The June Edit

Highlight: We went to a World Cup group match!

If you’re a new reader, the Monthly Edit is a brain dump of everything I consumed (or consumed me) during the month. This newsletter is filled with recommendations and reflections that I hope will add value to your life.

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This month’s Pinterest inspo. Exploring the aesthetics of the beautiful game.

June snuck up on me, as it always does. Between end-of-May chaos and the rush to figure out what summer actually looks like for us this year, I somehow still managed to read 11 books, plan two weekend getaways, and watch more TV than usual.

Here’s what our month looked like.

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Currently Obsessed

Adult read

Ana Huang’s Gods of the Game Series

I’d be remiss not to read a soccer romance during the World Cup. I flew through The Striker, and I’m making good progress on The Defender. Book #3 comes out this fall, so it feels like a good time to get into the series. The books are set in the world of English Premier League soccer, and one of the players even has a World Cup! The book series is set to be adapted into a movie series by Amazon. Sports romances are really having their on-screen moment.

Read all ELEVEN!!! of my June book reviews below.

Kids’ read

Weird But True! Star Wars: 300 Epic Facts From a Galaxy Far, Far Away.... from National Geographic Kids

Are your kids obsessed with quizzing you on random facts? My mom got this book for my son for his birthday this month, and it’s been a lot of fun to read a few pages aloud. The graphic design is done particularly well! All the facts are bite-sized, so we usually flip through the pages in the evenings. It’s neat to see the special interests kids gravitate towards. This has been the perfect pairing for a Grogu-themed summer.

Watching

Don’t ask me how I made time to watch anything other than non-stop soccer matches this month.

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, Season 2

Somehow, this second season was even darker than the first. Pip stands up for the victims of sexual assault in her town by serving as a witness in a trial. She’s bearing a huge amount of emotional weight that sends her into an obsessive, self-destructive spiral.

Hoppers

Can I just say that I love that Disney and Pixar have been leaning more into social and environmental themes? This movie about a college advocate who is dead set on saving the local wildlife population from destruction at the hands of her city leadership hit close to home. It’s wildly hilarious with a bit of a dark edge.

Off-Campus

I started rewatching this with my husband before the World Cup games started, but we’ve put it on pause halfway. He agreed that it’s cute and the music makes every scene more fun!

Every Year After

This adaptation is not for the book lovers. While I appreciate that the changes make multiple seasons feasible, the first few episodes were boring, and it failed to capture the magic of a Canadian summer that Carley’s writing does with such ease. It has been renewed for a 2nd season, so hopefully they will redeem the dumpster fire that they created from Sam and Percy’s relationship.

Your Fault: London

The second movie in this forbidden romance makes its way to Oxford, and the chemistry between Nick and Noah is off the charts! I’m addicted to the racing drama. My only criticism is the lack of depth to Briar’s storyline.

Listening

Soccer songs have been my hype music to pair with watching way too many World Cup games and staying up past my bedtime this month.

I also like Niall Horan’s song Monochromatic from his new Dinner Party album, Olivia Rodrigo’s song maggots for brains from her new album you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love! Both albums are filled with bops.

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The Family Table

This month’s winning recipes were Philly Cheesesteak mac n cheese, smash burger tacos with street corn, and fried rice mixed with a bag of Asian salad mix and frozen dumplings.

We also had the most fantastic spread at Lewis BBQ, one of our favorite restaurants in Greenville, SC. It was 100% worth waiting in line for an hour on Father’s Day!

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Our Month in Moments

• 🌿Eating from our patio garden, finally. Our bell peppers and tomatoes have really taken off, so I can incorporate them into our meals when they’re ripe for picking!

• 🥽Weekends at the neighborhood pool. Subs, pasta salad, chips, and frozen treats made lunch and dinner prep easy. My youngest learned to swim and has turned into a little fish! Speaking of fish, these water-activated toys are some of the best we’ve found.

• 🏕️A camp-filled month. VBS x2, a week-long sleepaway camp for Girl Scouts, and tennis camp kept my kids busy this month and allowed my husband a few hours of quiet time between drop-offs to prepare lesson plans for the Fall semester.

• ⚽First FIFA World Cup Experience. We celebrated my husband's and son’s birthdays and our 12th wedding anniversary in Atlanta for the DR Congo v Uzbekistan group stage game. It was my first professional soccer match, and it’s not lost on me how privileged I am to be able to afford this family trip. I hope my kids remember the roar of the crowd for ages! We had so much fun cheering on the Leopards and seeing their historic win. It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I’m thankful our plans went off without a hitch.

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Five Links Worth Clicking

1. How to Cope with the Loss of a Pet from WorkDaze

   My family lost two pets this Spring that had been with us since the beginning of our marriage, before we even dreamed of growing our family and having kids. These are practical tips if you’re navigating the waves of similar grief.

2. How I’m Simplifying Dinners This Summer from Caitlin Kruse

   A downloadable PDF of easy, kid-friendly dinners that can be pulled together quickly during the week.

3. Everything is TV Now - Including Cities from Diana Lind

   Food for thought about watching TV together in a more social setting and how cities facilitate that need for connection in a modern way.

4. The World Cup is the World’s Biggest Stationery Event from Bryant Del Toro

   A deep dive into the Panini sticker craze and how trading plays into the World Cup. We’ve spent hours peeling stickers together, and it’s been a fantastic source of screen-free bonding time.

5. Pack these snacks, stay out of the house longer from Hillary Dixler Canavan

   Snack ideas for the pool and the park to help keep your kids cool this summer. I can confirm that carrying a snack bag keeps everyone from going crazy in this heat!

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See you in July. Go read something good!

Elsewhere on the Internet: Goodreads / Storygraph / Pinterest

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