Wednesday, July 1, 2026

Sparkling – What is currently “sparkling” in your life? Beside my personality (haha), I like sparkling wine like prosecco. I also bought and have been enjoying Waterloo sparkling water in summer berry flavor. Stay tuned for another prosecco idea I am planning!

Grilling/Cooking – I am cooking a lot of salmon, sheet pan fajitas – love me a sheet pan meal!

Heating up – The temps for sure! After a really nice June temperature wise (we did have lots of rain), we all knew it was coming. I will need to get outside earlier now. I wrote a post a long time ago about how to beat the heat and I plan to employ some of these things now that we are in the “armpit of summer”.

Using – Chobani creamers. Chobani, call me. I can be your ambassador. I still haven’t made it to Aldi, but Target has the best selection. My new favorite is toasted coconut vanilla.

I just discovered Cookie Butter and it’s so good, too!

I totally credit these creamers and my frother for saving me tons of money in hot and iced coffees.

Celebrating – Our country’s 250th birthday of course! July is also a big birthday for my mother in law and it’s my wedding anniversary.

And, now for Hodgepodge with Joyce…

1. What do you love most about your country? 

I really do feel that the “American Dream” is still alive. We have a huge Cuban population in my city and so many have become small business owners. Do you know what life was like in Cuba for them? Ask any Cuban what it’s like here compared to there and you will literally cry. I had precious Cuban students in my classes. They tended to put native speakers of Spanish in my classes to give them an “easy class” or to help them learn English. One girl was going back to Cuba for Spring Break and taking an entire suitcase of basic toiletries for her family.

I love that people still have relative freedom here and can freely share ideas. I think we have a beautiful country full of beautiful landscapes.

2. Your favorite patriotic song? 

“America, the Beautiful” – also, I tend to cry when I hear a patriotic song.

3. Red, white, or blue? Stars or stripes? Something you own besides a US flag with some combination of those colors or decorations as part of its design? 

How can you pick just one? I like all three colors and both stars and stripes! I own clothing, decor, papergoods, and probably a few more things.

4. What’s one thing you want more of this summer: fun, rest, adventure, connection, quiet, or confidence? Elaborate. 

I feel like I had a year of rest and quiet and maybe even confidence in my new stage of life.

I want more fun, adventure, and connection.

I hope to continue learning to slow down and live in the moment instead of thinking of the next thing that is coming. Are you like that, too? Sometimes I am busy thinking of what’s next.

5. What was your ultimate, go-to summer activity when you were a kid? Do you still do any version of that today? If you answered yes, does participating in this activity as an adult make you feel like a kid?  

This is such a good question and something I love to talk about. Swimming! I still swim whenever I have the chance. Water is so healing!

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

We don’t have any big plans for the 4th but we hope to take the boat out. I like to make these waffle pretzel Rolo things.

I like to buy seasonal products.

I found these cute little star pretzel crackers that would be good for charcuterie boards.

This is delicious! My sisters and I made a cocktail with this and Nerds gummy clusters.

This year, I want to try this strawberry pretzel salad dip.

And, I’ve already bought my bomb pops! I’m so excited to try this!

Please join us for Currently here!

Amy

29 thoughts on “July Currently + Hodgepodge”

  1. That strawberry pretzel dip looks yummy! I rarely get to try new recipes for the 4th as we’re often expected to bring the same thing year after year to our family lake party… though it looks like we’re deviating slightly this year by just bringing a whole lot less than normal (which I’m fine with!).

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  2. That sparkling water sounds good and yum to what you have been cooking! I am determined to find some of those Chobani creamers or something similar here in England! Those pretzel Rolo things look yummy and the strawberry pretzel dip!

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    1. It is! Thank you! I hope you can find them! There are also some recipes for making your own brown sugar creamer and flavors like that. You start with heavy cream or half and half. Love the pretzel rolo combo!

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  3. I like seasonal products, too, like crackers or pasta shaped festively. The strawberry pretzel dip looks amazing. I will Google that. I wish Cuban voices could be amplified more. To think that there are many young in this country who think Communism is a good idea. NO! I wish educators in high school did civics lessons that highlighted the truth about Communism. We are in the heat dome as well. Eeks! Your temps are probably hotter than ours…

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    1. I am a marketers dream with the holiday shaped products. There are American flag crackers out now! You are so right – people be saying communism good and Cubans be saying wt beep are you talking about? I felt it was my mission as a Spanish teacher to talk about current events in the Spanish speaking world. I always let my Cuban students share stories. One girl told the class that you got one loaf of bread a week and it was $5 and didn’t matter how big your family was.

