July – The HeartWord Way

So . . . I just checked and saw that my last post was on July 5 – a month from the day that I’m writing this post. Yikes.

What happened, you ask? July happened. July went by so fast, I feel like it was only yesterday I was watching fireworks on July 4. Somehow, that was actually a full month ago.

I think I feel like July happened so quickly because it was a really busy month for me – well, as busy as you can be in this COVID pandemic. I was more busy in July than I have been in all the months since the beginning of quarantine!

So, I didn’t write any posts this month. I started one, but didn’t finish it. And I’m really sorry. I know I keep promising you guys more, more, and more posts, but sometimes life just goes by too fast!

So, I think to catch up today, I’ll just do a more relaxed version of my usual monthly recap.

July Summed Up

Three big things happened in July, plus a few other things as well.

ONE: I stayed at my grandmother’s house for a week, which ended up being really relaxing because I got to kind of take a break from everything that was happening at home.

TWO: We painted my room! I’ve been waiting to do this for a little while now, and we finally did it (once I finally made up my mind on the color 😉 )!

THREE: I got my learner’s permit! Usually, in the state where I live, you get your permit at age fifteen, but I decided to wait a while. So here I am, a year and a few months later, and I’ve finally gotten up the courage to go take that test! And I passed! Now I just have to actually, you know, drive.

One little thing is a book I got off of Amazon: Create This Book. Create This Book is a book made by one of my favorite YouTubers, Moriah Elizabeth. It’s basically just a book full of prompts for artists (or people who know they’re not quite artists, but their drawings are OK; like me). I may show a few pictures in upcoming posts, I’m not sure. (By the way, you should totally go check out Moriah Elizabeth’s YouTube channel. She does lots of cool art and I really enjoy watching her videos. She did a series on this book that I’m starting as well.)

Another little thing is another book I got off of Amazon, but I’ve been waiting for a while for this one: Keeper of the Lost Cities: Illustrated and Annotated Edition!! Oh my gosh, I’ve been so excited for this, and it finally came a few days ago! I’ve already read this series, and when the author announced she was selling a special edition of book #1, I was on Amazon faster than you can blink! Ok, that was an exaggeration, but you get the point. I LOVE this series. A lot.

So, What’s In Store For August?

In August, several things are happening:

School starts! I start school on August 10, which is pretty early, but at least I’ll get done earlier next spring!
I’m also going to get some dental work done in August, so that should be *fun* (laying the sarcasm on thick, here).
I’m starting a new bullet journal; this one will only be for school.
And, I’ll obviously be learning to drive!

As for blog posts, I’ll just try to get one out whenever I can, since I’ll be adjusting to a new schedule with school almost here.

See Ya!

That’s it for today’s post! I hope you all are excited for me to be coming back!

If you all have any post suggestions, please let me know in the comments! I’ll definitely take your suggestions into consideration!

Also comment and let me know, how was your July? Are you excited to start school back (if you’re a student)?

Thanks for reading! Happy writing!

And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and never tempts anyone else. James 1:13 NLT

Hello and happy Fourth of July, everyone!

Today, I’ll be giving you my monthly recap for June!

If you haven’t been to my blog before, a monthly recap is a post where I share the things I accomplished during the month. Today I’ll be sharing info about the books I read, my writing, art progress, blog posts, bullet journal progress, what happened in my life during June, and looking ahead at July. Wow, we’ve got a lot to look at today! We’d better get started!

Reading

This month, I read three books.

First, I read The Hobbit. This was a really fun read! I really enjoyed the storyline, and I think it was great literature. I hope to read through the entire Lord of the Rings Series at some point (I have a long reading list right now).

Next, I read the first book in the River of Time Series: Waterfall. Oh. My. Goodness. I LOVE THIS SERIES! This is my first time reading it, and I am SO into it. Basically, a girl and her sister fall through a time portal and get sent back to medieval times. I highly recommend this book if you are up for an exciting read! WARNING: This book does have several intense moments! Living in medieval times was a lot different than living today!

The third book I read was the second book in the River of Time series: Cascade. This book was even more exciting than the first! This book continues the story of the two sisters and their mother from the first book. I will definitely continue reading through this series!

Writing

Okay, I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t get much writing done this month.

I did start a new story, though, based off of one of the prompts from my post 26 Writing Prompts for You, You, and You! I didn’t get that story done in time for this post, but hopefully I’ll be sharing it with you guys sometime in July.

