July 16, 2026
How is your July going?
Here at our house (and many other houses that work on the school year calendar), July marks the beginning of summer. My husband’s schedule shifts for summer clean up at the school where he works, and we know that his vacation days are just around the corner in August.
So far, it’s been a warm summer without very much rain. I hear we have some substantial amounts of rain in the forecast for this weekend, and truly, I’m happy to hear it because it is needed.
This summer, we have decided to start a garden, and so far, I haven’t killed anything. In fact, everything seems to be growing quite well at present. Although we are still waiting to harvest most of the things we planted, we have enjoyed one meal’s worth of broccoli, several strawberries as snacks while watering the garden, and tonight, the lettuce on our burgers will be freshly picked!
It’s really been a fun project so far, and a “hobby” I can see us continuing to indulge in. I mean, I love a project that ends with things to eat. 🙂 And both my husband and I enjoy learning (that’s likely why we were teachers for many years before we switched careers).
And that’s what’s new at our house – summer schedules and a garden.
In book news, I wanted to let you know that the complete Hatfield Falls series is 50% off at Smashwords as part of their Summer/Winter sale. The sale ends at the end of July, so there’s two weeks left to take advantage of some low prices over there.
This is a link to the Hatfield Falls series on Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/byseries/101462
And here is a link to the Summer/Winter landing page that has been filtered to Christian fiction. There are more filter options available. I just set it to Christian to avoid having you open it to covers that might not be ones you want to look at. 🙂
https://www.smashwords.com/shelves/promos/1223/any/any
I picked up a few books for my library. Four of them are small town short stories from Lorana Hoopes, because I’ve been into reading shorter stories lately. They were all in the free (100% off) category so you can find them there or you could find them more easily at this link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/byseries/112275
Let me know if you find any favourite authors listed in this sale that I need to know about or tell me about any new-to-you authors that you’re giving a try.
Until next time! Happy reading!
<3 Annilee
