# 14

14. Bake a pie for each Thanksgiving (2/3)

This year, I was planning on making all the desserts for dinner at my mom's house, but I started to not feel well during the week, and wasn't able to get it done. I might have been able to push through had I not known that my mom anticipated Peter making me too busy and bought a bunch of pies anyway. Those pies were not dairy and soy free, so I did make my self get through one pie, which also helped me to get closer to finishing this item (one more year to go). I made an apple pie, with palm shortening instead of soy (and no butter). I thought that it came out pretty well, and was thrilled that I had a dessert to eat for a change. Everyone else said that it was very good, but they might have just been being polite...

No pictures of the actual baking this year, my kitchen was a mess, so I didn't take any. We only have the final product after it was delivered to "the dessert room", which also doubled as the "trying to get babies to nap at the noisy party room".

# 20

20. Try at least two new recipes a month (14/68)

Geoff and I haven't been cooking a lot of new things. The most adventurous that I've gotten recently has been making new food for Peter, but I haven't been counting those towards this total. Today, I took one of the pumpkins that we got at the farm two weeks ago, and started to make a puree for Peter. The first thing that I did was remove the seeds. So instead of just throwing them away, I used a variation this Whole Foods recipe to roast them.

It was a little more effort than I usually like to put in for what is basically a snack, but they came out ok. I will probably do it again when I make the other pumpkin.

# 42

42. Attend Sunday services at least twice a month (21/68)

I have not been able to keep up with this one as much as I would like. Peter had a tendency to wake up too close to 8 for me to be able to go often. (It's annoying because he wakes up so much earlier during the week, when we don't have a place to be at 8.)

This morning, I took advantage of daylight savings. Peter woke up at 7 (would have been 8 if the clocks hadn't changed), which gave me enough time to feed him, dress him, get myself ready and still make it to church on time. I ended up going solo, since Geoff wanted to get a jump start on the laundry.

Peter did so much better than the last time that Geoff and I tried to take him to church (not that he did that badly then). I didn't bother with the car seat, since I knew he would want his freedom. He started to get a little fussy during the sermon, but was calmed down just by going to the back and looking at the windows. I also had to take him out into the hall a little before the communion since he was being a little loud with his teether, but he didn't have a major meltdown. After the service, so many people came up to me to tell me how well behaved he was.

I don't have any pictures, since I was flying solo. Maybe next time, Geoff will be able to come as well, and then I'll be able to get some shots.

# 84

84. Read 2 new books a month (10/68)

I have fallen way behind on this item. Mostly because I don't feel that I can count books like Goodnight Moon and Hop on Pop towards my total. I've joined a new book club (in addition to my new mommy group), so I've finally finished an adult book. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson is not the kind of book that I usually read, but I loved it. I had a hard time putting it down, and it has caused me to not take advantage of the sleep I should have been getting for the past few days.

I was concerned when the woman at the bookstore told me that you had to get through 100 pages before it was any good, and how annoying the Swedish street names and such were. I did not agree with her at all, and I was pretty hooked from the beginning. I would definitely recommend this book to someone who likes to read. (I know too many people who just aren't into books, and I doubt that they would stick this one out.)

And I know that I've fallen way behind on this list, and I haven't been ignoring it. I've just been a little busier than normal. I am also hoping to get back into the swing of some of these items, and get back to updating here more.