Rewind 06.2026
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Welcome, sweet friends!! Thank you for being here
today for my 06.2026 Rewind post.
Once upon a time, with my old blog, I had a series called Sentence a Day. It was a long-winded review of my month's activities and adventures. Each month, I would start my SaD post with a confession that I never expected anyone to read all of the boring details of my day-to-day life!! But the posts were fun to write, kind of like keeping a daily bullet journal.
Fast Forward
Last month, in this post, I continued using a month-in-review formula similar to what my friend Deb
at Deb's World uses for her Taking Stock posts. You can find her
most recent Taking Stock post, here.
Instead of writing an entry for each day of the month, Deb responds to 26 prompts - one for each letter of the alphabet - to summarize her life lately. I spent some time coming up with my own ABC of prompts and used them in April. Used them again for May and have decided to continue in this format for my month in review of June.
Here we go...
Rewind 06.2026
Amusing - something funny: I haven't laughed much lately. Not sure what is up with me but just not feeling right. Came across these 4th of July jokes for kids and took a screenshot of them so I could share with Cia and Cami then forgot all about it. Love the one about the Statue of Liberty.
Balancing: strengthening my physical sense of balance on my rebounder. My legs are stronger than they have been in some time and I feel more sure footed.
Crafting: this month I finished up scrapbooking our Alaskan cruise from spring 2026 and have recently begun work on pictures from our trip to Creede, Colorado last summer to sprinkle my parents' ashes.
Here is the page I created of the morning we sprinkled them in the Rio Grande beside Sky Hi Ranch were we vacationed as a family when I was a little girl.
Dating my PC: we haven't had a date night for some time. Probably not since Mother's Day. But I would consider our overnight stay at El Mistico Ranch, NM, a kind of date. It was magical. I wrote up a post about it, here, because it was such a splendid 24 hours.
Eating: a few years ago, PC and I went on a smoothie kick. We would buy all kinds of fruit, clean it, cut it up, mix it together then divide it into ziplock bags and freeze it. I would pull out a bag and toss the fruit into the blender with a little juice or water to make smoothies. Then, for some reason, we stopped doing that. Well, I am at it again. Instead of preparing bags of fruit, though, I am just using frozen fruit from Walmart, fresh bananas, baby spinach and about a third of a bottle of this Equate protein shake per smoothie.
Flowing - this is my word of the year so will share a way
I went with the flow during the month: somedays I don't recognize myself lately!! Happy to report that I have been able to have the El Paso grands over without getting in a stew about cleaning the house, what we are going to eat, etc. Have just enjoyed being with them.
Have stopped fretting over getting my scrapbook pages 'just perfect,' too. It has been so liberating!! I would worry over every aspect of my scrapbook layouts which sucked the fun right out of that hobby.
Also, I tend to get wrapped around the hub a bit when I don't exercise like I think I should. Well, guess what? I am doing pretty darn well for my age, I have decided. And if I don't get to the gym 4 days a week, the world isn't going to come to an end. Yay, me!!
Glimmerings - little miracles: my El Paso babies successfully spent the night with us mid-month. Lucia is now 10 and Cami is now 6 years old. Last time we tried a sleepover, Lucia was probably 7 and Cami was 3 - too young. It made me happy to know they feel safe and comfortable enough to be with us and away from Mom and Dad for an entire night.
Home sweet home: the month of June, I had the house bedecked in red, white and blue. I am still decorating a tiered tray in the kitchen - am I the only one still doing this? Made a rag wreath last year and added a bit of bling from Dollar Tree to jazz it up this year. I have a rag garland on the fireplace and stars and stripes splashed about here and there. Now it's time to pack that stuff away and get out my summer/cactus decorations.
Interesting - something that piqued my
interest: learning more about the Meta AI Data Center being built (forced upon) northeast El Paso, just 7 miles from my house. I wrote a post about it, here. But have since researched and read more about the many negatives of AI data centers on the environment, resources and community.
