June 2024 Randoms

 My college friend Bradley wrote a follow-up article for The Wall Street Journal about his journey taking and quitting a weight loss drug. It's neat when things like this happen to people I know! 

I might do this for John's birthday(s) when he's on his mission.

My kind of summer 😊

Allow me to indulge my inner child for the next two things...

Aurora is the Disney princess I relate to the most. She went for long walks in the woods and communed with nature and cute animals (including owls!), she lived in an enchanting little cottage in the woods, she was secretly a princess, she found her prince, and they'd known each other before (premortal existence!). I'm not with my true Prince Charming yet and I don't have a cottage in the woods (although I do have one near the ocean), but the rest is mostly true! Oh, and we're both beauties of course. 😜

I was working at the library in Children's and thought this scratch 'n sniff bookmark was cute. There were a bunch of them, so I took one home for my bookmark collection, all of which I rotate and use. It's one of my favorite collections, started decades back.

Sam and I are excited about the new Hunger Games book coming out next spring. We're both fans of Haymitch, who I believe is going to be the main character in this book.

This was John and his friend Ben at stake conference. They were leaning forward resting/dozing, and I snapped a picture because they looked headless. I thought it was funny!

This is what happens when the pageviews for my blog suddenly shoot up. From relative obscurity to less relative obscurity! Ha ha. Lately, my pageviews have consistently been much higher than they've ever been. 

The Boston Temple has become one of my favorite places. It feels like a second home to me now. I'm there at least three times a month, usually twice as an ordinance worker and once as a patron.

There was a day in June when I was randomly preoccupied in a crush-y sort of way with Macron of France and the new prime minister of England, Rishi Sunak. I can't believe they're so close to me in age. They're handsome, smart, successful, and young(ish). And I can say all that even though I don't like Macron's politics. The rest makes up for it. 😉

I am fascinated that his wife is 25 years older than him. What the...?

She's attractive and everything, but that's crazy.

I didn't realize that Rishi Sunak was so handsome until I googled him. He's less than three months older than me! And he's a conservative! (And he's married to a really rich Indian woman.)

And now the new Republican V.P. candidate is four years younger than me. Maybe this is a 40s thing, I don't know. It's weird!

This won the award for the worst Father's Day ("Farther's Day") promotional email I've ever gotten. 😆

A funny/not funny worst-case scenario in front of me while out driving. (We were stopped at a light.)

I got Violet this cooling pad to help her be more comfortable. It worked really well, but she refused to lay on it, so it was kind of a waste. But I tried and it was worth it for my girl's potential comfort. I had no idea when I bought it that she only had a few weeks left. 💜 I miss her.

I didn't realize I'd written this in my planner until I saw it later. 😮

I guess I must have been really preoccupied...with murder, I guess?? What I meant to write was "temple." You really can't get much different than those two things!

I went to visit a friend and thought this little dinosaur-and-gnomes statue in her yard was cute.

I felt the need to take a picture of dinner one evening because I was proud of my stir-fried broccolini and mushrooms--so nutritious, and the broccolini was from my CSA box! 😋

I'm finished blogging about June and am taking a two-week break from the blog! I'll be back in early August. Don't miss me too much. 😜

Wisdom, Humor, and Inspiration in June

Wisdom

I knew it!

Speaking of which...

I read a good article about divorce and how you talk about your ex-spouse with your kids. Parts of it were hard to read and I wanted to disagree with it, but the more I've thought about it, the more I believe it's true, and I'm working on getting better at how I talk about "him" with the boys. One of my big takeaways from the article is that he is a part of them, so insulting him is insulting a part of them. And vice versa, on his part for me.

He doesn't come up in our conversations very often, but when he does, I tend to be more negative and critical. Even though I'm detached from him now in just about every way, I still hold resentment for the terrible things he did that impacted me and the kids so much. I'm really trying hard to get better at this—for their sake (see above), for my own peace, and because it's the Christlike thing to do. 

This was a fascinating article about natural healing and health, of which I am a big proponent. Our bodies and immune systems are God-designed and God-given, and by being a good steward of them, we can avoid many health problems.

✔

Another interesting article, this one about the benefits of bragging! Or, the humble brag, done right.

Being organized and scheduled is one of my keys to success in life.

Well, shoot.

I'm not going to get Alzheimer's, though, because I take good care of my physical and mental terrain. 😉

This also goes along with my holistic approach to health and disease. This has worked well for someone I love.

I texted this to Sam. 😆

I like history. But I always forget about how exactly things happened with Napoleon. So when I saw this, I snapped a picture.

Humor

😂

(Do the Palestinian activists realize that Hamas hates and kills gay people?)

Fortunately, they turned out to be fair and good moderators!

Inspiration

I feel you, Lindsey. Integrity is everything, and it will shield you from a lot. I'm sparkling again, too (and have been for awhile—I've never doubted my worth!).

Yes, please!