Gallery of June, 2025

 Now that it is July (!!!) it is also time for my monthly gallery. June was lovely, as all months are if we learn to realize that God has adorned every day with mercies and lessons and beauty. 

Here are my photographs!

A seashell full of pearls by candlelight. This is on our bathroom counter and it just looked so lovely one night I had to get a picture. 

Just a handsome lad. (My brother Bennett. This was sent to me by one of my sisters. Glad to know nothing has changed since I moved out:) )

My upward view during my lunch break one day. I use this time to quiet my mind and observe God's creation. It really turns my heart around for the rest of the day.

Me and my Riley at the Prairie Fire in the Padre Hotel where my dad's band, Bad Modem, played a fantastic set of glorious 90s covers.

Breakfast for dinner at my in-laws' house!

Me and my sister in law Emily

Bath time. Lately I have been slicing lemons and putting them in the water; it makes the steam smell fresh and bright. 

My husband at his home workbench, with a clock movement. He is teaching himself clock repair and is already astonishingly proficient for how little experience he has yet built up. I love to see and hear his passion for the trade.

A painting I spontaneously did one Saturday. I sat and painted in a freshly cleaned apartment, accompanied by a fresh cup of coffee from my Moka pot and the music of Garoto, a Brazilian guitarist from the 1930s whom I've recently discovered. It was a very mind-nourishing afternoon!

Me and Riley after I cut his hair BY MYSELF. It was a very scary process and for a minute I was petrified because he was starting to look like Dwight Schrute-- but then he washed and dried it, and it has looked wonderfully handsome ever since. Now we know I have the ability to cut his hair, and we can save $25 and a trip to Great Clips.

Lunch break with the trees! (Do you catch my silver hairs?? My grays are all growing in straight/wavy, by the way. Audrey pointed out one time that the curly hair might have only been a phase, and now I am wondering if I'll have straight or slightly wavy hair when I'm fully gray. I guess we'll see!)

The bathroom windowsill at night. We brush our teeth by candlelight every night and there's something whimsical about it that I adore.

So, June is over! It was a busy and marvelous month, full of sweetness and the ever beautiful settling and flourishing into our home together, every day becoming more in love with each other and with Christ. (That is something I always thought was an exaggerated fairytale myth, whenever I heard it: "every day in marriage is sweeter than the last". Well, I am now comfortable telling you it is wholly true. If you both love the Lord, you will love each other, and it actually does deepen every day. It is, like Paul said, a profound mystery. And I am almost in disbelief that I've been given the gift of this mystery to live through every day until death parts us. I think, "I am already so in love with him; how can this become any more beautiful?" And each day is proof that it can and it does. Thank you Jesus for my marriage.)

I look eagerly on to July. This weekend will be sweet: Independence Day on Friday, and the Westchester parade with family that morning-- celebrating with friends in the evening. Saturday, bright and early, Riley and I are off to Santa Barbara. We will return Sunday night and begin another week of work. 

Good day, friends!