El Paso citizens are frustrated with and disillusioned by the city council's 2023 contract with Meta that was signed without the community's approval. Several weeks ago city council took voted as to whether the city should attempt to break the contract with Meta. In a 5-3 vote, the council rejected a proposal that could have led to the termination of the agreement with Meta.
Our former mayor Oscar Leeser and the 2023 city council are responsible for this calamity. Our current mayor Renard Johnson and the 2026 city council have perpetuated this disaster. Heaven help us.
Joyfulness: PC's renewed love for fishing is joyful. I don't share the same enthusiasm for fishing but I like being outside, in nature and I love being with him. So that brings me a little sideways joy.
Kudos: to 15-year-old Marco Sanchez who spoke at a recent City Council against the Meta Data Center being built in northeast El Paso. Marco lives less than a mile from the complex and has founded the El Paso Youth Alliance to encourage the city youth to participate in civic processes. I have shared my feelings about the data center in comments in several of my recent posts. And wrote an entire post dedicated to the data center, here. I applaud this young man for being so civically minded at such a young age. Click here to check out the KFOX 14 interview with Sanchez.
Loving: the bits of time PC and I spend floating in our pool to battle the triple digit heat. We usually get into the pool before dinner and watch the Cincinnati Reds baseball game on our patio TV. It helps us cool off at the hottest part of the day and then we go inside to eat, watch TV and we are comfortable the rest of the evening.
Making: appointments. Grrrr. I think I have mentioned that I haven't felt 'normal' since we returned home from our trip the first week of May. I have coughed my silly head off. At first, I thought it was probably allergies or since I also had a sore throat and mouth, maybe a throat infection. Went to Urgent Care and received a viral upper respiratory infection diagnosis. A week later I was no better and probably worse, so went to my PCP for an antibiotic. Two weeks after that, into June, I was still coughing, a choking sensation, having pain in my mouth, throat, shooting into my right ear. And throughout all this time, I've had pain at the base of my skull and the right side of my neck. All too familiar to the pain I had before my cervical spinal surgeries. Have now seen my PCP again - she gave me orders for a chest X-ray and swallow study - had those yesterday. And have returned to see my orthopedic neurosurgeon about my neck - he gave me orders for an MRI and X-rays of my neck. I've kept the road hot with all of these appointments and imagining studies.
Now waiting for answers.
Needing: not a darn thing, as usual. But as a good American consumer, I took advantage of Prime Days to order 4 of the long-sleeved, waffle knit tees I have worn on repeat fall, winter and spring. I originally ordered them for our cruise. Wound up taking them to Creede, Colorado, too, following the cruise. Wore them all fall and winter to go to the gym. They are a great length, come in a variety of colors and are a generous, comfortable fit. Check them out, here.
Organizing: an author presentation for the writing group PC and I belong to. A year ago, we met author Vela Roth when she hired us for kitty drop-in visits while she was away at a romantasy book convention. We have done several kitty visits for Vela now and I asked if she would present to the members of Let's Write and she said YES! Our meetings always begin with dinner. PC fixed pizza (frozen) and we had fresh fruit and chocolate chip cookie lasagna. Vela was so authentic and knowledgeable and gave the group great information on self publishing.
Planning: our 4th of July weekend. We are hoping to take in a Triple A baseball game between our El Paso Chihuahuas and the Sacramento River Cats with fireworks to follow. Hoping maybe the kids can come swim and eat. I have ribs to grill and want to try this corn salad recipe. And maybe these ice cream sandwich treats. Rarely use my Instapot but I always use it when fixing ribs. This recipe saves so much time!! I just brush them with BBQ sauce and put them on the grill for a few minutes afterward to give them a bit of crispiness.
Quoting: for our overnight get away to Bonito Lake for fishing, we stayed at El Mistico Ranch. It was a magical experience on so many levels. Wrote about our overnight stay in this recent post. All around the property were signs carved with wise words, in English on one side and Spanish on the other. Here is one that especially spoke to me:
Success has nothing to do with what you have, but with who you are
Reading: my Facebook book club chose The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett for our June read. I am about 40% in listening on Audible and enjoying the book very much. Have no idea what is going to happen when all is said and done.
