Less Hustle More Coffee

If you are like me, you can hardly believe that September is fast approaching. I get excited about fall. It’s my favorite time of year. But it is probably the busiest time of year for us. It is fun but harried. And so I like to plan ahead and get ahead of the game. Each month will be melting fast into the next one and the holidays will be upon us. I made a list recently of all the things I need to do, plan for, or think about. While some of these are more personal in nature, I decided to share in case you needed to do a little planning too. It’s always nice to get ahead of the game. That way some of us do not end up whining about time. Ah hum. Moi. The list below is not in any order of importance but just how I thought of them.

My List for Prepping For Fall

• The clothes swap. In these parts most of us put up our white pants, shoes, and purses. They just look out of place when the temps start getting cool. The transitional wear comes out – lightweight sweaters, long sleeves, darker colors, tans and beiges, and eventually the capris give way to longer pants and the jackets give way to thicker outerwear. For the most part in the Nashville area, we will have nicer weather until after Christmas. Usually I wear long sleeves and have a jacket or sweater. No snow, occasional cold spells, and many balmy days in the 60’s and 70’s.
• Fall buys. Do you need to update any significant pieces to your wardrobe to give you flexibility? New fall jeans that fit – lol, some new shoes, cozy jog pants, a new jacket or rain coat, a new set of warm PJ’s? Look for reasonable priced pieces that will complete an outfit. Toss out old clothes for recycle. And get your needs before everyone else buys the sizes out. I try to make a note on the calendar at the end of a season, if I need something for the next one.
• Cell phone swap. I love to match my cell phone case with the seasons. I will get a fall look going. And I also love to have my phone wall paper to match. Such a small thing but it means a lot to me. You can get some cute wallpaper on Canva. They have a free version so you can enjoy some wallpaper and photo downloads for free.
• Deep cleaning. I don’t get over zealous, trust me. But I do try to get a GOOD detailed cleaning in – vacuuming, dusting, picking up and getting into as deeply of a clean as I have time for so that the rest of the season I can ignore the corners and ceiling fans and just spot clean. I’ll get another pretty good cleaning in when we do the Christmas decor.
• Fall decor. I get my fall decor going when Sept 1 arrives or the first weekend in September.
• Order calendars for the following year. It’s usually best to wait until October. There are more choices by then. I usually need mine pretty quick as we make appointments way in advance for doc appts and also for pet grooming to be able to get the time slots we want. Plus we plan trips way ahead usually too.
• Bucket List for Fall/Winter. If you read my blog much, you know George and I keep a bucket list of ideas. It just makes life fun. No pressure usually. We throw all kinds of things on there: places we’d like to go, stores we want to visit, new restaurants to try, personal goals, chores, birthdays, holidays, events, meals we want to fix, and so forth. I’ll probably make our bucket list last at least thru Jan since it’s so busy through that month. Then I’ll do one for Feb through May called “Winter into Spring”.
• Don’t forget to buy batteries for your smoke alarms and such, and change filters in your units, and switch your fan blades to go the other direction. (George usually keeps up with these but while I’m thinking about it, thought I’d mention it.
• Planning fall meals. It’s just fun to think about! All our favorite fall/winter foods. Chili, soups, hot dishes we love, hot drinks we love. Pull out some favorite cookbooks that have a fall look to them and lay them about on a side table, or in a basket, or on a cookbook holder in your kitchen for inspiration. Pick out a new recipe or two and sticky note it so you will remember to do it.
• That said, go ahead and buy some fall ingredients and stock up – broths for soup bases, canned and frozen veggies, the making of chili, spaghetti, and look for meats on sale like for beef stew, chicken, and corned beef. If you have an extra freezer it’s nice to stock up – especially in today’s world.
• Plan ahead for Christmas. I go ahead and get my Christmas notebook (small enough to fit in the purse but big enough to write a list on) and every person gets a page. George and I enjoy talking Christmas over a beer or glass of wine and talk ideas. I take notes. We also ask everyone if there is something they need or want. We get a list from Katy and Cody and sometimes Aunt Martha and Uncle Ken. It’s really helpful. That way we get folks what they need/want. We make our lists and then the “hunt” is on to fulfill the request. That said we start our shopping early! We bought one of our gifts back in July, might have even been June. lol But fall we get serious. Also don’t forget to order Christas cards or buy them and plan the week in which you will address and mail them. I even plan when I’m going to mail out Christmas cards, put my decor up, and when to have packages mailed by so I won’t forget when things get busy.
• Book up the Calendar: Plan specific shopping dates to get them on the calendar, party dates for Halloween, family events during the holidays, fall football games if it applies, or your favorite seasonal happenings. Time to lock it in. You can rearrange later if needed.
• Look ahead to the next season. I always try to make a list of New Year goals and things I want to accomplish for next year. And work on that Bucket List for Winter into Spring. I also have a January birthday and so does several others have birthdays in the fall and winter so we have to plan for that as they happen so quickly after the holidays.
• Travel. Are there any travel arrangements that need to be tied up for later in the year? Flights made, hotels made, talks with family to tie up details, dog boarding, etc.

