So my last Looking Back, Looking Ahead was end of June. I officially stuck with it more than my past attempt at journaling our weekly happenings, so I’m counting that as a win. And had things not gotten so crazy after I got hired by that local yarn shop, I think I would have stuck with it more. That’s what I tell myself anyway.
I’m just going to jump right back in and do a recap of July – only my favorite moments from the last few weeks – plus some links I’ve found interesting over the course of this past week. And then I’ll be back on track come Sunday for Looking Back, Looking Ahead #6!
For Fourth of July, we headed to my parent’s house and hung out most of the day. We grilled out, Ezra got in the little baby pool my mom had grabbed up for him, and he played on the new swingset they’ve got in their backyard.
Alex left work early Thursday, the 3rd and was on vacation until Wednesday, the 9th so we had a lot of family time packed around the holiday. Sunday was a zoo visit and we were lucky enough to catch the tiger, Who Dey, hanging out by the front glass with no people around. On Monday, he and I had a date night downtown to see the Cincinnati Reds beat the Cubs. I stupidly wore blue to the game. Don’t know what I was thinking. But we enjoyed ourselves – even though the game was almost rained out! – and we were witness to one of the most incredible sunsets I’ve ever seen.
If you’re wondering what’s up with the chip photos in the collage up there, it’s showing you my chip versus Alex’s chip. The general consensus was that Alex’s chip was winning but…. no. Just no.
Wednesday of that week, I went down to Riverbend with my friend to see Dave Matthews Band perform. I’ve been in Cincinnati my entire life and not once have I been to Riverbend. We had lawn seats and, luckily, it wasn’t really humid that day so being out on the lawn wasn’t so bad. The concert was great and I’m so glad I got the chance to see DMB live.
Fast-forward to the weekend of the 19th & 20th when we visited a local dairy farm to try out some cheese and meet the dairy cows. Ezra is a little obsessed with cows and when I heard Ed Mar Dairy was open every weekend for cheese tastings and cow introductions, I knew we had to pay a visit. I’m so glad we did because it was really cool to see a dairy farm in action. Plus, we learned that Ed-Mar is one of the local dairies that supplies Kroger its milk. The milk they supply is just a drop in the bucket, but still.
It looks like the cows are standing on a weird blanket in the photo at the upper right, but it’s actually water rushing over their legs. There are these incredible jets of water that shoot out and clear all the muck from the stall area. It was pretty crazy to see.
That night we were invited over to a neighbor’s house for a cookout/mini get together. We met a few other couples and Ezra made a couple little friends. I didn’t snap a single pic, but it was a ton of fun!
On Sunday of that weekend, my in-laws came up for some antiquing and we met up with them for lunch. It was a really nice end to a busy weekend.
Last week was also pretty busy. I’ve been working on editing a video for the yarn shop – iMovie is kind of awful to work with – and have an entire garbage full of miscellaneous skeins of yarn to photograph for the online store. They’re all set to be $1 skeins just to clear out inventory and I’m glad I get to photograph them because now I can pick out the ones I want!!! 🙂
Last weekend, we had my cousin’s 7th birthday party on Saturday morning and Saturday evening was a pool party at a neighbor’s house. We met a few more couples – and their kids! – from the neighborhood and it was a ton of fun.
My in-laws were up on Sunday again, this time to head to the Cincinnati Museum Center to catch the Princess Diana exhibit. The exhibit is closing August 17th and returning back across the ocean and I don’t think it will be traveling anymore so this was kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity. The exhibit was beautifully done. My favorite part was the closet display – so many beautiful dresses. No photography was allowed in the exhibit, though, so I have zero pictures.
I think that’s a pretty decent wrap up of the last few weeks. And that brings us up to this week, which has been fairly low key. This weekend we’ve got a bonfire we’re possibly visiting and a baseball game on Sunday.
‘Year of No Sugar’: The Schaub Family went Sugar Free for an Entire Year via The Huffington Post
Sugar has been on my radar for weeks now. Specifically, how much I personally consume. One of my goals for August is to reduce my sugar intake. Then, a friend posted an article on her Facebook feed about this family’s year-long quest to eliminate sugar entirely for a whole year. I don’t know that I could do that but now I’m kind of thinking – what would a whole month without added sugar look like? Hmm…
Inspired by research and writings by prolific food-industry researchers like professor Robert Lustig, M.D., and journalist Michael Moss, Eve Schaub decided to try an experiment. She, along with her husband and daughters Greta and Ilsa, spent all of 2011 eating no added sugar.
The bittersweet loneliness of motherhood – by Kate Rope, via Huff Post Parents
There is empowerment in realizing one day that you kind of know what you’re doing and making decisions that matter, and then changing course the next moment when an assertive 3-year-old person makes you shift your paradigm. Most days that dance fills me with gratitude and wonder, and it feels like the natural place I should be. I just didn’t expect to feel alone when I got here.
The Skimm – A friend told me about this daily e-news subscription service and it’s actually pretty cool. It’s a little digest of top news stories, summarized in an interesting way. It gives you a headline with a link to the original article, the background behind the headline and any other pertinent information surrounding it. Best of all, it’s not party specific so you’ll see stories from all perspectives.
All 339 Books Referenced in Gilmore Girls – via Buzzfeed, but compiled by Patrick Lenton.
Am I crazy for wanting to take on this challenge?
“I live in two worlds, one is a world of books,” she said. “I’ve been a resident of Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County, hunted the white whale aboard the Pequod, fought alongside Napoleon, sailed a raft with Huck and Jim, committed absurdities with Ignatius J. Reilly, rode a sad train with Anna Karenina and strolled down Swann’s Way. It’s a rewarding world.”
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