Currently | July 2021

(A photo from our anniversary weekend.)

Thinking about...so many things.  I was just talking with a friend about "mental clutter" because I recently watched a video from Mystie Winkler about brain dumping.  I've got a bunch of mental clutter this week, and the idea of getting it all out on paper is really helpful, so I may need to do a good brain declutter soon.  Right at this minute, I'm thinking about which candles to order here with my fancy coupon code, how to plan for a trip that we have coming up in a little over a month, and all the projects I want to work on during my one open weekend in July (first on the list is getting my Etsy shop up and running again - I'll link to it once I fix a couple things).  

Fiddling with...different options for a way to communicate more short-form content or quick updates with you all, without giving in and getting back on Facebook or Instagram. I've been looking for something like that for months, and I have to admit I've been unhappy with my options. Then I was thinking, my blog buddies, do you want to connect on Voxer?  It might be a fun way to stay connected for those quick thoughts.  The basic version is free, it doesn’t show phone numbers, just usernames, and you can fix the settings to hide your location, contacts, etc. So from what I can tell, we can chat on there and still keep account info private.  If you find me on there, I'll add you to a chat for my blog where we can share book thoughts, Bible verses that were encouraging, favorite homeschool finds, whatever. Just send me a message letting me know you want to be added for blog updates! Here is the app, and here is my profile! 

Eating...M&Ms, even though I was intending to avoid sugar this week.  Don't look at me like that.  I only had a cheese stick for lunch, so it's fine.

Feeling...Quite cheerful today, actually.  My kids are in our church's VBS this week, and I visited a friend today while they enjoyed the program.  We had a nice visit, and I have plans to see a couple more friends this week as well.  I just read this post about friendship from Jennifer, and what she said about three things a friendship needs resonated with me, especially her idea about friendship requiring companionship.  For some reason I've struggled to explain that idea in the past, but companionship is a perfect word for it.  In a world where we can be "friends" online with our cousin's coworker that we met that one time, companionship is a perfect distinguisher between an actual friend and the term we use to describe acquaintances on social media.  I'm thankful for all the companionship I get to enjoy this week.

Going...Uh, let's change this to Back from... our anniversary weekend trip. We went out to dinner at the restaurant Derek took me to on our first date, which was very sweet and romantic.   We also saw a movie called 12 Mighty Orphans, and it was really good!  It's about this coach that goes to work at an orphanage and helps them organize a football team, right at the end of the Great Depression.  It's based on a true story, and we loved it!  The movie is definitely going on our to-buy list. Then we stayed overnight at a nice hotel, then went to breakfast at a very popular breakfast restaurant in the morning (I ordered the bourbon pecan French toast - yum), before picking up the kids from my mom and going to church.  It was a busy but nice weekend for our anniversary!  We don't get dates often, so when we do it's special.

Ordering... a guacamole burger with sweet potato tots, from one of our locally owned restaurants.  We discovered them last year during the lockdown, and they make quite possibly make the best burger I've ever had.  We ordered two on Monday and watched an episode of Centennial for our at-home anniversary date (on our actual anniversary).  Derek and I have been married 13 years!  So we're basically old married people now (I'm being silly, but we actually really kind of are, and that's a good thing in my book).

Realizing...That I'm mentioning food a lot in this post.  Maybe I am hungrier than I thought.  I'm going to make myself some fries.

Listening to...I keep meaning to share this album I discovered, so I'm going to stick it in here! I'm listening to Whispering Colors which is described as "consonant chamber music for the 21st century".  It's modern classical music, and I really love it!  If you need some happy classical music to listen to in the background while you read, or write, or use Draino on your sinks or something, this is really nice for that.

Watching...Centennial, which I mentioned above Derek and I are watching right now.  It's based on a novel by James Michener, and I tried to listen to the book recently but couldn't get through it.  He spends what feels like half the book describing the lives of animals.  I'm serious.  I was just waiting for the people to show up, and finally lost steam on it and requested the TV series from the library instead.  I watched it when I was a teenager, but couldn't remember it well.  It's a really well done mini series!  It's kind of like Roots, except it covers the history of a fictional town in Colorado. We are really invested in the characters at this point.  I also am watching To Catch A Smuggler on Hulu, and I'm really fascinated by the customs inspections especially.  It's amazing to see the weird places that people try to hide smuggled goods!

Reading...The Tyranny Of Big Tech by Josh Hawley, almost anyway - I just got my copy in from the library!  Since I quit social media in January I've been really interested in books that discuss the problems with social media, and also how these big tech companies work.  You just don't realize how invasive they are until you start to look into it more.  I'll do a post one of these days about the books I've read relating to social media, etc.  I do have an update on my six month anniversary of being off social media coming in the next week or two!  

How's July treating you so far?