July Recommendations

+Go Bayside podcast. I binged this whole podcast (80+ episodes that are usually more than 1 hour each) in 3 weeks. It was wildly entertaining. I spent a lot of my elementary years watching Saved By The Bell. I remember specifically 1st grade being a big year for that. My parents weren't terrible, by the way. They would watch with me and roll their eyes and try to tell me that was not what high school was like. I didn't believe them.

+The Cult of Pedagogy. This is a teaching website and I read my way through every article in about a week. It was so informative and real. It's also a podcast and I pretty much made my way through that entire backlog too. 

+Ozark. This is a new show on Netflix. Not only did we live in the Ozarks for a year plus a few months but we spent many weekends at Osage Beach and the lake there. Osage Beach was the nearest Target so I spent some time driving that 45 minute stretch of woods at least once a month.
This show is so enthralling...it just kept going and going and I kept watching and watching...it plays out like a movie. I just love Jason Bateman.

+Online grocery shopping. I mentioned this on Friday and I cannot recommend enough that you at least try it. I discovered that I can keep my cart open on the app and just add to it as I think of things instead of writing them down and likely losing the list. I'm using Wal-Mart because that's who offers the service near us but, even though I don't love Wal-Mart, I can get over that for two reasons: I'm not randomly buying things I don't need and spending extra money. And I don't even have to go into the store. Yes, please. There's a few things I'll end up getting elsewhere (dog bones, K-Cups, and ice cream/Italian ice is much better priced at the commissary) but that's like an every two or three-week trip.

+Stuff Mom Never Told You and Stuff You Missed in History Class. Since podcasts are my preferred form of daily media entertainment, I'm always looking for new ones. I used to listed to Stuff You Missed in History Class all the time and then it got old (pun not intended), so I unsubscribed. I recently went back to it, pulling all the recent episodes from the last year that seemed interesting. As for Stuff Mom Never Told You, there's so many topics and so many interesting thoughts and research and whatnot...give it a go. The hosts are fun to listen to as well. Their episode on MLM was fascinating and led me to John Oliver's video which was funny and informative. Even though I'm a believer in Rodan and Fields products whole-heartedly, I have many thoughts on multi-level marketing.

+And, lastly, this post on miscarriage and making it to the other side. It's refreshingly real. I didn't have a miscarriage, but I know what it's like to feel weak and achy and so completely unlike myself that I couldn't even sit up or roll over without being in pain. IVF can cause your abdomen to fill with fluid and that definitely happened to me. All of the hormones that I pumped into myself for the cycle of IVF we did in May took such a toll...there's literally nothing natural about it...but it was comforting for me to remember that I was not the first person to go through that and I certainly wouldn't be the last. If you're struggling with something similar, that blog post is a good one.

If you're looking for Pinterest recommendations, I posted what I've Pinned and Done lately last week.