7 Things I Learned in July

Let’s not discuss how the year is more than half way over. How about instead of slowing down for a moment and reflecting on July? That’s what I’m going to do, although after cranking out multiple blog posts yesterday and working on my ebook edits, I’m feeling short on words today.

So, without further ado, here’s what I learned in July …

1. Shaun Groves is making a Christmas album. I love Christmas music and I love Shaun’s sound and ministry. Win-win! Yes, I know, Christmas is months away, but, hey, you can be part of the Kickstarter campaign to fund the album and get some fun rewards in the process. Again, win-win.

2. After years of reading Berenstain Bears, I realized how silly it is Brother and Sister don’t have actual names when I was listening to Greg read the story aloud to the kids. Their parents don’t either. Then there was an enlightening Facebook conversation about such. And, still more information here. We have a huge stack of these books and they still remain among Cate’s favorites.

3. My kids are at great ages for amusement parks. They can actually ride “real” rides! This is only the beginning! {I blogged about our day at Six Flags and offered some tips to tackling amusement parks with kids.}

4. Planes 2 is one of the rare sequels, especially among kid movies, that is better than the original. At least I thought so. The message of thriving in community was loud and welcomed. Plus, I really loved taking my 4-year-old boy on a date to see it one Sunday afternoon.

5. I’m now a regular contributor at God-sized Dreams and Circles of Faith. I actually didn’t learn this in July, but you all did! My first post at Circles of Faith was on waiting. God made both of these opportunities possible through other writer friends I’ve connected with online.

6. July really can be pleasant weather-wise. We’ve had several stretches of cooler-than-usual temperatures. While it’s been lovely, I do need a few more afternoons at the pool with my kids before summers ends in two weeks.

7. Death and life go hand-in-hand. The larger Taylor family attended both a funeral and a wedding this month, within 2 1/2 weeks of each other. Although the events were obviously very different, some of the same perspective about legacy and intentional living was on my mind throughout both.

How was your July? Tell me about it. 

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These monthly posts are linked with Emily Freeman at Chatting at the Sky. Here are previous month’s recaps from 2013: June. July. August. September. October. November. And from 2014: January. February. March. April. May. June.

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