Doing the list updates like this have been very helpful… and like the weather we have been getting in Melbourne… Spring seems to be here in tiny little bursts between full on Summer and Winter… and waiting until the end of Spring seems like too long to wait… so here is the List update for the first part of Spring…. Oh but before we get into that you may have noticed in the Winter update that I included my daily photos for each month… this year rather than putting them all in one blog like I have done in previous years I thought it would actually be better to include it in these… so I have been back and added it to Summer and Autumn too and here you will get to see my photos from September and October.

September

I love Spring… I love it’s brightness, it’s hope, the birds, the flowers and it’s unpredictability… it’s probably the only change I actually enjoy… Spring just feels good… to start Spring off we crossed 5 things off the list in September…

We were able to harvest some veggies from our veggie patch (no. 51, completed 14/09) and while our carrots were a little unconventional in appearance they were delicious. We have also been working on making sure that our house has been deliberately filled with lovely things (no. 47 completed: 22/09)… so much so that we have reorganised the house, swapping the play area and the TV areas around. With the new set up our TV is tucked up on top of the piano out of the way, leaving the stereo and a much more open space in our living area which also crosses no. 92 off the list (completed: 22/09). Isaac and Dave have also been picking flowers for the house which it not only adorable, it’s nice for the house… and just this week our roses have started coming in so there are lots more flowers to come.

September also brought us the school holidays where Dave and I got to brunch together one morning while Isaac was at childcare (no. 67 completed: 25/09) at this super cute homestead in Rowville and with Isaac we returned to science works crossing off no. 10 finally using the museum enough to justify the cost of our memberships (completed: 26/09). I love taking Isaac to the museum, especially science works and this trip was no different, we saw the Lego exhibition and Isaac loved building up the walls with Duplo.

October

October has been a BIG listing month I took a break from social media (no. 55 which you can read about here, completed: 27/10) and after running the half marathon (which was no. 11 on the list and you can read about that here) I had a bit more time up my sleeves and being October a small amount of panic about the volume of tasks that are still left to be completed on the list… so I’ve been doing a lot, getting stuff done and as a result it’s been a good listing month with another 7 things off the list…

Being back on the bookclub train I finally finished my 7th book for the year (no. 25 completed: 06/10)… I have really enjoyed reading some more… here’s the first 7 books I read… hopefully I can still fit a few more in before the end of the year:

• The Library Book, Susan Orlean
• The Clockmaker’s Daughter, Kate Morton
• Rivers of London, Ben Aaronovitch
• Fight Like a Girl,
• The Last House Guest, Megan Miranda
• Whisper Network, Chandler Baker
• Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Gail Honeyman

Just like in the mass media, the climate, the world and all the problems we are going to face unless we make some changes have been on my mind this year… well more than just this year, but it seems to be more and more as time goes on. Over the last couple of years we have been consistently making little changes, last year we finally got a compost bin, we recycled some old VHS taps and CDs and got more deliberate about creating less waste… this year we have continued all of these changes but there is always more to do right… so one of the things we have started doing this year is living without tea bags at home. I love tea and I have lots of loose leaf tea at home, but because tea bags are so convenient I never used any of it, unless I felt like being a bit fancy… I thought I was doing the right thing too because I was even composting my tea bags… but I learnt that not all tea bags are compostable and in my tea of choice the tea bags still contain plastic… so rather than just start throwing them out I decided that it was time to swap to loose leaf. It took a little while to adjust, but I feel like we have adapted… it takes a little more time, it’s a tiny bit more fiddly, but the tea is still delicious, no. 90 is off the list and there is no longer accidentally plastic in my compost bin (completed: 17/10).

Dave and I also got to hang out with one of our best buds Brad and we played phase 10 for the first time in years… just because it was on the list, and it was just like it was years and years ago, the competition was fierce and Dave was cheating, but that was no. 75 (completed 19/10).

To round out the month of October, Isaac and I went on a brunch date (no. 66, completed: 31/10) and it was excellent… I really like these little dates we have… he is such a sweet little dude and his love for baby chinos is real! At our little date he got to try dippy eggs for the first time… he loved them…. there may still be hope for number 93 on the list… so watch this space.

Oh and… as I mentioned in the Autumn update, there is a large Star Trek hole in my life… my brother recommended that I try and fill it with Doctor Who and so I added no. 34 to the list (completed: 26/10)… look I’m not in love with it yet… and maybe I just need to give it more time, but I am 5 episodes in and it’s just not the same…

Ok so now we are in November… two months to go and a heck of a lot of items still on the list…