Keeping track of the year

The first year of our marriage, someone had given me a fun calendar/journal called something like The Country Diary. I think it may have only been published that one year. It had cream colored pages with interesting quotes and old fashioned black-line drawings. I used it more to keep a very simple record of things we did that year, jotting down a movie we saw, or a night of hanging out with friends. (In the shuffles of the past 6+ years, it has been misplaced, but it is still around somewhere and will show up again someday.)I have also in the past, collected Mary Englebreit calendars because I like the artwork and the quotes, but never really used them, except to cut apart and make things out of. And I have journaled in the past as well, either here, on paper or just on the computer. This year I'm kind of combining the two by keeping a brief daily log of our activities.The colors, the pictures, the sentiments, the quotes - they all make me smile!

And this is roughly what it has looked like around here for a few weeks now. No, we have not been transported to the Smoky Mountains, nor the Pacific Northwest, but it is the middle of monsoon season, and it has been a good one this year. This is pretty much the only time of year it ever rains here, and the moisture and cooler weather have been a blessing to this area for the most part. Most of the year, we long for a cloud or two, or a rainy day (I generally like rainy days), but after a few weeks straight of rain...

Cool clouds around the mountains a few days ago: