Random Life Update: July

Whew! July was really busy. I feel like this whole year has just been really busy – much more so than other years.

At the beginning of the month was the 4th. Daddy got Friday and Monday off, so we had four whole days to celebrate it. It was some of the most fun that we’ve had celebrating the 4th!

Friday (the 2nd): Jehosheba and I babysat the kids while the parents went on a date. The boys got it into their heads to be very rebellious, so it wasn’t a fun morning. But that afternoon we went downtown, got some bubble tea and walked around. We went into an art gallery and watched the people on the square getting ready for the festivities.

Saturday (the 3rd): We went back downtown. It was amazing to see the difference in the square! There were lots of vendors selling all sorts of stuff, there were bouncy houses (germ areas that Yoveil cried bitterly over), music, the smell of BBQ and a general air of excitement. I love gatherings like that! It’s so fun to just walk around and watch people – so much diversity and personality. I told Jehosheba that I should have brought a notebook and took notes – research for a writer. XD

That night we got a bunch of picnic stuff and went to a different town’s downtown festivities. We walked around an insanely crowed area for a while and then ended up laying our blanket out in front of the post office (only two other people there) and we had a perfect view of the fireworks while eating our sandwiches, chips and cookies. 🙂

Sunday (the 4th): We visited two festivities. The first was really crowded with lots of very loud music and so much heat from the sun. Yoveil was crying and Dovid was crying and my head hurt from all of the noise. XD We left that one, stopped by a store and got little containers of oat milk ice cream!! One for each of us. XD It was so much ice cream! Even Baruch, who has an unlimited stomach for dessert, got so full and was moaning by the time he finished his. XD

We stopped at a quiet little parkish thing with a track and hiking trails and venders and music. It was really peaceful and fun – not so crowded and an atmosphere of happiness and excitement. While we ate our ice cream, we took a hike on some of the trails.

Then Baruch decided that he wanted to race Jehosheba. It was so fun! We all took turns racing each other around the track and did a relay race. I absolutely love running and it felt so amazing doing it there. (I normally run on the treadmill in a stuffy, hot garage, so running in the fresh air was so wonderful). In any case, it was the last time that I got to run in July. *weeps* (More on that later.)

Monday (the 5th): we decided to visit Chattanooga – a couple hours away from us. We stopped at a park that had two big hills and…we went sledding! Yes, you heard right! We were sledding in July, in Tennessee! Still confused? Here are some pictures.

We had so much fun sledding on pieces of cardboard! We hung out there for about an hour before everyone was melting from the heat. Baruch literally had sweat dripping off of his entire head. We went to a little coffee shop and got some ice tea. Then we visited an art museum. It was really neat. I love art museums! After that everyone was so hungry ’cause we hadn’t eaten all day. XD We went to Red Robin (one of our favorite restaurants when we lived in KC!) and we got burgers there. By that time it was around six. We grabbed some lactose free ice cream on the way home and ended the day well! 🙂

As you know, Ink and Dreamer had surprise joeys! They came out of pouch at the beginning of July and it has been such a joy to watch them grow – to watch their eyes open for the first time, to see them begin to trust humans and to have them fall asleep in my hand. It’s so beautiful watching life unfold and grow right before my eyes.

(Shameless blog promo: if you follow my other blog, An Inky Dream, you can get regular updates on the joeys growth and development. 😂)

Everybody had horrible allergies. Dovid got croup set off by allergies. It was so sad to hear him coughing and struggling to sleep at night. 😥 Everybody else has been miserable with stuffy noses, itchy eyes, sneezing, coughing, etc. We haven’t lived in a place that we are so allergic to.

It was also one of the rainiest July’s that I’ve seen. It seemed like every day I woke up to the same grey sky and the same rain was poured down sometime during the day. Not that I don’t like rain – I love it! Rainy days are really fun and festive feeling and they remind me of fall days. But…I don’t love it when they’re never ending. 😂 However, it has been nice and cool. The heat hasn’t been horribly stifling like I thought it would be.

A year ago, we watched quite a bit of baking shows. They were so fun! In any case, we started watching some again this month. Our favorite has been Worst Cooks In America. It’s so funny! We decided to do our own “bake off”. If you guys remember back last year, we did this a couple times.

This month, we decided to do it in two rounds. Round One Jehosheba, Nahum and I each had a time limit to make one recipe of our choice. Nahum made peanut butter cheerio bars. Jehosheba made millionaire bars. I made Samoa cookies (a strange choice because I’m not a huge fan of coconut XD). Oh, and did I mention everything had to be gluten and diary free? Yeah, not easy!

We all had a blast, though, and everything turned out really good. The judges, my parents and Baruch, had fun tasting everything. I was declared to be the first place winner. 😜

(And then my camera ran out of battery and I had to use the phone. *shakes head* XD)

Round two was where the two highest winners (aka Jehosheba and I) would “train” Baruch and Yoveil and oversea them as they made a dessert. This was a challenge for me because I am not very good at letting other people do stuff in the kitchen. XD Baruch and I made oatmeal monster cookies and Yoveil and Jehosheba made tahini truffles. They were all amazing and it was a really fun experience! 🙂

And now the tragedy of the month. 😂 My shin had been hurting for a while whenever I ran and eventually whenever I was walking/sitting. I thought it might be a stress fracture. Went to the doctor and found out that it was a stress reaction – basically the precursor to stress fractures. I got put in this lovely boot for three weeks. 😐 I have an follow-up appointment in a few days, so hopefully I will get this off! Believe me, being stuck in a hot, sweaty, heavy boot during the middle of summer is NOT fun. XD

I also had a day and night sleep study. We had been trying to get that sleep study for a long time. It was definitely an interesting experience! The night I got hooked up to all of these wires and stuff and had to attempt to sleep. I was amazed that I actually fell to sleep with all of that. XD The next day I had to stay until 4 PM. Mama and I hung out, ate the food that they provided (HUGE portions), worked on Diamond Dotz and listened to part of Annie Downs new book!!! I had to take 30 minute naps every two hours.

Beyond that, I have been so insanely busy with school. I am really hoping to graduate by September, but I have so much math left to do. Ugh. Of course it would be MATH. XD So I haven’t had as much time as I would like to work on writing and crafts or to clean my room.

And now let’s have some cuteness from Yoveil….

Yoveil has bad reactions to mosquito bites. They swell up really big. One evening we had just finished playing bocce ball in the back yard when Yoveil came up to me, wrapped her arms around my waist, looked up at me with tear-filling eyes and said, “Hada, look at my sad face.”

I asked what was wrong.

Yoveil burst into tears. Through sobs she said, “HADA, THE MISQUITOES ARE EATING ME!”

Another time we had just pulled in the driveway. Yoveil said, “This isn’t our home. This is just the house that we’re living in right now.”

I was like, “What?? You’re way too young to say that!” 😂

Maybe a month later, she was talking about moving and was saying how fun it would be if we could move again and how much she would love it. 🤣

Random Life Update July 2020

~Hattush

How did you celebrate the 4th? What did you do in July? Have you ever gone cardboard sledding? Has it rained where you are? Have you ever watched baking shows/done a baking competition? How is school? What are your plans for August?