Podcast, Books, Workouts and Looks of September + Bonus Essay

And just like that - September is over!  The month really flew by for me. The first half of the month kind of sucked since I was still sick but the second half of the month was much better.  I'm excited for October as we've got some fun things planned like our trip to Bend and the annual pumpkin carving party that we host. Now onto the monthly recap...

Podcasts:

In the Dark by APM Reports - I already mentioned this in my "currently" post but wanted to highlight it again. If you liked Serial, you should check out this podcast.  The subject-matter is sad/heavy as it deals with a child abduction, but it's such a well-done podcast.  Kudos to my friend Courtney for telling me about this podcast!

Young House Love Has a Podcast - This is another newer podcast I've been enjoying. The hosts, John and Sherry, have a wildly successful blog and a couple of books. The podcast is focused on DIY and house projects. I never thought I'd be into this sort of podcast, but now that I live in a house, I'm more interested in house projects (although I have yet to do any!!  Someday!!).  I like that it's a husband/wife team that hosts the podcast as I miss the husband/wife banter from Starr Struck Radio. However, the personalities of these two are waaaaay different from Ben and Mary Catherine from SSR (i.e. John is happy and upbeat whereas Ben is kind of sarcastic and skeptical about things) but I still enjoy listening to them talk about house projects. Shout-out to Amber for recommending this podcast to me!

Books:

September was another strong reading month for me as I read 6 books! This was love/hate kind of month for me as I gave most books 4/5 stars or 2.  My favorite books were Come Away with Me and I Let You Go. My least favorite was Underground Airlines. Similar to previous months, a star = read harder challenge book; bold = book I own.

Born to Run by Christopher McDougall - 5 stars
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane* - 2 stars
I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh - 4 stars
Come Away with Me by Karma Brown - 5 stars
Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters - 2 stars
Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho* - 2 stars

Workouts:

Woo hoo!  After leaving this out of my recap for several months, I'm finally able to add workouts back! I have lost quite a bit of ground over the last several months between recovering from hip surgery and being sick, but I am trying to stage a recovery. This month I focused on adding strength training back and have been going to body pump twice a week. I also was able to start to bike again and I went to my first spin class last night (which was AWESOME)!  Yea!

Looks:

I have quite a few outfits to share this month!

The first outfit is a dress I wore to our friends' wedding. I got it on sale from Banana Republic. This wasn't planned but we ended up matching as the color of my dress coordinated with Phil's shirt.

I've owned the top in outfit #2 for over a year and finally wore it for the first time this past month. In fact, I wore it twice! Both the top and the bottom were purchased at a Cabi party that I attended last spring. I'll definitely be wearing this top more often going forward!

Outfit #3 is a new outfit I bought at Banana Republic (surprise, surprise) when I had a 50% off 5 items coupon. One thing I like about the top is that instead of buttons at the wrist, it has strips of material that you tie into a bow.  It's kind of a fun detail! It's tough to tell in this photo, but the top happens to coordinate perfectly with the blue pants I bought.

This last outfit isn't very exciting but I had to share it as I wore my glasses that day and they matched my pants!  I rarely wear my glasses as I prefer to wear contacts but I got several compliments on my glasses that day so I should try to wear them more often!

Bonus Essay:

As a bonus, this month I'm sharing a brief essay that Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love and Big Magic wrote about the power of perception. It will take you 2-3 minutes to read it, but if you want the cliff-notes version, read the paragraph below. If you are like me, it will make you think about the screen through which you are viewing your life, and whether that screen should/could be modified or improved.

"Listen, we’re not always in control of our fate—and that is a fact. You may be robbed or you may be blessed (or some combination of the two, most likely), but that’s not really the point. The point is: If you feel like you’re constantly being robbed, then you live in a world that’s all about constantly being robbed. And if you feel like you’re constantly being blessed, then you live in a world that’s all about constantly being blessed. What we usually see when we interpret our lives is nothing but ourselves—as the truth gets screened through a thousand-layer filter composed of all our weirdness and wonderfulness."