Seven Quick Takes--Welcome July!!!!! (And a baby!!!)

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Welcome, July!!!!

Fireworks at Colonial Williamburg

Gosh, I’m so glad we’re in July. Yayyyy July!

So much to talk about today!!!

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OK first, WELCOME TO MY NEW GODDAUGHTER!

Patricia Mary

6/30/20

7 lbs 15 oz.

She’s my cousin’s daughter, and my first goddaughter! She was born on our grandma’s 90th birthday, and, coincidentially, has the same name as our Grandmother—full name, I mean. The Patricia was for my grandmother, but the Mary is also our grandmother’s middle name!! So how nice is that? Grandma got a pretty awesome present!

You can’t tell in the photos, but she’s a ginger, like her mom!

So she’s been in the hospital for a few days because they had to make sure she tested negative for COVID after a few tests. She’s passing with flying colors though so yay! My cousin can nurse her but she has to gown up because she actually tested positive for COVID—even though she has no symptoms. BIZARRE.

Anyway, I hope by the time this is live, they’re able to go home!

She’s the fifth child in my cousin’s family. They have two daughters—Susie and Bridget—and two boys—Frankie and Johnny. Bridget, in particular, is very happy to have another sister!

So, yes, as her godmother, I am going to spam you all with photos of her because that is my job as godmother.

(And to spoil her rotten….)

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(OK she’s ADORABLE, RIGHT?!?!!?)

I already have a godson, who will be 23 this year. So I’m really happy to have another godbaby, and my first goddaughter. It’s so fun to spoil the littles. Not that I couldn’t spoil my godson, but it’s harder since he’s all grown up and I can’t pay him $1 to see if he knows his prayers anymore. :) He recently graduated from the University of Pittsburgh (A semester early!), so yes, I am insanely proud of him too. :)

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So it’s Fourth of July Weekend! I recommend watching Gettysburg, John Adams, and 1776! (SIT DOWN, JOHN!)

via GIPHY

Also reading John Adams, The Killer Angels, and 1776 are great reads for July, especially the latter. For kids, the Felicty series from American Girl is great for learning about colonial history, and I also really like the Revolutionary War series from Laurie Halse Anderson, told from the perspective of a young slave girl, Isabel, and her friend, Curzon. This is fabulous trilogy: Chains, Forge, and Ashes. (and these are also great books for adults, too! Anderson is a great writer.) Learning history is so important and fiction is a great way to spark interest and learn things!

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Also, reading the Declaration of Independence is a good idea….

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I’ve never been a huge fireworks person, but I did top this with a picture of the CW fireworks because….awesome, right?

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And finally, if you missed the posts from this week, here they are:

There are sleeves on the cardigan!

Glorious Scars

A New Review of Living Memento Mori!

Seven Quick Takes No. 126

I. 

Until the election, I'm doing 30 Days of Beauty. It's a series where I post images, book and movie recommendations, and music to serve as a bit of peace and loveliness in the crazy. They're not very long, but hopefully you enjoy them as much as I've enjoyed putting them together!

II. 

Makeup recommendation time (this is where all the guys scroll down!): Best mascara I've ever tried is Maybelline's Last Stiletto. Seriously. Try it. Works just as well as Lancome's Definicils and better than any Bobbi Brown I've tried. Needed to share this with y'all. 

III. 

I am going to Houston on Sunday! My sister's birthday is on Monday and she wanted me to come visit her, so I am complying. I'll be there for a few days. 

The extra-fun part is that my sister shares a birthday with two of our cousins, one of which also lives in Houston. So it's gonna be one big party. Yay!

(I do love birthdays. So much.)

IV. 

On Tuesday we're going to the beach. Here's how that conversation went:
Mel: So we'll go to the beach on Tuesday.
Me: Guess I won't need to pack my sweater, then....

It's going to 90 when I'm there. The beach in October? That just seems wrong. 

Oh well! Better than not being on the beach, right? 

V. 

I haven't been to Houston in about five years, so I'm excited to go back. I also get to meet my sister's boyfriend, whom I haven't met yet. Hopefully I don't scare him away. :-P 

VI. 

The TSA agents really do not help women. I mean, seriously. ONE little bag to carry on of toiletries? This, and my meds, is why I have to check baggage. Seriously. I need more than one little baggie, TSA people. 

