July | 2024 | Amy Scott's Thoughts

What I’ve Been Reading – July 2024 July 31, 2024

Filed under: Amy's Bookshelf — Amy Scott @ 2:30 pm

Bookish Thoughts for July

There was plenty of light and fluffy summer reading this month, but… I took a detour and spent time with some wonderful parenting books. Being in children’s ministry (and being a homeschool mom), I’m always looking for books to recommend. From Monica Swanson to Sally Clarkson to Cindy Rollins, I learned so much this month. All of these women have raised grown children and have written down their experiences and wisdom. I am so thankful for their voices! Also, Monica and Sally have invited their children to share (and for Monica, her husband as well) their family story has well. I love when families collaborate on books. Not only to do see one side of their family, but we get to see the layers of family experience. It’s a powerful testimony!

Fiction highlights of the month were the Sweet as Sugar Maple series by Kate Watson and The Falling for Summer series (by various authors) with all it’s beachy vibes. I re-read the Caraval series and the Once Upon a Broken Heart series by Stephanie Garber. These have all been fun summer reads. I’ve enjoyed meeting new characters along with revisiting familiar faces. I love new books, but I will always be a re-reader as well! Summer reading in July has definitely been a good mix.

First time taking my Kindle camping. I was a little nervous about taking tech into the woods, but it was great!

Nothing quite like reading by a campfire!

Top Picks for July

The Book List for July
1 Star = I did not like it. 2 stars = It was okay. 3 stars = I liked it. 4 stars = I really liked it. 5 stars = It was amazing.

Non-Fiction:

Different: The Story of an Outside-the-Box Kid and the Mom Who Loved Him by Sally Clarkson and Nathan Clarkson – 4 stars
Mere Motherhood: Morning Times, Nursery Rhymes, & My Journey Toward Sanctification by Cindy Rollins – 4 stars
Raising Amazing: Bringing Up Kids Who Love God, Like Their Family, and Do the Dishes without Being Asked by Monica Swanson – 5 stars
Becoming Homeschoolers: Give Your Kids a Great Education, a Strong Family, and a Life They’ll Thank You for Later by Monica Swanson – 4 stars
NLT Filament Bible Journal: Luke – 5 stars

Fiction:

Strawberry Fields for Never by Kate Watson – 4 stars
Baby Llama Drama by Kate Watson – 4 stars
It’s Always Sonny by Kate Watson – 3 stars
Love and Treasure by Carina Taylor – 3 stars
Caraval by Stephanie Garber – 4 stars
Legendary by Stephanie Garber – 3 stars
Finale by Stephanie Garber – 3 stars
Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber – 3 stars
The Ballad of Never After by Stephanie Garber – 4 stars
A Curse for True Love by Stephanie Garber – 3 stars
Summer Tease by Martha Keyes – 3 stars
Beauty and the Beach by Gracie Ruth Mitchell – 3 stars
One Happy Summer by Becky Monson – 3 stars
The Roommate Situation by Katie Bailey – 3 stars
The Neighbor War by Katie Bailey – 3 stars

A Super Social Summer July 22, 2024

Filed under: Family Time,Getting Creative,Tasty Treats,Travels — Amy Scott @ 1:35 pm

If I could use one word to describe our summer, it would be social! Especially this last month! Our calendar has been a blend of hosting play dates and dinners and then traveling for play dates and dinners with friends and family. In June, Owen shared his wish to see more friends and then in July, we had so many friends over to our house that Owen requested we start going over to other people’s houses! I laughed because it felt like I just couldn’t win! But in the end, we’ve created a good mix of here and there and everywhere. Gotta keep things interesting!

One of my favorite days this month was a Friday that we packed up for a day of exploring in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. We scoped out a campground we plan to visit this summer and then went hiking nearby. We enjoyed all the waterfalls on the Covell Creek Trail. We made a quick stop at Layser Cave before moving on to Takhlakh Lake with a lovely view of Mt. Adams. It was a great day of adventuring together in nature!

Another fun activity was a small Christmas in July moment I had with the boys this last week. We had leftover miniature gingerbread house kits from IKEA. They’ve been sitting in my pantry since December. The boys loved decorating while I supervised (sipping on hot chocolate and listening to Christmas music). It was so festive and the gingerbread cookies smelled heavenly! Owen decorated houses while Graham made sprinkle explosions on a couple cookies. It was hilarious to see the difference in these two cookie decorators!

We love playing board games as a family and with company. We relearned a game from our collection this month. BANG! is a western game with a sheriff, deputy, renegade, and outlaws – each with an agenda to kill the sheriff or keep him alive. It’s been a hit! We also got a new game thanks to Prime Days, Machi Koro 2. We taught the boys this weekend and it’s a current obsession. We even taught it to friends last night. I love that our new board game cabinet in the dining room is getting used like I envisioned!

There is no doubt about it – summer is an intense burst of activity! The window of good weather and flexible scheduling only lasts so long. It’s been great to see so many people and do so many fun things together. But… I’ve also started to daydream about autumn and a little more structure to our schedule. I can’t help myself! I’m an introvert who can only keep the summer pace up for so long. Good thing it’s only a season and I hope to be as present as possible while it’s here!

When a kid gets carsick, stop and let them throw rocks in a creek.

Takhlakh Lake with Mt. Adams in the background

Jeremy treated the boys to a movie while I was at Book Club!

Summer Celebrations! July 10, 2024

Filed under: Children's Ministry,Family Time,Tasty Treats — Amy Scott @ 1:47 pm

Summer is in full swing and there has been so much to celebrate! Graham and I visited our sweet GG to celebrate her 91st birthday at the end of June. Unfornately, Owen stayed home with Jeremy due to a case of the summer sniffles. We celebrated the 4th of July with Jeremy’s family, my dad’s birthday with my family, and Jeremy & I’s 18th wedding anniversary.

In the midst of all the partying, we’ve hosted multiple barbeques and playdates. The weather has been hot (5 days of 90+ degrees) and we love sharing our pool with friends and family. We’ve been bouncing from fun thing to fun thing. This is the sweet spot of summer! These are the days of playing hard and crashing into bed at night exhausted. It’s a good type of tired!

Other recent highlights include kicking off our Scuba Sundays at church. We do our VBA (Vacation Bible Adventure) on Sundays for 5 weeks and the kids look forward to this special program every year. We also went to the movies as a family to see Inside Out 2. We were the only family in the theater which is always a treat.

July continues to be a super social month with lots of playdates and dinners with friends still to come. Our outdoorsy plans include taking a hike to some local waterfalls and camping with Jeremy’s family at the end of the month. We haven’t been camping in 2 years so the boys are very excited for the camping experience as well as time with the cousins. These boys love their cousin crew! Extra time with friends and family is one of the many joys of summer. We are thankful for our community and the extraordinary people we get to life with!