Another month down, another round of television and movie binge watching. I can’t believe It’s going to be August on Saturday and we’ve made it more than halfway through the year. Let’s get into the July 2020 recap.
Monthly Highlight Reel
This month flew by, not because of quarantine and Covid-19, but because we were anxiously awaiting flying to Boston for my daughter’s Thymectomy surgery. Anxious about the plane ride (jetBlue did a phenominal job with distancing and mask wearing mandates) and the surgery itself (went so much smoother than expected and she’s recovering wonderfully). The surgery was on the 17th but we had to fly in on the 13th for IVIG treatments and the time arrived before we knew it.
I took on Mattie James’ blog challenge to post daily, M – F, 6th – 31st of July and made myself proud by committing and getting it done every.single.day. Doing this actually allowed me to focus on the rest of the year, planning out my editorial calendar from August through December and getting a vast majority of the post written, so I’m left with just visuals (my sore spot) and marketing.
I reached the end of my 12th week and my unemployment came to an end. I filed for the 13 week extension and received my first check, along with the $600 federal unemployment assistance monies, the following Monday afternoon without a delay between regular and extended unemployment.
Binge Watches & Movies
Hulu with Showtime
Shows: I didn’t watch the original Penny Dreadful, but I did get into Penny Dreadful: City of Angels this month and had a binge season after the season finale aired. I finally started watching The Chi but started on the current season, so I need to go back and start the show from the beginning to really know what’s going on. I took on Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi hoping it was going to be as good as Gordan Ramsey Undiscovered (which I also binged all seasons of this month and loved) and it really wasn’t. There were definitely some interesting episodes and I learned at least one thing from each one I watched, I just found some of the episodes to be kind of dry and I lost interest, though I did finish. Even though it is completely historically inaccurate, I really liked The Great, a very loose adaptation of Catherine the Great’s life with Peter III. I finally watched the most recent of Shameless and realized I barely noticed Fiona’s absence.
Movies: I really wanted to like Palm Springs and while it was okay, it felt like a modern Groundhogs Day minus Bill Murray.
Netflix
Shows: I didn’t think I was going to like Warrior Nun. I’m not sure why other than the name and premise just seemed super cheesy to me, but it was actually pretty darn good. Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich … I tried but had to stop by episode 2. My partner and I watched the first season of The Order when we were in Puerto Rico last year, so we were excited to see what was happening in season 2. It didn’t hold our interest as much as the first season and I found myself replaying episodes over and over again because I kept zoning out and missing things.
Movies: I grew up watching Bruce Lee with my uncle as a child, so I love martial arts films. With that said, I watched IP Man 4: The Finale, the finale installment based on the life of the Wing Chun grandmaster. I’d watched all the others a few months back and finally got around the catching this one last week. If you like martial arts, I’d definitely give it a watch.
Coming in August
I’m so excited to binge the second season of Umbrella Academy on Netflix and catch a few movies on Amazon Prime, which always seems to get neglected because I forget about it.
I’ll be starting the 75 Hard Challenge with my partner on 1 August and taking it into October. It will be more water, working out, and discipline than I’ve ever had. Wish me luck!
My daughter and I will be taking on a few days of Rachel Ray’s Yum-O Cooking Camp starting on the 1st. We watch a ton of cooking shows on the Food Network, so it will be fun to cook along with some of our favorite chefs.
School starts back on the 31st and, at the moment, my son will be finishing his senior year in person doing an alternating of days while my daughter will be virtual schooling. Definitely nervous for my son to go into school for any amount of days but we wanted to honor his wishes of finishing his last year traditionally if possible. My daughter has wanted to virtual school since her freshman year started last year, so she was more than excited to choose that option this year and with her autoimmune disease, coupled with her recent surgery, we were all to eager to sign her up.
Goals of the month
- I’ll be tackling some diy projects around our home and living out my high school dream of having a carpentry studio in the garage … kind of.
- I’ll being working on marketing and growing the blog more now that I’m finally taking it seriously with my job still furloughed for the foreseeable future.
- Investing in me by perfecting a skincare routine, having at least 3 vegan meals a week, and start building my autumn capsule wardrobe with some quality staple items. I’ve already scoped out the upcoming Nordstrom Anniversary sale for skincare products I’ve been wanting to try and items to add to the capsule wardrobe.
That’s it. July 2020 recap in a nutshell and what I’ve got coming up for August. Hopefully, this upcoming month will bring on the cooler temperatures and maybe a pumpkin loaf or something else just as autumn festive.
SHOP MY NORDSTROM ANNIVERSARY WISH LIST
