Stephany Writes

Categories: Life

One Photo Per Day: July 4 – 10

July 4, 2026 – My Fourth of July plans? Reorganizing my bookshelves. I spent a lot of time pulling books off the shelf, rearranging them, deciding I hated the new look, pulling them off again… It’s been a lot. The bookshelves look a lot better today than they did on Saturday, though. They’re coming along!

July 5, 2026 – Have you ever been sitting on a window ledge, contemplating life, and then the weird woman who lives with you squeals, “OMG YOU ARE SO CUTE DON’T MOVE!” and then shoves a phone in your face? No? Eloise has.

July 6, 2026 – It seems like every quarter, I want to revamp my planning system. I guess this means I just haven’t found the right planning system. Maybe one day I’ll do a post about it. Anyway, I bought this planner via Amazon, and I didn’t realize how big it is! It’s like carrying a Bible around. We’ll see if it sticks.

July 7, 2026 – I had an auntie date at the library with Mikaela and Kim and their kiddos. We mostly played games, and sometimes the kids hung out in the play area without us. My favorite part of the night happened after Olive (age 6) won round after round of a matching game against her sister (age 4), and started cheering, “Let’s have a drumroll for the winner… ME!” I asked Mikaela and Kim, “Is this what I’m like?” (My worst trait is my competitiveness. Book club has banned me from ever playing Phase10 with them.)

July 8, 2026 – I took the day off for my mom’s birthday, and we kicked things off with an epic dolphin tour on Clearwater Beach. We were starting to get despondent about seeing any dolphins when suddenly, there they were! It was a nursing pod with three female dolphins and two baby dolphins, and the babies were so, so, so, so, so cute. No jumping, but they did get pretty close to our boat! (This photo isn’t zoomed in!)

July 9, 2026 – Does anyone else take a cute photo of their pet and then show it to them to get approval? Just me? Hmm.

July 10, 2026 – While we had a family dinner on my mom’s actual birthday, she was really craving a fancy steakhouse dinner, so that’s what we did yesterday! We went to Fleming’s and enjoyed some complimentary champagne, delicious food, and a to-die-for dessert (a gooey brownie). We had a great time!

Categories: Life

Monthly Review | June 2026

June: The Quick Snapshot

  • Title of the month: Life’s a Roller Coaster
  • Weather notes: Just like last month: hot, humid, and not enough rain. This is from Google’s AI overview, so it might not be totally accurate, but in June of last year, we got over 11 inches of rain, and this year, we’re around 3 inches. The drought continues.
  • Mood: I had some dips in June. It’s a hard month because it’s my dad’s birthday and Father’s Day, so I’m always a little tender. But there was a health scare and falling into some old patterns that I’m trying to work through in therapy, so meh. Maybe a 6.5 out of 10? I’m not spiraling, but I’m paying attention to my mood more these days.

The Best Parts of June

  • Adding a gorgeous bench to my bedroom. The cats love it, and they have yet to use it as a scratching post. That’s all I can ask for!
  • Spending afternoons on the patio, reading my book and hanging out with Eloise (who also loves the patio). Lila is getting braver every time we’re out there and will come onto the patio, but runs away quickly.
  • Olive and Eleni’s dance recital! Olive was in so many dances this year, including the big performance with all of the older dancers. It’s cool to see her blossom like this!
  • Officially canceling my gym membership and starting to use my apartment gym. I’m excited to utilize it more when I’m cleared for strength training again.
  • Having more people join us at trivia! My older nephew came one week, and two friends joined us on a different week. It’s been fun to have some new faces (and much smarter brains) at our table.
  • Seeing Beetlejuice: The Musical with Bri, Sean, and Amber! I loved it so much more than I thought I would.
  • Beginning the tapering process with my steroids! I’m so glad I haven’t felt my symptoms increase as I lower my steroid dose. Fingers crossed it stays that way!
  • Discovering that the trees lining the street where I live are crepe myrtles! (I love crepe myrtles so much that I have contemplated planting one at my mom’s house, even though I am the last person who should think about planting anything.) The trees’ pink blooms make me smile every time I drive past them.
  • Two days with Kim! She came to the Tampa area with her husband, and I was so delighted to spend time with her. We went to two cat cafes, two bookstores, and one coffee shop (with vegan treats!). And she came to my apartment and got to meet Eloise! (Lila hid from her the entire time, sigh.)
  • Book club weekend. It did my heart good.

