In the past I used to recap every week. That was hard to maintain, however, so now my strategy is to recap on the 1st of the month, and then again on the 15th of the month. This seems easier to manage, I think.
So, let's recap on everything, starting with what's been going on with my life!
Life Recap
Well, it's been a busy couple of weeks, let me tell you! I'm now 27 weeks pregnant and I feel like a walrus. I've started to waddle and I can now rest my coffee mug on top of my belly. I also rarely sleep through the whole night anymore (I literally wake up at 3 am every morning and can't fall back asleep), and the heat and humidity are making me miserable!
There's more pain now as well. The ligaments around my hips now hurt by late afternoon/evening if I'm standing up and moving for too long, to the point where I can barely walk without pain; not a good thing if you're a dance teacher who works in the evenings! Swimming's not helping, and I have to take it easy when I'm dancing, which can get incredibly frustrating because I'm usually a very energetic teacher/dancer.
Luckily, I seem to have found a solution. It seems that the pain I'm experiencing might be related to posterior pelvic pain, so I looked online for some easy exercises to do to help strengthen and stretch the area. I try to do them in the morning and evening each day. So far, the exercises seem to be working...I hope!
As for swimming.....well, I'm still loving the exercise and the ease of movement in water, but the outdoor pool season is coming to a close (nooooo!), so now I need to find a decent indoor pool to swim in. I've checked memberships for various nearby gyms in the area that have indoor pools, and I've tried to find places that include a daycare for infants and kids if I need someone to keep an eye on little Jack in the future. Now I think I've found the gym I want to use: LA Fitness, come on down! It has a daycare, there's a promotional subscription going on that is pretty reasonable, it offers classes as well as lots of exercise equipment, and there's an indoor pool (it's not the best pool I've found, but so long as it's functional, I'm happy). Plus, it's so close to where I live, I could practically walk there! For now, it has everything I need, so we'll see!
Life has been busy in other ways as well. I made my first ever wedding cake last weekend. A wedding couple that had been taking dance lessons from my brother for the past year learned of my cake decorating hobby, and asked me to make their wedding cake; a cake to feed 130 people, I might add.
Mind you, I've never made a wedding cake before. I've done tiered cakes before, but never one that was meant to be eaten! It was an exciting prospect for me, especially since I've been toying with the idea of creating a small cake/baking business from home, and this would be an excellent test.
We did a little taste test, figured out the design and size, and I did a lot, I mean a lot of planning to figure out how to make this cake without stressing out too much.
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| All of the cakes trying to stay cool in my fridge |
The wedding was on Friday. I literally starting baking on Tuesday, and making gigantic batches of frosting on Wednesday. After days of baking, making, assembling, cleaning and washing (oh my god, so much cleaning!), I finally reached the end with an hour to spare so I could shower and change for the wedding.
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| The main cake once the icing was all done |
At last came the moment to deliver my wedding cake debut. The day was hot (86 degrees), and the venue was very warm. The main cake was put on display in the middle of the hall, while the extra cakes were left in their carrying cases in the catering section of the room. Things looked good when I left the cake to go to the beach ceremony. I felt nice and relaxed.
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| How the cake looked....before it started melting |
.....So of course the main cake melted.
Ugh! It was a baker's nightmare! There was literally nothing I could have done to improve it. The frosting just wasn't up to the task and the frosting just fell away from the sides of half of the cake. Nothing I did to repair it worked (the other cakes were fortunately fine in their cases, and didn't suffer in the heat until it was time to take them out and serve them). In retrospect, I should have asked more about the venue when we were planning the cake, so that I could plan with the caterer to have an icebox of some sort, or at least research different methods of stabilizing my frosting without affecting the taste, but hey! I was a rookie and made a rookie mistake.
The cake still tasted pretty good, and overall I enjoyed making something for a large event, and it was definitely an educational experience..... but I'm definitely going to have to shelve the at-home cake business for a while. The baking/making part was fine, but keeping my kitchen clean for that whole week was a nightmare! I don't see myself handling all that with a baby on top of it all; it would be a little too overwhelming. Plus my hands are still pretty sore and cramped from all that mixing; I'm pretty sure I'd eventually develop carpal tunnel through all of this.
Well, that's what's going on in my life! So let's move on to my reading recap, shall we?
Reading Recap
Well, so far I'm not really following that reading plan I set up two weeks ago. I kinda figured this would happen. Making the wedding cake really interfered with being able to sit down and physically read a book. I've only been able to listen to audiobooks so far this month. However, I was still able to finish quite a few audiobooks because I've had so much time to listen to them (keeping the house clean while I made the cake, actually making and decorating the cake, waking up randomly in the middle of the night and feeling bored, etc.)
At this point, I've finished 4 books, all of which were re-reads (let's face it, re-reads are ideal when you're decorating a cake). Here they are:
Title: Eragon (Inheritance #1)
Author: Christopher Paolini
Date Finished: August 6
Rating: ★★★★★
Quick Review: A fun YA fantasy re-read. I'm still impressed by how young Paolini was when he first wrote this.
