Hello, Reader.

Did you know July is National Blueberry Picking Month? Our family normally pays an annual visit to a local pick-your-own farm for expressly that purpose. But with all our recent travels, the season got away from us this year, and we missed it.

So we're making do with store-bought berries. Still sweet, but picking them out is not the same family-bonding experience as being in the fields and gathering those plump, ripe berries in the palm of your hand!

In honor of the occasion, though, I thought I'd share a few blueberry-related resources in this week's link list. Who knows? If you live further north, you may still have time to pick a peck or two yourself!

Free resources for you this week:

• ​Blueberry Oat Muffins - one of our all-time favorite ways to enjoy fresh blueberries!
• ​Blueberry Note Cards - print a few of our pretty new note cards to send to family and friends
• ​Blueberry Crumble - another favorite family recipe (a popular request in lieu of birthday cake)
• ​Dairy-Free Blueberry Smoothie - provides the perfect way to cool off on a warm summer day
• ​Bear Much Fruit Coloring Page - I love the pretty graphic & verse (John 15:8) on this printable

What I'm reading this week:

A colleague of my husband's highly recommended Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc to us as a book he likes so much, he reads it annually. My father always treated Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer that same way, so we were eager to check this one out for ourselves. Recollections is a work of historical fiction and is quite lengthy -- the audiobook we listened to was more than 20 hours long! -- but it was fascinating, start to finish. It recounts Joan's daring, determination, and devotion to the remarkable call God placed upon her life to free France from English tyranny -- and the despicable lengths to which some of her own countrymen went to thwart her.

This week's reader request:

I received the following message via email on Monday: "This is my second year using your attendance tracker because I love the sweet verse on it so much. It inspires and gladdens my heart each day I when I mark the attendance. [But] this year I am starting our school year in July. Any chance you could make an updated one to start in July?"

Well, that was a quick and easy fix, and I've added a July-June version of this attendance tracker to the website now, in case any more of my fellow homeschooling mamas want to get an early start on the coming school year. Follow this link to download your copy.

On the podcast this week:

Here's another episode from the archives while I'm on summer break...

Loving Life at Home: Episode 52 ​HELPING YOUR HUSBAND MAKE BETTER FOOD CHOICES​ I recently received a message from a listener who was concerned about her husband’s health. His diet needs work, he does’t get enough sleep or enough exercise, and lately he’s been experiencing recurrent chest pain. So today we're discussing ideas and strategies for helping all our family members -- especially resistant spouses -- choose wisely at mealtime Listen Now

Progress on last week's goals:

I completed all but one of the tasks on last week's to-do list: I ✅ reduced the emails in my inbox to fewer than 100, ✅ finished making a new laundry basket for daughter's bathroom, ✅ recorded a new episode of M Is for Mama​ with my friend Abbie (I'll share a link once it's live), ✅ switched out 4th of July for back-to-school ornaments on my all-seasons tree, ✅ booked hotels for my daughter's upcoming volleyball tournaments, ✅ prepped notebooks and craft supplies for my fall co-op classes, and ✅ sent those lesson plans to all my students and co-op directors.

The one thing on my list I didn't do? I ❌ missed the plant swap at our local library on Sunday, mainly because I woke up with a dehydration headache that day and opted to take a much-needed nap once I got home from church instead.

Personal goals for this week:

• reduce inbox to fewer than 50 emails 📥
• get new glasses (goodbye, readers; hello, bifocals!) 👓
• take kids/grandkids to the zoo 🐅
• attend monthly book discussion group 📕
• walk 7 miles 🚶🏽‍♀️
• record and edit last 7 chapters of Glad Tidings audiobook🎙️
• send 2 more boxes of donations to Goodwill 📦
• host monthly potluck for extended family (Italian theme 🇮🇹)

If you enjoy this newsletter and would like to support my work, there are five ways for you to do that:

1. Say a prayer for me & my family 🙏 (especially Bekah, now in the DRC treating Ebola patients)
2. Invite a friend to ​​subscribe to this newsletter​​ 📭
3. Subscribe to my podcast on your favorite platform 🎧
4. Follow me on ​​Instagram​​ 📸
5. Buy/review one of ​my books​​ 📚

​
Thanks so much for all your help! I'll be back next week with more links, reviews, and resources. If you have any special requests, hit reply and let me know. 😊