Gosh, I don’t even really know what to tell you about this month! Perhaps the most exciting thing to say is… IT’S THE MONTH MY SISTER MOVES TO NORTH CAROLINA! Yes! I never in a million years thought I’d get to type that sentence, but here we are. Kate’s husband starts a new job near Charlotte tomorrow, and the rest of the crew will be here, in their new home, before the end of the month. This will be the closest we’ve lived to immediate family since we moved South, and to say we are excited and grateful is an understatement.

Though that is by far the most exciting thing happening in October, it’s certainly not the only one. Between travels, visitors, events, and my return to work (for the biggest CWM week of the year, no less!), there’s a lot going on. I’m here for all of it :)

Exploring after Hurricane Florence

On my calendar this month:
— The NC State Fair (biscuits, goat showmanship, and giant slide, here we come!)
— The sixth annual pumpkins and soup party
— The third anniversary of Articles Club!!
— A trip to Asheville with my younger sister
— Our dear college friend’s wedding in New Hampshire – our first time flying as a family of four!

What I’m loving right now:
— I have made several batches of these power balls since Shep arrived – so delicious, especially with some of the chocolate chips subbed in for cinnamon chips!
— How big of a nerd are you if you watched the Jeopardy! All Star Games live draft? Asking for a friend :) But really, it was so fun — counting down until February!!
— This article was a great reminder of what matters most. I thought the part on beauty was particularly interesting.

What I read in September:
— Sacred Marriage: The first half of this book seemed a little more focused on troubled or difficult marriages, but I appreciated the reminder of the importance of sacrifice and service toward our spouses!
— The Book of Essie: Blew through this one in two days because I couldn’t put it down.

Revisiting my goals for September:
Start every day on my knees in a short prayer, offering my day to God (Did not do this perfectly, but the goal served its purpose and it was so good. I felt it on the days I did it and on the days I did not.)
Sort and price all clothes for my favorite consignment sale
Make an itinerary and reservations for our upcoming trip to Asheville
Bake apple cider scones for June’s teachers on the first day of fall (Sweet girl!)
Cull and edit all 2018 iPhone photos (Done!! The progress is slow but so gratifying!)
Experiment with listing a few things on Poshmark (Done! I even sold something, ha! You can shop the rest here, if you’d like!)
Do something to welcome our new neighbors (We introduced ourselves to them, so I’m counting that as a win :))

October goals:
— Prepare well for returning to work
— Frame new family photos for Shep and June’s rooms
— Host a pumpkin painting workshop, with proceeds going to Hurricane Florence relief (if you’re local and would like to come, register here!)
— Watch Won’t You Be My Neighbor? on Amazon
— Order supplies and finish Halloween costumes
— Take down June’s pelmet and replace with curtains, creating a reading corner
— Order our Christmas cards (using newborn photos!)
— Work on Shep’s baby book and update June’s
— Clean out our coat closet and donate anything we no longer need
— Organize June’s art supplies (they are a HOT MESS right now)

Question for you all: I know this might seem early, but I’m curious whether you’d like to see gift guides on the blog in November? If so, what categories/price points/recipients/etc. would be most helpful for you? Let me know what you think!

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September is the month of our wedding anniversary! We’re celebrating six years of marriage on September 15, and I am still the luckiest person alive to call John mine – but more about that later.

One thing I’ve learned in more than a year of walking out my monthly prep days is the power of pairing or batching things that are important to me. The general idea is that I attach things I’d never forget — like the date of my anniversary — to things I want to remember or do. In this case, that means I pair celebrating our anniversary with marriage-related tending: reading a marriage book in the month of September (likely this one, based on your effusive Instagram recommendations!), taking some time to read through our vows, and getting my rings cleaned. I’m also planning to pull out our photo album and flip through it with June. These things might happen otherwise, but by bundling them all together I make it more likely that they will. And putting them on my prep days note makes it even harder to forget!

September promises to be a great month. Here’s a look at what else is ahead for us!

On my calendar this month:
— The first gathering of a new family group we’re visiting at church
— Our neighborhood’s food truck rodeo
— A visit from my parents!!