Full Review | Goodreads | Audible
Title: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (Millennium #1)
Author: Stieg Larsson
Date Finished: August 8
Rating: ★★★★★
Quick Review: Definitely a huge favorite of mine! I love Lisbeth Salander.
Full Review | Goodreads | Audible
Title: The Girl Who Played With Fire (Millennium #2)
Author: Stieg Larsson
Date Finished: August 10
Rating: ★★★★★
Quick Review: An exciting sequel that makes you want to keep reading
Full Review | Goodreads | Audible
Title: The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest (Millennium #3)
Author: Stieg Larsson
Date Finished: August 14
Rating: ★★★★★
Quick Review: The courtroom scene towards the end of the book was absolutely brilliant. 'Nuff said.
Full Review | Goodreads | Audible
Blog Recap
Every once in a while, I sift through this blog and try to re-organize things. Sometimes it's a minor change or two, other times it's a major overhaul.
This time it's somewhere in the middle. I've finally updated my "Book Favorites" Page! Yup, I've finally gone through all of my favorite reads, and set up a nice, simple format to display them on this blog. Go ahead and check it out! Either click on the "My Book Favorites" tab above, or just click here!
Well that's it for recaps, so let's move on to my goals for the remainder of this month.
Goals For This Month
For Life:
Well, for the rest of this month, I'm taking it fairly easy. My main plans are reading, eating well, and exercising, as well as catching up on the household chores that I didn't have time to do last week. I'm also trying to focus on my job; I need to save as much money as I can before Little Jack comes! (That's the problem with being your own boss--you don't get paid maternity leave)
For This Blog:
When I was cleaning up my Book Favorites Page, I discovered I haven't done a Favorites Spotlight blog post in years. I want to rectify that, so I'm going to try to write a Favorites Spotlight post before the month is out, as well as clean up the Favorite Spotlight posts that already exist.
For Reading:
According to Goodreads, I'm 8 books ahead of schedule in my 80-book reading challenge. Yay! I'm hoping to keep that up, since I have a hunch that I won't be able to read as much once Little Jack is born. My goal is to try and complete my reading challenge by the end of November, so that I won't have to worry about it while I'm adjusting to life with a brand new baby.(Secretly, though, I'd love to finish at least 90 books by the end of the year. How awesome would that be?!)
So, for this month, I'd like to hit the 10-book mark again. That would be fantastic! I loved having a reading schedule last month (it made figuring out my day so easy), so I made another one for the next couple of weeks, especially since I want to complete a few BOTMs this month (for those of you who don't recognize the lingo, BOTM stands for "Book Of The Month" for a book club). Here's my reading plan:
Audiobook Schedule
Into The Water, by Paula Hawkins
11.5 hours
Start: August 14 (reading now!)
End: August 17
Why I'm Reading This: This is a BOTM for one of the Goodreads book clubs I'm a member of
Eldest (Inheritance Cycle #2), by Christopher Paolini
23.5 hours long
Start: August 17
End: August 23
Why I'm Reading This: I already read the first one for fun, so I figured I'd just keep going with the rest of the series
Brisingr (Inheritance Cycle #3), by Christopher Paolini
29.6 hours long
29.6 hours long
Start: August 23
End: August 31
Why I'm Reading This: Second verse, same as the first!
End: August 31
Why I'm Reading This: Second verse, same as the first!
Hardcopy/Kindle Schedule
Main Street, by Sinclair Lewis
355 pages (Kindle edition)
Start: August 14 (working on it now)
End: August 20 (I'm hoping)
Why I'm Reading This: This is a BOTM for a book club. It's a classic, and I normally like a good classic, but I'm having difficulty getting through this one. I've been working on it all month so far, and I'm currently 131 pages in, but it's slow going. Here's hoping I can finish by the 20th!
The Bear And The Nightingale, by Katherine Arden
333 pages
Start: August 20
End: August 25
Why I'm Reading This: We went to a Renaissance Fair in Vermont back in June, and they were handing out free copies of this book to those of us who purchased tickets in advance. Let's just say I'm mildly intrigued.
333 pages
Start: August 20
End: August 25
Why I'm Reading This: We went to a Renaissance Fair in Vermont back in June, and they were handing out free copies of this book to those of us who purchased tickets in advance. Let's just say I'm mildly intrigued.
In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
343 pages
Start: August 25
End: August 31
Why I'm Reading This: It's yet another BOTM for yet another book club, but I've been meaning to read this for ages now, so why not?
343 pages
Start: August 25
End: August 31
Why I'm Reading This: It's yet another BOTM for yet another book club, but I've been meaning to read this for ages now, so why not?
Ok, I'm done! I've got a day off, I've got a cat on my lap, a cup of coffee on my tummy (decaf coffee, I can't wait until I can switch back to the caffeinated stuff!), and my Kindle is within reach. I think today is going to be a reading day!
Happy reading everyone!
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