July Monthly Musings // From The Inspired Abode
Happy 4th of July! It’s actually wild to think about America turning 250 years old – seems so old yet so young at the same time. To put it in perspective, the USA is older than the parachute (1783) and Australia as a British colony (1788), but younger than the sandwich (1762) and the first published Encyclopedia Britannica (1768). Yay, fun facts!
It’s also another big month of celebrations for us – Kel’s baby boy was born on the 2nd (he’s the best already 🥹), B’s son turns three & Kel’s husband turns 40 (on the same day!).
We’re still doing what we can to soak up our third summer in beautiful San Diego after over a decade in Los Angeles. We try not to let having kids stop us (and it’s easy to do in San Diego since it’s so kid friendly everywhere) from going to nice places & living life like we’re on vacation. Our fave baby carriers, travel strollers, and new gorgeous diaper bags have been coming in handy!
Now, grab a coffee or tea (we’ve been loving cappuccinos at home & dirty chais when out and about!), share a fun snack with your toddler if you’re also in this season of life & let’s catch up! 🤍
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links we can’t stop sending each other, products, links, current faves
Kel has narrowed down her summer sun hat search to Lack of Color’s “Inca” & “Palma” – they arrive this weekend, so TBD on which one makes it into her closet!
Our mom got us each a NUFACE Mini for our birthday & we are so excited to learn all of the tricks & make it a daily habit. They say to use it for 5 minutes a day, every day, for the first 60 days, and then it can just be 3-4x a week after that.
B assembled her new outdoor dining table + benches & it looks even better IRL than in the pictures online!
Discussing the fact that going to different fitness studios via ClassPass is SOmuch cheaper than booking direct?! It’s kind of wild & makes us wonder why anyone would choose to book direct with one studio when they can go to the same class for less via ClassPass AND have the flexibility to go to other classes (or nails, spa, movies!) too. If you are one of those people, please tell us your why. Maybe it’s just in our area? But we did the math & it checks out.
what we’re watching
The World Cup! It’s been consuming our televisions & it’s so fun to watch the games (the tie-breaking kicks are our favorite). We’ve also loved watching people from other countries discovering American treasures. It’s just the best when the world puts aside their differences & comes together to enjoy sports.
what we’re reading
We both started Yesteryear and are really enjoying it so far. It was Bre Moret’s book of the year, and so of course we had to dive in once it finally became available on our Libby.
what we’re listening to
Leave it to Mel Robbins to truly make us listen to & understand the same things we’ve heard over & over again. These 3 easy habits we can do to be healthier are definitely top of mind now again.
We heard this song in an episode of Friday Night Lights and it’s catchy. Also feeling pretty cool & trendy adding it to our playlist considering it has less than 150k listens on Spotify.
what we’re eating/drinking
Didn’t realize we loved sweet potatoes for dinner until we tried Jenn Lueke’s Buffalo Chickpea Stuffed Sweet Potatoes (page 151 of her Don’t Think About Dinner cookbook). Also big shoutout to a sauce as simple as it is delicious: buffalo + tahini.
We had a last-nice-dinner-before-the-baby celebration last weekend & loved our experience at Herb & Sea in Encinitas! They have the cutest kids’ menu with homemade pasta/pizza (also note: we weren’t the only ones with kids at our 5pm res, which is always refreshing!) & they were just so sweet and treated our party to sparkling wine/mocktails + dessert to celebrate baby on the way!
Kel made these healthy banana chocolate chip muffins for Avery’s birthday last month, and they were so tasty! Will def be adding to the “special treat” rotation!
little joys
The newest baby to join our family is taking up all of the space in our brains & hearts at the moment. We are SO in love & can’t wait to introduce him to his big sister & cousin 🥹
Our kids have a newfound love of stickers & it’s so cute to look in the mirror and see all of the stickers they put on our clothes throughout the day.
Not quite a joy (yet!), but Cam & Avery started swim lessons and we are just so proud of them for putting aside their fears in favor of learning from their swim coach.
We’d love to know what you’ve enjoyed watching, listening to, eating, drinking & what you’ve been eyeing and are looking forward to. Let us know in the comments section or send us a DM on Instagram – or better yet, join the group chat when you sign up for our newsletter! You can also follow us on Pinterest to see what inspires us & our abodes!