A Fresh Cup of Coffee: July 2024

Wednesday, July 31, 2024

Share Four Somethings - July 2024

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Near the end of each month I try to share Something Loved, Something Accomplished, Something Improved Upon, and Something Noticed. I was busy on the weekend and didn't get it done, and now I'm in the final hours of July so I'd better get busy! I'll add my Something Read and What's Coming Up Soon at the end, as usual, and I'll try to keep it all pretty short because it's almost August!

Something Loved

Celebrating (although it was very low-key) Canada Day to start the month. And the more boisterious celebration of Independence Day. We enjoyed time with friends and with family, and lots of fireworks.

I absolutely loved our trip back to Maryland last weekend to see family and friends. It was not a long trip, but it was good to be with my people again, especially my sweet granddaughter.

Something Accomplished

I don't know. Little things like actually making the phone calls to sort out things like our house insurance and car insurance - or at least make progress on those things. Getting to work mostly on time even though I struggle to get out of the house in a timely manner, and my favorite route to and from work is under construction.

Something Improved Upon (or that needs improvement)

I have worked on getting all my chorus music memorized and be consistent in doing the things I learned during our coaching workshop, so I feel good about the memorization and vocals. I still feel like I'm flailing a bit with some of the choreo so that still needs work. It's hard to find time to practice that!

Something Noticed (In our Lives or Around Town)

The boardwalks and other improvements to Taylor Farm Park are coming along, and it's the place to be locally for birdwatching. Especially water-loving birds. We've noticed ducks, geese, egrets, herons, blackbirds, goldfinches, buntings, sparrows, killdeer and plovers, blue jays, cardinals, woodpeckers, hawks, and the list goes on!

I don't know for sure if I've seen Green Herons before, but if I have, I didn't correctly identify them, because I didn't realize they were so small! Isn't it wild how their long necks seem to just disappear when they're not stretched out?

Oh, and this little Downy Woodpecker was at my suet feeder. She sat there so still for so long we wondered if she'd fallen asleep. I think she was just waiting for golden hour and the setting sun to hit her just right.

Something Read

Once Upon A Prince by Rachel Hauck

Here are the books I'm currently reading:

Harvest of Rubies by Tessa Afshar

Sisters of Fortune by Anna Lee Huber

All of my reading news is at Just A Second if you're interested.

What's Coming Up Soon?

Our anniversary is at the beginning of August and we're celebrating tomorrow with a date night to a comedy club.

We have a vacation home booked for five days later on in August, and all the kids and grandkids will be there for at least the weekend. They can't all stay for the whole time, but I'm so excited about this! We're hoping to make a family get-together vacation like this an annual thing if all goes well.

Share something in the comments, or share four somethings with the rest of us in the link party!

This post will be linked at Overflowing With Thankfulness in the Share Four Somethings link party.

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Wednesday Hodgepodge - Steady Rhythm

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A hodgepodge is a jumble or assortment of things that might not appear to belong together. Joyce at From This Side of the Pond hosts a weekly link-up called Wednesday Hodgepodge that is a little collection of questions for bloggers to answer just for fun and to get to know each other. I always look forward to chatting with friends over coffee, so pour a cup of your favorite and let's visit for a few minutes!

Here are this week's questions - and my answers - for this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge.

1. What is a childhood habit or preference you will never outgrow?

This is tough. I think that since I was little, Saturday night has been bubble bath night, and that's a weekly habit I've generally stuck with all my life. I don't nearly always soak in the tub on Saturday evenings any more, but I miss it when I don't.

2. Did you know July is beans month? What's your favorite bean? Your favorite recipe that calls for beans? When it comes to chili are you team beans or team no beans?

I had no idea beans had a month, or that it was July. My favorite beans are clearly coffee beans, or maybe cocoa beans but I don't think that's the type of bean this question is referring to. I'd say pinto beans or great northern beans might be my favorites. My favorite recipe that uses beans is chili - and I am team beans but NOT kidney beans. Blech. I always make chili with some combination of black beans, pinto beans, and great northern beans. I like to have two or three colors of beans in my chili.

3. Some historical figures have a tag line after their name, something like 'the brave' or 'the wise' or 'the mad' . . . what would your tag line be? Explain why.

I would probably be Kym the Late because I am a procrastinator and my tendency is to be running late. Or maybe Kym the Caffeinated. I like the sound of that one!

4. The way to my heart is _________________________.

Coffee?

5. The calendar rolls into August this week, but before we go give us four adjectives that describe your July.

Sweltering. Expensive. Disorganized. But despite all that . . . Rewarding.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Since my answers are all quite brief this week, I am adding my very abbreviated July Rhythm (WOTY) summary in the random thought space, sort of as a follow-up to my four adjectives.

