Currently: June 2025
Blueberry matcha, friends visiting, and The Summer I Turned Pretty!
June Recap
June has been a full and fun month.
Right at the end of May, our niece was born! We spent some time at the beginning of the month spending time with family.
The next weekend, I worked another wedding, which I truly love so much! We also had appointments and library trips, walks with friends and visits to the pool. I made blueberry syrup for the first time and became obsessed - especially with how pretty it makes your matcha! The colors are beautiful!
We had friends stop by to grab dinner earlier in the month when they were passing through. It was really sweet to catch up and show them our new home! And then, we ended the month having friends in town for the whole weekend! Friendship is such a gift, and I am so thankful that even with miles between us, we have some of the best friends!
Reading
I have had a really good reading month in June, and these have been some of my favorites! If you want to keep up with more of my reading related endeavors, check out my other newsletter!
Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez - This might end up being one of my favorite reads of the year. The way they fought for their relationship from the very beginning of the book was so beautiful and inspiring. Xavier was so sweet and deserves the world.
This book does have language and one vague open door scene on pages 211-212.
If All Else Sails by Emma St. Clair - I got to read an ARC of this book in June, but it officially comes out on August 5th! It follows Josie and Wyatt as they sail down the intracoastal waterway together. This is the perfect east coast summer book!
Oakley Island Series by Emma St. Clair & Jenny Proctor - This is one of my new favorite no spice romance series! The world building and community in these books was so good. I highly recommend!!
Watching
The Summer I Turned Pretty - This is on Amazon Prime. We started watching it after I finished the books, and I will say that overall it stays pretty true to the main storyline. However, when it comes to language, spice, and other negative content, the show definitely added a lot more than what was in the book. So just keep that in mind if you decide to watch! I can’t wait for the new episodes to start coming out in July!
Listening
I really haven’t been listening to any specific artist or album this month, but here are a few songs that have been on repeat. I would love some new albums or artists to listen to, so send me your favorites!
Thinking
Random thoughts from this month…
Play is so valuable! When I think about times I have gotten to play recently, whether at the slide park or the pool or the basketball court, it is always a learning experience. You take risks. You laugh at yourself. You exercise. You spend time with others. And yet, we often take play time away from kids in favor of structured learning time. If play is valuable for me in my twenties, how much more is it valuable for my students at 5, 7, 10? I want more play in my life, and I want to make more room for play for my students too.
Summer is the perfect season to throw routines out the window and live more spontaneously. But I have trouble with that balance - making healthy, smart, responsible decisions and also making fun, spontaneous, lighthearted decisions. I think learning this balance is just part of being an adult?
I saw a video where a family had set up a room for their kids with a small, old TV and shelves of VHS tapes. They were saying how they were tired of ads and inappropriate shows on streaming services, but they still wanted their children to learn the art of storytelling and be able to watch great movies. I love this idea! I also love the idea of getting a flip phone or a home phone again. I am not anti-technology at all, but I love finding ways to make technology slower, more intentional, and less distracting.
Quote
“There is nothing more beautiful than being a witness to someone’s life. To know them inside and out and be with them through everything, share the same memories. Memories are everything. I want that.”
“A witness to your life?”
“Yeah. I want someone who knows everything there is to know about me, and I want to know everything about them. I want to be able to say one out-of-context comment to someone and they get what it means and they laugh and it’s just some stupid joke from like eleven years ago that means nothing to anyone else.”
“You can’t fake that kind of thing,” she said, softly. “It’s the result of a parallel life. A shared collection of experiences, like a snowball rolling downhill, getting bigger as it goes. And then you get to a point where you’re so far in, you can never replace that person. Not really. No one else can ever be the same kind of witness because you’ve lived through so much. It really is a once in a lifetime thing.”
- from Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this newsletter, it would mean so much to me if you would share it with a friend!
Take care,
Caroline
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you choose to purchase through them - at no extra cost to you.
Thank you for supporting my work and what I share!