The Month In Which I Tell A Lie and Wear the Same Dress A Lot

Laura and I have been friends since we were eleven—nearly half of our lives. People always like to notice how different people are and like to ask "how can you be friends!?" But I've always seen our similarities. We may not be the same denomination, but we both love resting on Saturday Sabbath, and we love discussing theology. We love Germany and we like to embrace our naturalness—no makeup for us ;)

(And yes my skin and hair sometimes feel awful, especially as July started out. But I still much prefer no makeup and the real me).

Laure eloped back in May (something I totally supported her in!) and I finally just got down to "celebrate" with her. Of course, she had to dress up in her wedding dress so we could get a photo together ;)

Doesn't my tye-dye look soooo great with her dress? Haha!

 Our cars ... we are both very proud of them ;) I captioned this: "Once we were eleven-year-olds who could barely say hi, no we are successful adults who drive eight hours just to say hi."

Work For The Smiles. And Some Money, Too, I Guess

Sometimes I babysit as I watch kids ... sometimes, I have the kids help me clean. Not the baby, of course. He just tires on his own ;p

A new bunch of kids I got to babysit! They were well behaved and fun :) 

I love when the people I clean for leave such fun, happy notes with my paycheck ;D 

So I heard the cat screeching when I was cleaning ... 

Doing some commercial cleaning ... not that different from the normal thing ;) 

 A Few Fun Random Things

 So, I drove the farthest I've ever driven by myself, and I made it in record time. Eight hours, stopping once for gas. I'll admit, I didn't look forward to the drive, but was quite proud of myself once it was done.

You may have noticed my new profile picture ... that was taken by some friends I went hiking with at the end of June. THAT was a great, relaxing time. Lauren and Elizabeth are my best Montana friends, and we had a fantastic time. 

We colored at the top of the mountain ... 

You know those weird childhood memories that pop into our grown minds? Well, somehow I remembered a time when Mom wouldn't allow me to color my cats fake colors and how I was so sad.

I knew that cats weren't purple and green, I just wanted to use those colors because they were fun. 

Well, I decided since I'm an adult that I could color my animals whatever color I liked now. 

So I did ;D 

This coloring book was designed by my writer friend, E Kaiser Writes.

 Remember back in May when a lady I housesat for, gave me this lovely African fabric? I finally designed/ made a dress out of it!

Oh, the fabric is called Shwe Shwe (pronounced something like shoe shoe).

I'll confess I'm a workaholic and at first was sad that no one would let me clean for them on July 4th. But then I realized I hadn't had a day to make this dress ... so while the rest of you were shooting off fireworks I was turning myself into one ;)

This is one of my favorite people in Montana, and one of the first people I ever worked for. I've been teaching her to knit every Tuesday evening for about a year ... Last week we went to a fiber festival. And it was tons of fun ... everyone needs a Jolene in their life, just saying ;)

My parents gave me this for my birthday. I've never liked roses (except I love wild roses). For some reason, my parents never remember that ... but I guess it was nice of them to give them to me ;)

Hack for smores: 

You can bake them on a high heat, uncovered. Just make sure to turn every few seconds. They will brown very nicely, and puff soooo large. 

Have I told you all that I am becoming a minimalist? Part of that journey was getting rid of my bed. It was too soft anyways. But ... turned out my floor was a bit too hard, too. So I invested in a nice flax mattress from an Etsy store.
Harder than my old bed (and smaller) and softer than the floor. It's perfect! Plus I can take it traveling. Never have to sleep in a strange bed again.
Not that I can't fall asleep wherever I lay my head ;)

Another HUGE Highlight

 My uncle Tim came to visit us mid-July and stayed a few days. We went caving, camping, and hiking. And of course, we visited a ton. I took off as much work as I could, and had the longest weekend of my life ;0
But quite enjoyed every moment we had with our uncle.

One of my little brothers and I being dramatic ... or maybe we just look like idiots? 

Fun photos from hiking/ camping ;D 

Six-mile hike with some of my siblings and my uncle

What we do regularly...

Writing And Such Things

 My sister took this picture ... the shadows of me journaling when we were camping. 

Writing this month has been good. Not spectacular, but not great. 

I think I like what I'm writing. 

I've taken a few grace days for the 100-for-100 challenge, but not many. My novel is coming along, and the second draft is almost there. Some days I get 250 words, other days I'll get 1200. It just depends on how much sleep I need and how early I have to leave for work (I write in the early mornings). 

