July 2020 Recap

Another month come and gone. I feel like July was both slow and fast at the same time. It's weird. It's been super hot, and my car air conditioning was out for most of the month, but I survived.

What I Did

• Worked like crazy. My job has lost a lot of people since the shutdown and those of us still here have had twice the work to make up for it. I've been feeling some burnout and discouragement from that and haven't had a lot of time to do stuff. But hopefully this will pass quickly.

• Had to say goodbye to the pastor we've had for eight years or so. He was given the opportunity to go back to school so he took it. But it was so hard to say goodbye to him and his family.

• Got to have a lovely evening of boating and tubing. Since all the pools are closed it was nice to have some water time. As we finished, there was a beautiful sunset and we got ice cream in Annapolis.

• We had a great 4th of July. Sure, I had to work, but we got out quickly and then we went to a friend's house for fireworks. We set off so many and had a cookout. It was just fun.

My 4th of July look

• I got to go inside the library for the first time in months! It was great. I got out more books than I should have, but I have very little self control when it comes to library. I'm so happy it's open again.

Read

Due to a certain Mark Twain book on this list, I got very little reading done this month. It took me so long to get through.

• Before the Broken Star- Emily R. King (3 stars)

• A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court- Mark Twain (2 stars)

• Neverwhere- Neil Gaiman (4 stars)

• Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Vol. 4- Brian Michael Bendis (4 stars)

• Quests for Glory- Soman Chainani (3 stars)

• Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate Collection, Book 4- Brian Micahel Bendis (4 stars)

Watched

• Footloose (way better than I expected. I can see why it's a classic)

• Mirai (a kind of weird but cute anime on Netflix)

• A Whisker Away (another Netflix anime, but in more of a Spirited Away vibe)

• Hamilton (sheer perfection, lived up to my every expectation)

• Stardust (a pretty good adaptation of the book)

• X-Men: Days of Future Past (a bit confusing, but excellent in the end)

On the Blog

• My most popular post was 10 Types of Movie Watchers, which was super fun to write and I hope to make a part two of in the future.

• On Instagram, I'm hosting a bookstagram challenge for August, so if you want to check that out and maybe join in, head to my Instagram. It's fairytale themed!

Writing

My goal for writing this month was to get most of the way through Horsemen and Hollow edits. Did I accomplish that? No. But I did get about halfway through, which is good progress. It's taken a lot more re-writing than I thought it would, but I really like the way it's shaping up.

Art

My art game wasn't super strong this month. With the amount of work I've had, I haven't had enough time to do much. But I did make this drawing of the poster of When Marnie Was There. It's not perfect, but I like the way it came out.

August Thoughts

• I'm going on a retreat next week! It's the same one I did last year and I'm looking so forward to getting away. That being said, I won't be posting next week because I'll be gone.

• I want to finish the first round of edits on H&H and send it to my sister to see what she things. (I can already bet it's not scary enough.)

• I hope work calms down so I can do more art. I have a painting I want to do and it would be nice to have more downtime.

• I also plan to work on reducing stress in my life. I worry too much and I want to work on relying on God instead of myself.

How was your July? Have you been able to do anything fun? Tell me in the comments.

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