What did I miss? I’m sure I’ll think of about ten more things after I hit “Publish”. lol.

Personal Updates

Well, the week is going ok I guess. I have scheduled my shingles shot. Actually it’s walk in any time they are open but I picked a date/time for it because I needed to do it on a Friday afternoon for a weekend in which there were little to no plans, in case it makes me feel bad. My insurance covers it 100%. The fact that a recent study said it may prevent or block the issues that cause Alzheimers – made me all in. Plus I’ve known several people that had shingles in areas that caused them to have sinus issues and other issues so I’d rather decrease chances of that happening.

I cancelled Mom’s hair appt for September. She wants it to grow.

We go for Mom’s follow up to her heart test on Thursday.

I’m off on Friday for a much needed day off. We decided not to plan anything this weekend as we have been gone the last three with plans. That said I am getting out on Sunday to church, to go to the store, and also to fix lasagna for dinner over at Mom’s. But Friday and Saturday and Monday are going to be spent here doing things, catching up on things, putting out the fall decor, cleaning, working on some of those things above, and also making some vlog/blog changes, and finishing up some training and planning. It’s all coming to a head and I’m so glad to have the time.

Here’s what a disorganized “mind dump” looks like. Monday I had to sit down and make a list to get all the things off my brain and out of my head. It’s a big unorganized mess and I wrote it down as I thought of it. Then I could concentrate on the rest of the day. But good grief.

To Do Lists.

Here’s what the To Do List looked like going into Monday. It’s an example of what I’m trying to do daily. I’m still struggling to get the weekends stuff done during the weeknights but it’s hard b/c I’m determined to get my free time in for at least an hour a night when I get home since I’m not getting it in the mornings. Then what time is left I’ll work on the weekend chores and to do’s that I didn’t get to over the weekend. We were gone a lot of Saturday and Sunday. We really need that third day every weekend to be sane. Anyway I did a lot of this already but much remains.

Prayer Wheels and Prayers Requested

I wanted to share with you the prayer wheels I came up with this week. It’s a great way to do prayer whether in your mind or with a pen and paper. I like to write it if I can and then pull it out and look at it and pray over those things periodically as I think of it. It’s more like a discussion with God over it. I’m sure he doesn’t need a 2nd request but the 2nd request is more for me if I worry or have something on my mind.

I like to thank God for the blessings for the previous day or current situation. It’s a form of praise I know He appreciates and it sets the mood and tone for our prayers to begin.

Next is to pray for others. Not only are you asking God to help or bless or protect them but they are in your mind also and praying for people is a way to love them yourself.

If I didn’t mention it, we placed membership with our church Sunday and attended a fellowship “small group” Sunday night. All went well. We are happy with our decision to become more plugged in and get to know more people. I’m proud of George for being a leader of our family unit of two for leading us in this initiative. I’d given up placing membership as we’d often not agreed on a church. I had decided to just be happy that we could go to one we liked. Life has been crazy in the past and so often we are not in a position to go on Sunday. I get tired easy and life gets booked up but we are going to try to be present as we can. One thing I like about this church is that it believes that each one should do more in ones life than just attend church – but to live daily to follow God/Christ and to also lead others to believe in God and follow Christ and to teach them to to lead others. My Dad believed this and it’s a good personal mission to lead others to spiritual matters. It’s very hard to talk to people and in some cases can be illegal so I think we have to do it in ways that plant seeds and do our part so that everyone can hear the gospel. Even though I have not been to church every Sunday I still am a Christian and I have helped others in their journey regardless. So I’m telling ya’ll this because it really has made me happy that even though we were already a member of God’s church, we are a member of this particular body of believers for fellowship, worship, and projects and so forth. Makes me very happy to be “plugged in” and also to be “accepted”. Anyway we were already accepted by God so we were good, but this helps.

Dinner is ready, gotta go! 😉