What I’m Into (June 2015)

The year is HALFWAY over. Oh man! What a year this has been! 🙂

What’s Been Happening

Lots of unpacking! And yard work. Our yard is a jungle, for serious. We got most everything unpacked and put away this month. It feels SO goodto get our house in order. I also was a bachelorette for a week, as Ben flew to LA to visit his brother. The kitties kept me good company! 🙂 We also went to Indiana for Father’s Day weekend… it was great to see everyone, including my nephew, grandpa, and great aunt… and to spend Father’s Day with my Dad of course!

One highlight of our weekend in Indiana was eating at allll my favorite local places, including the local ice cream shop. My photo [with my best high school pals] was STILL on the wall. So fun!

Another highlight of the month has been the countless hours I’ve spent at the pool in our neighborhood. It’s been super hot, so of course I need to lay out and read, get in the pool, and repeat. Over and over again. 🙂 I took the past week [leading up to the 4th of July] off from work so it’s been awesome to hang out at the pool and relaxxxx.

What I’m Reading

This month I’ve gotten my reading going again. Yay!

Really, every book I read was good. Some better than others, but you’ll have that. You can see my reviews on Goodreads [follow me?]… but the best one was, by far, The Indifferent Stars Above. If you were an Oregon Trail junkie like me, or are fascinated by the Donner Party but want to know a more humanized version of the events, READ THIS! It’s non-fiction but more addictive than a novel. Seriously! I’m still a little short on my reading goal for the year but I think I’ll make it up at the pool over the next two months. 🙂

I’ve also made a point to save some of the great articles I read online to share here… so in no real order you should check out these articles:

• Why cursive mattered – interesting, especially since my husband taught computer programming to 5th graders this year at a charter school focused on science and programming. The kids’ handwriting was atrocious. Though my cursive is a bit rusty I think it was a valuable skill to learn.
• Why you hate Comcast – because it’s a necessary evil. So true! Read this!
• The internet can’t replace libraries – YES YES YES!
• 6 wrong reasons to check your phone in the morning – guilty! “What we want in our morning routine is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We want something that gives us a zeal for the glory of Christ for the day’s work. We want to be strengthened to face whatever the day may bring. We want something that gives us joyful courage to resolve to count others better than ourselves and pursue true greatness, like Jesus said, by becoming the servant of all (Matthew 20:26–28). That is our real agenda in the morning.”

What I’ve Been Cooking

Lots of blueberry stuff. I bought a ton early in June, and at the end of June, we went berry picking. So blueberry pancakes, blueberry muffins, and yogurt bowls with blueberries have been on constant rotation in our house. 🙂 I also made a big batch of black bean burgers. I hope to share the recipe soon! Other than that, summer means easy meals here! Like black beans and rice, breakfast sandwiches [bacon + fried egg + english muffin + avocado], baked potatoes, etc. Ha!

What’s On The Blog

My most popular new recipe of the month was Southwestern Cilantro Mac & Cheese. Can’t go wrong with that cheesy goodness!

My top three popular recipes from the archives were: Cinnamon Sugar Apple Cake, Buffalo Pretzels, and
Funfetti Cookies. Again! They are pretty good. 🙂

What were you into in June?

Linking up with Leigh Kramer to share what I’ve been into lately.