I must say I've been rather absent from the blogging world this month. 

If I didn't schedule my posts you all would probably think I'd disappeared for good. 

I really do love you all and plan to go and read your posts! Soon! I will have a free evening or day or something ... I promise ;) 

I know many of you have seen I've started a new blog. But if you didn't see my last post you really need to go see it. Because this blog is AMAZING. 

That's all I'm saying ;) 

Speaking of blogging ... people have been searching for some interesting things on this blog:

- what color to use for embroidering a baptism lamb (three searches!)

- different ways to spell campbell 

- my chossy stories

- the art of kissing 2019 (this makes me happy!)

- what many people don’t know is that mickey mouse wasn’t always a good influence to not only children but to many others also (wow. That's long)
- deceptive distractions (this is the title of an actual old post of mine, so this made me happy)
- the story about susan from narnia (of course this tickled me, and there are several searches, too!)

I'm still listening to tons of audiobooks. Sometimes I'm pushing close to the expiration though ... this book was the closest, expiring just when the credits started. 

Whew!

Oh, it is a great book, too!! 

For The Love of A Word released this month. It has an article of mine for extroverted authors ;D Here's a quote from that! 

I discovered this fun app through Duolingo called Elevate. 

When I started out I was in the "Advanced" categories for everything, except math I was at intermediate. It's been fun to see the math rise faster than the rest ;) 

I'm not sure how good this app really is, but it's somewhat challenging and seems to be awakening some skills I forgot through inactivity.

Every now and then I like to do a humorous writing update on facebook. Here's what I shared last month:

Humor (none of these memes are mine)

)

I didn't think I like snap chat ... one of those apps I got rid of soon after getting ;) Didn't like all the porn adverts and I didn't see the point ;0
But ... Then I learned that we really do need snap chat. It's totally what this world is missing ;)

I know I promised no more politics. But then who took that seriously!? I can't help myself ...

I hope this doesn't offend anyone ... ;0 

TYE-DYE!!!!!! (pictures taken by my sister)

So, I bought another dress from Tye Dye Mary.
And I love it way too much.
As in I've worn it way too much.
But in all seriousness, how can one wear this dress too much?

I'm you've already noticed the vibrant colors in other photos in this post. But here are a few more dedicated just to this dress ;)

In Which I Try To Not Dump Too Many Photos of Joel

That's nearly all, folks. 

I'd apologize for doing such a long post, but I don't believe in saying sorry for living fully ;)

(And there are so many photos I didn't post).

But ... I have decided to change the format of my end of the month posts. I will no longer be copying the great Ben Shapiro but doing my own thing.

Before I tell you what I'll tell you why. 

I really love how Shapiro shares what he hates and loves. But it's a bit too negative for me. And while he sticks with media and ideas mostly, that's been hard for me. And also, it probably wasn't so nice of me to share about that lady last month.

So to keep myself from doing that anymore, I won't be doing it anymore.

Guys, it's really stressful anyways to think of something I hated every month. Sure, things annoy me. But there's very little I hate in all reality.

So instead of doing that anymore, I'm going to share:

Something that's given me hope

This world is so full of hate and love-lies that it's easy to grow bitter and confused. It's easy to want to sit back or hide or just wish to be done with Earth. I mean, Heaven is the goal, so why even try to enjoy and live life fully here?

But that's not healthy.

We can't stop caring, no matter how hard the caring becomes.

But how do you keep caring when everything and everyone is cruel?

You find those that aren't. 

This month I found much hope in many things, but I think it all started with a podcaster I discovered.

Her name is Candace Owens. She is a black conservative podcaster, and I love her energy. I listen to a lot of political podcasters, but next to Ben Shapiro, she's become my favorite. She knows how to make truth hip and exciting and inspirational. With her the world of government has hope.

If you think you hate politics, I challenge you to listen to an episode of the Candace Owens Show.

Here are two of my favorites:
The Candace Owens Show: Imam Mohamad Tawhidi
The Candace Owens Show: Lila Rose


How many pictures are there of my tye-dye dress in this post? Have you ever heard anything by Candace Owens? Let me know if you listen to either of the episodes I've linked!

Last post I mentioned wanting to do a Q and A. But I forgot to actually get your guys' questions. So if you have any questions for the Q and A, please do ask away! 

How was your July? 
Hope you don't mind long update posts because these won't be any shorter once I'm in Germany ... 

What is something or someone that's given you hope this last month?