Life Lately: July 2025

A compilation of photos and memories from July 2025

Aug 3, 2025

J U L Y 🎓 🖌️ 👪 👩‍🍳 📚

It was a brutally hot July. And I’m really really ready for fall. And I hope we actually have a fall, not just a long drawn-out summer 🥵

The End of an Era

This month was full of all-the-feels. The routine and lifestyle that I’ve known for the last 5+ years is over. Hudson graduated from preschool and will be starting Kindergarten this week. Time has absolutely flown by; I remember his first day at daycare.

I 1000% stand by our decision to start him in daycare so young. But I also cannot believe that his time there is over. It’s all we’ve known. The staff, the routine, the commute 😅

But I’m excited for the next adventure — kindergarten, here we come. 👨‍🎓

MediocrePainters.com

I do not own this domain, but I kind of want to buy it just to have as a Joke Website for Holden and me and our Definitely Fake Business. The amount of times we said “Oops” and reassured ourselves of “Well, if this turns out horribly, we can always paint over it 🤣” definitely speaks to the fact that we are, in fact, mediocre painters. 🖌️

One day while Hudson was at Grandpa’s House, Holden and I jumped headfirst into painting my office. We started with a Trial Wall. And we did our best. And we finished the entire office this past weekend.

Painting my office was our second “couples” project — second in the past like quarter AND second ever 🤣 And I honestly have to say that I’ve had fun tackling projects like this with Holden. We genuinely make a good team.

All the walls are done; just need to hang stuff up now

Good Inside

After seeing several videos on social media, I started following Dr. Becky Kennedy and listening to the Good Inside podcast. It has been such a game changer for me. Regardless of what “style” parenting you identify with, the #1 thing I’ve taken away from Good Inside is this:

There’s always room to repair.

I’ll say it louder for the people in the back: It’s never too late to repair.

There are so many times when I overreact or react in a way that I didn’t want to with Hudson — parenthood is the scariest hood we’ll go through. And sometimes I react poorly. But I always try to re-connect after the meltdowns.

Sometimes it’s as easy as saying “I’m really sorry for yelling at you earlier” … and there are times now where he will come up and apologize to me, too. I’m never looking to receive an apology, but there is something about modeling the behavior and seeing him reciprocate that desire for connection that makes me feel like I’m doing something right.

I recently decided to go all in and join the Good Inside Membership and boyyy am I learning even more 🙂 I can’t wait to keep diving in.

It’s not cooking, it’s just mixing stuff.

The other social media influencer that I am loving: @coachjohnnoel

I came for the deadpan delivery and random microphone holders; I stay and continue to come back for his VERY SIMPLE RECIPE IDEAS. It’s approachable and feels so doable in a way that no other “cooking influencer” has ever made it seem.

Because of his channel, I have started eating at home WAY more! In particular, I love his “It’s not dining out, it’s mixing in” series that takes popular restaurant meals and shows how to make them at home AND breaks down the cost and macros. I cannot say enough good things about his content and how impactful it’s been for me.

“Are you done buying vampire books?”

I have listen to the Vampire Academy + Bloodlines series by Richelle Mead SO MANY times in the past decade. To be honest, I think it’s the only book series that I am in a serious fandom with. And during a trip to Barnes & Noble, I decided to buy the first two books and read them with my eyes.

After buying the first two, I sought out to buy the remainder in the VA series. And after the third package (because I was trying to find good deals on books), Holden asked “Are you done buying vampire books?” … and the genuine answer is “No”, because I am definitely going to buy Bloodlines eventually. I prefer the spinoff series to the original and if you ever want to go down the VA rabbit hole with me, I’d love to take you.

Anyways, I got through the first three during this month (and I managed to get in a non-fiction read as well). The last three are longer and I know I need to slow my pace and read some of the other TBR books on my nightstand, so we’ll see how far along I get during August.