A Long Winter's Nap
Good morning, dear Reader! Whew. July just blasted right on by, didn't it? I hope you enjoyed all the doings over here as much as I did! I thought I'd do a June/July -Ishness post, since I didn't really do one for June. It's been a whirlwind of a summer, but in a very good way.
Ishness is a meme created by Deborah over at Road of a Writer as a monthly recap on what one has filled the previous month with.
Writing/EditingI wrote 11,549 words as I finished writing the rough draft of Mantles of Oak and Iron, the second book in the Turrim Archive.To date I have finished editing 14 chapters of Minstrel's Call. Out of 50 total. It's going a bit more slowly than I was hoping, but there has been a lot of rearranging and restructuring... which has necessitated some re-writing of scenes from the ground up. I have written approximately 6,000 new words, but I have also cut about 7,000 old words... which means that overall the book is already a tiny bit shorter than it was, despite all the new material. Also... I don't even know how many words I've written in emails and blog posts the past two months... but it was a lot!ReadingSTILL working my way through The Aeronaut's Windlass. How embarrassing! Truly, I am loving the book. And usually I am a very fast reader. But you can only get so far when your reading time is contained to 15 minute increments and sometimes days go by between those reading spaces.I did finish reading More Stories From Grandma's Attic out loud to the kids, and we've since started up the second Boxcar Children book.I also re-read a bunch of The Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion while creating the poem for the Scavenger Hunt as well as my post for the Most Nefarious Villain presentation. I think I need to do a serious re-read soon.WatchingNCIS season 14. This would be the main reason I haven't had time to read... the latest season came available on Netflix, and we had to go back and hang out with our crime-solving besties!Also Blue Bloods season 7. We do enjoy crime shows around here.I watched Miracle a few weeks ago, because while writing up the Favorite Family Films feature for it, I remembered how much I love that movie, and just felt like it was high time I re-watched it.We wanted to get to see the new Spiderman, but haven't gotten to it yet. NOBODY TELL ME ANYTHING!Cubs baseball! My husband managed to snag a deal to get the entire rest of the season of MLB TV for just TEN DOLLARS back in June, so we've been getting to watch baseball again, which is fantastic.BloggingYou might have noticed it's been a bit busy around here in the past month. Well, the second annual Silmarillion Awards came back around, and it was an absolute blast! Thanks so much to everyone who participated, read, commented, shared, voted, donated prizes, and otherwise cheered us on in our epic endeavor! Without you, these awards wouldn't be nearly as much fun. Also, a special thanks to the nine amazing bloggers who joined me on this adventure! Thank you for your creativity, your helpful thoughts and ideas, and just for being part of this year's "fellowship"!Thanks to the Awards, July was this little blog's BEST month ever with both the most overall views and the highest average per-day views! I am overwhelmed by the response and thrilled to have met so many fellow Tolkien-fans!In case you missed it, here is the list of awards that were presented this year.
We are very much looking forward to hosting this fun event again next year! Put it on your calendars!Life-ingSwim lessons, science curriculum, visits to the library, picnics in the park, observing baby robins in the bushes outside our door hatch from their eggs and grow and leave the nest, bike rides, playgrounds, swimming, sprinklers, popsicles... these are the things that have made up the majority of our summer.We also got to take a nice trip down to Chicago-land last week and see numerous friends and family while at the Dupage County Fair where my sister was performing! It was super fun to hang out with cousins and see friends from high school. It was also nice to get some of my favorite pizza (Pal Joey's, deep dish, ham and pineapple... if you're ever near Wheaton, IL, you really need to stop and get some!) and have Portillo's. We also went and walked through my old high school... which has grown and changed a lot... but then, so have I. Ah, nostalgia and memory lane: nice places to hang out. But it was also nice to come home.And that's about all I can think of, dear Reader! I hope you've had a lovely summer. I don't know about you, but I am exhausted. And I really need to buckle down on editing Minstrel's Call... so I think it will be slightly quieter around here through August... I'll still be around, and I definitely plan to continue the Favorite Family Films features on Friday for the foreseeable future (oooh! You have to admit that was pretty phenomenal alliteration... right?!) but it will definitely be quieter around the blog for a bit.I would love to hear about your summer adventures!