Books
In July, I read 8 books. My favorite was This Spells Love by Kate Robb and my least favorite was What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall. Some other stats:
- 88% fiction, 12% nonfiction
- 3 print, 2 e-books, 3 audiobooks
- 3.9 average star rating
- 12% diverse
- Abandoned books: 3 (The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict, God Spare the Girls by Kelsey McKinney, and Family Family by Laurie Frankel)
This Spells Love by Kate Robb (print, owned) ★★★★★ | The Last Chance Library by Freya Sampson (audiobook, library) ★★★★☆ | Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie (print, owned) ★★★☆☆ | Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert (e-book, library) ★★★☆☆ | Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection by Charles Duhigg (audiobook, Spotify) ★★★★★ | Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez (e-book, library) ★★★★★ | What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall (audiobook, library) ★★☆☆☆ | The Housemaid by Freida McFadden (print, owned) ★★★★☆
Media
- Big Brother – It’s summertime so I am all about Big Brother once again! I am loving this season so far. It’s been delightfully messy with lots of complex houseguests—and there’s even a local guy on the show, so that’s been fun!
- The Paris Olympics – Like the rest of the world, I’ve been enjoying the Paris Olympics! I have been deeply invested in gymnastics and it’s been really fun to watch Simone do her thing. Mostly, I’ve been watching the primetime coverage on Peacock, although every now and then I’ll turn on a random sport to watch (like women’s rugby). And now it’s track and field’s time to shine, and I am really enjoying watching those races!
- Survivor: Tocantins – I’m trying to watch older seasons of Survivor to familiarize myself with people and storylines that are still talked about today. I decided on Tocantins (which is season 18 and released in 2009) because one of my favorite current Survivor podcast co-hosts, Stephen Fishbach, was on that season and it was so much fun to watch him play!
- Two Guys, Five Rings (podcast) – This has been a pretty fun podcast to listen to! It’s hosted by Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers and talks about all different Olympics topics. It was a little more active before the Olympics surprisingly, but has a fun, light-hearted feel.
On The Friendship Paradox, we came back from our summer break with three great episodes in July. We released episodes about the Predictive Index Assessment, subtypes of the enneagram, and how personality plays into our food choices.
Buying
- Cordless vacuum ($100) – This purchase was so worth breaking my No-Spend July rules. I am so happy with it! It’s so nice to be able to zoom around my apartment with it and collect all of the cat hair and dirt that accumulates in my little apartment.
- Can opener ($8) – A boring purchase but when my can opener broke near the end of No-Spend July, I immediately purchased a new one on Amazon. I really like it – and I got it in a fun color (pink).
Moments
In July, I met up with two friends twice for hair color night! The three of us have been going to the same (very expensive) salon for many years and it’s time to start cutting back on expenses, so we decided to learn how to color each other’s hair. It’s been so fun! Our first time around, we messed up so many things. We didn’t have a proper cape to protect K’s clothes, we only had one pair of gloves to use between two of us (so we left with very stained hands and arms!), we didn’t have clips to keep hair separated. We had a lot of learning to do, but judging from the photo above, we had a lot of fun doing it! Plus, K’s hair came out great and I might have a new future as a hair stylist? We decided that my name would be the Silent Stylist because you could come to me and just read your book while I colored your hair. Ha! I am hoping to get my hair colored at our new “salon” this month, so hopefully it goes just as well!
I love this picture of the three of us! For my mom’s birthday, we went to The Candle Pour to make candles (I made a coffee-scented candle that smells divine) and then went out for dinner and ice cream. It was such a great afternoon/evening with my favorite people!
I had a fun day at the dog beach with my favorite doggos! They are not huge water dogs so we brought out the float so they could hang out in the water but be protected from the scary ocean! Lucy spent most of her time on the float barking at all the birds. While on the beach itself, Chip enjoyed exploring and meeting all the other dogs. Lucy stayed by our setup and barked at any dog who tried to get close. (I’m more of a Lucy than a Chip.)
I had my CPAP Titration Sleep Study done in July and my doctor has ordered an APAP machine for me to use at night. APAP stands for automatic positive air pressure and differs from a CPAP in that it adjusts the pressure automatically throughout the night as my breathing patterns change. I am still unsure if this will also help the blood oxygen issues I had while on the CPAP machine at the sleep clinic, which is a question I need to ask my doctor about. But at least I have some therapy headed my way soon!