Week One - Happy Canada Day on July 1st! Of course we had to work so we didn't have much of a celebration other than treating ourselves to bison steaks for dinner. There were fireworks we could've watched on July 3rd, but since it rained we (uncharacteristically) skipped it. On July 4th - Happy Independence Day! - we slept late, went for a walk at Taylor Farm Park, and then went to our church's cookout and party in the evening. From the church there's a great view of the town fireworks so it was a fun evening. On the 5th, it was strange to be back to work for one day and kind of threw off the rhythm of the week! In the evening we went with our son and his family to Granville for the carnival and fireworks. They had a wonderful fireworks show! The kids stayed overnight at our place so we had a leisurely Saturday morning with Tim Horton's breakfast before they had to leave.

Week Two - Sunday morning worship team was a bit of a challenge without our worship director but we managed. The week was fairly routine with work and with chorus on Monday evening, although work was crazy for a couple of days due to a technology breakdown! Tested my resourcefulness to get through that. On Friday evening and during the day on Saturday, the chorus had a special coaching event which was hard work and tons of fun! One highlight of that was that I won the chorus 50/50 drawing on Saturday! My husband was busy with a greenhouse conference on the weekend, and on Saturday evening we met up with one of his previous co-workers for dinner which was nice.

Week Three - Sunday was another challenging morning as far as worship team. The kids came over in the afternoon and we had a swim while hubby was at hockey, then had dinner together. The work week followed the usual rhythm, with nothing very unusual. On Saturday morning I made sure to get my hair cut so it wouldn't be too shaggy for our upcoming vacation weekend.

Week Four - The kids were on vacation on the weekend so our weekend was quiet. On Monday I went straight to chorus from work so that I could join some of the ladies for dinner out. On Tuesday evening we went out to dinner with friends. Wednesday evening we did some prep for our trip, so that we could very quickly pack and leave shortly after getting home from work on Thursday. We made it back to our Maryland home very late Thursday night. We spent a relaxed Friday with the kids and our granddaughter. The reason for the trip was the hockey tournament my husband played in, so he was there most of Saturday while I spent extra time with the kids. We did stop by the tournament for awhile. Dinner was pizza and we had another fun evening watching Olympic highlights and playing some games.

Week Five - Got to visit our old church and chat with some friends in the morning. Went out to lunch with the kids and unfortunately didn't make it to the hockey tournament in time to see my husband's game. (He was not very happy with me.) In the evening I went out to dinner with a couple of dear friends to catch up. On Monday morning we packed up and headed back to Ohio. Yesterday was back to work and today is the same. Back to the regular rhythm of life for another few weeks!

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Rhythm is my Word of The Year for 2024 - here's my WOTY post to explain: WQ - Rhythm Inspires

What are your four adjectives for July? Leave a comment and let me know!

I'm sharing in this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond.

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Tuesday, July 30, 2024

Everyday Images #41

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Welcome to another installment of my challenge and reminder to myself to take photos somewhat regularly. I'm not a photographer, but I enjoy taking everyday photos of things I find interesting or want to remember later, and I find that I notice interesting things when I'm intentionally watching for them. Having some prompts that are open to interpretation has helped me pay a little more attention to what's around me. Every two weeks I have a few words and phrases that I'm focusing on, and I try to find opportunities to take pictures of these things each week. These were the prompts I assigned myself for the past couple weeks:

July Prompts - Everyday Images #41

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shady

following

scenery

texture

chair

summer

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shady - taken from the covered front porch which is a shady spot for most of the day

following - this turned out to be a tough prompt! Reaching a little, but I thought about following the train tracks so this will have to do.

scenery

texture

chair

summer

I'm also participating in the Summer Photography Scavenger Hunt hosted by This West London Life, so here are my finds for Summer Photography Scavenger Hunt 2024 | Link-up #1

1. Family pet or cute animal

2. Look up to the sky

6. Something with wings

10. Something that casts a shadow

A few more bonus photos:

My husband just played in a summer hockey tournament on the weekend, and the players do their best to get their equipment dry between games on Saturday:

Also spent time with our granddaughter on the weekend!

I am sharing my photos every other Tuesday, along with my prompts for the next two weeks. You can use all or some of the prompts for your own photo posts, or none of the prompts and just link up a post featuring your photos. Simple rules: Your posts must be family-friendly; the photos must be your own; and the post must be mostly photos. If you do share I'd appreciate a mention and link to A Fresh Cup of Coffee on your post.

Everyday Images continues in 2024, every other Tuesday. And on the alternate Tuesdays, I'm hosting the Twenty-Six Lists link-up. I'd love to have you join me for that too!

August Prompts - Everyday Images #42

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at home (monthly)

yard (quarterly)

two

sky

path

empty and/or full

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