What I’m loving right now:
— Like many of you, I’ve mourned John McCain’s passing this past week. I think his farewell letter was beautiful, and a great answer to anyone who wonders why I’m a patriot. Also this: “But I would not trade a day of my life, in good or bad times, for the best day of anyone else’s.” Amen.
— We zipped through a whole season of The Great British Baking Show in the hospital, and another one in our first few weeks at home. It has been a perfectly charming and calming companion in the first few weeks after bringing a newborn home! There are currently five seasons (called “collections”) on Netflix – our favorites are two and three.
— If my clothing budget was unlimited, I would have bought multiple colors of this swiss dot top from J.Crew! As it is, I stuck with just the lovely pale periwinkle version.

What I read in August:
— To Kill a Mockingbird: If I only read one book, at least I made it a great one :)

Revisiting my goals for August:
Edit June in June, Volume 3 (Done! Coming to a blog near you soon!)
Newborn photo session with Graham (Can’t wait to see them!! Here are June’s to tide you over in the meantime.)
Replace fan in nursery (Done! Here’s the fan we swapped in.)
Hang art in nursery (Sneak peek!)
Cull and edit all 2018 iPhone photos (Did not do this, but I did make major progress in sorting and culling older photos, so I’m calling this a win!)
Family worship, especially in weeks we can’t get to church (This was tough, but we did worship online every week and sang along!)
Daily walks, as the weather allows
Decide on format for monthly baby photos
Watch About Time again (Just arrived in the mail, so we’ll be watching it in the next few days!)

September goals:
— Start every day on my knees in a short prayer, offering my day to God (this will be part of my anthem)
— Sort and price all clothes for my favorite consignment sale (and shop it, of course!)
— Make an itinerary and reservations for our upcoming trip to Asheville
— Bake apple cider scones for June’s teachers on the first day of fall (a fun tradition we started two years ago!)
— Cull and edit all 2018 iPhone photos
— Experiment with listing a few things on Poshmark (you may recall this has been on my “no” list in other seasons, but I’m giving it a try!)
— Do something to welcome our new neighbors

If you have goals for the month (or something you’re loving right now!), I’d love to hear in the comments!

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I’m writing this post a few days early, because, friends, we will almost certainly have a new baby in our family by the time you read this! Holy moly! I look forward to introducing you all soon, after we’ve had a chance to get acquainted ourselves :) In the meantime, here’s what we have planned for month one with our newest addition, and a few things I’m loving right now!

On my calendar this month:
— Welcoming our new baby!! And that’s about it :)

What I’m loving right now:
— This peach and blackberry crumble is PERFECT for the heat of summer – one of my favorite desserts! We like to make it in an 8×8 pan and top it with vanilla bean ice cream.
— I enjoyed this article in the NY Times about JOMO, and thought their suggestions were more practical than most. I’ll be interested to see if the tech companies follow through on their recent promises!
— I’m not a big fan of most current TV shows, but Netflix’s Puffin Rock is a HUGE exception. It is the sweetest, most gentle and beautiful little gem of a show about an Irish puffling and her friends. Thankfully, it is June’s favorite, too! Highly recommended!

What I read in July:
— Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood: While this book was not bad, I’d definitely recommend the original L&L — it’s more comprehensive, written better, and easily applicable to earlier years
— On Becoming Babywise: Skimmed through this for a review!

Revisiting my goals for July:
Actually get the basics ready for a new baby: buy newborn diapers, pack a hospital bag, install car seat base, get out the Rock and Play, set up the changing pad…
Make progress on nursery: have room painted, replace light fixture, plan curtains with Aunt Nan, buy crib, finish framing art, choose pillow shams for bed…
Finish organizing baby boy clothing
Edit June in June, Volume 3! (Moving to August!)
Take an evening neighborhood walk any day we’re home and the weather is good (We did such a good job with this!)
Finish all outstanding areas on my 2018 Great House Declutter list
Plan newborn photos (Graham is taking them again and I am so grateful!!)

