July!

Y'all it is AUGUST SECOND. July came and went in a blink!

Something I did (at work): Okay so I am ridiculously proud of my baby book club. It's a program I started just for SRP and once week I have anywhere from 12-25 kids in Kindergarten-2nd grade come for an hour. I have a little activity sheet for them to do while everyone arrives, signs in, and makes name tags. Then we do this get-to-know-you song-and-dance that involves a lot of jumping around and telling each other facts about ourselves and they all love it! Then we read and do a related activity. Sometimes the book is short (like Elephant and Piggie or Mercy Watson) so we read the whole thing and sometimes it's long (like Magic Tree House or Junie B. Jones) so we just read a few chapters. Sometimes we play games or do a craft or do an experiment! I am planning to actually write a post about each week detailing everything we did since I love it so much and think everyone should have a baby book club at their library! Every week afterwards I'm so cheerful and my coworkers are like, "Why are you so extra happy right now?" And I'm shouting "BABY BOOK CLUB IS GIVING ME LIFE!!" It's really just great.

Something I watched/listened to: Guess who has two thumbs, a Netflix account, and finally decided to give Queer Eye a chance? ME. I kid you not when I tell you that I teared up at the end of every single episode in season one. I flat-out sobbed throughout a good portion of S2E1. I'm now partway through more of season 2 and, y'all: it just delivers. The tagline is true: it's more than a makeover! I was definitely hesitant because I thought it might be shallow or silly or dramatic or overly played-up, but it is honestly just so refreshing to see a group of friends truly care about each other and the hero in each episode and work to build each other up, encourage one another, support each other, share their failures and successes and only want the best for each other.

Something I read: Is Summer Reading the best time to re-read an 800 page novel? I couldn't tell you but I can tell you it's possible! It's also possible that The Goldfinch was even better this time around. There were a lot of details I had totally forgot about, and the ending is still so beautiful. It was so worth it!

Something I cooked: Would you believe that I made stir-fry?! I did!! It was kind of involved and ridiculous and I ended up with a ton and it got way spicy the longer it's been sitting in the tupperware so that's been an exciting adventure!! But I have recently learned how to blanch vegetables and I also recently bought a giant bag of rice, forgetting I already had a giant bag of rice in my pantry, so WIN-WIN. Plus did you know you can make a good stir-fry sauce out of just bbq sauce, soy sauce, and maple syrup? Plus seasoning, obviously (I had to buy ginger and sesame seeds but again -- worth it!).

Something I did (at home): Ramsay and I have been working on obedience training! Anyone who saw her photos may be overly confident in her abilities, as there were actually no graduation requirements for her obedience class. BUT she did pretty much learn how to heel (on a short leash) and we're now working on Stay with distractions (she can stay just fine) and she's actually almost laying down on command now, as long as I have cheese! So for four weeks I think that's not bad. Plus it was really good for her anxiety to just be in a new environment with other dogs and new people and not totally freak out. She was actually calm enough by the last two classes to lay down when we weren't working on anything. Progress > Product. Plus we still got some cute pictures.

That's all for now! On to our last eight days of Summer Reading!