July has been a hot and relatively quiet month. Regular readers know I was diagnosed with atrial flutter a couple of weeks ago. We’ve tried different medications without success. Then I was advised to have a cardioversion. But they don’t have any openings for that until late August. 
We’re trying to keep things low-stress to keep my heart rate down, so we’ve mostly stayed home.
But one productive quiet activity has been going through boxes from the shed. Jim has brought in about three at a time. It’s been fun to discover old notes and drawings from the kids, letters from our moms and my grandmother, high school and college notebooks. We’ve thrown a lot away. Part of me wanted to go through some of the notebooks in more detail, but that would take up so much time. And many of them were yucky with age and moisture and who knows what else. So I have to figure they accomplished their purposes. I’m sure most of the information in them is readily online now.
I’m at the age where I am trying to look at things as “Would I want my kids to have to deal with this when I am gone? Would they have any interest in it?” In most cases, the answer is no, except for personal things.
I’m kind of embarrassed and dismayed that we’ve dragged some of these boxes around for so many years! But at least we’re dealing with them now.
When the weather is cooler, we want to do the same thing with boxes in the attic. Cleaning out the whole attic sound overwhelming, but a few pieces at a time is doable.
I mentioned on a Friday’s Fave Five finding an old sock monkey I had as a child. It had been patched up even then but was in sad shape now. I soaked it in the washer a few times, but I think he, as well, has served his purpose and should go to his rest. 🙂
When I get sentimental about such things, I remember this old commercial from IKEA:
🙂
A couple of months ago, while culling some of Timothy’s old preschool toys, I rediscovered a couple of smaller sock monkeys. I thought at first that we had given them to him, but they have our names on them. So they must have given them to us in memory of my old one. It was neat to have some of his distant relatives. 🙂
Also this month, we enjoyed burgers on July 4 and Jason’s birthday later in the month. One of my dearest friends from early married days stopped in for an overnight visit while traveling.
Creating
I made just one card this month, for Jason’s birthday, using the Cricut.
Watching
The Princess Bride is an old favorite of mine and was on regular TV one night this month. It’s not Jim’s cup of tea, but he watched it with me, remarking that this was the first time he stayed awake through the whole film. 🙂 A few days later I saw a “things you didn’t know about The Princess Bride” video on YouTube and enjoyed that.
We also saw a movie titled The Love Letter, about a man who buys an antique desk, discovers an old letter in it, and answers it–only to have the woman who owned the desk in Civil War times answer him back. The plot was implausible, and I can’t say this will go down as a favorite, but it was clean and not a bad way to spend an hour and a half.
We’ve been working our way through Heartland, a series set on a ranch in Canada. In the first episode, a teenage girl and her mom rescue an abused horse in a storm. On the way back to their ranch, the horse panics and kicks, causing their truck and trailer to go off the road and crash. The mom is killed. The girl has a long recovery. The older sister comes home from the city to help, but her take-charge ways offend the others. The grumpy but kindly grandpa tries to care for everyone. None of them knew that the mom had arranged for a troubled teenage boy to work on the ranch during his probation, so he’s in the mix. Throughout the first season, they all get used to their new situation and each other. The teen girl, Amy, finds healing and solace in working with the abused horse.
The show has eighteen seasons, so it will take us a while. Overall, it’s pretty good and emphasizes family values. I have a few issues with it. The characters could be a little more modest. There haven’t been any explicit scenes so far, but there are hints of things like the older sister going away for the weekend with her boyfriend. Native American spiritualism comes into a few episodes. In one, a young girl is trying to tell everyone’s futures with tarot cards–thankfully, those have not made a reappearance.
Reading
Since last time, I have completed (titles link to my reviews):
- The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Volume 3, compiled by Walter Hooper
- Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art Through the Eyes of Faith by Russ Ramsey *Loved* this.
- Larkspur Cove by Lisa Wingate
- Blue Moon Bay by Lisa Wingate
- Firefly Island by Lisa Wingate
I’m currently reading:
- Exalting Jesus in 1 & 2 Thessalonians (Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary) by Mark Howell
- A Face Illumined by Edward Payson Roe
- North! or Be Eaten, the second in the Wingfeather Saga by Andrew Peterson
- Wildwood Creek by Lisa Wingate
Blogging
Besides the weekly Friday Fave Fives, Saturday Laudable Linkage, and book reviews, I’ve posted these since last time:
- Irritating or Irritable?
