End of the month list update: September & October

Here's the rundown for the last couple months of list items, interspersed with mostly relevant photos (some better quality than others...):

Strengthen my core:  I'm learning how to belly dance. I mentioned this before, but I never really explained. A ninety-three-year-old woman who goes to my church called and formally invited me to participate in a belly dancing class. Obviously you can't say no to something like that, so now my Friday mornings consist of learning to move my ribcage independently from the rest of my body and trying to shimmy my shoulders without shaking my booty, or vice versa as the case may be. It is hard. It also the single best thing I've ever done for my lower back, yoga included. And my midsection is starting to look good...especially for having squoze out a giant baby only six months ago. I'm converted.

Wear sequins: I asked the Facebooks if gold sequined TOMS were something I would actually wear. The answer was a resounding yes, and you know what? Facebook was right. I wear these babies almost every day. They are my new favorite thing. Of course the one time I tried to photograph them--on a hayride, of all things--Mila wanted to get in on the action.

Learn to play something new on the piano: My piano skills are pretty limited, and practicing only a few measures at a time (before the baby starts screaming to be picked up) or the whole piece one-handed (because I'm holding the baby in the other) is not ideal. Nevertheless, I'm making slow progress. Maybe I should have chosen something a little less ambitious? Like anything not by Ben Folds...

Make/acquire more holiday decorations: A styrofoam skull, a fake bird, some googly eyes, cardstock bats, and a truckload of little pumpkins have Halloween pretty much taken care of. And while this print is very Halloweeny, I may leave it up year-round because I love it so.

I plan to put away the bats and skeletons and add some other squashes and maybe some dried purple corn cobs for Thanksgiving. Christmas is still a work in progress, but Hobby Lobby keeps putting their holiday stuff on crazy clearance, so I'm slowly gathering pieces I like on the cheap. Woo.

Work out a cleaning schedule and stick to it: David and I are now on a weekly dishes rotation and that seems to be working out. It's my week, and the sink is piling up, but I know it's my turn to deal with it and I will. I am trying to figure out a rewards system for adults--like sticker charts with prizes for kids--but am struggling to find sufficient rewards for motivation. It's hard to say, "If I get thirty stickers, I can get myself a new sweater," when you could really just go out and buy it, stickers notwithstanding. Any suggestions here would be helpful.

Incorporate more vegetarian meals into my repertoire: Made this cauliflower soup. Subbed vegetable broth for chicken. We all loved it. Even better, it freezes well. Score!

Eat at five new-to-me restaurants: For our anniversary we went to the White Chocolate Grill in Scottsdale. I got the fish of the day (a blackened something or other) and David got the ribs, then we shared a white chocolate brownie, and I stand by what I said on Instagram: all subsequent food has been slightly disappointing. It was SO GOOD. I want to eat there every day.

For my friend Emily's birthday, we met up with her and some of her friends at The Living Room, which is a hipstery wine bar. The patio eating areas are set up like somebody's living room, and we had to perch our meals on tiny little coffee tables. The food was good and quite pretty, but the atmosphere wasn't really conducive to socializing in a large group. I'd recommend it for a date maybe, just for the novelty of it, but it's not at the top of my list of places you have to try.

Bake 30 cakes: In September I made a cinnamon roll swirl cake, a chocolate cake with peanut butter mousse, and a green velvet sheet cake. In October I made a chocolate magic cake, a brown sugar bundt with salted caramel glaze, and a bloody devil's food cake for Halloween. That leaves only seven cakes left before the end of the year, which is totally feasible! (Yes, I can do math. I've already made another one but I haven't yet blogged about it, so while you've only seen 22, I'm counting 23. Insert superfluous teaser photo here.)

Host three parties: We had some friends over for a Halloween shindig last weekend. It wasn't remotely Pinterest-worthy, on account of I don't have the time for that kind of stuff, but it was fun evening anyway. And my friend Lydia set up a photo booth so we could all take pics in our costumes.

But what was my costume, you ask? You see that little moon on the left shoulder of my dress? That's no moon.

David made me a Millennium Falcon dress. He made it. From scratch. My husband is the bomb. He wants to write a post with all the details of both of our costumes, so stay tuned for that!

Attend some local events: I went to another Blogger Meetup, which I blogged about here. And I took the girls to a pumpkin patch, which I did not blog about, and which wasn't exactly an event, but it's a local, seasonal thing, so I'm counting it.

Make more playdates for Mila: I've traded girls with a friend a couple times--she brought her daughter over to play one day; I took Mila over there another day--and the girls had a blast. I also signed Mila up for an art class through the city. It's not a playdate in the strictest sense, but she's spending time with other kids while they play with paint and glue and construction paper, so it has been good for her socially. I like that it gives us something fun to look forward to each week. And she is just so cute painting in her little smock. When that class ends, she'll start another one that is more dance/play oriented, and I'm really looking forward to it. City parks and rec stuff is the best.

Svithe once a month: I skipped September (boo) but wrote a quick one in October (yay).

Truthishly, the last two months have been rough, as I've mentioned already. I'm proud of myself for crossing so many things off, though, and am looking forward to doing even more as we move into the holiday season. I have plans for a few more items--local events I want to check out, a family tradition to start, and bread to bake now that it's cooling off--and am already brainstorming a list for 2014. What do you think I should try next year?