What I Learned in July 2015

Summer is winding down and everyone is gearing up for going back to school (some of you already have!), cooler days, fall-inspired decor and meals.  Here in Virginia, we have a full month remaining, so I’m going to soak up these last few weeks of summer and enjoy more days at the beach, another vacation, time with family, and hopefully some lazy evenings on the porch.

July was a busy month for us.  I feel like we’re finally settling into our life here and it’s a good feeling.  I don’t like the in-between of being in a new place with no connections.  But, I now have several new phone numbers in my phone, we’ve had some people in our home for meals, and talking with someone at church on Sundays is more than just an introductory conversation.  We are thankful.

Once again, I’m joining up with Emily for a “What we learned” post.  Most of my lessons in July were heart lessons, so I have some blog posts being composed, but for now, I’ll share a few random things this month brought.

1. Getting away from home and routine makes me thankful for my home and my routine.  We spent a week at the beach in North Carolina with some good friends.  We had a great time and it truly felt relaxing in many ways.  But at the end of the week I felt ready to get back into our regular life.  I also discovered that being away for that week gave me a renewed desire to be even better at home.  Not perfect in homemaking or mothering, just more focused.  Since we’ve gotten back, our home is cleaner, I’m getting projects done, I’m not procrastinating on things that I don’t enjoy (like mopping the floor).  Something about stepping outside of what’s normal made me appreciate the mundane things that were making me weary.

2. The iPhone is way better than the Windows Phone that I had for two years.  When I was due for an upgrade, my Apple-product-disliking husband surprised me and came home with the iPhone 6 for me!  It has been so fun!  And I’m just breaking it in; I’ve only installed about 7 apps so far.  The camera produces much better quality photos, and for someone who rarely has her DSLR out, this has been a huge blessing.

3. Freezing cookie dough in a mini-muffin tin is a great way to always have cookie dough ready to bake, in perfect sized portions.  I made two different batches of dough to take with us to the beach and it was wonderful to be able to just pop the dough out and bake enough cookies for everyone’s lunch.  I’ll probably revisit this method once school starts so I can have warm cookies for the kids’ after school treats.  (Yes, we do eat treats instead of fruit sometimes for snacks).

4. Kilz primer on its own does not cover up an entire wall of crayon art.  But, white paint with primer in it on top of a coat of Kilz does.  Our dining room is now a gorgeous white and I. love. it.  Painting with white paint made me a bit nervous, but it looks great!

5. Salmon is delicious.  I made it a summer goal of mine to learn to like salmon.  This seems like an adult thing to do, so while the big girls were out of town last week, Bradley grilled some salmon and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

6. Life with two kids is much easier than with four.  When I just had two I didn’t feel this way–it was still overwhelming.  But when we were without the older two for five days, my days seemed less harried and I was able to focus more attention on my two littles.  I missed the older girls, of course, but having a little break was certainly a blessing.

August holds some fun adventures for us as well as some pretty big changes.  I’m eager to see what God has in store and look forward to how He will change me, both through the seemingly small things as well as that which feels more significant.

Happy August!