On my Kindle, I am reading The Burning Side by Sarah Damoff. This one was a little hard to follow at first as it is told from alternating points of view and at different time periods in the story line, current and past. I have to pay extra attention to the name of each chapter and the time period. But the pace has picked up now that I am 50% in.
Finishing up The Affordable Retirement Bucket List for new activity suggestions to add to my seasonal bucket lists. And finally, Big Magic: Creative living beyond fear by Elizabeth Gilbert. Reading this as part of my devotional time.
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Untangling: when I suggested this word for the letter U, I was thinking I could address problems I am solving, messes I am straightening out in my life, at home, in relationships. But right now...knock on wood...there haven't been too many instances where I have needed to untangle anything. And I like it that way!!
Viewing: I often watch trials on YouTube while I am doing housework, ironing or scrapbooking. This month I got caught up in the Alaska v Zarrius Hildabrand Murder Trial.
Writing: I submitted my story/book/manuscript to children's book author Dianne Ochiltree after our Zoom consultation a couple of weeks ago. According to our agreement, Ms. Ochiltree will: "comprise of overall comments in report form on the following elements: pacing, language level, cognitive/emotional appropriateness for age of target reader, P.O.V. consistency, concept/theme refinement, plot/story structure, and (if rhyming) pointers on using rhyme/rhythm effectively. This information will be augmented with a version of the manuscript with comments inserted, showing examples of what was mentioned in overall comments report, or simply noting small changes to consider. That 'marked-up' copy will be sent back with the full report, both as attachments. " Here we go. Not sure what to expect but I love this story and will try to self publish on Amazon.
Xercising: trying hard to get more steps in. Having drop-in visits with 2 pups over the last week was a big help in that department. I had to walk each of them, and had as many as 6 visits in one day's time. In the last week, I've averaged 9,937...but most of that was JULY!! Ha!! In June, it looked more like this:
Yardening - a combination of yardwork and
gardening: one of the goals on my spring bucket list that got bumped to summer was cleaning our rock gardens of all of the debris that blows into them from our neighbor's Mesquite trees. These trees drop some kind of natural trash 3 out of 4 seasons - pods; fronds/leaves similar to ferns; small sticks and branches; a yellow, very fine pollen-like bloom. I was surprised to find there are Facebook pages that address coping with this debris, and AI has a write up of suggestions for trying to clean up after a Mesquite. You might remember I bought a shop vac/indoor-outdoor vacuum to suck the stuff out of our rocks but it isn't powerful enough!! So, this last weekend I sat for hours moving the rocks one at a time and scraping the debris out of the garden. Here's how that looked.
Zhooshing - adding a bit of sparkle: when my mom died, my brother, sister and I divided up her jewelry. One of the pieces I took was the ring my grandparents bought my mom for high school graduation. It featured 3 blue stones that we assumed were her birthstone for March, aquamarine. I wore the ring several times but one of the prongs was broken and soon the stone in that setting fell out. In February, PC and I took the ring and stones to a local jeweler who said the stones were just glass. Hmmm. He explained that aquamarines were fairly expensive in the '40s when Mom graduated and that it was unlikely my grandparents could have afforded them. The jeweler rebuilt the ring so that the prongs were fortified and replaced the old stones with new artificial aquamarines. Now I can wear the ring without worry.
And with that, you have the ABCs of my month. Let's wind this thing up with a video review of June courtesy of 1 Second Everyday.
Your Turn
How was your June? On a scale of 1-10, what would you rate it? I think I would give ours a 7. I haven't felt 'right' since we got home from our trip to London and Edinburgh. Most of June, I have felt 'off'. Hoping to get whatever is going on figured out soon so I can get back to normal.
Sure appreciate you spending a few minutes here with me
today. Thank you for the visit.
Hugs and kisses,
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