Over the last few weeks I have visited Chicago, attended a conference for work in Seattle, hosted my dad and grandmother for an extra long weekend, and finally met my dear friend Eleanor in real life! My book club also had its quarterly meet-up today! In between all of that, I’ve been chipping away at my summer goals.
I am over a month into my Instagram break. Aside from seeing photos of my friends and family and their pets and children, there isn’t much I miss about the app. I never tracked my screen time previously, so I’m not sure how much time I’ve “saved,” but I have noticed that my mind feels less cluttered and it’s easier for me to put my phone down to do other things. I definitely want to schedule another long break after school starts and see how it impacts my productivity at work.
I have listened to all of Born to Die and four songs off of Ultraviolence. I am definitely behind on this venture. I did, after over a year of deciding, make a playlist of my dream surprise songs for Eras Tour. I’m not linking it because our babysitter already roasted over half of my picks, and I can’t take anymore judgment.
I have not gone to a midday matinee, but I’m about halfway into Twister and when I finish, I’m going to see the sequel. I love Glen Powell, but can he hold a candle to Bill Paxton?
I’ve been to Sauvie Island twice, which means I only need to go one more time before I regret not buying the season parking pass. We’ve had a weeklong stretch of perfectly mild PNW weather, but it’s supposed to get hot at the end of the week…
I have not had an overnight trip to the coast, and I don’t see this happening before school starts, sadly! We did visit our friends’ lake house yesterday, and they invited us to come back another time, so I am looking forward to that opportunity!
I have not renewed my passport, but I have told my husband I need him to get my expired one out of our safe. That’s a good start!
I did finish my son’s second photo book. I’d say it took me 12 hours total to cull all the photos and create some sort of layout that made sense chronologically and design-wise. Be kind and grateful to the archivists of your family. It is no small task.
We made ice cream (salty peanut butter with mini chocolate chips) as a family after listening to this episode of the But Why? podcast. Ari is obsessed with this podcast and I’m still not tired of all the sweet little kid voices calling in with their questions. Highly recommend for ages 3.5 on up.
I have not been to Silver Falls yet, but my friend Tania took me on a seven mile hike up around Burnt Lake at the end of June. It was great practice! I feel confident I will make it to Silver Falls soon.
We took my dad and grandmother blueberry picking last week and my grandmother picked nearly five pounds (I picked three!). We’ve made these perfect blueberry muffins twice, and I’ve eaten a lot of Greek yogurt + blueberry + mini chocolate chip parfaits, the best post workout snack.
This month I wrote something kind of weird — one of those things I just had to get out but probably could have just lived in a journal if I kept one. I also wrote about some places you should visit in Chicago, my five favorite outfits of early summer, and an empties post (IYKYK).
I hope that you have a little bit of a tan (if you want one) and that you at least caught the highlights of Team USA vs. Serbia (KD forever!).
Love,
Lexie
I just watched an old episode of Miami Vice and Baby Bill Paxton was the guest star!
two things:
1) "I have told my husband I need him to get my expired one out of our safe." this is me, too! except it was for my 5 year old's passport renewal!
2) Bill Paxton forever.