Photo Diary: My August
Hello, lovelies! Wow, August seemed to last forever! So, buckle up, because this will be a month-long wrap up!
Always a life-long learner, I love taking courses online in a variety of topics. I use various websites and platforms for my classes, but this month I chose courses from Course Era. If you haven't yet heard of this website, it offers classes (both free and pay) on a plethora of topics. They even offer degrees and specialized certifications in several vocations.
You simply pick the courses you want to take and you can begin them right away. You can audit the entire course for free. Or, you can pay $50 and earn a certicate that gives you full college credit for the course!
The courses I am currently working on are:
-Sharpened Visions: A Poetry Workshop
-Healing with the Arts (I absolutely love this one)
-Creative Writing
-Songwriting: Writing the Lyrics (I am also simultaneously learning to play acoustic guitar so I am loving writing lyrics to go along with the little melodies I am creating)
If you are looking to futher your eduction or if (like me) you just love to learn, I definitely recommend this website!
I made my strawberry cheesecake three times this month. It seems to be a familly favorite in the summertime. You can find the full recipe here.
I am still thrifting and rescuing dolls. I found these three lucky little ladies at the Goodwill. As usual, they were a little grubby and their hair was matted pretty badly. Thanks to some deep conditioner and one of those magic erasers, they are almost like new! I purchased their cute outfits on Temu and their shoes from Allie Express. I think they are happy in their new home!
Have you ever heard of magnet fishing? My wife discovered magnet fishing sort of by accident while online shopping. Neither of us had ever heard of it. I guess it's pretty self-explanatory. You basically have a long rope with a pretty robust magnet attached. You toss her into a body of water and see what comes up!
My little family has enjoyed magnet fishing several times this summer. I haven't discovered any real treasure (aside from some vintage-looking bottle caps) but, you never know!
It has given me a good reason to get outside more often, to experience nature (which was one of my goals for this summer). It's also fun and is pretty good exercise.
These photos are from our local state park. I just love the shore (even found some shells).
One of the great things about state parks is the beautiful landscaping! I just love the variety of colorful flowers. There were so many more, but these were my favorites!
My stepson came to visit from Michigan, so we took him out for his favorite food (pizza), and we ended up at Ghattiland. Of course, I can never pass up an arcade (even though I suck at games of chance). We topped this weekend off with a little shopping spree at the mall (lots of self-care products for me).
Self-Development Books of the Month
Released by Thunder Bay Press, this book requires little more than a few moments of your time, some water, and/or your colored pencils.
This cute coloring book doubles as a paint-by-water. It even comes equipped with it's own paintbrush! Each page contains cute doodles/drawings with an inspiring quote. If you want to create a quick and colorful image, just add water to the page with the paintbrush. If you are into coloring and want to take your time and create your own colors, then use colored pencils.
I love this book for it's inspiring messages and the calm effect of coloring/painting. One of my favorite coloring books!
This litle book is all the motivation you need to get outside and explore the world! As per the title, this book is all about going outside, being at one with with nature, and observing the natural world in all it's simplistic joys.
As a homebody and someone who really loves being outside, it's nice to have inspiration and more reason to get out there. Not only does this book give you fun exercises and things to do outside, but it also provides plenty of room and thought-provoking questions for recording your observations and reflections.
I have made a great effort this entire Summer to go outside more and this book has been a teasure for inspiring me learn to make a habit of being one with the outside world, even if sometimes it was only from my own front porch!
This book is meditation in artwork and writing, particularly journal-writing.
Each page contains a different exercise, all geared to bring you back to the moment!
The doodles are adorable but the prompts and writing exercises are a deep dive into self-exploration, and even emotional healing!
I adore this book and it's been a constant companion this summer.
If you are interested in purchasing any of these books, all three came from Five Below...just five dollars each!
Most of all, I am still making sure to take the time to notice the little things. I have been embracing minimalism and slow living for several months now. Being conscious of slowing down really does give you that oppertunity to see things more clearly. Not just the world around one's self, but thoughts and ideas in general. I feel like everyday has become a learning experience in how I can find abundance, what I can be grateful for, how I can compare the me today to the me of yesterday (rather than comparing myself to an idea or a falsified version of someone I see online).
I particularly love going to the park, or lake, or somewhere with a beautiful view in nature and just soaking in my surroundings. When you stop to really see, the world is so beautiful. It's full of mystery and surprises, just like these little painted rocks that somoene hid near the shore and between the trees at the lake. I would never have found them had I not stopped to just look and view my immediate surroundings! There's truly an abudance in just slowing down and noticing.
As for the painted rocks, that seems to be a sort of thing? People collect rocks of neat shapes and sizes, they paint them, then they hide them around parks and other public places for other people to find (usually by surprise). I think the idea is to rehide the rocks you find, or you go home and paint your own rocks then return and hide those. And, yes, I intend to paint my own rocks and rehide them. Got to share the love!
I had to travel out of town to go shopping earlier in the month. Just our luck it came a crazy storm with 75 mile-per-hour winds while we were on our way. I was so pissed off to have my shopping day ruined...and then the sky cleared, the heavy rain turned to sprinkles, the sun came back out...and I found this beautiful double rainbow! So that is the message I am going to leave you with for this monthly review: When things don't work out exactly the way you want, don't get angry, just look for the rainbow!