The Hard Parts of June

  • A health scare – For a few hours on a Friday, I thought I might have a blood clot in my lungs, which would have required an ER visit. Thankfully, the CT scan was clean. I’m having some troublesome heart-related symptoms that prompted me to schedule an appointment with a cardiologist, so now that we know I’m not experiencing a pulmonary embolism (!), it’s time to do some other tests. I have an echocardiogram scheduled for mid-July.
  • Fruit fly infestation – The fruit flies have descended. I don’t even know how they got here, but they have decided my home is a perfect nesting ground. I have multiple Zevo filters and bowls of apple cider vinegar all over my apartment, and they persist. Pest control came two weeks ago, and it helped somewhat, but it did not fully take care of the problem. It’s madness.
  • Psoriatic arthritis – In June, I started my steroid taper! Yay! The good news is that tapering from 12mg to 8mg did not trigger any symptoms, but the bad news is that doing so did cause my inflammation markers to increase. This likely means that the steroid has been doing the bulk of the work controlling my inflammation, so I’m finally cleared to start a biologic. I’m waiting for my insurance to approve a Humira prescription, which will mean giving myself a second injection twice a month. (I’ll continue to be on methotrexate until everything stabilizes, and then we’ll discuss tapering off MTX. It’s also possible I need to be on both meds to control my symptoms.) It’s… a lot. This whole treatment process has been a lot. I’m very tired.

Favorites of June

  • Favorite show: The Traitors Canada (Karine is an iconic host)
  • Favorite podcast: I really loved the Midlife Lady Potpourri episode on Girl Next Door. I am a few years younger than the hosts, so it was a glimpse into what is coming for me very soon!
  • Favorite meal: A deviled egg sandwich during book club weekend. I haven’t had an egg sandwich in so long, and this one was so good.
  • Favorite cat moment: When I came home from book club weekend, both girls were hiding. I said, “Mama’s home! Where are my girls?” and Eloise came running out of the bedroom, meowing at me. Even Lila poked her head out of the cat tower! I think it’s safe to say we are all obsessed with each other.
  • Favorite purchase: My new bench!
  • Favorite ordinary moment: Sitting around the table during our book club weekend and feeling this sense of peace and contentment as we all shared our favorite memories of the past decade+. It reminded me of that quote from The Office, “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days, before you’ve actually left them.” And I was like, these are the good old days. Right here! (Hence the title of my post.)
  • Favorite decision I made: To see a cardiologist. Even if all of these heart problems are steroid-related, I’m still going to be glad I did my due diligence.
  • Favorite thing I learned: How difficult it is for non-locals to say the town name, Dunedin. This mainly came up because Kim and her husband weren’t sure how to pronounce the name, and I was delighted by all of the different ways they tried to pronounce it! (It’s duh-KNEE-din.)

Looking Ahead to July

  • One thing I’m looking forward to: Adding a new bookshelf to my collection
  • One yearly goal I want to work toward: I am woefully behind in my goal of watching movies/TV shows. My goal: finish season 2 of Suits and watch Sleepless in Seattle. I can do this!
  • One big hope for the month: That I can get started on Humira without too many issues
  • Something I want more of: Sleep
  • Something I want less of: Worrying

What was a bright spot for you last month? What was the best show you watched?

Categories: Life

These Are the Good Ole Days

arriving at the house and claiming our rooms (we could each have our own room!), and everyone forcing me to have one of the rooms downstairs because something about how the last time we were in Orlando and I fell down the stairs and nearly broke a toe? see also: multiple broken ankles.

sharing a deviled egg sandwich and an inside-out quesadilla with Bri during Friday night dinner.

spending about 20 minutes at dinner scrolling through our various medical apps to compare bloodwork results because we’re all midlife ladies.

singing our hearts out to Avril Lavigne on our way to ice cream after dinner. not a single one of us was in tune, but we had a lot of enthusiasm.

amber, when someone asked if we weren’t going to get dessert at the restaurant, “But I really want Twistee Treat!” (she got her Twistee Treat, don’t you worry)

a nighttime dip in the pool where we floated and chatted and laughed while listening to music

coming in from the pool, putting on my pj’s, and going upstairs to the comfy couch to read my book – two friends joined me before the rest of the crew arrived, wherein we opted for chit-chatting over reading

waking up to fresh bagels thanks to Bri (who else?), and enjoying a delicious asiago everything bagel and iced coffee

playing my NYT games next to Lynn, who is one-fourth of our book club Wordle/Connections group chat, so it was fun to play with her in real time!

amber making the executive decision that we would drive over to the clubhouse pool rather than walking (a fantastic decision, especially when we were done at the pool because it was HOT).