- Sharing Our Struggles, not Our Perfection
- Stray Thoughts–assorted odds and ends
- When “Should” Irritates
- Does God Know You?
- How to Find Good Christian Fiction
- When You’re not Number 1
WordPress reminded me that June 27 was my 19th blogging anniversary. I had thought about doing something special for it ahead of time but then forgot about it when the time came. I’ll definitely have to come up with something for the 20th anniversary next year!
Thank YOU all so much for being here, for reading, and for your kind comments. I didn’t know when I started that I would make such good friends across the miles.
Stray Thoughts 
I loved the IKEA video 🤣 thanks for sharing!! Honestly it helps as I too
It does help keep things in perspective. 🙂
Hi Barb,
I started going through all my keepsakes in 2008 and I’m still at it LOL. I’m an archiver so I set up binders for my parents, my husband’s parents, me and David, and my girls and I put documents in them with sheet protectors. I can tell you the dates of many historical events in our family within a matter of 2 minutes. For example, my Uncle Sam wanted to know where the teacher’s college that my Grandma went to was located – I had the information for him in about 1 minute while we were talking on the phone. This sort of thing happens all the time.
However, since I became known as the keepsake person, I inherit everything when someone dies. LOL. So now I have stuff from David’s grandma and all my aunts and uncles to go through. Pretty soon I am going to go through a large box of my Uncle Randy’s stuff. I know there are letters in there that his wife wrote that I’m going to send back to her etc. I also have the letters another Uncle wrote to his mother when he was stationed in Germany in the army in the 1950s. So interesting to me!
It’s pretty much a part-time job which I understand not everyone would want to get into. But I’m very interested in genealogy and I look at it as a hobby. I don’t worry about what my girls will care about, I just save what I care about. They can throw it all out as soon as I’m dead.
We watched Heartland for a few seasons but then it got too racy for us. I don’t remember which season we gave up on the show, but I think it was season three or four. It became a crazy soap opera with characters making worse and worse decisions. I predict you won’t last much longer than we did LOL.
Love Renee
I’ve just been thinking about family history things, too. I don’t know if my kids are interested in them now–but then again, I wasn’t until middle age, either, so they might be in the future. I’m thinking about passing some things on to other relatives. Or at least leaving notes like “Don’t throw this away–send to so and so.”
You might be right about Heartland. We might not even be able to get later episodes–I know the current season is on some kind of Faith and Family network, which we don’t get. I thought that was a little odd since I haven’t seen anything about faith in the series so far except an occasional Native America ritual.
Ha ha, I was getting all sentimental about the lamp. Nice ending — I need to remember that too! THINGS DON’T HAVE FEELINGS 🙂 I’m bummed about your cardioversion being put off a whole month?! But good for you filling the time with productive work. I have your same thoughts as I go through my stuff–will my kids want this? And yes, it’s usually a “no.” I was always low-key proud of myself for saving so much from my youth. Now I wonder if that was even a good thing?!
Twenty years (coming up) is quite the run for blogging! I’m so glad we’ve met here. Don’t even remember how that originally happened.
I don’t remember how we came across each other, either. But I am glad we did!
I am bummed at waiting on the cardioversion for a month, too. I wonder if the doctors even know that it is put off for that long. They just send your info to the scheduler and then see you when you should up for the procedure.
I laughed at the video. I’m sentimental like that as well and it’s difficult for me to part with things. But it’s such a relief when you do.
Still praying about the cardioversion that they can get you in sooner. Meanwhile. praying you are okay.
I’ve not gotten into watching any series lately. I am considering Call of the Midwife or Pride and Prejudice (the one with Colin Firth). And then again, I’ve thought about watching my Miss Marple DVDs.
I love that P&P series. Another good one is When Calls the Heart. The only problem is they only have part of it available, and the rest is on Hallmark.
I wish these companies would put all their stuff on Netflix or Hulu. We can’t afford all these different streaming services.
Doing things gradually now is definitely the best way forward. Very apt IKEA ad. Sorry you’ve not been well. I hope things are resolved before the appointment which does seem a long time to wait.
Wow 19 years. Congratulations!!! You still were a busy bee last month. I pray your test goes well and the docs can get you on the right meds.
Thank so much for sharing with Sweet Tea & Friends this month dear friend.
Ha! The IKEA video was a hoot. I’m sorry to hear of the atrial flutter and the somewhat lengthy wait for treatment.
I’m picking away at our family photos, dividing the lot of them into four boxes, one for each son, and saying a fond farewell to some pretty great memories.