October 2018 recap!

Happy Thursday and Happy November!! I will fully admit that it's not my favourite month, but I do enjoy the lead-up to Christmas! We don't even have a fun Thanksgiving holiday to anticipate in November since Canadian Thanksgiving is in October, but that's okay! I am looking forward to some cozy nights this month and a bit less of the hectic go-go-go that was September and October. Linking up today with one of my VERY FAVOURITES Kristen for What's New with You?

October was a complete and total whirlwind, as I knew it would be. :) We spent lots of time at playgrounds when it wasn't raining (it rained A LOT this month), we soaked up some Celtic Colours music online, we celebrated Thanksgiving, we went to the zoo and apple picking with some friends, I organized and helped to pull off my daughter's school's Halloween Howl event (so much work but turned out so well), I made Halloween costumes, we got a chance to wear said costumes 6 times....etc etc. Here are a few pictures:

A zonkey at the zoo, Lucy's dragon costume, Molly as Anne of Green Gables, and our jack o lanterns this year!

At the playground, riding a horse at the zoo

My library's return slot this month for Halloween, eating spider donuts after getting the flu shot

Apple picking and the zoo with friends (the white squares are not my children)

Brian and I also made it out on a date night (dinner and then bowling with some friends), I saw Port Cities live with Symphony Nova Scotia, and saw A Star is Born with a friend <--- it was SO good, fyi. The girls did their last race of the season too! We said goodbye to our 2004 Honda Civic and yesterday we completed the paperwork and took home a 2016 Toyota Corolla (exciting but car shopping is sooo stressful and I hate it).

When I wasn't busy doing all of those things, I continued to declutter our home, did some yoga and running, read a lot of fun books, and then I read Harry Potter & The Philosopher's Stone to my family for the first time! Brian isn't a reader so he has never read the books though he has seen all the movies so he knows the basic storyline. He was hooked on listening to me read them, which was awesome. ;) Molly (age 7) had been begging me to read Harry Potter to her and I originally thought she was a bit too young but we gave the illustrated edition a try and she LOVED it. She was trying to figure out what was going to happen, she laughed at the right parts, she asked important questions, and we read the whole (not short) book in less than a week until my voice was almost hoarse haha. She is 100% obsessed and I love that. The second we finished the book, she said, "can we start the next one right now?!" (we haven't yet, but we will). We then watched the first movie and she loved that too, but she agrees that the book is better #winning. We are also going to start reading the original Nancy Drew books soon and I anticipate that being amazing too.

That's our month in a nutshell - being a PTO mom (volunteering at the school), eating some candy, reading, and seeing friends. Such a great month :) Here's a quick video of the band I saw live - I am loving this song:


I'll be back tomorrow with 14 things I am looking forward to in November! :) What's new with you?!?! Don't forget to hop on over to Kristen's blog for the link up!

Hello, October (goals)

I honestly don't know where September went, but I know it flew by in a flash. I think this is the case for a lot of parents, but we don't even have school-aged kids yet!! I guess life is just busy ;) I did manage to read a lot of books in September, and I can't wait to share them soon! I don't think I watched a single movie though...but hoping to watch one or two with Brian this weekend.

October is a great month in Nova Scotia. The leaves change colour, Thanksgiving is October 12 so we get a holiday with family AND turkey dinner!! and then Halloween at the end of the month. In Calgary when I was growing up, it would also usually snow by the end of October, but not so much here in Halifax!! The weather is usually beautiful, and this year has been no exception (save for a pretty windy/rainy day today).

This quote makes me want to re-read Anne of Green Gables :)

Today I wanted to share some goals that I have for the month of October.

1) Finish my first 10km race since 2009 in under 70 minutes on October 25.
2) Do some updates to my blog
3) Compile a perfect fall playlist (and sort out my running playlist for the race)
4) Stick to our meal plan and grocery budget
5) Try 3 new fall recipes - I am thinking of this pumpkin delight dessert, this butternut squash soup with chickpeas and this chopped salad. Here's another awesome round up of fall recipes.
6) Be less absent-minded. In the past week and a half, I dropped my cell phone and shattered the screen ($100 to fix but it's ok now), lost my driver's license and credit card somewhere unknown to me, and forgotten my lunch at home twice. I need to get my mind out of the clouds and focus on being a bit better organized.
7) Make an effort to stay off my phone more when the kids are awake

I think this will keep me busy enough for this month. I think October is a great month to pursue some new goals because we're almost into the "holiday season" but it's not winter weather yet so it is PERFECT for running and working out, it's not as busy as September so that excuse is gone, and although pumpkin spiced blah blah blah is everywhere, pumpkins can be healthy too!! :)

Friday Favourites tomorrow with Amanda!!