There’s a LOT going on in my family in July!!

Going to Beaufort, NC for July 4th with Will’s side of the fam
My Dad turns 70 on July 10th!
My little brother is getting married on July 17th!
My sister is due to have her baby… also on July 17th! (prayyyying I can make it there in time!)
We have a week trip planned to Nashville at the end of the month as well, to visit the new baby!

So my goals are to keep my body healthy, my little family alive and happy, to pack and unpack several times, and to make time move my body, to read, to plan ahead for the next quarter, and get my laptop organized.

Also to eat a million peaches and lots of cold, sweet watermelon and make a blueberry cobbler and homemade icecream!

July Goals

Read The Nightingale
Read Digital Minimalism
Q3 Planning with Sammy Jo
Laptop File Cleanup
Workout 3x a week

Also, I’m super proud of having all of my podcast episodes already recorded and done for this month AS OF THIS MORNING, July 1st. My plan is to rest, to learn a LOT, to teach what I’ve learned, and to plan for Q3. I’m pumped. Here’s what’s comin on the pod:

Ep 70: A recap of Crucial Conversations - an extraordinary book. You’ll want to bookmark this podcast episode to come back to when you need to have a hard conversation. Trust me.

Ep 71: 5 ways to make the most of the rest of your summer

Ep 72: What I’ve recently learned about fear

Ep 73: Rhythms and Mindset with Allie Casazza

Here’s to making the most of this exciting summer month!

Just for fun, (since every blogger sometimes wonders… does anyone still read this thing?) choose one of these 3 Q’s and answer in the comments!

What’s your favorite summer fruit?
Does your family have anything special going on?
Tell me about a favorite July tradition!

A little about me—Nancy Ray!

In case you are new here, I thought it might be fun to share a little bit about me!

• My husband and I got married at 21 & 22, while I was still in college!

• I’m a 3 with a 4 wing on the enneagram.

• I’ve run 3 half marathons and hope to run a full marathon one day.

• Motherhood scared me and I fought it for a long long time. Thankfully, by God’s grace, I’m now a mama of 3 beautiful girls. (I am meeting my 3rd girl so soon! Due: Dec 10) **Update: We had a surprise baby BOY!**

• I LOVE my morning routine, but it hasn’t always been that way. These days my routine is pretty simple: Coffee, Scripture, Prayer and a lit candle.

• My husband and I paid off our house when we were 25 & 26! We are huge Dave Ramsey nerds and love debt freedom. This year we bought another house and are back in debt, but working fervently to pay this one off in a year or two!

• I’ve always loved photography. I started out taking pictures of my horse figurines set up in creeks when I was in middle school (lol!)… you gotta start somewhere! I am so grateful to do work that I love.

• I wasn’t always a reader, and I still don’t pick up a book “for fun.” I schedule in the time for reading because I truly do love it and it changes me. But it’s a discipline I have to plan for!

• I became a follower of Jesus when I was 11 on June 22. 10 years later, I married Will on June 22. 22 is my favorite number because of these incredibly important decisions, and June 22 is the most special day in my heart.

• Will and I were in musicals together in High School, and we still love musical theater! We were in Sound of Music (He was Rolph, I was a nun), Oklahoma (He was Curly, I was Ado Annie), The Wiz (He was the Tinman, I was Dorothy), and West Side Story (I was Anita, and he had graduated!).

• I’ve read through the Bible twice, and I can’t wait to read through it again.

Congratulations Katie Venters !!!!

You are the winner of the May is for Mamas Giveaway!! You should have heard from us by now, but if not, please email hello@nancyray.com with your mailing address so we can get everything to you!

A HUGE heartfelt thank you to everyone who participated. If nothing else, I hope you were introduced to some amazing mamas who do incredible work and speak messages of hope and encouragement!

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As I was spending time with the Lord this morning, praying over our nation, racism, white privilege, covid-19, and all the things heavy on my heart, I felt in my spirit one thing:

June 2020 is a turning point.

For good or for worse, it’s a turning point. I’m not saying everything will be fixed by the end of June. I don’t think it will be. I’m saying that things are coming to a head. Things are shifting. We are at the point where we have to choose fear or faith - it’s one or the other. The way things have been, or a new way.

When we go back to work, back to stores, back to restaurants.

When we face our white privilege, see our ignorance, see the riots and feel the heaviness - it’s forcing us into SOMETHING.

A shift.

It’s not easy, and it’s exposing a lot. So I’m inviting you to be part of the shift so we can steer this ship in a NEW direction. A better direction. Thinking practically about what I can do moving forward, I’ve committed to listen.

LISTEN.

That’s my word for June. To listen to my brothers and sisters of color.

One podcast episode that was helpful for me to hear was my friend Shunta’s episode: What you can do about racism. It came out today - June 1 - and it was very timely and so incredibly helpful for me.

Another local pastor I admire greatly is releasing his new book: There’s a Storm Comin’ : How the American church can lead through times of racial crisis on June 10th. I’m hoping to read the whole thing this month.

That’s just the start. I want to just quiet myself, learn, and listen.

Here are the rest of my June goals:

June Goals

Finish reading Crucial Conversations
Read There’s a Storm Comin’ : How the American church can lead through times of racial crisis
Clean out the kids books and order The Skin I’m in, MLK Jr, and We’re different we’re the same
Order 2018 Family Year Book
Edit 2019 Photos (almost caught up!)
Celebrate 12 years of marriage with Will!