I’ll get back to posting my trip report tomorrow. Today, I wanted to take a minute and join in the Share Four Somethings link up hosted by Jennifer over at Overflowing With Thankfulness.

I like how it keeps me somewhat mindful and paying attention during each month. My four somethings for August are listed below.

LOVED

Taking an anniversary trip with my husband to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary.

J starting college courses (He’s loving it so far).

Going out with friends. We went to a local brewery where they do a karaoke night two times in August.

And going to see the Barbie movie with other friends.

A  brand new preschool student telling me his favorite color was teal. (I just happened to have on teal capri pants that matched his socks). And then later, looking at me and going, “I like you” Things like that are what I love about my job.

Watching our hummingbirds and those at a local nature center.

LEARNED

How to use an ant moat on a hummingbird feeder, what it actually was and that our hummingbird feeder had one. It somewhat helped with keeping the ants out of it.

I’m a bit more of a fair weather gardener than I care to admit. Pretty lettuce flowers pictured below:

More about the opioid crisis than I really needed to know, still learning. (This relates to my reading choices not anything happening personally in my life)

READ

 

Dopesick and now I’m reading Raizing Lazarus by Beth Macy. All because I watched a documentary on Netflix and then someone told me it didn’t get great reviews. So, I looked it up and found there was another one on Hulu and then, watched it. Decided to read the book. Down the rabbit hole I fell.

I didn’t just read super serious (and rather depressing) non-fiction. Some fiction titles I read in  August:

The Wedding Planner by Danielle Steel

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar

The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont

Ate

We ate lots of good food and yet, I managed not to take a picture of any of it! How is that possible? I’m sharing the fun food items in random order as they pop into my mind.

Last year in St. Louis, my husband discovered a bakery/cafe called The Sweet Spot that offered up these fried croissant donuts that were amazing. Amazing enough that we went out of our way (just a bit) to get some on our way to Nashville. I was a bigger fan of the cannoli, so I got those.

As hot as it’s been, I should mention ice cream. With the heat, of course, we had ice cream a few times. We didn’t go out anywhere fancy. However, I did one night buy these fun Klondike cones that we all liked so much they’ve been in the freezer more than once this month. The unicorn ones were a bit interesting but the vanilla and chocolate flavors, huge hits!

An amazingly good flatbread pizza at the karaoke place.

Food we ate in Nashville: I loved the angry Hawaiian pizza at the Rock’n Dough Pizza & Brewery. We loved breakfast at the Nashville Biscuit House so much we ate there twice! I’d go back again if it were closer. And yes, I did have a hot chicken sandwich at the Germantown Pub and enjoyed it. Timing wasn’t on our side for the lines at the two famous places.

Pizza again for our anniversary from a local place. Schedules and all that though it was nice not to be attending any back to school open houses on our anniversary, we’ve done that many times.

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So that concludes my 4 things for August. Soon it’ll be time to start loving and learning in September. And maybe remembering to take a food picture now and then.

 

I really enjoy this link up hosted by Jennifer over at Overflowing With Thankfulness so much. It helps me focus on a lot of the joys and a few of the lessons as I go about the months.  The idea is to share 4 things in the categories of what you loved, read, learned, and ate. Here are my four for July.

(Note: I’ve been super busy with work so haven’t quite managed as many photos as I like to take, probably going to be a few repeat photos from previous posts sprinkled in here.)

Loved

Our quiet at home Fourth of July celebration plus getting to see an encore city produced fireworks display.

Working a full-time schedule (okay, mostly loved) at preschool. The kids are so much fun and the routine of day to day really helps my mood. However, I’m looking forward to spending some time at home following my own schedule after next week. And hopefully, being a bit better about taking photos.

Shower steamers. I’m obsessed with these. Found some at the Dollar Tree though I’ve also bought them other places. Just makes the shower feel a bit more spa like. The lavender ones are the best!

Mornings taking care of the garden. The heat did a number on things but I still enjoyed getting out there and watering. Harvesting our very limited produce. And the heat seemed to keep the Japanese beetles at bay for now. Hooray. I am truly loving that!

Going on a spontaneous outing to see the Barbie movie with friends last week. I enjoyed it and thought it was funny. Probably not everyone’s cup of tea but I thought it was fun. Rhea Perlman was my favorite part of the whole movie (I won’t share her role in case you’ve not seen it yet). And yes, I wore a pink shirt. It was so fun watching the movie goers show up and seeing most of them dressed in pink.

Read

I don’t have any book photos, so here’s a random photo of a bunny rabbit. Maybe he’s a reading rabbit?

The first three books of The Blossomwood Bay Series by Daisy James. I always enjoy the settings of her romance books. They might be a little predictable but each short book is like a little getaway for me.

So many books about the ocean and ocean creatures. Yesterday’s choice was fun though: If You Ever Want to Bring a Piano to the Beach, Don’t by Elise Parsley. And a few about kindness and tattle tailing and lying and peace but mostly books about the ocean. (For work, all preschool level)

The End of the World is Just the Beginning by Peter Zeihan. Didn’t enjoy it and I do like non-fiction usually.  And have a minor in economics. I was unimpressed and bored by this author.

Oh and I read one called Consent: A Memoir of Unwanted Attention by Donna Freitas. It was okay, the more interesting part of this book is that a random older gentleman in the library handed it to me out of the blue and said: Here, you look like you’d enjoy this book.  (I’m not even clear on whether he worked there. My oldest son thought it rather creepy. But, I like to read so I took it, checked it out, and read it. ha.)

And another feel good “light” one by Alison Sherlock, New Beginnings on Railway Lane.

Finally, I’m still reading a fantastic book called Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Anti-Diet Approach by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. As someone who grew up watching her mother go through fad diet after diet and of course, tried a few herself, this book just speaks to me.

Learned

That Google lens is very handy.

Great golden digger wasps are scary looking! However, supposedly, quite harmless unless they feel threatened. Still, scary looking!

Bees sleep in flowers! So much fun to see the little bees sleeping in the hollyhock blossoms and under the bee balm. 

I follow too closely behind cars on the highway (according to my son who completed a four hour defensive driving course). Apparently, I wasn’t counting my 3 seconds of time right. SIGH. Also, that terrifyingly texting and driving is only illegal for those under 21 in the state of Missouri. What?! Bigger SIGH. Legal or not, no matter where you are or how old you might be, please don’t text and drive.

It’s okay to be assertive. And it’s not the same thing as being mean. I knew that lesson but somewhere in the past few years, I think I lost it.

Ate

Blueberry and strawberry cobbler for dessert on the Fourth of July!

Lemon poppyseed muffins for breakfast one Saturday, made from a box mix. They were a nice change from our usual blueberry or chocolate chip choices.

Bangkok chicken when I tried Thai food for the very first time. I did like it but I fell in love with the tea! Been craving a Thai iced tea again ever since. Think we are going back to the restaurant in August since some friends who wanted to go couldn’t make the get together.

Probably other things as well but I’m drawing a blank. Watermelon, is it even July if you don’t have iced cold watermelon at some point?  And freezer pops. Plus some chocolate ice cream.

Last night we went out for Mexican food and were served something called spaghetti soup as a starter. I was skeptical but it was so good. Even on a 100 degree day. Had to look it up, officially it’s called Sopa de Fideos, here’s a recipe. Definitely planning to add this to the menu rotation on a chilly fall day.

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How was your July? What things did you love this month? Are you ready for August?