June Month in Review – Life + Business

I’m sure I don’t need to tell you, but it is bananas how quickly June has gone! It’s always like this, so it shouldn’t be a surprise to me, but here I am, picking my jaw up off the floor at July being just around the corner! I remember as a kid being so depressed when the 4th of July came around because I knew school would be happening before we knew it. It’s not quite so bad anymore, since I’m not in school, but everyone’s just in such better moods in the summer, so it’s nice to keep that feeling around for as long as possible.

I don’t know why, but I always try to cram as much as I can into the summer months. It’s not like we can’t do things during the rest of the year, but there’s just so much pressure to make summer amazing! No worries about that here, this year. If June is any indication, the rest of the summer will be a blast too.

I did something weird to kick-off summer, though. I decided to eliminate meat from my diet. I mean, what?? Why would I do this at the beginning of grilling season?? I’ve been thinking about it for a while and was coming off the end of our sugar detox, so I thought it was the perfect time to keep up with the healthy eating. (I shared the dessert recipe that got me through sugar detox HERE, if you’re interested.) There are a lot of reasons that people eliminate meat, and I don’t want to get all political here, so I’ll just say that there are tons of proven health benefits from it and I’m on a mission this year to feel better. I will also say, that having just ended a week of vacation, during which I didn’t watch what I ate as much, I can feel the need to get back to healthier eating. I was, however, strict about the no meat thing during vaca, only having it once on bacon cheeseburger pizza, on the last night. Cutting meat out of my diet hasn’t been as tough as I thought it would be. Just like anything else, I have to be prepared with other foods, so I don’t give into my cravings or into the convenience of what I’m used to eating. I’ve made a few meatless meals so far, including a really yummy pasta dish and walnut taco “meat” tacos (you can find that recipe HERE). I’m making it a goal, going forward, to learn a new meatless recipe every week. Jason isn’t necessarily doing the elimination with me, but he will eat whatever I fix. For the other meals that still contain meat, I’m trying to fix it without the meat for myself and then have it so Jason can add in the meat to his own. Again…it’s doable…I just have to plan for it!

I realized last night, while we were walking Cooper the Corgi (for the second time that day), that he’s been with us close to 4 months! I almost can’t believe it! He’s grown a ton and is really developing his own, unique personality. He’s also started a new game where he likes to drop his tennis ball down the basement stairs and then wait for us to bring it back to him…and then he drops it again. This is only a game because he’s too scared to go down the stairs by himself yet. Technically, you’re not supposed to let corgi puppies go down the stairs on their own until they’re 8 months old because of their skeletal development, so we’ve been pretty careful with Cooper. It will be interesting once he finally gets brave enough to do it on his own…should be any day now!

My June fresh flower subscription bouquet was a show-stopper! Tiny Acre Farms wows me every month with their delivery, but the coral peonies this month were especially gorgeous! If you have a local flower farmer who offers a subscription, I highly recommend it! It helps support their business and it’s something to look forward to every month! There’s so much talk about self-care these days and this is a great way to show yourself some.

I’ve wanted to go on the Southern Iowa Junk Jaunt ever since I heard about it, but it hasn’t worked out until this year. I love events like this because it encourages people to visit an area, they might not be familiar with, and makes shopping easy! Brooke, owner of The Junk Parlor, puts the event together and she does a great job! There’s a map of all the participating businesses on the junk jaunt, each business has something special for shoppers during the event, and everyone has a great time exploring and shopping! Jason and I enjoyed lots of yummy food while we were there and had a great time soaking up the sunshine and checking out all the vintage “junk” at the stops.

Something exciting is happening here in a couple of days, so I’ve been on a mad dash to finish up some projects around the house. I mean…it’s nowhere near what I’d like to be done, but you take what you can get, right? I finally spray painted the two outdoor chairs I thrifted for $8 at The Salvation Army a while back and I love them even more now! They really helped to round-out our outdoor seating area. I also convinced Jason to shimmy out onto the ledge in our stairwell, to hang the gorgeous painting my friend Abby painted over a print I thrifted for $10 at Goodwill of Central Iowa. I’m obsessed with how well it coordinates with the entryway right next to it! Also, these projects prove that you don’t have to have a ton of money to have a well-styled home. You just need some patience to thrift and a little imagination! Want to know what my favorite local thrift stores are? You can find the list HERE!

Summer means extra time spent with friends and family! I got to enjoy an afternoon with my sister and nieces recently and it was fun as usual. We had our sights set on the water park at Adventureland Park, but the weather didn’t cooperate, so we ended up eating at Central Standard and playing some games at Chuck E. Cheese’s. Best part of the day was the ticket printer not working on one of the machines Addy was playing, so the worker fixed it, and it proceeded to print out at least 150 tickets. Basically…her childhood dreams were made. Except, she barely had enough to buy a piece of candy. Have I mentioned that Chuck E. Cheese’s is a huge racket? *sigh*

Another reason to love June, is it’s my birthday month! Well, actually, like 50% of the people I know have birthdays in June, but mine’s the most important. Ha! This one was a biggie too. I turned 40. I don’t know how it happened. Just all the sudden, those numbers somehow now go along with my age and it’s bonkers to me. We take the week of my birthday off every year and enjoy a staycation. I’m normally on the hunt for new restaurants, thrift stores, coffee shops, or any other fun places I can find, for us to visit. This week was no exception and Jason made it even better with fun birthday surprises! I was spoiled with beautiful fresh flowers from Farmgirl Flowers, tickets to go see Jerry Seinfeld when he comes to Des Moines, and so many delicious treats. We explored Reiman Gardens in Ames, Iowa, drank so many delicious coffees, thrifted, ate tasty foods, and enjoyed lots of outdoor time. If you’ve never done a staycation in your own city, I highly encourage it. We try to have an agenda every day, otherwise, we end up wasting days at home trying to decide what to do and/or doing work around the house. An agenda assures us that we’ll get out and enjoy something each day.

Apparently, June has been filled with lots of goodness from Tiny Acre Farms because I got to enjoy one of their workshops too! They had posted a while back that they were going to start hosting floral arranging workshops and I knew that would be the perfect activity for my bestie, Jill, and me to do to celebrate our June birthdays. The weather was proving to be a brat that night, rain and humidity, but it cleared off just in time for the workshop and it ended up being beautiful out! We learned a lot about flower farming and how to build a lovely, bouquet. I love learning and doing anything creative, so this was a great activity for me!

June 2019 has been a month filled with ‘JOY’ and I’m so thankful! (A strawberry cone from The Creamery doesn’t hurt, either.)