a morning spent at the clubhouse pool with some of the book club crew (our other two friends have young children and opted to starfish in their beds for as long as possible, enjoying the uninterrupted sleep and quiet house) – we were mostly there for the lazy river, which was exceptional, especially in the morning before any children were at the pool.

a mango swirl by the pool (mango swirl = mango daiquiri + pina colada) while reading my book

eating so. much. watermelon. after coming back from the clubhouse pool

being the MOST book club by floating in the pool at our place while reading our books – this was the peak experience for me this weekend

all of us having our own introvert time (yes, even the extroverts!) in the late afternoon, everyone going to their separate rooms to read, nap, play on their phones, etc. (I took a wonderful nap myself.)

a lovely conversation with the whole group about motherhood and guilt and anxiety and therapy.

a catered dinner to celebrate 16 years of book club! (October will be my 14th year!) we reminisced about book club memories during dinner, including how we all found the book club. (most of us found the book club on meet-up when it was called the “young women’s book club” and for women 21-35. all but one member has now effectively aged out of the original book club! eeps.)

playing a few games that made us hysterical before retiring to the couches to chit-chat. (I was soooo tired at this point, so I don’t think I did much more than listen.)

leaving a wonderful weekend away with a full heart and more core memories made with these beautiful souls.

***

I had no idea that I would find the people who would be my ride-or-dies throughout my 20s and 30s by joining this book club, but I took a leap of faith when I was scared out of my mind, and it worked out. Not every leap of faith works out, but this one did more than anything else in my life. This is more than a book club. We’ve been with each other through weddings and divorces and babies and cancer and losing homes from hurricanes and pets dying and new jobs and new relationships and so many books. One of our members moved away for a decade, and when she came back, she slotted right in as if she’d never left. We call ourselves a book club, but what we really are is family.

Categories: Life

One Picture Per Hour | Friday, June 19, 2026

I’m sorry for ending Saturday’s post on a cliffhanger. I should have known better than that. The tl;dr is that I had a cardiology appointment, got sent to imaging for an immediate CT scan to rule out a pulmonary embolism, and had three-ish hours of worrying that I might have to spend my day at the ER, getting treated for a blood clot. CT scan was negative for any clots! But it was quite the whirlwind morning that I don’t want to repeat ever again, thank you very much.

6:42 a.m.: My damn internal clock had me awake before 7 a.m. on a day off. At least the cats are cute, Lila giving her sister a little “good morning” ear sniff.

7:31 a.m.: After doing my NYT games, it was time for coffee and a light breakfast. I scrolled through some Reddit forums while I ate breakfast.

8:38 a.m.: I’m leaving for my cardiology appointment on time! This is a feat for me. I hate being late, but I also have a bit of time blindness these days.

9:21 a.m.: My cardiology appointment! The appointment went well, and I really liked my cardiologist. As I explained my symptoms and how I’d been feeling in the past few months, he started to get very concerned that I might have a blood clot in my lungs. He wanted me to get a CT scan immediately, and if the scan came back positive, then I would have to go straight to the ER so they could get me started on warfarin. (This isn’t something that could be handled outpatient, as I would need monitoring and intravenous medication.)

I was not expecting this! I had figured I’d talk through my symptoms, we would schedule some additional testing in a few weeks, and I’d be on my way. Instead, after this appointment, I headed straight downstairs to the imaging lab to get scheduled for a CT scan. Thankfully, they were able to fit me in for an 11:30 a.m. appointment. It’s at this point that I first thought I would really like my mom to be with me. Usually, I can handle these medical appointments on my own. No biggie! But thinking about having to be admitted to the ER immediately if my test was positive made me very emotional. I texted her what was happening, and her response was to ask for the address so she could wait with me. I could tell I was in a state since I started crying knowing she would be by my side. (I am not a crier by nature!)

10:22 a.m.: Waiting, waiting. I’m very glad I brought a book with me to this appointment! I don’t always do that because I figure I can mess around on my phone, but I tucked All the Way to the River by Elizabeth Gilbert in my purse before leaving home. (Side note: I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this book, but she has so many insights about codependency, and it is rocking my world, since that’s something I’m working on hard in therapy right now.) My bigger problem was that I was starving, and my light breakfast was not tiding me over at all. I couldn’t eat until after the scan, so I just stared longingly at the cafe nearby and thought about blueberry muffins and cookies the size of my face.

Thankfully, I was able to get my CT scan started right before 11 a.m. and had the results within an hour: negative for any blood clots! Whew. The next step to figuring out why I keep experiencing shortness of breath/chest tightness is an echocardiogram, which is scheduled for mid-July. I’m glad we got the worst-case scenario ruled out immediately, even if it did cause some heightened anxiety on my end that I’m still processing. My hope is that this is all related to long-term steroid use, but I also want to make sure nothing is underlying causing these symptoms.

