June Wrap-up

On Monday, I woke up to rain clouds, rumbles of thunder, and shockingly cool temperatures for late June in Houston. It was rather lovely, all things considered. Sunny summer days are so intense that a cooler, gray day often feels like a breath of fresh air. The heat picked back up soon enough, but that cooler, calmer morning has stuck with me.

June goals update:

+ Settle in to summer. We’ve all done a pretty good job of this, I think! There have been multiple pool outings, and a fun afternoon of water play in the backyard. We’ve been enjoying family breakfasts on most weekends too, usually pancakes at home one day, a trip to Dunkin Donuts or IHOP on the other. And Jose is not teaching this summer, which makes weekday evenings more relaxing for both him and me.

+ Toy purge. After putting it off all month, I finally took some action on this front yesterday and have one full box of toys to donate as a result. Hurrah! I didn’t get through everything, so there is still progress to be made. But I’m glad I got a start.

+ Get back into a regular exercise habit. I didn’t do so well with this — just didn’t make enough time for exercise, and then beat myself up for not making enough time for exercise, and that’s always a SUPER fun cycle to be in, right? Sigh. To make this really work, I’ve got to put either exercise above quilting so I can exercise at night, or sleep above quilting so I can get up earlier to work out. Basically, I’d need to quilt less, and that’s a trade I don’t like to make most of the time even if there are many good reasons to do it. Hmm.

+ Re-engage with my 100 Day Project. My project this year has been both a success and a dud. I’ve gotten a lot done, but I haven’t felt the connection with the project that I did in 2017 and 2018. This year, it was basically just “sew a little every day” and that was way too broad in scope. For me to draw the type of motivation I want, I need to be focusing on something much more specific. So while I was successful in getting a lot of sewing done in June, I’ll definitely be picking something more specific again next year!

Other June wins:

+ Disney World! Our family vacation was a huge success.

+ Palm Beach outing. For Father’s Day, Jose decided that he wanted us to make our first trip of the summer (but hopefully not last) to Palm Beach down in Galveston. We’ve gone for the last several years. We had a fun family day and the girls loved splashing in the wave pool and circling the lazy river.

+ Emma is having a great summer camp experience so far! She spent two weeks at the same place she goes for after school during the school year, and one week at NASA’s rec center for a STEM camp. That particular week they were focusing on amusement park physics and stop motion animation, both using Legos. Emma had been nervous about trying something new and not knowing anyone else there, but happily she had a great week. Here’s the stop motion movie she and another girl made together.

+ I took a free motion quilting class at Sparkly Elephant Sewing Lounge and had such a fun time.

+ My boo-boos are finally healing. The sutures from my early April gum surgery were FINALLY removed, and I got a dermatological thing taken care of as well. Both of these relatively minor but majorly annoying issues were making me grumpy, and I feel like I’m on the mend at last.

+ I started a new assignment at work. After a couple months of career upheaval that I handled very, very poorly, I found myself a new “home” for the next 6 months. I needed a change and think this will be a great opportunity to challenge myself and learn something new. I’ll be supporting the rapidly growing effort to land people on the moon by 2024.

+ I’ve been reading a lot in the last couple months and I like it. Most of the books have been chick lit or young adult fluff, but if fluff is what gets me reading, then it’s fluff I shall read.

Sayonara, June!