Liz Cultivates | L.M. Fern

And so we continue with our regular motivational check-ins. July was a pretty active month for me, with vacations, garden work, and flexing my creative muscles in myriad ways. It felt really good to see the fruits of what I’ve been working toward — both literally and figuratively. The big picture that we started drawing in January is really starting to slide into focus, with each month deepening some of the images — brighter, deeper, with more dimension.

Here’s what I’ve been up to.

Vacation vibes

In July, I took a week off work and away from responsibilities to visit with family in West Virginia. It was a wonderful six days. I helped my mom, brother, and gramma make batches and batches of fudge, cleaned my gramma’s house, visited bookstores and antique shops, and spent time with people who matter to me the most.

The trip to West Virginia was good for my body, my brain, and my soul. Good food, good time spent with family. Truly a rejuvenating experience. When I returned from the trip, I felt the absence of burnout. Like, a hot fan that had been blowing in my face that was suddenly ripped from the power source, leaving me in utter stillness.

Writing & Reading

During my vacation in the middle of the month, I wanted to get a bit of writing done. I ended up not doing much writing at all, but I was able to have a long conversation with my cousin, who is also a writer. We talked about the end of my book, looked at it from lots of different angles . . . She asked the best questions, which made me really think about what I was doing and what I wanted out of the story. I have so much to think about and so much to write. I’m so excited! Stay tuned for more about this, because I’m about to have fun with tropes.

I also worked on my reading backlog and helped my mom pick out her latest read (the first Dungeon Crawler Carl book, which is also on my TBR). I’m working on The Silmarillion and on (as ever) The Way of Kings (the end is in sight!).

Gardening for myself

The garden really took off this month. I am still in awe that things I put in the ground will produce fruit, and not only that, but the fruit is delicious — the cherry tomatoes I had with my lunch today were so good, y’all. The zucchini plants are suffering from vine borers, but I will have at least two pumpkins this year, and my experimental trellis is doing pretty well so far.

I have to decide what I want to plant in the fall — I’m thinking broccoli (since I didn’t get any this spring) and maybe some butternut squash. Definitely garlic. Maybe some more lettuce or spinach.

For the rest of August…

I know this installment of the monthly goals list has been extremely late (as it’s now August 14). Take that as a testament to all the good things that happened and that keep happening. I’m truly not trying to be one of those “rose-colored glasses” influencers; I am instead working on being more positive and bringing that positivity into the things I do every day (not just on the internet). It can be easy to get caught up in the perceived need to be “happy” and “always improving” and “achieving goals.” But sometimes, it’s okay to just be for a while.

And I’ll be happy with that.