This is part 3 in my recap series of emails! And then after that, I’ll send out a shorter email about once a week. Hope your week is going ok!

SUMMER CHECKLIST

I’m in a Skylight Calendar for Families group on Facebook, where I get some great ideas sometimes. Recently, someone shared how she has a Summer Checklist that she keeps in the calendar. It’s like a bucket list for the kids. Here are some of the ideas on our list:

• water balloon fight

• homemade ice cream

• picnic at the park

• bubble painting

• learn a magic trick

• geocaching

• tea party

• learn about and then point out constellations

BOOKS & MOVIES & TV SHOWS, OH MY

Books first

I’ll be honest. In the past many years, I read maybe 5 books a year. This year, I’ve read 6 already, and it’s not even halfway through the year. So hey, progress!

To date, I’ve finished:

• The Housemaid series by Freida McFadden (the first 3, although I think there’s a 4th?). Personally, I liked them all, but the first was the best.

• After That Night by Karin Slaughter. I’ve read several of her books, and they are INTENSE. This one needs some trigger warnings, mostly for SA. I got through those parts for the sake of the story, but you should know that ahead of time! Her books are long and detailed and woven together beautifully, though.

• A Proposal To Die For by Molly Harper. This is a brand new release. My very good friend Barbara is probably the world’s bigger Harper fan, and she sent me this book to check out. It’s very cute, and I really didn’t know how it was going to work out in the end. Barbara said, though, that most of Molly’s books are not like this one: they are witches, werewolves, vampires, and so on!

• Mapping the Interior - this is a novella by Stephen Graham Jones. It was interesting, kind of creepy, and thought provoking!

On my TBR list, I’ve got more McFadden books, Throne of Glass (I started it and couldn’t get into it, but I’ve heard it’s amazing if you keep going), The Screwtape Letters (I’ve read it before, probably 20 years ago), The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip, and then whatever my book club is reading right now. I’m in a book club locally, and I only went to one meeting. I want to make it to the next one, so I need to read - checks notes - The Wedding People.

KID BOOKS: Alexander’s loving the DogMan series - it’s a little young for him, but I’m just happy he is choosing reading in the evenings. And Annabelle has read a few Judy Moody, Babysitter’s Club, and The Bad Guys books!

Movies and Shows

I don’t really keep track of these anywhere, although the app LetterBoxd is great for this if you remember to use it. It’s like GoodReads (or Bookmory) but for movies.

• Twister: Caught in the Storm. This was wild. It’s about an EF5 tornado that tore through Joplin MO. Real footage, lots of interviews, and some unbelievable stories.

• Oklahoma City Bombing. Another one with lots of footage and interviews, just horrific. I thought I knew everything about this story, but I learned a lot.

• Wicked. I mean, if you haven’t seen it by now, you probably don’t want to. 😅 (It’s available to stream on Peacock now, by the way!) For a few months there, it became my entire personality. I still listen to the soundtrack at least once a week. Can’t wait for part 2!

• You Should Have Left on Peacock. It was FINE. It was a psych thriller, and I thought it was alright. There were some really trippy scenes because you can’t ever tell what’s real or imagined (or what’s now vs the past vs the future).

As far as shows, I rewatched Breaking Bad. I may have started it in 2024, but I finished it last month. New shows?

• Your Honor. HARD WATCH. Not in a bad way, it’s just A LOT. Turns out, Bryan Cranston is amazing (he’s in Breaking Bad AND this show, in case you were not aware!). We have only seen season 1. Have you seen it?

• Adolescence. Another hard watch. I’m noticing a pattern here. This one has very mixed reviews. I was on the edge of my seat for this show! Each of the 4 episodes are shot in ONE TAKE. Like, no cuts, no camera tricks. It’s incredible to watch just for that. And the story… gosh, I was crying through most of the last episode. It’s a side of the story you don’t usually see.

TRUE CRIME

This isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, so I won’t get into any gory details about anything! For one, there’s a new Gabby Petito doc that was released this year that was excellent, I thought. I did not realize that Brian had returned so much earlier than Gabby was reported missing, and I did not realize the van was in her name! Or maybe it’s in both their names. Either way, I didn’t realize that either.

