End of August

First and foremost, I want to wish a very happy birthday to one of my favorite people on the planet: My Dad!!! I love you, Daddy! Hope your day is fabulous!Ishness is a monthly blog-meme creation of Deborah's at Road of a WriterAugust has been a great month, overall. A nice, relaxing end to a great summer.ReadingI have now read the first three books in the Lunar Chronicles, and I have to say, I'm hooked! The next book is on order at the library, as well as the side-novels/short stories that go with this collection. And that's saying a lot, because I don't usually like short stories.WatchingLet's see... we finally went and saw Spiderman: Homecoming, which was SO MUCH FUN! More on that later.I rewatched Miracle, because my blog post reminded me of how much I love that movie.I've been enjoying the show Heartland on Netflix. It's kind of cute and charming... nothing too deep, which makes it a relaxing watch.We finished Blue Bloods and are now catching up on Hawaii Five-O, which we started watching when it came out, and then got very behind on.We watched Hidden Figures with my in-loves. What an incredible story.And we watched Kong: Skull Island last week. Um... yeah. Not my favorite. I have never found the whole "King Kong" thing to be all that compelling, and while I do think this was my favorite of the Kong movies I've seen... that's... not saying much. It was kind of "Jurassic World" meets... "Avatar" meets "The Happening." (None of which are movies I particularly enjoyed or think highly of.... though, perhaps I'm being unfair. It wasn't as politically obnoxious with a "slap you in the face" agenda as Avatar and it wasn't anywhere near as horrific or stupid as The Happening). The difficulty with the movie was that there were moments of dialogue or storyline that kept lulling me into expecting a plot to show up.... only to throw yet another enormous creature at the screen in a sudden and unnerving way so that I could watch something else die horribly. (I spent a lot of the movie yelping and hiding my face in the couch). Tom Hiddleston was pretty fantastic, though, as he always is.The HISHE of this movie is far more entertaining than the actual movie. (Which I finally had a chance to go rewatch and feel I can link to it here). Did I mention that I got to meet one of the artists for the HISHE Super Hero Cafe at the Hudson Library-Con last year? SO COOL!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3H0OWehlVI&t=47sMy favorite part is that they mock the whole King Kong meeting Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) - since both are in this movie and it is part of the whole "Monster Universe" series of movies they're trying to do since the Avengers Universe thing is working so well in the box office.ListeningI found this on youtube and have been listening to it while I edit. Very epic and inspirational! And I love that it's so long... which means I don't have to go hunting for new music very often.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPxW-oyVFig&t=16154sAuthor-ingI am now through chapter 31 on my editing of the Minstrel's Call!!! Working slowly but steadily towards that goal... I have found a marvelous proof-reader who is going through it chapter by chapter behind me, which is AWESOME! When I'm done with all that, it will be time to format it (AGAIN! Long story...) and then order the first proof!!! (Which is exciting, but not indicative of a release date, as I will then go through the proof with my red pen for one last editing pass).I am currently working on the blurb, which is making the book feel more like it might actually be published someday. I'm hoping to have a cover to show off soon!Derek and I have also been working on a fun, top-secret little project... which I am not at liberty to discuss right now... but hope to be able to divulge more information on that soon!Life-ingMy in-loves came to visit in the first half of the month. The girls had VBS at our church where the kids raised enough money to build a Library in Liberia and fill it with books! It was so cool that they managed to hit their goal and such an awesome display of God's sovereignty. It was a neat thing to see L and N wanting so badly to help people they've never met. In addition to donating ALL their own money (which they'd been saving up for some things they really want), they also baked cookies and took them around the neighborhood giving them to our neighbors and telling them about the cause. I love their sweet hearts.The girls also finished up their final round of swim lessons and they are both becoming very good swimmers.G is getting super big and is extremely proud of himself for learning a new life skill: rolling over from his back to his tummy. He works very hard at it, and then when he gets there he raises his head up and looks around with this expression of, "Now, how did I get HERE?" on his face. It's adorable.Looking forward... September...School starts up next Tuesday. Arda Academy will be in its 5th year of operation and I am excited about all the things we're going to learn this year. I'm also a little overwhelmed. I was really hoping to have this round of edits finished before we started school. The best laid plans...And that's all I've got. How was your last month of summer, dear Reader?