So I was getting ready to do my July recap realizing…..I never did a June recap. THIS SUMMER HAS BEEN A WHIRLWIND. So I decided to just combine and recap June and July in the same post!
Photo Captured This Month
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5 Things About My Life In June/July
1. We moved: We left our apartment and moved into a much bigger space about 40 minutes away from our old neighborhood. It’s been….an adjustment. Trying to be positive about it but I’m having a hard time with being in the middle of nowhere and having to drive SO FAR for everything. I miss all my old favorite spots. I just miss everything. BUT I love the house and having so much space has been great. Living in a one bedroom apartment with a baby wasn’t terrible for us but it honestly was time for more space and Riley and Finn are living their best lives with all the room.
2. Riley turned one — I cannot believe she is one. I REALLY CANNOT. We had a really fun party for both her and Brody (they turned 1 and 2 within days of each other) and I’m just really enjoying her personality. MY BABY IS NOT REALLY A BABY ANYMORE.
3. I hit an exciting milestone (to me) on Instagram: I had been feeling very frustrated with Instagram lately because I hate posting things and nobody seeing them so I’ve been scattered. But I’ve been more consistent lately and I had a picture get 1700+ likes. I think the most I’ve ever gotten was like 800 or something but the engagement on this post was great. I must have hit a discover page or something but it was a fun milestone to hit because I always wanted to hit 1000 likes. The next picture after it was back to low engagement but HEY it was fun while it lasted. Come hang with me on Instagram!
4. Riley’s really started to walk: She can walk like halfway across the room but then it’s like she decides it’s so much faster to crawl and then just does that. There’s so much developmentally that she has done…it’s all just exploded. She gives high fives, gives hugs when you ask, says so many words (even tries to say “up above the world so high” when we sing twinkle twinkle little star) and just is a climbing machine and a smart cookie. She picks up on things so fast.
5. We went to the beach for the week: It was so fun watching Riley experience the beach for the first time! It was supposed to rain all week but we got some really nice pockets of sun (or at least no rain) in between rain!
6 Songs I Loved This Month
I put all my Monthly Rewinds in a Spotify playlist so you can listen to them here !
1. Better Off — Sjowgren
2. Gold Rush — Death Cab
3. When The Summer Ends — Savoir Adore
4. Ego – NONONO
5. You’re Somebody Else — Flora Cash
6. Something Human — Muse
Check out the rest of my June & July playlists for more of what I was listening to this month!
Books I Read This Month
I read only read 4 books in June and July
The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks: If you need a thriller that is going to hook you, pick this one up!
Not The Girls You’re Looking For by Aminah Mae Safi: This one grew on me as I read! I became thoroughly immersed in this group of friends — through all their ups and downs with each other and the messiness that can be part of a friend group. Loved the family aspect and the exploration of identity and religion, too! If you want a MC who is a little “take no crap” and prettttyyy feisty pick this one up!
The Way Of Beauty by Camille Di Maio: I enjoyed this historical fiction set in NYC and featuring parallel storylines of a mother and daughter. Penn Station itself was a large character and I was fascinated by ~old~ New York . Pretty compelling read!
Favorite Quote This Month
“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.”
― Dale Carnegie
5 Most Popular Posts This Month
I posted 11 times in June and July!
1. New Books To Read In 2018 For The Second Half Of The Year: So many exciting books to be released in the second half of the year!
2. How To Get Back On Track With Your Goals: It’s easy to fall off the wagon with your goals or resolutions…talking some easy ways to get back on track that I’ve found helpful!
3. If We Were Having Coffee: Man, I really did have a lot to talk about!
4. Tips For Living In A One Bedroom Apartment With A Baby– Our time at our apartment has ended but we learned a lot of tips and hacks to making small spaces conducive to living with a baby as we did it for almost a whole year before our lease was up!
5. Wild One: Appreciated all the love on Riley turning 1! I loved sharing my thoughts on whether or not motherhood was what I expected…a question that someone asked me that I couldn’t get out of my head.
Post I Wish Got More Love
5 Posts Starred In My Blog Reader This Month
1. Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins : These look delicious!
2. Why Is Marriage So Hard At First After You Have Little Ones? : Really interesting read. Marriage has definitely been the most challenging, to me, in this season. There are times where I think it’s brought us closer and I love how much fun we have together being a parent but other times it’s a struggle.
3. Schedule Fun Into Your Life: YES! I realized at a certain point recently I was just in the trenches of motherhood and I wasn’t giving myself any fun (outside of Riley) into my life!
4. 7 Ways To Kick The Overthinking Habit: It is one of my worst habits!!
