Here I am - playing catch up after a couple weeks away from the blog! Not for any reason that's exciting or interesting, more so just because as our pastor is fond of saying - life has been "life-ing" and that's just how it's been! Work has been hectic (to say the least), personal life has been a little crazy (Ryan and I are 100% - just other aspects of personal life) and honestly, once the day was done each day, all I wanted to do was rest!
So let me just give you a small catch up of all the good things lately and we will let the less than stellar things just fall to the wayside, shall we?
Two weekends ago, Ryan and I joined some members of our church to float down the Shenandoah River with River Riders, out of Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. It has been insanely hot this July and so cooling off with a gentle float down the river was the perfect way to spend a few hours on a Saturday! We started our float shortly after 12:30 and we'd made our way down the river and to the pick off spot by around 2:30, so all in all - a perfect afternoon outing!
We've also been enjoying our teeny inflatable pool in our backyard - it's big enough for us both to sit in, and we have both developed pretty lovely summer tans this year!
I am getting more and more proficient in my "mid-life crisis hobby" as I'm calling it; I have taken up cross stitching, and I'm pretty good at it. That is, until Bagheera comes along and tries to fight me for the thread! My most recently completed piece looks great - until you really look closely and you can find multiple spots where someone's small murder mittens have marred the stitch work! *sigh*
We've had a really wet summer and the summer storms have been popping up almost daily, sometimes leaving water on the roads, tree limbs blown around and once or twice, our power has even flickered! In between taking wild storm pictures from the front stoop, we've spent some time at my parent's new community swimming pool, I've had coffee with friends (twice) and my Dad found us an old fireplace mantle to put in our living room to add some serious decor - I can't wait for Christmas when we can hang stockings "by the fire".
Stepping out of my comfort zone (I'm getting pretty good at that...) - I went to a summer connect group and created a prayer board! The idea is to place specific prayers in the envelopes and as they are answered, you move them to the answered envelope - and you can actively see those blessings! I mean; I already actively see God's blessings in my life, but I loved this idea and I love my finished product! I also got to meet some new people and now I have even more people to say "hi" to on Sunday mornings!
My sweet husband brightened my weekend - and now my work week - with gorgeous flowers that are making my heart so happy sitting in my office! I had to rescue them from the house because our three little fur menaces kept knocking them into the floor... and also watering our rug in the process. *sigh*
This last weekend, an event I've been looking forward to with great anticipation finally happened - Miss Willa's Bookshop opened in nearby Charles Town, WV - and we were there to experience it! Granted, we were there later in the day because when we arrived for the ribbon cutting at 10:30, the line of people wrapped around the entire block and yep... we weren't interested in getting all up in the midst of that craziness! Thankfully they were offering arm bands, so we grabbed some for later in the day and explored the rest of Charles Town!
When we came back around 7:00, the shop was blissfully less busy and Ryan and I were able to take it all in and explore... and of course, I picked up some additions to my "To Be Read" list! Miss Willa's is a romance book shop, so while there are books from every type of genre imaginable (thriller, historical, fantasy, sci-fi, etc...) - they are all romance books too! The store was opened by NYT bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout, who (as I only recently learned) is from the Martinsburg/Charles Town area of West Virginia and still lives nearby to this day!
And yes - Mrs. Jennifer L. Armentrout herself rang up my book purchases - perhaps just one of the perks of going back closer to the end of the day? Ryan and I talked to her about her tattoos and let her know how much we loved the shop! I am so excited to have this gem of a spot just about fifteen minutes from my house and I cannot wait to go back again... and again... and again... ha-ha! If Ryan reads this, he might panic - because books! SO many books, ha-ha!
The rest of the weekend flew by after our Saturday evening jaunt to the bookstore - we had church on Sunday, and then I joined my Mom at Shenandoah University to see Little Women as part of the summer music theatre program! SU always does a great job with their theatre, and this one was no different. The cast was; for the most part, excellent... although I thought the portrayal of Laurie was a little odd...
It's been a busy few weeks - a few weeks that were filled with so much and some of it was a little frightening, a little sad, a little hard - and here we are, mere days away from August! This year is flying by and I am hopeful, prayerful that these last five months of 2025 will give us a little less drama and a little more peace!
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