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Monthly Review: August 2023

Submitted by Bethany on Thu, 08/31/2023 - 07:39

In the US, August was always my least favorite month of the year. In Iowa it is a HOT month, and I hate hot weather. It has 31 days so it always seemed to drag on, there are no fun holidays to celebrate, and it just seemed like it was standing in between me and my favorite part of the year (Sep-Dec.) The only redeeming quality about August in Iowa is the Iowa State Fair! 

Weirdly, in the UK, I actually uttered the phrase “I love August…” and I wasn’t being sarcastic! The weather here is much more my speed - this week it has been rainy and 60ish degrees which I know depresses some people but makes me ever so happy. Additionally, almost everyone takes holiday in August, for at least a couple of weeks, if not the whole month. I haven’t really taken any official holiday, but everyone else being gone does make my workload easier. There have been no meetings, no weekly Bible study, basically every group goes on holiday for the month which really lightens up my schedule. 

So I decided this year to make the month of August the time to organize all the things. We moved at the end of November last year and while we did a pretty good job of unpacking and settling in, there were things that were rushed (organizing the kitchen) or just didn’t get done (a few things got shoved in closets.) So in order to start the Methodist New Year fresh (starts 1 September) I wanted to spend time getting my life and work life put together. (All of my work files were still sitting in bags/boxes where they were tossed sometime in December.) 

That project has taken most of the month (and isn’t fully done yet) but we did manage to squeeze in some fun as well! 

The month kicked off with a repeat viewing of Barbie for me. I loved it so much the first time that I talked Amy into going to see it with me again. This time we dressed up a bit - Amy dyed her hair pink and I wore this amazing hot pink fascinator that I had just picked up at a rummage sale at Trellech Chapel. The movie was just as good seeing it the second time. 

We spent a lot of time this month celebrating Steve’s 40th birthday! We kicked off the celebrations early with a day of fun in Bristol. Amy and Ben sent the kids to church camp for the day so the adults got to play! In the morning we played a “Houdini” themed escape room, managing to escape with 12 minutes to spare. Then we ordered pizza for lunch and Joel and Ben walked through the Krispy Kreme drive-thru (they didn’t have an in-store option!) to score us some donuts. Steve also ordered a pitcher of slushy in every flavor.  In the afternoon we played an “Indiana Jones” themed escape room, managing to escape with 26 minutes to spare. After that, we played a round of bowling and overall it made for a really fun day!

Mid-month Joel and I discovered our new favorite place in the UK - thanks to a Facebook group I had joined while looking for places to swim in the area. This place was a bit outside of my ideal range (I didn’t want to drive more than 30 minutes) but it looked so amazing we decided to check it out anyway. Turns out it is exactly what I have been looking for and more! It is called the Clevedon Marine Lake and it touts itself as the “world’s largest tidal infinity pool.” It is a gigantic pool that fills with seawater when the tide is high, leaving a safe place to swim when the tide lowers. The views are amazing, the parking is easy, and there are plenty of other fun things around including fish and chips, ice cream, and some hiking for Joel (who prefers not to swim, generally.) We discovered it on a Wednesday, then went back the next day with sandwiches from Costco and had a picnic lunch by the water. Then I swam for an hour while Joel hiked and it was perfection. With this being only a 40-minute drive away (and with Costco on the way) we will be back here plenty and often! 

On Steve’s actual birthday on the 21st, we went to our favorite haunt in Cardiff - Viva Brazil! We discovered this place last year and have been back for many celebrations since. We stuffed our faces with all the amazing food and even got them to bring Steve a dessert while singing Happy Birthday to him! He said he managed to go 40 years without anyone doing that for to him in a restaurant, so we were happy to have embarrassed him in that special birthday way. Later that evening I chickened out on a cold swim in the sea, but Steve went out with his swimming friends and then they also sang Happy Birthday to him in the pub, so he was sung to twice in one day!


 

As part of my “organize all the things” campaign this month, we have also been doing other small projects around the house just to level things up. Things like - touching up scratches on the walls, fixing a broken light, just small maintenance things like that. We also finally got around to hanging some outdoor string lights we bought months ago. I knew I would love them but I didn’t realize quite how much! They are so magical at night and even during the day they look lovely, especially when the raindrops cling to them. It really makes our back garden a place we want to hang out more. 

The last Sunday of the month was a bit of a sad one, as it marked my last Sunday as the minister at Monmouth Methodist Church. We had expected to be there for five years, but I ended my tenure after only three as it worked out better for the circuit for me to live and serve elsewhere. I absolutely adore the people of Monmouth and will deeply miss being their minister - although I will still return to preach on occasion, do the odd funeral and wedding, and stay connected in other ways as we are all still on the same circuit. At the end of the service, they gave me a gift card to Waitrose/John Lewis, a gorgeous bouquet of flowers, and a gift I was not expecting - Goldfish! I had referenced Goldfish in a sermon just a few weeks previously, and a beloved church member tracked some down for me on Amazon. It was a very sweet and heartfelt gesture. 

Honorable mentions this month include:
Good ones:
     - On the first Saturday of the month we had a game day with some new (American expat) friends who live nearby. We hope to spend more time with them soon! 
      - We saw The Meg 2 in 3D4DX which was just as ridiculous as one might expect and the 4DX effects made it amazing! They sprayed so much water on us you could see it on all the seats at the end - my favorite 4DX experience so far (just narrowly beating the first one we ever saw which was Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings.) 

Not-so-good ones:
     - The blog got hacked and was down for several weeks as Joel had to change servers and rebuild the websites; it was rough for me but rougher for him!
     - They are still doing road works in front of our house which has been very inconvenient at times - like right now our car is parked at the church because if it was in our drive we wouldn’t be able to leave! 

As I finish writing all that I’m realizing why I haven’t quite finished my whole house organization project yet, it has still been a busy month! Hopefully, by the end of September, everything will have a place and everything will be in its place and we will be set for a while. I’m looking forward to what this next month brings!

XOXO, Bethany 
 

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