’m not quite ready to fully talk about yet.
But longtime readers might appreciate this one.
Before politics...
Before election integrity...
Before Patriot Academy...
There was another world that played a pretty significant role in my life.
Direct sales.
And honestly having unintentionally walked away from that industry to Save the Republic has given me a very different perspective.
I’m not ready to make some big announcement, and this isn’t me trying to sell you anything.
In fact, that’s exactly why I’m mentioning it now.
Something has come across my path that has reminded me of some things I genuinely loved about that season of my life — entrepreneurship, personal development, building something from nothing, helping people grow, and watching ordinary people discover that they are capable of more than they thought.
And I’m having fun exploring it.
That’s all I’m going to say for now.
But there may be a new adventure on the horizon.
And at 47, I’m learning that new beginnings don’t have an expiration date.
And Yes... I’m Still Writing the Book
With everything else going on, I also want to answer a question I’ve gotten from some of you:
Yes, the book is still happening.
I’m still writing, still piecing together stories, and still working toward getting this thing out into the world.
Writing a book in the middle of actually living the story has turned out to be an adventure all its own. 😂
But it’s coming.
Expect a 2027 release.
I’ll share much more as we get closer, but I didn’t want my silence on that front to make anyone think I’ve quietly abandoned it. I haven’t. It’s very much still in the works.
Which Brings Me to Fort Knox...
With everything happening over the last couple weeks, there’s one story I kept coming back to.
Senator Rand Paul recently went underground at Fort Knox.
And yes...
The gold is there.
Roughly 147 million ounces of it.
But that’s not actually the part of the story I find most interesting.
The U.S. Mint records 147,341,858 fine troy ounces of gold at Fort Knox.
On the government’s books, that gold is valued at $42.22 an ounce — a statutory value that has essentially been frozen since 1973.
That puts the government’s book value of the Fort Knox gold at roughly $6.2 billion.
At current market prices?
It’s worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
Same vault.
Same bars.
Same gold.
Two radically different numbers.
And THAT is what caught my attention.
Because it illustrates something I’ve been thinking about ever since I read The Creature from Jekyll Island:
There is what something is worth... and there is what the paperwork says it’s worth.
Those aren’t always the same thing.
The Bigger Question
Rand Paul’s larger point wasn’t really about whether someone had secretly emptied Fort Knox.
It was about the dollar.
The amount of gold sitting in that vault hasn’t multiplied.
The number of dollars in existence has.
And when more dollars chase the same amount of goods and assets, each individual dollar buys less.
Nobody has to sneak into Fort Knox and steal a gold bar for the purchasing power of the money sitting in your bank account to erode.
That’s a much less exciting conspiracy.
But it’s a much more important economic reality to understand.
And there’s another piece of this story that I think deserves attention.
Despite all of the renewed interest in Fort Knox, there still hasn’t been the kind of comprehensive, independent physical accounting that many Americans assume the facility regularly undergoes. There have been inspections, compartment-seal checks and previous government examinations — but those are not necessarily the same thing as the sweeping independent audit people picture when they hear the word “audit.”
That’s why members of Congress including Rep. Thomas Massie and Sen. Rand Paul have pushed for greater transparency.
Maybe every ounce is exactly where it’s supposed to be.
I hope it is.
But transparency shouldn’t be threatening.
Especially when the asset belongs to the American people.
Why I Keep Talking About Gold
I’ve told you before that Revelation Gold Group is a sponsor of From Mom to Patriot.
But I’ve also told you something more important:
I don’t want you buying gold because I told you to.
Gold isn’t magic.
Its price goes up.
Its price goes down.
There are periods when other investments outperform it.
That’s why the statistic I find more interesting isn’t what gold did yesterday.
It’s who has been buying it.
Central banks around the world have dramatically increased their gold purchases in recent years — averaging roughly 1,000 tonnes annually over the past four years, compared with around 500 tonnes annually during the preceding decade.
I think that’s worth understanding.
One of the things I appreciated most when I began talking with Revelation Gold Group was that they were willing to teach me first.
No pressure.
No “BUY GOLD NOW!!!”
They explained how physical metals work, how Gold IRAs work, the difference between owning metals inside and outside of a retirement account, and — maybe most importantly — the questions someone should ask before trusting any metals company with their money.
They’ve put that information into a free 2026 guide.
Get Revelation Gold Group’s free 2026 guide here.
You don’t have to buy anything.
Read.
Learn.
Ask questions.
And then make your own decisions about how to steward what God has entrusted to you.
And Now... I’m Going to the Beach
Because after writing lesson plans, hosting Community Night, following Supreme Court decisions, watching election-integrity developments, exploring unexpected new adventures, and apparently thinking about the statutory valuation of gold at Fort Knox...
I need an ocean. 😂
I’m looking forward to a week with my family before we come home and jump headfirst into another school year.
Algebra II.
Entrepreneurship.
Patriot Academy Community Night.
Election integrity.
Finishing my book.
This Substack.
And perhaps...
a new adventure or two.
Life looks very different than I imagined it would at 47.
But I wouldn’t trade the journey.
There are always more dots to connect.
Always more things to learn.
And apparently...
always another rabbit hole. 🧩
See you when I get back.
—Toni