It’s the week of Labor Day, one of my favorites weekends each year when my favorite parts of summer (the lake!) and fall (college football!) collide. Soccer kicks off this week and swimming (which is a new add for Hailey this year) follows just a week later. I can notice the days not being quite as long, but summer temperatures are certainly still in full swing! Still, I can feel the seasonal shift occurring for our schedule and like a mom-to-be’s urge to nest, I have certain tasks that beg to be taken care of as I prep our home and family for the shift in seasons.
Step one: pull out the fall decor bin!!! (Half kidding, half not ;)) OK, here’s what’s on my mind…
Food
I’m taking stock of the pantry and freezer, putting items that need to be used on the week’s meal plan and writing a master list of what I need to stock up on. Lately the kids have been into baking so it’s mostly brown sugar, cocoa powder, and flour, but also olives, broths, and tomato products.
I revived my sourdough starter after a long hiatus and am excited to get back into the rhythm of using it for breads and trying it on new things like scones (inspired by my friend, Janna) and pizza dough.
I’m also preparing for busy season dinners, which at least once a week will be packing the kids dinners to eat at the field. Their PlanetBox lunch boxes that I’ve loved are now not quite big enough for their appetites. Anyone have a bigger lunch box recommendation for big kids? Bento style would be a plus!
Family
Our Sunday was largely spent checking the box on all uniform and cleat needs, which took longer than anticipated, but it’s nice to have everything lined up and ready to go.
I also spent a couple hours with David yesterday combing over our spending, researching household expenditure apps, and then ultimately creating my own Google Sheets tracker thanks to the help of YouTube. I’ve used Mint, YNAB, Quicken, and other before and always end up falling off track. I am hopeful that something more simple that tracks just income and spending instead of all retirement and investment accounts, too, will be a better fit for me. I track our groceries super closely, and look forward to extending this kind of vigilance to all our spending.
There’s been some blog maintenance to attend to, as well. There are several sites that have been ripping my content and reposting it as their own. I’ve mostly ignored it (ignorantly) but just found out it can and is negatively effecting my site. Tech is not my strong suit so I’ve been searching for answers and help implementing a solution.
Lastly, I’ve been busy with a few home decoration projects. The shelves David built for the living room are awesome and I’ve framed some family pictures, bought a plant, and candles to begin to fill them with. We hung a mirror in the living room and bought a new light fixture for the dining area. Painters show up today to paint two of our ceilings so we can hang the new fixture and then I look forward to feeling like my house in somewhat pulled back together.
Homeschool
We planned (and failed to) practice Spanish all summer long so this week we are pulling out our books to review before we start co-op back next week. We had a kick off to co-op cookout and it was so fun to see everyone again, and some new faces, too! It’s going to be a great year and we are all looking forward to it.
It feels good to be a solid homeschool rhythm, as we are entering the second week of our IEW/Lang Arts/Math/France focus. And we are all excited to jump into Gather Round’s Farming a Food next week! More curriculum details here.
Travel
There’s an IG reel audio that says “what do we do when we’re sad? We look for flights!” and while I’m not sad, the enneagram seven in me has kicked into high gear lately with wanting to book some 2023 travel. I like having trips on the calendar to look forward to.
In the short term, I have a girls weekend in Greenville, SC with my college girlfriends in October, as well as a trip to The Overlook. We’re going to make it a fun few days (I’m thinking maybe Dollywood?!). In the longer term, we are looking at ski trip destinations and hoping to try somewhere new!
That’s a pretty comprehensive update from my neck of the woods. I have an appointment this morning that I have to wake the kids up early to take with me, so I’m off to take Finley on a quick sniffari then hit the ground running.
Are you feeling the fall energy of routine and structure creep back in? Are you fighting in or embracing it? Any big lunch box recs? 😉 Have a wonderful Monday!!
Kelli says
I recently started baking sourdough cinnamon raisin bread and were all obsessed with it. Highly recommend trying it!