Monthly Musings ~ July 2025

 Happy Thursday!  Linking with Holly and Patty for Monthly Musings on How We Summer....

1.  Favorite thing about summer 2025?

Having Brook home and seeing Isabella

2.  Favorite thing you ate this summer?

Key Lime Pie!

3.  Did you see any movies this summer?

I saw Mission Impossible at the theater and enjoyed it.  

4.  What books did you read this summer?

Um, none!

5. Ready for fall or hold onto summer?

Ready for fall please!  I am tired of the bugs and want to sit outside more and take walks.

6. What is different about your summer schedule than the rest of the year?

Due to no school in session, traffic to work is so much better for me and I can leave a little later from my house.

7. How do you take a break/relax in summer?

I take a vacation and also have learned to lean into my Saturday mornings and use that as a time of relaxation.

8. Any trips still on the calendar for the rest of the summer?

I don't have any specific ones for the summer, but I may try to take a weekend trip in September.

9. Any summer concerts this year?

I went with Jenn to see a group ( I don't even remember who it was) and we will go see Teddy Swims in a few weeks!

10.  When does summer end in your world?

I would say it ends at Labor Day when Brook goes back to school.  

Hodgepodge ~ July 30, 2025

 Hi and welcome to this week's edition of Hodgepodge! Thank you Joyce for hosting this each week for us!

1. On July 29th 1957 The Tonite Show premiered with Jack Parr as it's host. This marked the beginning of the modern day talk show. Do you watch any daytime or late night talk shows today? Do you have any thoughts on the hubbub surrounding the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, or are you more in the camp of 'who is Stephen Colbert? 

I do like Stephen Colbert, although I didn't watch his shows regularly, but I always enjoyed interview segments he did. I have been a fan of late night and day time talk shows, as these next set of pictures will show.  (I didn't mention Hoda here since I had just posted my picture with her last week, but I use to watch she and Jenna Bush Hager every day too.)

I have vivid memories of my dad watching the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson when I was a kid.  I can still hear him laughing from my bedroom after I went to my room.

I became a fan of the David Letterman Show when I was in high school. When I was out of college, I was able to see 2 different tapings of the show.  It was so fun to be in the studio audience, but that was pre-cell phones!

In October 2016, I was in the studio audience of Good Morning America.  Ben Affleck and John Krasinski were guests, so it was a good day to be there!  I had a little cameo in the audience. You can see me in the glasses and black shirt to the left in the pictures of John Krasinski.

During that same trip, Brook and I also were guests in a taping of Live with Kelly.  This was during the time when she was searching for a co-host, right before Ryan Seacrest came on board as her co-host. I still watch this show most every day, or at least the opening segment.

2. What's the best part of your day? 

Waking up to see Brook before before she leaves for work and knowing I will see her at night.  Most days, this happens, although there are a few mornings/nights where we don't see each other.  I am so thankful to have her home for the summer!

3. What's something your generation does that you actually dislike? 

My mind is going blank on this one overall.  Honestly, the only thing I can think of is balancing a checkbook?  Does anyone personally still do this?

4. When you cook do you clean as you go, or clean it all up once you're finished cooking? What's the last thing you cooked/baked in your own kitchen? 

One would have to cook to answer this question, ha!  I will at least put dishes in the sink or let something soak if it needs it.  I will either load the dishwasher at night or do it the next morning.  Since it is usually dishes for 1 or 2 people, the dishes don't add up too fast.  When I use to live in a household of 4 people, I would clean up the dishes each night.

The last thing I baked in my oven was sourdough bread before I went to the beach. 

5. Sum up your July in ten words or less. 

sad, tragic (due to the Texas floods)

relaxing, laughter (beach trip)

overwhelming, frustrating (house and legal issues)

anger, disappointment (past relationship)

hot!

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Have a great day friends!

Hello Monday ~ July 28, 2025

Good Monday morning to you and thanks for stopping by to read my blog! 

Here is a little recap of my weekend.....

I worked Friday morning and went to dinner with Jenn that evening at Salad Station.  I love preparing my own salad and my drink combination, which is unsweet tea and diet strawberry lemonade mixed.  It is very refreshing!

