July Check In

Welcome to July. I took a somewhat unplanned newsletter hiatus through most of June. What started as a missed week ended up being an opportunity to deal with a publishing issue that has been going on behind the scenes. The hope is that the folks who haven’t been receiving the newsletter for that last few months are again receiving it as of today.

If you’re new here, welcome! I’ve also pulled some subscriber lists together behind the scenes as well.

In the first newsletter of each month, I review life through the lens of my monthly theme which is all in the context of my word for the year. For 2025, that word is simple.

As a reminder, here are the themes for the year that I’ve set so far.

• January: Feel the Flow (Habits and Workflows)
• February: Lighten Up (Physical Space Clearing and Decluttering)
• March: Streamline and Shine (Work and Occupation)
• April: Simple Connections (Travel, Play, and Relationships)
• May: Spendfullness (How I Spend Time and Money)
• June: Play & Create (self-explanatory)
• July: Family and Friends
• August: Freshen Up (I’m not exactly sure if this is the house, me, routines, etc.)
• September: Back to School (Business, especially Community and Online Products)
• October: Simple Routines
• November: TBD
• December: Reminisce and Renew

So, let’s take a look at how things went with June’s theme of Play and Create. Then we’ll look ahead at July’s theme of Family and Friends.

June - Play And Create

In May’s newsletter, I mentioned that June seems like a good time (being the beginning of summer and all) to play and create. However, work wise, it wasn’t the best for me. That said, I still found some ways to build in some play. I tried to add play into my every day by intentionally doodling. I also started work on a lego kit that I’ve had for a while. As the month wound down, I also realized that part of what I needed to focus on creating was a more useful and enjoyable office space in our loft.

My ideal self is an avid doodler. My actual self forgets that pens, pencils, and styli can be used for more than just words. When I was bullet journaling daily and actively trying to draw and doodle, it became second nature. I’d like to get back to that point again as I feel more connected to my writing and learning when I’m incorporating more hand-drawn elements into my notes. I've done a decent job of adding more hand drawn elements in my notes in June.

I also got to work on a couple of lego kits that I have had for a while. I LOVE Legos. If we had the space, I’d have all kinds of Lego kits. However, we don’t and so I’m very selective with the Legos/Lego kits I buy. As such, I had been “saving” them to put together at a time when I could really enjoy the effort. Saving things like this never works for me because I never then make the time to do the thing. Instead, I’ve got the Lego kit I’m working on beside me at my desk and I will grab it during a meeting or webinar when I don’t have to actively engage. I’ve also found that if I’ve got a few minutes between tasks that I’ll just pick up the kit and work on it for a few minutes too.

Finally, my office space has been a drama in every house I’ve owned. I tend to jump in with both feet and revamp the entire thing - and then that ends up not working for me and the saga continues. So, this time, I’m trying something different - some tiny experiments if you will. This weekend, I set (back) up an “L” for my desk. We’ll see where this goes, but enjoying the process is always good - even if it meant blowing up my office space for a bit. As Gayle reminded me - it almost always has to get worse before it gets better when you’re doing house stuff.

July - Family and Friends

Looking ahead to July starts with looking back at my aims for the year. I set an aim in my 25 for 25 list to spend a week at my dad and sister’s every other month this year. All the travel in April and May means I missed that so I’m spending a week there in July and will get some more weeks planned.

I’m also traveling with my sister and her family at the end of this month and have a weekend getaway planned with some other pals early in August.

As my work travel kicks up, I’m trying to balance that with some fun friend and family activities as well.

What are you focusing on this month?

How are you coming along with your annual theme? Monthly theme? What projects are you in the messy middle of right now? Drop me an email or chat in the I Wanna Be Me When I Grow Up community on Circle. The button below will take you right to the chat for this post.

Let's Chat

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Some Other Things You Might Find Interesting

What I Published This Week

It’s been more than a week, so I’ll give you a couple of updates on things that have been published recently:

• I wrote a quick “get this thought out of my head” piece on time over on Hive. This is the kind of writing I love to do and never make time to do (apropos given the topic of the piece)
• Gayle and I have been working on the trip report from our Tulip Time adventure. We’ve added several of the posts at https://www.iwannabemewhenigrowup.com/
• I also published my first of many updates about Obsidian’s new Bases core plugin. It’s only available to Catalyst subscribers right now, but there are lots of things to do to get ready for it even fi you aren’t a Catalyst Subscriber. You can read it in the I Wanna Be Me When I Grow Up community.
• I also have been updating some of my behind the scenes web stuff. One of those things is moving all of the public web content about the Facts of Life Book course over to my regular website instead of the Google Site it was on before. You can now see that content on the dedicated page on my website.

What's Coming Up?

I am offering several events for free as well as a few paid subscriber events in the near future. Here is a round up of what’s coming up.

FREE to community members: Budget With Me/YNAB Office Hours

• July 14, 9 - 10 a.m. Eastern
• August 18 - noon to 1 p.m. Eastern

PAID Subscription: Obsidian Office Hours​

• July 14 from 11 - noon Eastern

Friends Hiking The Pacific Crest Trail

The godparents of one of my great nephews are hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. They've made their first "live from the trail" update. Fun fact: Their video from their Australia trip inspired my daily videos during our recent Tulip Time trip!

Here's their first update from the trail. Subscribe to their channel to get other updates. Their videos on prep for the trip are also really interesting.

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