In the Storm

31 Sunrises.

31 Sunrises.

What I've been reading | July 2020

Today I am excited to share what I read in July 2020. While I didn't read as many books as I normally do, I did read some fantastic stories! My favorite of the month happened to be my Between the Covers book club read for July, Code Name: Hélène. I was blown away by the writing but the fact that the story is based on a true story, and a bad*ss female protagonist sent it way over the top. 

I read two books this month on racial tensions, slavery, white supremacy and oppression of blacks: Bluebird, Bluebird and Kindred and both were fantastic. I preferred Bluebird...over Kindred but I would recommend either.

I'm tickled that I read three books that will fulfill spots in my 2020 Reading Goals.

31 Sunrises.

31 Sunrises.

31 Sunrises.

31 Sunrises.

July Stories 2020 | 7

Jeff has a few like-minded friends he has gotten to know over the past several years. They serve together at church. They build things together. And, they shoot together. It is open-air shooting at a range, multiple targets and distances and any form of weapon is welcome. One of the guys has a club membership and is allowed to invite friends, so one Sunday morning in July, Jeff, John, and Jarrod, joined several of the guys to go to the range for some pistol shooting, shotgun practice, and rifle action. John and Jarrod are the youngest, of course, of the group but when it comes to weapons they can play all day, with the big boys. While their heart was shooting their .22 commemorative rifles they were gifted by Jeff and I for making Eagle Scout, every weapon they picked up to shoot, or was handed to try, they whooped up on target as if they regularly shoot. Shooting is one of the things the Bower’s boys, all three of my boys, do well. Jeff took my carry pistol - the punk - and my .410 shotgun that Jeff purchased for me for home defense. Of course, he took his personal pistols, too. While Jeff learned to shoot, mostly, from the military, the boys learned to shoot in Boy Scouts, of all places. Shooting, although we don’t get to do it as much as we’d like, is family time. This was a rare time, of late, that all three of them were off at the same time and they took the opportunity, played hard, and loved every minute of it!

Of course, these are digital pages, and for this 2-page, 8.5 x 11 I used a Cathy Zielske template that I recently picked up at her new online store for all things digital. Cathy is a clean and simple scrapbooker so her templates align well with that design philosophy. I cannot go wrong. I adore the white space on the left side page.

The idea for the way I spaced those tags came from Ali Edwards ROAM story class and I love the design. A couple stamps from the Story kit PLAY and it is so pleasing to my eye.

Because I am documenting our July Stories 2020 in a mini album, I translated the entire page into 2 - 4 x 8 pages, as well, and I'm pretty please with how they turned out, too.

31 Sunrises.

Recipes | Lemon Cheesecake Squares with Blueberry Topping

Refreshing! The combination of lemon and blueberry is divine and since they are made in a parchment-lined 9 x 13 pan these lemon cheesecake squares with warm blueberry topping cooked over the stove before serving on top of the dessert are perfect for an after dinner dessert with coffee, or for a delicious summery treat with plump, fresh-picked blueberries.

Sweet and tart. Sure to be a crowd pleaser.