August goals:
— Edit June in June, Volume 3 (I finally chose the song, which is often the hardest part!)
— Newborn photo session with Graham
— Replace fan in nursery (we bought this one and need to install it!)
— Hang art in nursery
— Cull and edit all 2018 iPhone photos
— Family worship, especially in weeks we can’t get to church
— Daily walks, as the weather allows
— Decide on format for monthly baby photos
— Watch About Time again :)

If you have goals for the month (or something you’re loving right now!), I’d love to hear in the comments!

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We’re back from our 17-day New England adventure!! It wasn’t necessarily my preferred way to take vacation (baby brother’s due date made the back-to-back nature necessary), but I’m so grateful we were able to squeeze in time with so many favorite people and places! More to come soon on our trips to Connecticut and Maine.

But now on to July… is it helpful to say my goals are to cross off everything on my “before baby arrives” list?? Just know that for every baby-related goal below, there are probably four more items I didn’t mention on a to do list somewhere :) Baby brother could very well make his debut this month, so we’re focusing on both preparing and soaking up our last few days as a family of three!

On my calendar this month:
— My dear friend from childhood and her husband are arriving today to stay with us for a few days, with the intention of seeing whether they like the Triangle enough to move here!!
— John’s birthday!
— The Fourth of July!
— Cow Appreciation Day!

What I’m loving right now:
— We were greeted with the above bounty upon arrival home from our trip, so we’ve been enjoying some of our favorite tomato recipes this week, including one of my favorites.
— The “Picnic in the Park” playlist on Spotify is perfect for summer afternoons and dinner parties!
— Not even kidding: THREE different readers sent me the link to this Atlantic article. Clearly, I have a soap box :) I loved it, of course, especially this line: “But that sort of separation is different from the inattention that occurs when a parent is with a child but communicating through his or her nonengagement that the child is less valuable than an email. A mother telling kids to go out and play, a father saying he needs to concentrate on a chore for the next half hour—these are entirely reasonable responses to the competing demands of adult life. What’s going on today, however, is the rise of unpredictable care, governed by the beeps and enticements of smartphones. We seem to have stumbled into the worst model of parenting imaginable—always present physically, thereby blocking children’s autonomy, yet only fitfully present emotionally.”

What I read in June:
— Saints for All Occasions: Kept me up later than it should have – a great summer read!
— Tell Me More: Even though the author and I seem to be polar opposites in some ways, I enjoyed her essays and found a few points in particular rang very true.
— A Gentleman in Moscow: This novel is long and took me a little bit to get into, but once I did I fell in love with the characters! The author’s style of writing is playful and fun, and I even learned a thing or two about Russian history :)

Revisiting my goals for June:
Prepare entertainment for our long road trips
Photograph our backyard to share with y’all!
Attempt to DIY some maternity photos (did not get to this… the extreme heat made it a daunting task)
Make a master list of things to do before baby boy arrives
Upload all random digital photos/videos and sort them into external hard drive folder system
Cull and edit all 2018 iPhone photos and categorize them in our external hard drive folders (made a lot of progress on this but not quite done!)
Decide on a blog series for after baby boy arrives and start working on it (still stumped! Ahh!)
Finish organizing baby boy clothing (progress here!)
Film June in June, Volume 3

July goals:
— Actually get the basics ready for a new baby: buy newborn diapers, pack a hospital bag, install car seat base, get out the Rock and Play, set up the changing pad…
— Make progress on nursery: have room painted, replace light fixture, plan curtains with Aunt Nan, buy crib, finish framing art, choose pillow shams for bed…
— Finish organizing baby boy clothing
— Edit June in June, Volume 3!
— Take an evening neighborhood walk any day we’re home and the weather is good
— Finish all outstanding areas on my 2018 Great House Declutter list
— Plan newborn photos (Graham is taking them again and I am so grateful!!)

On top of all of the work-related things that will be taking up my time and headspace between now and the end of the month, that should about do it for me, I think! If you have goals for the month (or something you’re loving right now!), I’d love to hear in the comments!

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