My wish for August on the first day of the month was that it would be peaceful, unhurried, and with no surprise expenses (ha!). It wasn’t perfect, but compared to the rest of our summer, it was a breath of fresh air! (And the photo from our trip to Maine below is reminding me just how peaceful parts of it were!) We have a lot to look forward to in September, and I’m embracing the change in seasons with open arms.

What I read in July:
— Lincoln in the Bardo (NOT my favorite read. I almost stopped midway through, but ended up persevering. Though critically acclaimed, it was a little too high-brow for me, plus the fact that it centered around a child dying hit too close to home for this mama.)
— The Language of Flowers (A beautiful novel recommended by my friend Jess! Loved it!)
— To Kill a Mockingbird (My favorite book of all time! It never gets old :))
— Books I’m reading throughout the year: The Power of a Praying Wife and The Lifegiving Home

Revisiting my goals for August:
Edit June in June (YES! See it here! So happy with how this turned out.)
Enjoy our Maine vacation with family (Yes! So grateful we were all together!)
Go on a date night sans June (We tried! We weren’t able to get a babysitter, so we had an official “at-home date night” instead, something we very rarely do. It was fun and felt special!)
Read To Kill a Mockingbird
Make an itinerary and reservations for our family weekend in Asheville, coming up in September (Done! I am so excited!)
Hold our grocery budget to $100 per week (This gets a half check. We actually did spend less than $100/week three out of four weeks, but with travel and trying a free box of HelloFresh and a few other things, we weren’t buying our normal slate of groceries on most trips. But, we did try a few new strategies, so I’m considering it a win!

September goals:
— Write the Word every day (I’ve started Cultivate Gratitude now that they’re back in stock!)
— Eat a fruit or veggie at every meal (Yikes, is this an embarrassing goal?! Unfortunately, it is also necessary, as way too many breakfasts and lunches go by without either one. It’s inspired by my friend Callie, so at least I know I’m not alone!)
— Make a donation to Harvey relief through our charitable giving account. We never made our 2016 matching gift donation, and both felt moved this week to send that earmarked money to Texas.
— Bake apple cider scones for all of June’s teachers, past and present, on the first day of fall (a fun tradition we started last year!)
— Put Financial Peace University plans into motion at our church (we’re not teaching it, but spearheading it, in January!)
— Celebrate my parents well on our Asheville trip, as it’s sandwiched in between their 60th birthdays!
— Celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary!!!

If you have a favorite way to incorporate more fruits and veggies in your diet, please let me know in the comments!! And if you’ve posted your goals somewhere, I’d love to see a link for those, too :)

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I have to say, making these little movies is one of the more brilliant ideas I’ve ever had, truly! The way they capture the mundane moments of our life together is already so precious to me, and I know it will only get more so as the years go on. From the way she wears her hair to the way she runs (those swinging arms!!), to her obsession with smelling flowers and picking up as many things as she can at once, it all changes so fast… And though we don’t necessarily need to mourn the passing of time, I do want to remember: her tousled bedhead first thing in the morning, our camping trips with friends, Target runs, dinners in the backyard, evening walks — everything that makes up our ordinary and beautiful life. Here’s a look, if you’d like to see…

P.S. I have been looking forward to using this song in a video since we found out we were having a girl. It didn’t disappoint :)

June in June: 2017 from Emily Thomas on Vimeo.

The password is JUNE.

She’s my best girl :) And John is just the greatest, yes? xo!

P.S. Volume One

More than anything else, for John’s thirtieth birthday, I wanted to remind him of how loved and cherished he is, and how much his thirty years on earth have meant to the people around him. I don’t think men necessarily hear how wonderful they are as often as the ladies in their lives, even if it’s equally true, and so for this special occasion I wanted to make sure he got the message loud and clear.

John’s birthday is in mid-July, so in late May, I sent out an email to close friends and family asking them to send me back the following by mid-June, written in the format of a letter to John:

One thing I really admire about you:
A favorite memory we share and why it stands out in my mind:
Something to look forward to in your 30s:

I included both of our parents and all of our siblings, of course, as well other family members and friends from childhood, high school, college, and North Carolina. I also asked for input from our nieces and nephews via their parents, and “assisted” June and our cats with writing their own letters, too :) My letter concluded the book.

Most people responded right away, and the ones that didn’t came through after a quick follow-up email, so it really wasn’t difficult to assemble the messages. Photos weren’t too hard, either, since I had done a bunch of scanning and organizing of old photos for our wedding slideshow. What took the most time was laying the book out, but even that was done in a few nights’ time (while shielding my browser from John, of course!).

I chose an 8×8 book with a hard, matte photo cover and layflat pages from Shutterfly. With 13 additional pages and a 50% off coupon (they are ALWAYS running promos), the total came to about $45. The book is beautiful in person – I’m thrilled with how it turned out!

John loved it, too. I think he was actually quite taken aback by it. He is a deeply private, humble person, and I think the thought of all of those people writing something nice about him was a bit overwhelming – instead of reading all of the letters in one sitting, he paged through them slowly over a few days. Mission accomplished :)

Have you ever surprised someone with messages like this? I think it’s always a hit (and I would love to hear your creative ideas!)!

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I’ve been meaning to write this post for months, but I always stop just before doing so – perhaps because it seems too simple? It’s something that’s really made a difference for me, though, so I’m finally sharing!

Photo by Anagram Photo from our last home tour (since which a lot has changed – maybe time for a new one?)

On occasion, I find myself feeling disgruntled about our home. On any given day, maybe it’s the reddish tint in our wood floors. Or the size of our lot. Or the lack of natural light. Or that we still haven’t replaced our sofa pillows to match the vision in my head, four years into living here. Or maybe it’s just a vague feeling that creeps in of our home being less than, unsatisfactory, wanting…

Want to know the fastest way I’ve found to snap myself out of that (totally ridiculous but still very real) funk? It’s not rearranging the furniture, and it’s not even buying something new. It’s cleaning something. Or, more accurately, sometimes it’s simply tidying.

I am most content with our home in the moments before a dinner party (or a pumpkin party!) is set to begin: everything is in its proper place, the counters are wiped and free of lingering mail and crumbs, the place mats are straightened on the table, the rug has vacuuming lines, the table lamps are on, and a candle is glowing on the coffee table. I look around and think, wow, this place is so nice! (Ha!) Everything feels fresh and loved. As my friend Robyn said at Articles Club earlier this week (and I’m paraphrasing), we find ourselves loving things more that we spend time loving.

Of course, with a full life and a toddler bent on finding a new home for every item that’s not nailed down at least once a day, that “party-ready house” is not realistic most days. And that’s completely okay. But realizing that contentment is only a fifteen-minute tidying session, not a thousand-dollar shopping spree, away has been so fruitful for me.

Have you found this to be true for yourself? Any other house contentment hacks you want to share? :)