In the past, Thanksgiving, and to a lesser extent Halloween, was my raison d'etre during the fall. I would cook, plan, and cook some more with an eye to making the largest number of Thanksgiving desserts, while cooking just enough savory food to pretend I wasn't just being dreadfully unhealthy.
Now there is a birthday (well, a second one) to celebrate just as fall starts, so there are celebrations for each month of the fall season. So, while I could focus on fall cleaning (like spring cleaning) or some other winterizing activity, I am going to think about the celebrations to come in this week's 10 for Tuesday: 10 things you do to get your home ready for fall.
1. Celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day. Technically this day isn't part of fall, but it is the closest "holiday" to Q's birthday. This year, this means he is getting a pirate-themed birthday party. As I explained to Chris, the theme is for us. It gives us an idea of what kind of decorations we want and allows us to do things like shape cakes and all sorts of fun things.
2. Make lists. There are grocery lists (and grocery shopping), gift lists, homework lists, church-activity lists, parent-group lists. I feel like my life is governed by lists. They make everything a little more manageable, as long as I don't get overwhelmed by the list making process first.
3. Plan menus. We've started menu planning, which is handy for weekly menus. I don't know if it really is saving us money in the grand scheme of things, but it is making it easier for us to go grocery shopping and makes it easier to not have produce go to waste. The big menus though are the birthday party menu and Thanksgiving.
4. Plan my knitting. This one is a little harder to manage. I want to do gift knitting, but I cannot let gift knitting interfere with either my family life or doing well in my classes. I have a potential list of about 10 items to knit. I expect that the number that will be done this year is significantly lower. Probably closer to 5.
5. Get ready for Halloween. I don't know yet if we are going to go out, or if we will dress up and just answer the door for Trick or Treaters. Either way can be a lot of fun.
6. Door things? In Massachusetts, we lived in an area with a mix of apartments (the standard 3-floor walkups mostly) and single family homes in a large mixture of styles. It wasn't hard to find our house, because the house didn't look like any of the ones nearby. But in our new neighborhood, the houses all have a sameness to them even when the yards or the features are all slightly different. This place is the land of the door wreath, so I am contemplating making or buying a couple of wreaths or hangings to make it easier for people to find the place. Not contemplating very hard though...
7. Cleaning. I love having a clean home, but I don't have the time or energy to put into keeping it that way. Or the inclination. Sadly, I want to have little cleaning fairies come out while we are changing diapers and pick up the mess in the hallway or put the dishes away. There will be a bit of this, but mostly during periods when I have a bit more time off.
8. Studying. I know it isn't really getting the house ready, but being consistent in my homework and studying so far is giving me a lot more time to be with my family. Putting it off might feel like a nice thing when I get to spend the evening watching movies, but if it means that I have to spend baby-waking hours doing homework instead of cuddling, playing or watching his first steps... well, it is all about making priorities.
9. Test recipes. I'd elaborate, but really I just like to try out a lot of new recipes in the fall.
10. Finish things. I have a few projects that I should finish, though I don't really want to do any of the old things I started between 2007 and 2013 (wow, Ravelry is horrible for showing me things I didn't really want to know).
