Fall Lists: An Update

We’re halfway through the month of October, so I thought I’d check in on our Fall Lists, the fun stuff and the stuff that needs to get done.

On the fun front we’ve decorated for Halloween inside and out (and it looks good!). We’ve gone apple picking, we’ve picked pumpkins, Oliver’s bonded with many farm animals. We’ve walked and walked and walked through the Fall foliage (we’ve been walking champs this Fall!). I’ve made pumpkin spice coffee and an apple tart. I still want to make some applesauce with all those apples and I’d like to bake something with pumpkin. After that it’s just our Halloween celebration - pumpkin carving and trick-or-treating, both of which should be easy to do… unless catastrophe strikes yet again.

On the work side, things have been slower but we’re progressing. I planted the mailbox garden which is (so far) still alive. Mike continues to clean out the garage and every week we get rid of more stuff. He also got all the AC units out of the windows for Fall which is a huge pain (when keep-the-windows-open season is over we need to put up some insulating plastic next). We went to the FHRS which we love. I got half the garden pulled up but I’m still waiting for a frost before I can really start pulling up the rest. The same goes for the rest of the yard too - until we get a good hard frost to nip everything (which makes the plants so much easier to pull up and clean up), I’m just taking care of other things. Unfortunately they are boring, un-photo-worthy things. Like organizing a bunch of boxes that got dumped in the basement I’ve been avoiding. Switching out everyone's the summer clothes for winter. Organizing two more tubs of clothes that Oliver has grown out of. Planning out this year’s Christmas card (it takes work to set up scenes like this and this!).

I do feel a little bit like I'm making excuses, but then again...we are busy ALL. THE. TIME. We just don't do as much as we used to because we're just trying to balance things a little bit better, especially with Oliver. Apple picking and going on a long bike ride or a walk through the park are just as important to us now as a light in the attic and shelving in the kitchen. Especially since the To-Do List isn't going anywhere and childhood is way too short.