Blogging

I did a total of three posts this month. My goal was to post on time each Friday, but I was mostly late each time.

Here are all of the posts I did this month:

Art Progress

As you may know if you are a returning visitor to my blog, I recently did a page in my new bullet journal where I could track my progress on all of my art projects (view this post if you want to see all pictures of my new bullet journal).

I only did two projects last month: my Diamond Painting and my new bullet journal.

Here are the stats on my new bullet journal:

This was my third bullet journal.
It took me 11 days to complete.
The “Fun Scale” rating was 10/10!

Here are the stats on my Diamond Painting:

This is my first time sharing my Diamond Painting with you guys, so I’ll go ahead and explain what it is. It’s pretty much a paint by number, but with tiny diamonds (not real diamonds of course) instead of paint. Mine is Harry Potter themed!
The canvas is sticky, so all I have to do is use my special pen to stick the diamonds on.
I got this for my birthday, so I’ve been working on it for almost two months.
So far, I’ve really enjoyed doing my Diamond Painting. It’s really easy to do, and it’s so fun to watch it come together! Below is a picture of what I’ve completed so far:

You can find these on Amazon, if you want one of your own.

Bullet Journaling

First, I’d like to show you guys a few weekly spreads I did last month that I’m particularly proud of:

This spread was for the week of June 15-21, and I really like the way this one turned out! It’s supposed to look like a pond with lily pads as the daily sections, and branches kind of hanging over the water. This was probably my favorite weekly spread this month.

This spread was for June 29-July 5 and is sky themed. The daily sections are clouds, and there’s also a rainbow, a sun, and a flying cat (I wanted to incorporate a cat in some way, so I added wings to it. Looking back, it seems kind of weird, but I can’t change it now…).

All of the weekly spreads I did this week were in this layout, with the circles as the daily sections.

Now I’ll go ahead and show you all my spreads for July!

First off, I have my July Monthly Overview. On the left page, I have a red, white, and blue themed popsicle and also fireworks (I used gray as a substitute for white). Next I have sections for goals, memories, books I read, and blog posts. On the right page, I have my calendar and spaces for events and notes. I also added a cat waving a USA flag to celebrate the Fourth of July.

Next up, I have my tracker for how my day went. I wanted to call it my mood tracker, but it’s not really a mood tracker. I’m not really sure what to call it 😉 . It’s painting themed (if you stick around and finish this post, you’ll see why), and all I have to do is color the strip the appropriate color according to how my day was.

I’m having a lot of trouble reaching my water goal each day, so I’m hoping a tracker will help motivate me. Across the top, I have the amount of cups I will drink numbered (1-8+) and down the page I have the dates. I will use a colored pencil to shade in how many cups I drank each day.

Here I have my money tracker, which is the same as always. I’ll do tally marks for how many shifts I work, write down my checks, and the total amount of money I earned. I’ll divide that money into spend, save, and tithe money and record it. I’ve also saved a space for spending ideas.

Finally, I did my habit tracker. This habit tracker is different than the ones I’ve done in the past, but it’s pretty self-explanatory. The habits are written on the left, and if I’ve completed a habit, I’ll circle the date.

Looking Back at June

Looking back at June, I can see where my month went… bad? No, it didn’t go bad. I just mean that things went from super productive to not productive.

I was super motivated the first week of summer, so I got a lot done.

Then, we got a kitten!

Everyone, say hello to Luna! The first week we had Luna was very hectic, as we had to adjust our schedules so we could take care of and play with her. I didn’t have much free time for a few weeks after that, and by then, I unfortunately wasn’t very motivated to be productive any more.

Looking Ahead at July

I am super excited for July, because… (drumroll, please!) … I’m starting a new project: redecorating my room!

This project is probably going to take several months, but I can’t wait for the end result I’ve already been dreaming about! We moved into this house last November, but I haven’t really decorated my room much yet.

Basically, I want to paint my room, get a new bedspread, and decorate my walls. This month, we’re going to paint and then I’ll start looking for a new bedspread.

For July, I’ve got several fun posts planned, so stay tuned!

Until Next Time…

Whew, that was a really long post! I hope you guys enjoyed it! Comment and let me know if you did and also tell me how June went for you! I’ve love to talk to you!