(First world problem, I know. At least I'm flying Southwest and my checked bag is free.) 

VII. 

Hockey season has begun and my heart is happy. Hockey season always makes me happy. Except when/if my teams are tanking. I don't want that to happen. That's not happy. 

Seven Quick Takes No. 84

I. 

Another Friday, another Quick Takes! Here's what I've been writing about this week:Persuasion: The Last Entry in the Jane Re-Read; Sort of Knitting; Daybook with a Side of Sinus Trouble; Why I'm a Dominican; and  my August Real Housekeeping piece went live!

II.

To follow up on that last one--the sinuses are getting better. I think. Since I caught it early I didn't really have a lot of symptoms, per se. Only things that I, with my crazy knowledge and Spidey Sense, really picked up on. But it's always better to be early than late, when it comes to this sort of stuff. I felt sort of off yesterday so I took it easy, catching up on Netflix and reading. I'm on the second to last Pink Carnation novel and I'm still reading What Matters In Jane Austen and Middlemarch, but I've also started A God In Ruins. 

III. 

CCD starts this week, which I can't really believe. We used to start in September, so we are starting earlier than usual, but really, it's almost September? Most of the kids have gone back to school here already; in fact, I think they all have. I can't think of any districts that wait to start until next week. I think the football season starts next week, though I'm not sure, because I no longer have siblings in band. Your schedule was basically determined by the band performance/travel/practice/competition/Band Camp schedule. My high school's band was pretty good. I wasn't in it, but my brother and sister were, and they performed in the Macy's, Orange Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Rose Bowl, and other parades I'm probably forgetting. Even though I took clarinet lessons as a kid, I was always much more of an indoor girl. (Seriously--marching in rain, snow, wet? NO THANK YOU.)

IV. 

One of the movies in my Netflix queue was Apocalypse Now, which I'd never seen, so naturally I had to watch it. It was intriguing; the end, especially, at Kurtz's compound, was really well done. I wasn't over or underwhelmed. It sort of fit the expectations that I had for it. Martin Sheen did a great job. I also started watching Cleopatra. What was it with these epics in the 50s and 60s, that they feel the need to start with Tedious Narration, and have all these long, drawn-out sequences? People! Come on! No wonder the movie was so expensive to make. I didn't finish it yet, though, so I should probably withhold judgment. I've also got Three Coins in a Fountain, Cinema Paradiso, and From Here to Eternity in the queue. 

V. 

I have bought, officially, one Christmas present for the upcoming season. I always get my dad more or less the same sorts of things, and my brother and sister have birthdays in the fall, so I don't get their Christmas gifts until after their birthdays. Since my sister lives in Texas, anything I get her for Christmas has to be easy to fit in her luggage, if she comes home, or easily mailable, if she can't come home (she's a nurse, so her schedule isn't exactly at her disposal, and she makes more money if she works the holidays, so she doesn't really mind working them, if she can't get out of them.). Gifts for my friends are a whole other story. 

I really love Christmas, so I don't mind thinking about it early. 

VI. 

I'm ready for Fall. Since I was about 16, I guess, I've been ready for fall by the middle of August. I don't know why, in particular. But I got the September Southern Living today, and Reese Witherspoon is in it, wearing all sorts o adorable fall clothes, and I just wanted it to be fall. Football! Hockey! Leaves! Sweaters! My fireplace! Candles! All that stuff! 

(And no, I'm not a pumpkin freak, like so many other people are. I mean, I like them, but not in my coffee or my doughnuts or in my candles....)

I mean, look at these clothes!

Seriously? (And I can't get rid of the "ad" at the bottom, but come on, these clothes, people) I ooooove that cardigan in the bottom right photo. I'm sort of a cardigan freak. And the blue sweater in the cover photo? To die for. Blue, in case you haven't noticed from the design around here, is my favorite color. As another Southern Belle, Shelby, said in Steel Magnolias, "Pink is my signature color." Well, here it's not pink. It's blue. 

(Yes, shades of Sleeping Beauty, right?) 

I love this photo I took at Disney World. This is what goes along with it: 

VII. 

And finally....

I have an audition tonight. Hope it goes well!