Welcome to another “7th of the month” journal post, which will highlight the previous month — from the 7th of July through the 6th of August. As I’ve done ever since I started writing this kind of post, I’ll be following the same pattern — by discussing events that fell into the following three categories:
- Holler,
- Persona, and, of course,
- Writing.
Holler Happenings
Hello, again, from “my holler in Kentucky”! This month, I spent time watching a few home design shows (including “My Design Rules”, a series that was filmed in South Africa), and in so doing, I got some good design ideas. In addition, I asked one of my “AI assistants” about interior design, and I got lots more ideas for the holler house. Then, on 11 July 2025, Sweet Thing and I mad another home purchase: a BIG (16 cubic foot) chest freezer! Consequently, I spent quite a bit of time this month making room for it in the pantry — the only place it would fit. After I made room for that BIG freezer, we moved “my” freezer from the laundry room into the kitchen, where the freezer Sweet Thing got from his parents used to be before he gave it to one of our neighbors, who had lost theirs in a garage fire a while back. So, yeah… Lots of shuffling of freezers this month. The only other “exciting” bit of news to report was that one of “the boys CAUGHT A MOUSE… in the pantry where I was working! Sweet Thing was asleep when the catch was made, so I had to wake him up to deal with Kasha’s “catch” since I’m way too squeamish to deal with that aspect of “the circle of life”. Needless to say, he was a bit grumpy, but he dealt with the situation and then went back to bed. Kasha’s definitely a good mouser!
Personal Events
As I mentioned in June 2025’s “7th of the month” post, I started yet another “quilt-along” class on 10 June 2025, so I spent the rest of June and into July working on “Pine Valley”, this summer’s “quilt-along” quilt. “Sticks and Stones” is the name of this quilt, and it is actually a “first” for me: This is the first time that I’ve used a “jelly roll” (a collection of 42 2.5-inch-wide strips of fabric in lots of different colors and prints that are “coordinated”) to make a quilt. It was definitely an experience, primarily because I had to get used to mixing and (not) matching different prints together! I was able to finish the quilt top for “Pine Valley” this month AND show it off to one of our neighbors, a couple who have made some quilts in the past. While there, I also asked them more about how that had made their quilts. I found out that they used a sewing machine to piece their quilt tops together (like I’ve been doing) and that they did the actual quilting (putting together the three layers of the quilt: pieced top, batting, and backing) by hand — like the Amish do! So… That is what I eventually want to be able to do! I figure that “if they can do it, then so can I”! Before I reach that point, though, I’m going to use “Pine Valley” as a lesson in learning how to do the quilting myself since I’ve always had Liz, the “quilt-along” class instructor, do the quilting for me on her long-arm sewing machine. I’m going to have Liz teach me how to use my own sewing machine to quilt “Pine Valley”. Only time will tell how successful I’m going to be in this endeavor, so wish me luck!
Moving along… In addition to asking my “AI assistant” for information about home design (as mentioned above), I also asked about creating a capsule wardrobe, so I’m in the process of going through my closets — to figure out what fits, what doesn’t, and what specific pieces I still need to complete a capsule wardrobe for the upcoming seasons, specifically fall since summer is almost over now.
On 13 July, I was outside making room for a metal shelving unit that I took out of the pantry (to make room for our new BIG chest) when I got a VERY unpleasant surprise. I moved a cardboard box, and then I got stung TWICE by an unhappy flying “squatter” — some kind of flying AND STINGING “insect” (Wasp, yellow jacket… I’m not sure which it was since it happened SO FAST.) that had taken up residence there! First, the bugger stung my left pinkie, and then it flew up and stung my forearm, and man, did it hurt! It didn’t take long before both my hand and forearm were so SWOLLEN! I ended up “sleeping the sting away” for a few days, VERY grateful that it was my left hand/arm that were affected — instead of my right/writing hand!
On another health-related note, I had a tooth extracted — after having a toothache for a few days. The last time I saw a dentist, she kept telling the dental hygienist (instead of Me!) “That tooth has got to go!”, BUT she never gave me the referral to the local oral surgeon, so I could have it removed. Thankfully, Sweet Thing gave me the name and contact information of the oral surgeon who had pulled one of his teeth a while back, so I was able to schedule an appointment with him and then have the tooth pulled (I think “extracted” is probably the more precise term) the following week.
Las winter, I started a tradition of “binge watching” holiday movies on Netflix, and this month, I started another tradition related to Netflix: “binge watching” the movies that they’ve labeled as “Leaving soon” — those movies that have a deadline for watching before they are removed from the Netflix Web site. This month, the deadline was July 31st, so I went through all of Netflix’s offerings and made a list of all the movies that were going to be gone after the end of July. Then, I put the names of those that interested me onto slips of paper and put ’em into a jar. Whenever I was in the mood to watch a movie (almost a daily occurrence), I would draw out a slip and then watch that movie — sometimes with popcorn and a soda and other times with dinner. I can’t remember how many movies I watched during this month’s “Leaving soon” movie marathon, but I enjoyed almost all of ’em so much so that I’ll probably be continuing this tradition for as long as I have access to Netflix!
A “7th of the month” post wouldn’t be complete without mentioning family. I enjoyed several lengthy phone calls with my “darlin’ daughter”, including one before they headed up to Sequoia National Park for their annual family camping trip as well as one after they got back home. It sounded as though they had yet another enjoyable trip AND had a “first”! This trip was the first time that my “darlin’ daughter” was able to experience a cave (“Crystal Cave”) in the area, one that I didn’t even know existed! From the photos she shared with me, it was definitely a sight to behold, AND it makes me want to check out some of the caves Kentucky has, including Mammoth Caves (which my daughter has visited but I haven’t) and a more local one, too. As far as that “favorite (and only) son of mine” is concerned, I sent him birthday greetings — both a birthday card and an e-mail message. In addition to sending my son birthday greetings, I also sent my sister and my two aunts e-mail messages in honor of National Sisters Day (08/03/25), which I hope they all appreciated.
And on that note, I’ll move onto the third, and final, category in August 2025’s “7th of the month” post: my writing!
Writing
Since I had so much fun “chatting” with my “AI assistant”, I asked it to come up with possible plots for short stories — both Amish and historical romance. Who knows… I might be able to turn one of those plot ideas into something I can then publish — either on my author Web site or the more traditional way. As with my quilting, only time will tell how successful I’ll be in this endeavor.
In addition to receiving possible plots for short stories from my “AI assistant”, I also thought of a few ideas of my own. During a recent “quilt-along” class, I got an idea for an Amish romance that I think I’m going to pursue in the coming weeks and months as I work to go from idea to finished manuscript! In addition to this story idea, I’ve also got a couple of ideas for new journal posts to feature on my author Web site, so stay tuned for more information about both my Amish romance story idea and the new journal posts!
Since reading and writing go hand in hand, I’m always on the look-out for new books to read, and I discovered a series of children’s books through one of my nightstand books: the Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace. Since I’d read that particular entry many times and was curious each time this series was mentioned, I did a bit of onine research about it, and I discovered that this series of books is autobiographical in nature — in much the same way that the “Little House” series of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder was for her. So… I’m now even more curious about this series of books! Thankfully, the series (of ten books) is available for purchase through Amazon (What isn’t these days?), so I think this series of books will make an enjoyable birthday and/or St. Nicholas Day present for myself!
On that note, I’m going to close August 2025’s “7th of the month post. Hope you enjoyed this glimpse into my personal (AND professional) life. and will stay tuned for yet another one soon. As always, I look forward to hearing from you! In the meantime… Take care.