There are a few stories I will always watch or listen to, even if I feel like I’ve heard it all:

Gabby Petito, Laci Peterson, Susan Powell, JonBenét Ramsey, Madeleine McCann, the Idaho 4, and Robert Wone. And we aren’t sure if it’s foul play or something else, but I’m also very intrigued by Elisa Lam.

Currently, I’m invested in the Karen Read trial. Have you been keeping up with it at all? Have you heard of it?

MONEY STUFF

I’m not a money pro at all; in fact, Cam handles most of the money stuff in our house. We have open discussions about it, but he’s the one who tracks it regularly.

Our situation is this: Cam works for himself, as you know. He doesn’t get a regular paycheck every 2 weeks or anything like that. He gets paid when he completes a project for someone. So there are months when we have $0 coming in, not because he wasn’t working, just because the projects weren’t completed yet. It’s tricky to plan and budget in this situation!

We have an emergency fund we can tap into if we need it, and we have a travel fund for our vacations. Whenever we come back from a trip, Cam starts refilling the travel fund so that when we decide to take another vacation, it’s usually paid for before we even leave. He has a retirement account and all those things, so whenever he does get paid, we keep around 50% of it. Some of it goes to the church, some gets set aside for taxes, and some goes to savings (he could tell you more details, but that’s the gist of it!).

I’ve got a few thoughts for cutting back on expenses, and I hope I do not ruffle any feathers here. I’m not saying anyone has to do this or that, just some thoughts on ways you CAN cut back.

1. You don’t need matching jars and labels for your spices. (They look SO GOOD, and I kind of want them, but I’m saying you don’t really NEED them. 😅) There’s one girl I used to follow who literally wore a new outfit every time I saw her and would then *gasp* have a coupon code for 20% off for that brand. What I’d love to see is someone sharing the clothes (or kitchen stuff or whatever) that they’ve had and loved for 10 years that still looks and feels great, you know?

2. Reduce, reuse, repurpose, repair. If something breaks, try to fix it before replacing it. Or repurpose it, or repaint it! Try a thrift store for some things before buying new. ThredUp is an online clothing thrift store, and I’m sure there are other places like it!

3. *Shop small, shop local. In 2025, I decided to stop shopping on Amazon. I thought it would be really hard, but it has not been! Instead of buying something, on my phone, late at night, without even thinking about it, I now have to put it on a list and then go find it in town. I try to shop at local stores rather than online. It’s been way easier than I expected! (Note: Our Amazon purchases take 2-3 days to get to us, even with Prime, just because of where we live. So it’s often faster just to get it in person anyway!)

4. Food waste. Do your best to meal plan and eat or repurpose leftovers! I’m not big on leftovers, so I try to repurpose what we have. Additionally, we compost our food scraps and also give SOME leftovers to our chickens. You can save your veggie scraps to make broth. GoingZeroWaste (on IG and she has a website) has a ton of great ideas for reducing waste!

*BIG NOTE: I totally recognize that online shopping is critical for people with mobility issues or those without transportation or those with social anxiety (and other reasons, too, that I’m not listing here!). And not everyone can just fix things: you have to have the tools and materials to do so! These are just ideas for some folks; I get that they won’t work for everyone. ❤️ 

If you want more budget and money chats, just let me know! I can add it to a future email or chat privately in an email if you’d like.

SOME KID IDEAS

TIKTOK ROUNDUP

I’ll leave you with these 5 videos I liked recently. And I’ll talk to you again in a week!

1. Interesting info about baseball stadiums! This doesn’t sound that interesting, but I was captivated, and I do not typically care about sports stuff.

2. Here’s a hypothetical for ya! If you could find out any one statistic about your life once you pass, what would it be? The comments really make ya think!

3. Tin of tuna? Tina Turner! I thought this was very silly 🙂 

4. Did you know this celery trick?? I did not!

5. This cracked me up. It’s just a short audio from the Wicked movie on top of two pictures of a cat.

Okay that’s it for now. I’ll see you next week with a short and sweet little email. Reply to this if you want!! I see them and usually reply. ❤️ 

Talk to ya soon,

Bethany