 

I enjoyed my Saturday morning at home as usual. Saturday afternoon, Jenn and I went to Sonic and ran a few errands.  At Sonic, water began pouring on my car in the stall where I was parked.  It was the weirdest thing because it wasn't raining and apparently water was running off the roof only onto my car.  It looked as if I was the only getting rain and seemed to be a symbolism of my life right now.  Thankfully, I could laugh in this moment! My afternoon was quite the comedy of errors!

Saturday evening, I went to a baseball game with friends.  Thankfully, we had a suite so we had dinner included and air conditioning!

See the rainbow??

We even got ice cream in these helmets.  Anyone else have childhood memories of these from ball parks?

I went to church Sunday and had dinner at church Sunday night.  My afternoon was relaxing and I enjoyed the time at home.  

Hope you have a great day!

Friday Favorites ~ Beach, part 2/July 25, 2025

Hi friends and Happy Friday! I am including part 2 of my beach trip for my Favorites this week. 

Sunday morning, I stayed behind at the condo to talk to Brook about her weekend and then I walked down to the beach.

View of our chairs

And facing the water

 

We got dressed for dinner and it is always so pretty seeing the water and boats for a view with dinner.

After all all the pie and ice cream we picked up after dinner, I felt like I needed a walk.  It was hot, but it also felt good to walk in the neighborhood that night.

Monday morning, I had avocado bread, bacon and grapes. The avocado bread does have that flavor and has a lot of seeds, but it is good.

I worked for a little bit from the condo and then headed to the beach for the last morning.

The infinity pool was so relaxing after the beach.

I loved these chairs in the pool that have a cup holder and a place for your phone.  What a great design this is.

Those night time views with a breeze were wonderful.

 Other than coming home and seeing Brook, the beach was my only favorite really.  I am not going to lie, it has been a rough week for me and I have felt down due to some hard things I am still enduring, with a dose of life and what it brings.  

I am looking forward to the weekend of little plans and I am certainly still tharnkful for so many things in my life and trying to keep perspective in the midst of the hard things.

I read a saying last week the micro joys help us deal with macro grief, and it is so true.

Thanks for reading and enjoy your weekend!

Hodgepodge ~ July 23, 2025

 Good morning and Happy Hodgepodge to you friends!

1. When does time pass slowly for you? When does time past quickly for you? 

Time passes slowly when I am waiting for a fun event but the fun event usually goes by fast!  Time is a funny thing.  Looking back, something will seem like yesterday, yet so far away.  I think we would all agree, I can't believe it is almost the end of July.  The fall things are out at the stores!

2. Do you have a favorite beach? What's your favorite 'beach' activity? Tell us what we'd find in your beach bag.

I enjoy seeing any beach.  I am currently at Destin and it has been lovely.  My favorite activity is staring at the expanse of the water and thinking about how this is how God's love is for you and me.  While sitting outside Sunday, I listened to some worship music and it was so calming to have the music playing as I was listening to the waves. I will be posting part 2 of the trip tomorrow.  I posted about days 1 and 2 on Monday.

Oh and as far as what is in my beach bag, this time it included a beach towel, an extra charger, sunscreen, hat, portable fan, mirror, hair tie, headphones, speaker, drinks, snacks and an untouched book!

This picture below is from Grand Cayman. This was a cruise port in 2022 and is one of the prettiest beaches/water I think I have ever seen.

3. Your favorite book or movie with a beach setting? 

The first movie that comes to mind is Sweet Home Alabama.  Granted, it is not necessarily a beach setting, but it does start and end with sweet beach scenes.

4. What's a food you love, but find it's a pain to eat? Is it worth it? 

I really like crawfish, but it is a lot of work to peel them, so I just prefer to eat crawfish etoufee :).  

When I think of fruit, I prefer to have a bowl of cut up fruit vs. cutting it.

5.  Do you like roller coasters? What's the best (or worst) roller coaster you've been on? 

I do like roller coasters.  I have been to several Six Flags over my lifetime, Disney Parks, Busch Gardens, and Cedar Point, which is known for its roller coasters.  We use to have a theme park in Memphis and I grew up going there.  The most recent roller coasters I rode were at Dollywood last fall with Isabella. It is a heavy roller coaster theme park.  One was called Wild Eagle & had this verse as you entered the ride.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Catching up with some random images that have caught me eye online lately....

Well, that's all for today.  Thanks for reading and have a great Wednesday!