Mikaela treated me to my first pedicure in over a year! I used to get them regularly but then I started dealing with ingrown toenails, which made getting pedicures very unpleasant! While I still hate when they scrub the bottom of my feet to remove all of my dead skin (I’m so ticklish!!), but it’s so nice to have painted toes again.
What’s the best book you read in July? What was a highlight of your month?
What a great July! I love the idea of having a hair-colour party. So fun and also…practical! Much cheaper and gives you even more autonomy over how you do your hair.
My highlight in July was definitely the week home solo with my husband. The first time in over 13 years and it exceeded my wildest dreams! A close second was the amazing week we spent visiting my parents. It feels like we’ve finally hit a sweet spot in terms of ages with our kids. They’re much more independent and have really found their “things” at the lake. My daughter does arts and crafts and swimming, my son fishes. Everyone is happy <3
You had such a delightful July! Spending a week at HOME sans kids sounds amazing. I’m glad that worked out to be able to do that.
I love the idea of a silent stylist! I think a lot of people would like that! I’ve been seeing my stylist for 15+ years so I like chatting with her as she’s like a very very good friend who knows everything about my life. Like she’ll ask how Abby is doing in Arizona, for example (except Abby’s not in AZ anymore which is something I’ll update her on at my next appt and then next time she will remember that Abby has relocated for her husband’s job). But I would sign up for a silent hygienist please and thank you! I have no desire to talk about my life while getting my teeth cleaned!!
You had a very strong month of reading with multiple 5 star books! Mine was really good, too! I hope the APAP machine helps!!
I don’t understand why so many hygienists think people want to keep up a flow of conversation during a teeth cleaning! We’re in such an awkward state with our mouths open… don’t make it worse!
I finished The Century Trilogy by Ken Follett in July. It was SOOOO good. I listened to the audiobooks and they were long, but it made dog walks and working out go by so much faster.
July was a series of unfortunate events, but I did get to hang out with some bloggers, so that was definitely a highlight! More of that to come this month, too!
You had a rough July but I’m glad there were little moments of happiness in the midst of it all. Hopefully August is treating you much better!
What a fun month! Also I need to do a couple of recaps and I may use elements of your format for mine!! The moments were plentiful, it seems! I love the hair color party. The last time I needed a haircut, my friend K did it for me and I was happy to spend the $100 on ice cream instead!! Even if it’s a little off, I always feel like I could pony it up or go to a salon for a fix if absolutely necessary. I once was in a salon getting a haircut and a girl came in with botched green hair and my salon fixed her right up!!
My favorite book of July was Never by Ken Follett or Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice For Murderers, which was just fun. Otherwise, I’ve DNFed a lot of books lately, and given a lot of others only two or three stars.
Go for it! I’m pretty sure I got this recap idea from someone else so we’re all using and re-using blog ideas here. 🙂
Yeah, we were able to color my friend K’s hair easily and she was really happy with the results, so that was a relief! This month, we’re going to dye MY hair so we’ll see how that goes.
I hate that part of the pedi too. I am also so ticklish!
I hope the APAP helps!
That photo of you and A laughing brings me so much freaking joy. Love it. And I would come to your salon!
Best July book – The Last Letter
Highlight – river trip with my friends!
I’m glad I’m not the only one who is so ticklish! I know I need the dead skin removed but I wish I could turn off the sensation in my feet, haha.
Hooray for the river trip! That looked like such a good time. <3
I love the relationships you have with your besties and with your mom and brother. You really do cherish them, spend time with them, and (maybe most important?) have fun with them. <3
Thanks for the book recs, as usual. I hope that your APAP at least is a start – they can always tweak it, change it, add O2. Just be sure to tell them if you cannot sleep, or worse, cannot breathe! 🙂
Oh your Home Salon looks like a blast. I think I have seen your new hair color somewhere already. It does look great. I used to color my hair on my own all the time and I grew up coloring my mons and sisters so I may be somewhat of a pro. But its made my hair so damaged as the store bought options are not as high in quality.
I haven’t had a pedi in ages. My sister gifted a few to me but I never paid for them on my own.