July: The Quick Snapshot

• Title of the month: Big Celebrations & Healthcare Woes
• Weather notes: We finally got some rain! We had a lot of rainy days in July, which we badly needed. Our drought conditions are still severe, but hopefully all of this rain will help. When it wasn’t raining, it was hot and humid and gross.
• Mood: My mood was pretty good in July. It started a little rough, but things gradually got better. I would say a 7.5 out of 10, which is a whole point better than June.

The Best Parts of July

• Celebrating my mom’s birthday – I always love showering my mom with love on her birthday. We went on a dolphin cruise, had lunch, and got Dairy Queen blizzards on her actual birthday. And then a few days later, we celebrated again with a fancy steakhouse dinner!
• Celebrating Olive’s remission – What an insanely cool day to celebrate. Olive, my best friend’s daughter, is now in remission after a scary battle with cancer when she was a baby. Now, she’s six and healthy and HERE.
• Auntie date at the library – It’s always a blessing to spend some quality time with the littles in my life. And I love that my two friends who are moms are willing to include their single, childless friend in their gatherings!
• A clear echocardiogram – I didn’t expect to see anything troublesome from this test, but you never know! My heart is healthy, though, and there was not a single concerning finding for my cardiologist to worry about. Once I started tapering steroids, I noticed my heart issues getting better, so I really think it’s related to those meds. The next step is a stress test, but I’m going to wait a bit. If I still have symptoms in another few months, I’ll call and schedule it. But for now, I’m just going to focus on exercise, eating healthier, and trying to get off these damn steroids.
• Sunday dates with the dogs – This month, my mom and I started taking Chip and Lucy to a local dog bar on Sunday mornings. From 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., the place is reserved for small dogs (under 30 lbs), so it’s a perfect time for our little dachshunds to run around and play. And by run around and play, I mean stay by our side the whole time and bark at any dog that tries to get near them. We’re working on it.
• Adding another bookshelf to my collection – I am slowly collecting everything I need to have a Beauty and the Beast library. One day I will have a room dedicated to my books! For now, they occupy one wall of my office, and it makes me oh-so-happy to look at them every day. Styling these bookshelves was a lot of fun, too, because I got to play around with different decor ideas. I shelved and re-shelved my books so many times to find the right configuration!
• Learning how to care for my hair – I spent a lot of time in July trying to figure out the best hair care routine for my fine hair. I think I have a good routine figured out, and I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’ll never be the girl who only needs to wash her hair a few times a week. It is what it is.
• Finally starting Humira – It was a long process to get here, but I am finally on a biologic for my psoriatic arthritis. Say a prayer that I can get off the steroids (and hopefully, also my methotrexate weekly injections!) for good with this drug.

The Hard Parts of July

• Neverending steroids – I was hoping to be off steroids by the end of July, and the steroid taper was going well. I was down to my final few weeks when I started to feel pain returning. My rheumatologist wanted me to go back up to 8mg (I was down to 4mg), and things have gotten better. I’ll give the taper another try after I take my second Humira dose next week, so keep your fingers crossed!
• EMDR – It sucks. I don’t like it. I spend most of Tuesday before my appointment in a terrible mood because I know what’s awaiting me. I feel like I’ve run a marathon after each session. And yet… it’s been so eye-opening and healing and necessary. Sometimes I forget just how traumatic my childhood was and how living in a state of constant flight-or-fight really fucks with one’s nervous system.
• Some unbloggable things that I can’t really discuss on my public blog but have really been affecting my mental health. Meh.

Favorites of July

• Favorite show: Big Brother
• Favorite podcast: I’m very behind in my podcast queue because it’s Big Brother season, so I spend most of my listening time these days with Rob Has a Podcast and the LOML, Taran Armstrong. His daily live feed updates are outstanding!
• Favorite meal: Our fancy steakhouse dinner for my mom’s birthday! In particular, the whipped potatoes were out of this world.
• Favorite cat moment: My favorite moments with my girls have been these simple evenings where I’m reading on the couch and both girls jump up to join me. They don’t want to snuggle with me, but Eloise likes curling up on a pillow that I place next to me and Lila will splay out nearby.
• Favorite purchase: New shoes! It was time to replace my “running” shoes (quotes because I don’t run in them, but what else do you call them?!). They were an expensive purchase but worth the money.
• Favorite ordinary moment: There was this moment a few weekends ago. My mom and I were at dinner, and she was talking about something, and I felt this intense rush of love for her and our relationship and just the way my life has turned out. It was the sweetest form of contentment.
• Favorite decision I made: To start planning my days much, much differently. Instead of one big to-do list at the beginning of each day, I write down just a few things I want to get done, get those things done, and then plan for the next few things. I feel like I’m so much more productive with this method!
• Favorite thing I learned: Body doubling! When I talked about how much I enjoy “work with me” and “study with me” videos on YouTube, Suzanne introduced me to the term body doubling, and everything clicked. That’s what it is, and that’s why it’s been so helpful for me.

Looking Ahead to August

• One thing I’m looking forward to: Our family fantasy football draft at the end of the month! It’s almost time!
• One yearly goal I want to work toward: I think I’d really like to work on my goal for getting daily movement, even if it’s just a 10-minute stretching routine at the end of the day. I tend to think I need my movement goal to be something impressive like a long walk or going to the gym, but I need to remember ANY movement matters.
• One big hope for the month: (Okay, I laughed out loud at my hope for July because it was “that I can get started on Humira with no issues” – definitely not) That I get some clarity on how to move forward on an unbloggable issue
• Something I want more of: Writing time
• Something I want less of: Phone scrolling

What would your title be for July?