Ten Things I Loved in June

During a run one late May morning, I thought about how many things I had really enjoyed that month and that ended up inspiring a round up blog post for the end of the month on Ten Things I Loved.  I loved that concept so much that I thought I would resurrect it again with my June version  Here we go:

Things I/We Did

1.  The 100 Book Challenge.  So Happy LOVES to read, but he can totally fixate on the same books.  And, of course, there is reader fatigue (how many times can a girl read Llama Llama or whatever) but, more importantly, we want him exposed to as many stories as possible because, go figure, I believe in stories and their power.  Enter the 100 different book challenge.  As part of summer of intentionality, we challenged Happy to read 100 different books this summer.  If he did it, he got a surprise.  Well, Happy loved the challenge.  We started on May 26th and on June 13th, we had read 100 different books (this doesn’t count the sometimes multiple readings of the different books).  So, Happy got his surprise (an outing to Madagascar 3), and we started the challenge again.  Right now, we’re working on completing a second round of 100 different books (this round has gone slower because we vacationed a week into this round and only took 10 different books with us).  Very fun challenge indeed.

2.  Vacationed.  Oh, I love a vacation.  I really do. And in June, we got to go on two vacations.  Heck, we rarely get to take two vacations in a year so two vacations in a month totally blew my mind.  My parents very sweetly treated all of their grandchildren (and, hence, parents of said grandchildren got to tag along) to a trip to Disney World.  I wasn’t sure if Happy would enjoy it because I considered him on a little young side for Disney but Kid loved it.  This look was on his face for the ENTIRE week.

We also got to go to the beach for a week.  I never “vacationed” to the beach when I was a kid– that was something that BF introduced me to and, boy, am I glad that he did.  I LOVE spending all day long next to the ocean.  And though the pace of the beach is different from when we were sans child, it is still a boat load of fun (and good food).

3.  The Garden.  The zucchini and squash plants were on a  roll and now eggplants, peppers, cucumbers, and watermelon are not far behind. I love watering and weeding the little plots and just watching the daily changes (the veggies literally grow overnight!).  And our copious amounts of zucchini have introduced us to some new fare including stuffed zucchini.

On The Plate

4. Nolen Kitchen.  I went to this Charlotte, NC restaurant for a Circle de Luz meeting and, holy wow, my dinner was yum.  It was a clay pot Moroccan chicken dish with Israeli couscous and zucchini chips.  Seriously, a ridiculously good meal.  If you are local, check it out.

5. Kale Avocado Carrot Salad.  This salad is delicious.  We added yellow pepper, too.  Can’t wait to have it again!

6.  Fern.  Another Charlotte restaurant that is all vegetarian and vegan fare.  I opted for the tribal tacos and woke up in the middle of the night hungry for them.  Another place you must check out if you are local.

Products I Found 

7.   Clinique Black Honey Almost Lipstick.  I’ve been wanting a bit of color that isn’t full on lipstick and I recently remembered that there was a shade of Clinique lipstick I had back in the day- black honey.  It looks terribly dark in the tube but isn’t at all when you put it on- it is super sheer- and I think it might flatter any coloring.

8.  Embroidered goodness.

These two fun finds at Garnet Hill (bought with a well-timed coupon) have brightened my summer while being easy to care for and comfy, cozy.

9.  New running shoes.  If you ask a lot of your feet, pay them back by giving them the right kind of support.  I have a running shoe store (Run for Your Life: University, if you are local) I go to for fittings and my kicks.  What a difference maker.  My arches were screaming at me by mid-June but some new kicks took care of that right away.

On the Bookshelf    

10.  Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses.  I’ve had a  hard time reading books of late- I think my concentration is still feeling the effects of my B-12 deficiency.  Anyway, Poser is a book that is making me want to keep reading which is such a testimony to Claire Dederer’s story as a mother who has lived with an incredible pressure to be effortlessly perfect when what she wants is something much more simple.  A great read so far.

Alright, your turn.  What did you just love this month?

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