Friday Fun: July Randoms

 

At the end of 2025, Callie wrote this post as a structured roundup to the year. I loved it so much that I earmarked it to revisit at the end of THIS year, but I actually decided to use it as a springboard for a monthly recap. I have written posts with this theme each month so far this year, and I’m back again for July!

Best Personal Adventure: Ryan went with me to this, so hopefully it still qualifies as a personal adventure. 😊 I spoke at Steele Farms’ Flower Patch this week, and it was a delightful adventure. I loved preparing for it. I loved seeing the women there have such a great time. I loved what I learned in the process. It was the sweetest. Recap coming next week!

Best Adventure Together: Though these weren’t big and grand, I think our best adventure together this month was all the fun we had working on little projects for the house! I told you about them already, but Ryan recovered dining room chairs and my little footstool – and he sealed all the concrete on our porch and patio. I worked on adding/reconfiguring wall art in a variety of rooms and dreaming for some projects to come. We love investing in our home, and we did more of that this month than we’ve done in a while!

Best Milestone: Two gospels down, two to go with the handwriting! I finished writing the book of Mark this month and leapt into Luke. I think I’ll be in Luke until October and then I’ll be on the home stretch. This really has been one of the best commitments I’ve made in terms of marinating on Scripture in ways I’ve not seen before.

Best Faith Grower: As I shared in my Saturday Suggestions last week, I read the book Lead With Prayer and it was transformative and convicting for me. I learned that while there’s nothing bad or wrong with my current prayer life, it could be so much more, and I want it to be so much more. Implementing what I’ve learned has been such a good practice for me, and I am excited to see God at work!

Best Lesson Learned: When I went to my orientation week for school, I was NOT expecting to stay in a room that had only two-prong plugs. My computer and other things require a three prong plug, and of course, I’d left our traveling plug adapter at home in another suitcase. It never occurred to me I’d need it! Lesson learned: ALWAYS travel with a plug adapter.

Best Purchase: Ryan’s new office at work shares a thermostat with several other offices. He is not the controller of the temperature, so it is always, always hot in there. Like it is so hot that it’s uncomfortable to the point of feeling sick on the hottest days. And we had a lot of hottest days this month. One day, whilst scrolling Facebook, a post popped up from Trista Sutter. You know – the original Bachelorette? I don’t follow her, but this post popped up anyway and it was a curated Amazon list of what she was buying her son for her dorm room. I noticed a fan on the list, so I clicked on it. She said it was touted to be an amazing cooling device for un-air-conditioned dorm rooms. I sent the link to Ryan with full disclosure that I’d been influenced and had no idea if it was really any good. He was desperate, so he bought it, and it turns out it’s worth the hype! In fact, it was so good that one of his coworkers (on the same thermostat) bought two for her office! (Note: The exact one he bought won't pop up for us anymore, but this one is almost the same. His is black, this one is white, and his has 8 speeds, and this one has 5. Otherwise it appears to be the same.)

Best Habit Created: This was also born out of the book Lead with Prayer! I have been intentional about creating new prayer habits in my life – especially going to sit in our church sanctuary and pray at length. I still have some work to do in refining this, but I am thankful for what I have seen and done so far.

Best New Recipe: This month felt like a recipe fail to me. Not because I messed up anything I tried, but because most of our meals consisted of cobbled-together-whatever-I-could-find or trusty old recipes, but I did like this new-to-me chicken salad that had grapes in it. I’m not usually one to put grapes in chicken salad, but this was a good one! I would absolutely make it again.

Best Tradition: We didn’t really have any true traditions this month, since our 4^th of July celebrations look so different now that we have a dog in our lives. But I’m still going to list this as our best tradition, because we did get to enjoy a proper weekend. We had lots of fun at home, time outside, and for that, it felt like a good holiday.

Best Little Luxury:  Speaking of time at home and outside, I’m going to name “living at the lake” as our best little luxury for the month. Most of the people who live on our lake are here year-round. The HOA has a rule against short term rentals, so we don’t have that kind of traffic, but we do have a small handful of houses that are second homes for families. They come in on weekends throughout the summer, and then they head back to their regular lives for the week. Every time I see them pack up to leave, I’m reminded that it’s a privilege to get to stay all week long. Years ago, on an episode of Beachfront Bargain Hunt (or some such show) I heard the buyer say, “I get to live where you vacation.” That stuck with me, and I try to always hold extra gratitude in my heart that this is our year-round view.

Best Date:  I probably don’t have to even say this one out loud. You know. THE DAVID PHELPS CONCERT!!! Ryan knew my month had been challenging, and he surprised me with this beautiful date. We had the best time. Like I think even RYAN had the best time! It was wonderful in every single way, and I loved it that Ryan was so thoughtful.

Best Answer to Prayer: So far, anyway, it seems that the new school program I chose is a better balance fit for my life. I am learning, I still have time for my job and my life, and I am thankful.

Now…let’s see what August has to offer this list!