I can’t say July was terribly exciting, thanks to sweltering humidity that engulfed us and wouldn’t let go, chasing us inside most of the time, but it was a month where my family spent time together at my parents in the country and learned how to cool down an entire upstairs with one, tiny window air conditioning unit and how to cool down a preschooler with one tiny pool.

As for blogging:

• I talked about all the great things I had planned to do during this season of loneliness but – uh- didn’t.
• I shared Chapter 10 of the novel I’m working on, ‘A Story to Tell’
• I shared our Summer in Photos
• I shared Chapter 11 of ‘A Story to Tell’
• I rambled about anxiety not only being in the head but also in the uterus (and any male readers I had passed out reading the word ‘uterus’)
• I share Chapter 12 of “A Story to Tell”
• I blathered on about what to do when you get sick of trying to make everyone happy.
• I shared Chapter 13 of “A Story to Tell” (are you noticing a trend?)
• I rambled about our boring summer.
• I shared Chapter 14 of “A Story to Tell”
• I shared an excerpt from my forthcoming novel, “The Farmer’s Daughter.”
• I rambled about what I was reading (a bunch of sappy stuff. Ha!)

I also read a lot of great blog posts in July and in the beginning of August. Some of those posts are listed below.

I don’t know how I stumbled on to this old blog post by Holly Nicole Photography but I’m glad I did because it reminded me of who I was becoming and almost became not so long ago. Trying so hard to be liked and to be honored as a photographer while completely losing sight of why I started learning more about photography in the first place. I wanted to capture moments to remember my family and life, and to capture moments for others, not to impress other people and, really, not even to get clients. The drive to be liked and to be hired for my work literally made me sick and I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s why my physical health has suffered so much for the last ten years – well, that and a couple personal situations that were out of my control.

There are so many great blog posts written this week and last and two of them in a row on my WordPress Reader’s list were about the American flag and how it’s becoming a trend to disrespect the flag as a way to comment on what people don’t like about our country.

This one from Mama’s Empty Nest brought tears to my eyes because of how far down the path of negativity we have all come in this country.

Then Our Little Red House wrote about her impressions of how people seem to assign the idea of hate as the real symbol behind our flag, which couldn’t be further from the truth.

Moving away from commentary on the state of our country, Brittany from Ordinarily Extraordinary Mom wrote a raw post about being angry with God. Very insightful and close to home for me.

Another one that was close to home for me was from Brenda at Becoming His Tapestry as she talked about needing to trust God with the safety of her daughters as they return to college in a week.

How about you? How was your July and what’s up for August? Let me know in the comments.

Did you have some favorite posts from July? Share them with me in the comments!