The Roundup // July 2026

In July I got to breathe! Life calmed down a lot and I had space to catch up on life. I very much enjoyed being back to a measured life pace because that is when I can operate best!

My Bookshelf

What I'm Loving

• The Princess List by Hannah Currie. Set in the same world as her "Daughters of Peverell" series, this start to the new series is even more fantastic than I could have dreamed!
• Shortbread & Suitcases by Robin Jones Gunn. Very enjoyable! Loved the fun setting and the cousins-on-a-trip aspect. Gelato At The Villa is still my favorite. 
• The Narrow Road by Brother Andrew. If you ever need encouragement about God's provision, read Brother Andrew's story. It's WILD!
• The Island Bakeshop by Roseanna M. White. A cute beach read but with characteristic Roseanna depth too. I'm enjoying this little Outer Banks world. 

• Free time. I'll get into this more below but I've been loving days with nothing on the planner and space to do things that have fallen by the wayside. 
• Family visits. (see below)
• Parties. Got to celebrate with many friends some big life events.
• WOW music. I went through and made a playlist of the songs I like from the WOW albums 2000-2009. It's kind of the soundtrack of my childhood in one playlist and it's been very fun to listen to. 
• Going to my "other" church. I like to attend another local church that has a different service style than my normal church when I can and it's been so long since I could go!

Life Update

When I flip through my July planner pages I see so much empty space and it was so needed! I could go to the other church, I had time to get some physical issues addressed at the naturopath, I started NET sessions again. I was able to be home so things that need my attention here were able to be addressed and things that I need to do regularly I actually had time to do rather than trying to cram them in. 

I felt like I let out a huge breath and it felt so good.

But I didn't stay home all month :) We had another movie night with our friends and we watched our LAST Barbie movie! It's hard to believe that we are done with that universe now. Next up is going to be the Tinker Bell movies. I think I've seen one sometime in my life but these will be new for me too!

We had short visits from my uncle and one of my cousins this month. Both were on their way home from other trips and they made a point of stopping to visit. My uncle was here overnight and my cousin just for Sunday morning and lunch but both were lovely, despite their shortness. 

So. Many. Celebrations!!!! One of our friends graduated from Marine bootcamp. Another celebrated her completion of cancer treatments and her clean bill of health. A friend's baby was baptized and another friend's baby turned one! 

Most of my things are still coming up in this last week of the month so I will share about those in August. 

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How was your July? Did you do anything fun for the 4th? Has your summer been crazy busy or slow and relaxed? 

Little Business Update

Editing continues to be consistent and good. We have two new editors, one is a friend of mine, and we had our first call with the new editors this month. 

I'm still working on my new free resources. My main day to work on things like that are Wednesdays and I babysat two of the four Wednesdays this month so I didn't get much done. I also am still planning to try and move my website but I just don't know where to go so I'm kind of in limbo here. Another thing that freezes me a bit is the fact that I'm going to have to start from scratch because no one will export from Weebly. But if I can find a platform that I feel good about, I do plan to move. 

The wildfires in Canada make for amazing skies!

I love doing her hair!

I am learning more than I ever wanted to know about Pokemon, Mario, and Sonic :)

My cousin brought some snacks for us from the Dominican Republic! Their milk chocolate is better than ours.

A fun Lord of the Rings wooden puzzle. It's harder than it looks!