5. How To Stop Sucking At Budgeting So You Can Travel More: Loved this 2 part series!
3 New Obsessions This Month
1. A coffee shop near us: There’s like NOTHING to do near our new house. Everything is SO far away and I’ve been struggling to find places that make me happy. We found THE CUTEST coffee shop and I’m in love.
2. Sheet masks: I’m totally late to the party on these but they are my newest love! I ran out of my face mask I had been using so I grabbed some Burt’s Bee sheet masks at Target on a whim and I love how easy they are and how not messy they are! I am in need of recs for more!
3. All the latest Harry Potter stuff from Target: We treked to Target one weekend and I walk into THE MOST AMAZING Harry Potter display. NONE of the clothing was in my size (pretty picked over) but I was lucky to snag this shirt for Riley! I was kind of sad she’s more into the toddler sizes because these Harry Potter baby clothes are TOO CUTE.
3 Things I’m Looking Forward To In August
Question Of The Month
All the back to school stuff is out so it got me thinking…what was your FAVORITE subject in school??
For me it was English and History!
Pick a category (or 5… or all of them) and tell me what went on in YOUR life this month!! What sort of things were noteworthy for you this month? New obsessions? Any new song recs?? Best books you read this month? Great posts I missed on your blog? Answer to my question of the month?
Lil Pingwing says
My favourite subject in elemtary school and high school was probably English, just because I liked reading books and was a fast reader so it felt like less work. I miss being in school — when September comes around I just have an urge to buy school supplies. I cant wait till my baby is old enough for school and I can do back-to-school shopping with him! I will probably (likely) be way more excited than him. 🙂
I have to say that I am fascinated by your move. My husband and I live in a big city but talk a lot about escaping to the country, where we can afford a bigger house. But I’ve never lived outside of a city so I worry that we would get there and I would have nothing to do! So I was excited to see that you’ve done the move and found a great coffee shop.
Holly says
I can’t believe how quickly this summer is passing too! I go back to university next month and it feels like exams/the start of summer was only just happening. Also, that first photo is the most precious thing!!
My favourite subject at school was English, so I guess it makes sense that is what I now study (and love) at university.
Loved this post! Might start doing my own version of it soon.
Nicole @ Nicole's Novel Reads says
So excited for all these milestones! First house, Riley turning 1, Riley walking!! In terms of sheet masks, Facetory is a good sheet mask subscription box if you are interested in trying different sheet masks out. I am super excited about all the Harry Potter items coming out at Target and also at Hot Topic. I hope you have a wonderful anniversary this month! Enjoy the brewery and NYC too! Enjoy all the moments in life! Thanks for the rewind!
Alexandra says
I always love seeing what articles you have selected to share in these monthly wrap up posts. 😀 The impact of parenthood on marriage one is particularly pertinent to me at the moment – my bub is 5 weeks old, and I’m already noticing some…not fractures… things? popping up that I really need to monitor/be mindful of. Like… my husband’s a keen homebrewer, it’s the perfect hobby for him because he a) loves projects and research and b) loves beer, but it can be time consuming at points, and sometimes he’ll come home from work and disappear off to the garage when I just want to be able to palm off the baby and experience having 2 hands to do stuff, so I get resentful but at the same time feel like I can’t say anything because this is his hobby and his downtime, and I literally tell clients at work and write about the importance of making sure you structure in fun & downtime, but…ugh it’s hard. I like that the article likens the trajectory of marriage to a U shape – pretty reassuring!
I was homeschooled for primary school and I loved all my subjects – it was such a shock to the system when my family returned to Australia when I was ten and I rejoined mainstream school and suddenly there were all these parameters and limits I had to work within in the creative subjects – like you had to write just so, or you would lose marks. In homeschool, Mum taught us technique and structure and so forth, but from there we were able to explore and experiment and “play” with our learning, which we couldn’t do at “Big School”. Having said that, in my senior years of school, I did enjoy studying modern history and Extension English – we focused on crime fiction, which wasn’t a genre I’d read much of before, and it was pretty interesting.
Berna says
Jamie — so psyched to see that you enjoyed the Young Adventuress blogs I wrote on budgeting! Eeep! Excited to e-meet you and follow along your travels. (And take your book recs, which I’ve sorely needed. Yussss.)
Candice J Walsh says
English!
Also, what a beautiful capture of you and your daughter. 🙂 I’m so glad my mother nourished a love for reading in me at an early age!
Annemieke says
I love that first photo of you and Riley! I am also so very jealous of all the harry potter target stuff you guys have in the us.
Merijn is turning 2 in 2 weeks and I keep thinking, when did that happen so fast? Didn’t he just turn 1?