June marks the beginning of my least favorite season.

But this year, June surprised me.

The first days of summer weren’t unbearable, and I remember thinking I could live in this weather for a while. But time is fleeting, and things are always fated to change.

Honestly, I can’t remember much else from June, not off the top of my head, anyway. I have to recall a lot for this blog post. I have to go through my mind and put things into perspective, which might have to be the theme for the month.

Back in May, I filled up my June calendar with cheesy little family dinner ideas, activities, and meals I wanted to make. But then it rained. It rained so hard the sky roared, and we lost power. I lost my motivation and direction.

June was beautiful, but it was not easy.

There were definitely highs and lows. At times, the highs seemed higher.

But I was still able to make something out of the month.

I spent June reorganizing my thoughts and creating a content map for July, which eventually turned into Elm Ridge, a project I’m completely in love with. I’m pretty sure I found my second favorite cookbook, finished reading Jane Eyre (which I’ll cover in another blog post), and started watching Living Single, a show that had been sitting on my “to watch” list for a few months.

And then there was Father’s Day, which I have to give myself a pat on the back for because I was very proud of how it turned out. My husband loved it, and after he opened his gifts, we spent the morning lying around the house eating doughnuts until it was time to make Father’s Day steak.

Those were the highlights—or at least the ones I can remember. So, as usual, I’m going to break each one down with a little more thought and context.

---

Cheesy Family Celebration

I saw a creator (Alex Castaldo) who was running a series called Silly Crisps. Immediately, I thought we needed to host a Silly Crisp pool party at my house. It would’ve been small, but the pool in my neighborhood had just opened, so I thought I’d use the excuse.

It didn’t happen, though.

We still had the pool party, but we dropped the theme and kept it simple with burgers and hot dogs on the grill. Unfortunately, the grill had run out of propane, and no one had replaced it. Of course, we realized this at the last minute and ended up grilling after dinner time. We didn’t finish until well after midnight.

Everyone agreed we could have been more prepared, but between the excitement of getting into the pool and getting everyone ready, we completely forgot to prep the food.

All in all, we ended the night smashing an upside-down cheesecake and eating it with a spoon.

---

Living Single

I took an initial interest in Living Single because I’d heard it was one of the inspirations for Friends. I never really got into Friends, so I thought I’d give this show a try instead.

It always comes as a shock when I remember not all shows were made when I was a fully formed adult. Times were different, and you can feel that almost immediately. It’s not just the fashion or the set design that gives it away. There are cultural markers and values throughout the show that make the humor feel sharper.

Not necessarily because every joke is more clever, but because the characters are willing to be brutally honest with one another. If you dropped a modern sitcom character into Living Single, they’d probably cry.

The cast teases each other relentlessly, and somehow that makes their friendships feel more believable. Watching it made me realize how much sitcom writing has changed. In Living Single, a character will cut another’s throat with a witty one-liner about their career or dating life. In many modern sitcoms, those sharper edges have been sanded down. Instead, you get an antagonistic pout or a reassuring pat on the shoulder that doesn’t always feel as earned because the dynamics are so much softer.

The cast has wonderful chemistry—some pairings more than others, and I think that’s true to life. I’m not sure people are quite this harsh in real life, but I think those moments are exaggerated just enough for entertainment, which makes the quieter, softer moments feel deserved.

I also think there must have been a sitcom formula in the ’90s. You had the group of friends living in the city, the lovable but chaotic family in the suburbs, and workplace comedies where everyone’s relationships revolved around the office. As I watch Living Single, I can see how it inspired so many of the shows that came after it, but I can also see how it was inspired by the sitcoms that came before it.

At the end of the day, I love this show. I think I’m somewhere around Season 2, Episode 20.

---

Father’s Day

There were a lot of moving parts to this because I kept adding things to the gift list. Originally, it was only supposed to be a doughnut bar, but it quickly grew into something much bigger.

I go to a gym class where the trainer specializes in postpartum strength and recovery. She had this really cute idea to have the kids take pictures holding the letters A and D so that, when you put them together, they spelled the word “Dad.” You frame the photos, and just like that, you have a Father’s Day gift.

So I did exactly that.

While I was looking for frames at the dollar store, I came across this massive Father’s Day card. Honestly, it was obnoxious. When I put it in the car, I had to stand it on its side because it almost took up the entire back seat.

I was very pleased with myself.

The other gift was a hoodie. My husband is definitely a hoodie-and-sweatshirt kind of guy. Earlier that month, we’d gone out to eat, and he accidentally left his favorite sweatshirt on the roof of the car before driving away.

It was gone.

So I decided to replace it, but not with just any hoodie.

When we were planning our baby shower, we’d originally wanted custom hoodies made for the family as party favors. The whole process became overwhelming, and we eventually gave up on the idea. My husband thought I’d gotten rid of the design.

I hadn’t.

I had a local print shop make the hoodie at the last minute, and somehow they pulled it off before Father’s Day weekend. It turned out so cute. My husband got a little emotional, which is rare for him, and that made the whole thing worth it.

The doughnuts, however, were another story.

I keep several different kinds of flour in the house, and I accidentally used cake flour instead of all-purpose flour. Like anyone who keeps an excessive variety of baking flours, I immediately panicked.

Eventually, I landed on a flour ratio that didn’t completely ruin everything. I do plan to make the recipe again with the correct flour because I was aiming for a Krispy Kreme-style doughnut…

…and ended up somewhere between a bagel and a doughnut.

I’m going to keep working on it.

Looking back, June wasn’t the month I’d planned, but it ended up giving me something better than a perfect calendar. It gave me Elm Ridge. I’m excited to finally open the town’s doors this July and see where the road leads.