11:54 a.m.: After the CT scan (I was allowed to leave while I waited for the results), my mom and I drove to her house so she could drop off her car. We had errands to run, and I’m very glad I could still enjoy my day! I got to have some quality time with my furbabies. I came into the house while they were outside with my mom, and I could see through the sliding glass windows as Chip started sniffing the air like crazy and then got super excited! I guess he smelled me in the air and knew I had arrived before I even showed myself. It was adorable!

12:35 p.m.: I had been craving a croissant turkey sandwich from my favorite local deli, and it truly hit the spot.

1:25 p.m.: A retailer that rhymes with Schlobby Knobby already has their fall decorations out. In June. I cannot process this at all.

2:59 p.m.: Other errands were run, and I kept forgetting to take pictures, so instead, I snuck in this picture of the girls in the nick of time. I’m finally home from my long morning/afternoon, and the girls, of course, do not care to hear about it! They just want their damned treats. (Lila is mid-yawn; she’s not screaming at me.)

3:26 p.m.: I’m sad for anyone who doesn’t have a sweet kitty cat to watch over them while they sleep. <3

No picture in the 4:00 hour because I was in dreamland. 

5:23 p.m.: My nap was a good 90 minutes, which is longer than usual these days. It was much-needed! When I woke up, I did some chores around the apartment and worked on some bloggy things.

6:56 p.m.: I made nachos for dinner because what’s a better way to celebrate not having an emergency heart condition? Tortilla chips covered with ground beef, cheese, and sour cream? My cardiologist would be so happy with this meal. So happy.

7:26 p.m.: (Excuse the dirty iPad.) I’m watching the end of season 3 of The Traitors Canada. I had maybe 2.5 episodes left when I started watching tonight, and decided I would spend the evening finishing up the season, coloring, and relaxing.

8:50 p.m.: I made some break-and-bake cookies, paired with a Dr. Pepper because I am the picture of health tonight.

9:52 p.m.: Almost done! This scene is the “Fire of Truth,” which is the final part of the show. The host of this iteration of The Traitors is Karine Vanasse, and her style is wild. You can see her finale outfit here, which was an 80s-style prom dress with wet curly hair? IDK.

10:35 p.m.: After three hours of watching TV (oops), I need to get Saturday’s blog post ready to publish! I spend a little time on that and read through a handful of email subscriptions, too.

11:39 p.m.: After an abbreviated evening routine (meaning: I skipped my skincare routine), I’m finally ready for bed, and so is Eloise. She’s often sitting on my bed waiting for me, starting around 10 p.m. Then, when I come into the bedroom, she starts meowing at me, as if to admonish me for getting to bed so late. I hear you, girl!

Have you ever had a CT scan? What’s the last TV show you watched?

Categories: Life

One Photo Per Day: May 30 – June 5

May 30, 2026 – Bri had the cutest tiaras left over from a party, so we couldn’t help wearing them while recording our podcast episodes!

May 31, 2026 – Okay, I know I said I didn’t spend any money on books in May, but then my mom reminded me that I went on what amounted to a book shopping spree the last day of May. Oops! I only spent $15 on this stack of books, though, because I had a gift card and a B&N reward. And the purchase didn’t clear my bank until June 1st, soooo.

June 1, 2026 – I AM IN LOVE WITH MY NEW BENCH! AHHH! I had no idea what to do with this weird alcove area in my bedroom until I realized that a small bench would be perfect. It acts as storage (the top opens, and I’m using it to store extra sheets), and the girls love napping on it throughout the day. I’m very worried that they will soon see this bench as a terrific scratching post, so please say a prayer that they leave it alone.

June 2, 2026 – I went for a walk after a particularly rough therapy session and took this picture when I was halfway done.

June 3, 2026 – Sorry for the close-up photo! I’m trying out tubing mascara, and I do like the way it coats my lashes. (My eyes have started to feel irritated when I wear mascara, so I’m trying out other options that will hopefully be better for sensitive eyes.)

June 4, 2026 – This is a new behavior from my girls: simultaneous hammocking! I think it’s the most adorable thing (I mean, I think everything they do is the most adorable thing…) and was thrilled to get it on camera. Usually, one of them will get up to greet me when I see them hammocking together, but they stayed put this time around!

June 5, 2026 – We did some patio reading time once I finished my workday, and Eloise was more than happy to enjoy the fresh air with me!

What’s the last photo you took?