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  4. I love that Chobani coconut vanilla creamer! Target here also has the best selection, but I rarely buy them since they’re so expensive. Your bomb pop drink looks delicious…and so does the strawberry pretzel dip. I have never had that– strawberry pretzel salad, but I would love to try it soon. The boat at Party Cove on the fourth sounds like a blast! See what I did there? I’m like you with swimming, and try to participate in that every time I’m able. I love to be in the water, and I believe it’s healing too! I do a lot of stretching and swimming laps when I’m in a pool. It’s great exercise! Thanks for hosting us today!

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    1. It works in hot or iced coffee, too! I know – they really are. But, hear me out. One Chobani creamer is less than a coffee out at Starbuck’s or 7 Brew. I have never tried the dip or the bomb pop yet – stole those ideas. The original pretzel salad has Jell-O, I think. I bought the bomb pops and I have the prosecco so maybe tonight I will do a trial run!
      Yes – exactly. We are hoping our besties can go on the boat with us that day. If not, it will just be us and 200 of our closest boating friends in the cove!

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    2. Forgive me if I already replied but I agree they are expensive but it’s less than one coffee out so I justify it! Strawberry pretzel salad with Jell-O is pretty popular around here. It’s a pain to make due to the Jell-O! I agree – swimming is such good exercise!

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  5. Some things that you Americans eat are a bit strange to me… like that strawberry pretzel dip? What is that!? And why? 😀

    It’s so much more fun to check out the items that you blog about when I’m here and can go buy them! 😀 The kids (sorry, I mean the young women in my household) are crazy about the coffee creamers which we don’t have in Europe. The fridge is full of them… 😀 I tried a very strange but good combo of ice coffee and blueberry creamer! And have you tried Starbuck’s Iced Horchata Shaken Espresso? So yummy!

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    1. It’s based on a strawberry Jell-O salad that is kind of popular.
      Haha – glad you are enjoying that aspect of blog + American life. The blueberry seemed weird to me so I didn’t try it. Maybe I should!
      I haven’t tried that yet. I had a toasted coconut iced coffee yesterday and it was good.

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  7. I said swimming too! So so healing and relaxing- I don’t do it enough. That strawberry dip looks amazing-will have to give that a shot this summer. I will link up with Currently tomorrow 🙂

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  8. My daughter and I like the different creamer flavors too. That pretzel salad looks good too. Have a fun time on the boat and a happy 4th of July.

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  9. Yum!!! I love strawberry pretzel dessert so that dip looks good! We haven’t reached 100 degree temps yet but we are supposed to in July. No plans yet for the 4th but I am trying to figure out which fireworks display in our area we are going to watch!

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    1. I am going to try to make it today or tomorrow! We won’t stay out that late – lol. I just don’t want to be around tons of people and don’t want to get stuck in traffic.

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  10. I really enjoyed your post. Have you tried the Pellegrino sparkling water(s)? They are so good. Wishing you a beautiful day.

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  11. I think living in another country, even a place like England, gives you a whole new appreciation for the USA. That is so interesting that Louisville has a big Cuban population.

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  13. We’ll be at a wedding on the 4th and were encouraged to dress in the colors of the day. I’m looking forward to seeing all the colorful attire. I had a friend in NJ whose family fled Iran in the dark of night in the 70’s with basically nothing but the clothes on their back. Her dad was a pharmacist but ended up driving a cab in Mexico initially until they could get through the process of coming in to the US legally. Talk to anyone from Venezuela too. Americans who haven’t spent any time outside of the US make a lot of assumptions about what life is like in other countries. I like the pretzel salad so am sure that dip would be good. Our 4th will look different but we’re just rolling with it and I’m sure it will be lots of fun. Enjoy the day!

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  14. I’m afraid all my answers to the Currently were rather ho-hum! And, I had to post a day late because I had to do Gallery of Style. I am not a big celebrator of July 4th. You’ll have to read my post to discover why because I don’t want to be Debbie Downer on yours!

    https://marshainthemiddle.com/

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