June passed in a blur and I’m not complaining. It was hot, which I don’t enjoy. I am definitely not a “summer person,” but I always try to find enjoyment in it, rather than complain about it. Summer is inevitable, after all!

Reading

This month was hit and miss for reading. I started with Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn and loved it. Four middle-aged women celebrating retirement from their career as assassins suddenly find themselves targeted for death by the very organization for which they worked. It was such a fun read – witty and fast-paced. 

I then read Weyward by Emilia Hart, which also has themes of women’s empowerment. The blurb was promising, but story was slow and felt disjointed. I didn’t really enjoy it, but the ending was satisfying.

Cross-stitching

In June, I continued working on Summer Quaker by Lila’s Studio and made an okay amount of progress. Pages 3 and 4 are complete. As of today (this picture is a few days old), I am almost done with page 2, and started on page 1. I also have some progress on pages 5, 6, 7, and 8. It would rock to complete Summer Quaker by the end of August, but I’m not going to pressure myself to get it done during the season. 

Gaming

My D&D 5e campaign continues slowly, mostly because of scheduling challenges. But we manage to play once or twice a month. We had a literal “rocks fall, everybody dies” session, which was fun for me. It’s great when everything goes smoothly and easily for the players, and they are rewarded for their planning. I think it’s important for some sessions to be fun and easy, and others to be challenging and frustrating. I used to do XP levelling, but I’ve embraced milestone levelling and I feel like that works well, too.

The Genesys campaign is leading us to a necromancer and, possibly, a cult looking to resurrect a long-dead dragon general. At the end of June, that same group also rolled up characters for Cyberpunk Red. That campaign began July 7 and, well, I think I’m a little busy on Fridays and Saturdays, now. 

I haven’t been playing much as far as video games, other than doing my dailies on Animal Crossing. I just purchased Spiritfarer, but I’m not sure when I’ll start it.

Watching

I haven’t watched many shows or movies, but that’s because I prefer spending time outside, as long as it’s shady and cool, bringing my daughter swimming, visiting the library, or watching YouTube. On YouTube, I don’t subscribe to many channels. I like to keep it to 20 or fewer. The channels I follow are fellow Witches, Flosstubers (cross-stitchers), genealogy, Rachel Maksy, and Critical Role.

Exploring

June has been a low-key summer month. We’ve stayed around town because we have a pool and beach here in our neighborhood/HOA. We went to MysticFest in Council Bluffs on June 4. We were there for our bake sale table for Spiral Scouts, which is our circle’s main fundraiser. My daughter had fun shopping all the different booths. She also did a good job of making change for people who stopped at the table to purchase baked goods. My husband made a huge batch of Snickerdoodles to contribute to the table and it was a good time.

June was a much better month than May. I don’t know what it was about May, but it was an oddly rough month. As I said, I’m not a “summer person” but I’m doing my best to take it for what it is, and make the most of it. I prefer slow living anyway, and June was a good month for it.