"I wish we had a house this huge!" I hear that little declaration off to my right. I'm typing this on Saturday, and my two little girls are creating a Calico Critter mansion. They can stay occupied with Calico Critters for hours, and I'm so glad because I have always thought Calico Critters were adorable, but I couldn't get any of the girls into them until the last year or so.
There is also screeching and yelling coming from down the hall as the boys play some sort of game in their room, but we're going to ignore that. My oldest daughter is writing letters downstairs, and my sweet husband is just about to make me one of his signature lattes (he's really good at lattes).
We have an unexpected weekend at home due to an injury, and I woke up this morning with a million projects running through my head. A whole free weekend! How should I spend it? I'm nearly stress paralyzed with decision fatigue already, and it's not even 10 o'clock.
High on the list was to write a blog post or two, so I thought, why not write one about all the projects I have in my queue? It'll get it out of my brain, and may be interesting to read I suppose, so here we go.
1. Blogging. I have so many posts in my head that I want to get out, but it's been such a difficult season to find time to do anything for myself, so I unfortunately can't guarantee all of these will get written. But here are a few posts that I hope to write...someday.
-How To Sing The Psalms With Your Kids (And Why You Should)
-I Decided To Start a No-Buy Project - Here's Why
-A Masterlist Of Reformation Day Resources
-Fall Picture Books We're Loving
Those are the big posts I keep wanting to find time to work on, and then there are just the general update posts, like this one. It's alot to carry around in my brain, I tell you.
(Also, tell me which one of those sounds the most interesting, and I'll work on it first.)
2. The family newspaper. I'm not sure I've mentioned this, but over the summer I had the kids start writing a family newspaper, and we actually mailed out two issues to family and friends! It's been really fun, and we've gotten alot of good feedback. We are two months behind now on sending out the next issue (reluctant writers and printer issues), so I would love to get that mailed today.
3. Pumpkin polymer clay earrings. I got into making polymer clay earring this summer - nothing too fancy, just cute little shapes that my girls find particularly fun. It's so satisfying to make something for them and then see their little eyes light up with excitement! I got a pumpkin cutter a few weeks ago, and I've been dying to try it out, but making those clay earrings takes quite a bit of time.
4. Letter-writing. I made a letter writing goal at the beginning of the year, and I didn't do too terribly until the summer hit. Nobody's been getting any letters from me since. I so enjoy sending a receiving letters - it makes me feel more connected to my friends than anything else, including social media. If someone puts something online, it's going out to a bunch of people at once, it's not special; if you receive a personal letter from someone, then they thought about you in particular, and valued your friendship enough to carve out time to connect with you. I love that feeling myself, and I love the idea of giving that thought-about feeling to someone else.
5. Reading. I always carve out some time for reading, but I started several books related to the Reformation and autumn, and I'd really like to finish them before the end of the month! Here are a few I'm hoping to get through this month:
-Martin Luther by Eric Metaxes
-Why The Reformation Still Matters by Tim Chester and Michael Reeves
-Still Protesting: Why The Reformation Still Matters by D. G. Hart
-Luther In Love by Douglas Bond
-Giant Pumpkin Sweet by Melanie Heuiser Hill
As you can see, all of these will be less relevant to the season in a month's time, so I better get moving.
6. Bake a pumpkin pie. We went to a pumpkin patch and corn maze last weekend, and the kids each got to pick out a pumpkin...and unfortunately, a couple of them are already looking a little ripe! I need to start baking asap so we don't waste our pumpkins. I'm thinking of making a pumpkin pie, because why not, and I'm also contemplating pumpkin soup. Other pumpkin recipe suggestions welcome.
7. Develop a birthday card system. We have several family and friends birthdays coming up, and every time I remember that it's someone's birthday, I wish I had taken time to develop a system for sending out birthday cards. I am thinking of doing a little card file system, and I can just sit down at the start of each month and write out all the cards at once. It's so nice to receive a card in the mail (see letter-writing point), and I just wish I could be more organized about birthdays!
8. Research my family tree on ancestry.com. Devoting more time to this has been a goal of mine for a while, and I can honestly say I've been a big failure when it comes to accomplishing this! It takes quite a bit of time to do the family tree research right, even with ancestry.com, and I really need a set time each day to make progress.
Seeing all that typed out, I realize if I really want to accomplish any of it, I better get myself organized and just carve out the time to get it all done! That's what I'll be doing straightaway with the rest of my day.
What's on your autumn to-do list?
Let's not even talk about getting ready for Christmas...I don't have space in my head for that yet.
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