Life Lately: June 2025

Holden and I spent a recent Saturday doing some landscaping in front of our house. When Holden brought it up on a Friday night what he wanted to do on Saturday, I was very skeptical and not looking forward to it. But I actually ended up having a really good time.

We weeded, picked out plants, graded, dug holes, planted and mulched. The glow up was real!

Every summer, Hudson does two things: Swim Lessons 🏊‍♀️ and visits family in Charleston.

I didn’t get any swimming pictures this year, but he did a great job. Started practicing taking breaths (still a work in progress), but he still has all his skills from last year. I’m hoping that July is a time for us to spend more time at the pool and continue to keep his skills up.

He also visited family in Charleston (and did a lot of swimming, too); he got to spend a lot of time with his cousin (who is a few months older than him) and they had a great time together. The weather cooperated much more this year and he was able to ride bikes and go to the driving range with his Gigi and Bopa.

We’ve also become regular patrons of the Brentwood library. There is a lot of non-book things to do at the library (i.e. Train Set!) and I love that while he plays with the train, I can load up my laptop and work on my app-related work (see Thread Stash below!)

A few of my favorites this year were read in June. I actually really loved all these books!

I heard about The Summer We Ran on a podcast; I was intrigued based on a quick blurb, but when I went to purchase it, I realized it was on preorder at the time. Not knowing if I would enjoy Audrey Ingram, I bought The Group Trip and absolutely devoured it. Had I not needed to sleep or work, it would have been read in close to one sitting.

Once The Summer We Ran came out, I read it. Different vibes than The Group Trip, but I still liked it.

I’m a huge fan of the authors/research of The Power of Showing Up. I read The Whole Brain Child a year or two ago and am still trying my best to take the learnings into parenting Hudson.

Local Woman Missing was another “I hope I like it as much as the other book” (I read She’s Not Sorry last month on our cruise). It did not disappoint. Again, I’m not much for psychological thrillers, but I feel like I’ve read some good ones this year!

We had a blast at the Star Spangled Celebration - I couldn’t say more good things about it. Very family friendly. Lots of things for kids. Lots of food. Good music. Vibes were great and the fireworks show was great. Hudson kept saying “I want to be brave and go see fireworks” and while I don’t think he loved it, I’m still proud of him for going and watching the whole thing. No meltdowns this year, which feels like a great improvement from years past 🙌

A HUGE accomplishment that I’m so proud of: I officially launched a new version of Thread Stash and will be retiring a legacy version at the end of July! I’m still trying to get my “marketing” sea legs and establishing a more consistent social media presence. It’s slow going, but definitely trying to learn. I’ve been so grateful for the reception to yet-another-version, but super excited to keep innovating and adding new features.