This Is The Third Quarter Of The Year
There are three months in a quarter. This quarter encompasses the months of July, August, and September.
We are two weeks into July at this moment when I am writing this.
I have completed four crocheted raglan pullovers for myself. I am currently working on a raglan t-shirt, also made using crochet. Next on my list is my own Halloween cardigan, which will be purple and black, with maybe some grey in there are well to designate the stripes more clearly.
My oldest is about to move several states away with her husband. I won’t be able to hop in a vehicle and be at her place in two hours anymore should they need anything. I will have to decide on making a two-day trip by car or flying out there if they need anything from now on. I am not much for airports. Driving is more my style and my comfort zone.
I have been baking bread regularly, two or more times a week, which makes me feel better. The bread itself doesn’t upset my stomach, which is very unusual as I have a lot of issues with food unless it is homemade and free from being processed and modified in any way.
On the blog, you will find running Make A Wish Monday prompts and Freaky Friday prompts until the end of August. Instead of only the year-long Wednesday prompts, now for the weeks from this month until the end of August, you get creative prompts three days a week.
Not having to fight myself to write things up for the blog, for this newsletter, and for Medium has really helped me in a myriad of ways.
For one thing, I have begun a new series on Medium having to do with practical magical issues. I am not publicizing that this is what I am doing, but until I run out of ideas, I will post an article on some facet of practical magic each week. The first article will post this week. It is about space clearing. Come check that out if you are interested.
I decided weeks ago that I would be setting challenges for myself for the months of September through December of this year. Nothing over the top or all that spectacular. Right now, I am going to keep the actual challenges a secret as it is too early to reveal them. However, I will be knocking off a couple of things from the list that our youngest has been wanting me to make for him. During those months, I will be making something every day. That’s all I will say about that at the moment.
Since I am doing these challenges, I will also be setting up a slim dot grid journal (from Sunshine Sticker Co, which is sadly now defunct) and creating as many trackers as necessary. I am not thinking I will be creating an entire Bullet Journal set-up for the months I do these challenges, but I am not entirely sure yet.
I recently went through a couple of the most recent Bullet Journals I had been working with and in earlier this year. I miss the photographs of family and whatnot that I had been sticking into these planners. So, we’ll see.
I will not be doing One Book July either. You can learn more about One Book July on their official YouTube channel here.
What is a bit funny about this is I basically use one planner at the moment…and then I have a journal for my daily pages and whatnot not. I have not been feeling one hundred percent, so I have not been fighting to keep up with things as I normally would. I do still have my other planners, but I haven’t used them too much in the past months, although actually in July I have been trying to step things up a touch in them.
Then again, I have been contemplating the tracker set-up for my challenges which may lead me to set something up for a Bullet Journal style something. I am still pondering.
Beyond that, I am in love with using my 2020 Hobonichi Cousin for this year. I still just scribble out the original date and put in the correct date for this year and move on from there. I am debating getting an A5 Stalogy for 2024, as that is all I would need. However, I actually think I might prefer an A5 notebook with 520 pages from Sterling Ink.
I did pre-order a planner from Sterling Ink, in the Weeks size. I miss having a project or makes notebook, so I am thinking I might need to do that at some point, probably before next year as I am making so many things of late.
I know that I want another magical planner. I have loved keeping my Bunny Weeks for all the Lunar and Astrological and everything else in this one planner, separate from all the mundane things in my other planners. My Bunny Weeks is a Spring Start Hobonichi, so I have plenty of time to get one for the next year.
I do not think I will need a separate work planner in 2024. I think having everything I need to get done, period, in one place will be more beneficial to me. Circling around a BuJo idea once again, I have been thinking of using the Sterling Ink planner to plan things out but having another notebook to track and reflect upon things as I go along. If that makes any sense.
Anyway…
I have also been reading quite a bit lately. The last book I finished was: The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher. It seems like such a simple book on the surface. A hole in the wall that leads to another plane of existence doesn’t seem all that terrible. Until it is. It took me a lot longer to read this book than anticipated, as I have been gobbling books up, one every two to three days, recently. The reason it took me so long is that I had to keep putting it down and walking away.
Now, the book isn’t particularly gory. There are a couple of places where I wished I could ‘look’ away, but then again, I couldn’t. My problem was that the other plane of existence kept creeping over into my plane of existence, especially at night, in my dreams. I basically had to finish reading the book simply to ensure that the hole was sealed and nothing would be coming through in that spot again.
I do recommend the book, even after all of that.
I am about to start reading We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix. I’ve been waiting to sink into it. My only problem is do I read a book—or do I crochet? I cannot do both. I don’t always like audio books because I tend to tune them out when I am working on anything else. If this book works for me and I end up devouring it, and not wishing I’d never heard of it before, then I will be looking forward to getting How To Sell A Haunted House also by Grady Hendrix.
I have discovered a new to me writer: Darcy Coates. I have only read one book so far, Parasite, but I am looking forward to reading everything else Darcy has written. Even though I saw the ending of Parasite coming, the rest of the book was … infectious. Plus, I have missed reading good horror of late. I am not so much into gore and wet work, but I love a good scary story.
If you have any suggestions on books or authors, feel free to leave them in the comments below.
Until next time, my friends…thanks for listening.