Even though I know from years and years of experience that time speeds up crazy fast once a new school year starts and zooms through until Christmas, I’m still taken aback by it anew every fall. September was such a blur, largely because we were doing a ton of fun family stuff like weekly hikes and also because the flower farming season didn’t slow down hardly at all after the farmer’s markets ended halfway through the month, which was a surprise. Last year, we got our first frost around Sept. 20th, but this year we still haven’t gotten one, and we might even go until closer to the end of October if the forecast holds this trend we’re seeing. All that’s to say is that we’ve been super busy still harvesting and selling flowers, rather than just ripping them out and prepping beds for next year. Crazy!
Mathias also started preschool at the beginning of the month, which he was beyond ready for since Raven had already been in school for about 3 weeks by that point. That means that occasionally when the stars align and Hyrum actually takes the rare nap in the afternoons on those days that Mathias has preschool that I get a nice, long stretch of time to myself to get things done (or take a nap, as is sometimes the more pressing matter).
Matt and I also celebrated our birthdays at the end of the month (both of us turned 36).
Here’s how the goals shook out with everything going on:
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September Goals
Get a haircut- I finally got one! And I love it!
- Go on one-on-one dates with each of the kids
- Matt did take the older two kids out, but I didn’t manage one with any of them. I still like the idea of doing this though, so I think we’ll try again in October.
Go to a u-pick orchard- I’ve loved that we’ve made this a yearly tradition for the better part of 8 years now. This year, we met up with some friends on Matt’s birthday at Rowley’s Red Barn in Santaquin to enjoy some u-pick apple-ing and some scrumptious ice cream afterwards 🙂
Go on a hike- We started going on “picnic hikes” on Sundays after church, which has been a great way to shake the Sunday scaries that were starting to happen regularly with the kids spending too much time inside with nothing going on. We’ve loved it and want to continue trying to do it as much as weather permits this fall!
Go to the temple- Going to the temple was part of the birthday date we went on (along with the next two items on this list). The temple nearest us has been closed for a year, so it’s been tricky to go frequently like we used to. (If you want to know why temples are so important in my faith, you can read more info HERE.)
Do something fun to celebrate mine and Matt’s birthdays- Temple date, dinner out, and buying new shoes. Yep, we sure know how to have a crazy time 😉
Buy new running shoes for both Matt and me- This was the final item on our birthday date, and we made it into Famous Footwear *just* before they started to close up. Luckily it didn’t take us long since we knew exactly what we were looking for. I’ve always loved the way that the Saucony brand fits my foot, so I got their Excursion style, which is literally EXACTLY what I’ve been wanting for a couple years now. So cute!
Fix clog in master bathroom sink- Matt fixed the clog…and now the sink is leaking, ha ha. So now guess what’s going on October’s list?
- Paint and hang new laundry doors
- We laid out the paint tarp in the workshop outside and put the doors out there. Now we just need to actually do the work 🙂
Remove painting tape in master closet- My mom actually did this for us while she was watching our kids so we could go out on our birthday date. Now we just need to get it cleaned up and organized in there!
- Price out and measure for baseboards
- When we were originally thinking we might move soon (see my birthday post for a few more details), I was in much more of a hurry to do this. Now that it looks like we’re staying put for awhile, I’m shelving this goal, especially as we really won’t have it in the budget to do this until we’ve paid off the new windows we got installed this year.
- Finish decluttering and organizing master bedroom
- Minimal progress made here, but that’s not too surprising considering how busy we were in September with flower farming and with all the fun stuff going on. We did move some boxes and other stuff out of it that didn’t belong though, so it’s at least better than it was. Since I have enough other house and farm projects for October, I’ll probably save this one until the winter.
- Fix doorbell
- The new eterni-goal.
Finish three books off my Summer Reading List- Sure did! I finished The Anthropocene Reviewed (totally wowed me), Garden Maker, and Love & Saffron. I cannot tell you how good it feels to finally be finishing a lot of books again.
- Finish photo session
- I did work on it at least, but I haven’t finished. This is a must-do for October.
Leave two positive reviews for small businesses online- I actually left three!
Other September Accomplishments:
- Finally implemented a “library” bin system for the playroom
- Matt’s been wanting to try a “library” system forever to try and contain all the kids’ toys (whereas I just kept wanting to get rid of enough of them so that what we did have could be quickly cleaned up). While I’m super glad we did pare down as much as we did, I’m also glad that we finally just gave the bin system a try, as it’s meant our house has been WAY tidier and easier to pick up than it ever was before.
- Started the fall clean-up on the farm
- We still have a crazy amount left to do, but we at least started the process of ripping some of the spent plants out and weeding and prepping beds for bulb planting and for next year. Slowly but surely.
- Got flu shots
- We totally went and did this on my birthday, ha ha, but I’m just relieved that it was relatively easy and that the kids didn’t freak out *too* much. I love getting this checked off early!
October Goals
I’m assuming we’ll get a frost at some point this month for sure, which means that as soon as that hits, it will be go go go time for getting the farm prepped for spring. We do still have a bunch of fun things on the agenda for the month though, including continuing on with our “picnic hikes,” celebrating Halloween (obviously), and a few more random trips “into town,” which always seem exciting since they involve gluten-free restaurant options that are actually decent 🙂
Here’s the official goals agenda for the month:
- Get all the spring-blooming bulbs in the ground
- I ended up cancelling two of my huge bulb and root orders, so this actually isn’t nearly as daunting as it would have been had we decided to go with the original plan. As it is, we *only* have about 800 bulbs to put in rather than the 3,000+ we were looking at before.
- Weed the front bed
- We have a bunch of bulbs to put in and stuff to direct sow in there, but it’s been pretty impossible to do anything because of the sheer number and size of the weeds. Yikes.
- Rip out unwanted dahlias
- While I bought some “named” dahlia varieties, I also got several mixes, some of which included some definite keepers and others of which included some duds that aren’t worth the growing space. Time to cull the excess.
- Pick all the apples + give away what we won’t use
- We’re waiting until we get a frost to do this, but that should be happening in about a week or so, at least according to the latest weather forecast. We literally have hundreds of apples in our trees, so this should be interesting!
- Go on one-on-one dates with each of the kids
- Matt was for 2 for 3 last month while I was 0 for 3. Time to see if we can improve those numbers!
- Go on a hike in Maple Canyon
- We’ve done several drives and picnic hikes up the canyon closest to us, but now I want to explore a bit more in the other canyons a little farther out. Maple Canyon is world-renowned for its excellent rock climbing, but I’ve also heard that it’s just a gorgeous place to spend time, period.
- Publish a book round-up post
- It’s been too long since I’ve published a book round-up, but I HAVE been working on one for about two months now. Time to just sit myself down for a couple hours and finish it off so you all can enjoy it!
- Paint and hang new laundry doors
- Rollover goal.
- Fix leak in master bathroom sink
- Because house projects apparently never end.
- Finish final photo session + cancel Smugmug account
- Last year when I started flower farming, I decided to stop doing photography for clients, Since then, I’ve done a few more sessions here and there to finish up prior commitments or for family members, which is who this last photo session was for. However, this month I’m due to renew my SmugMug photography gallery account, and there’s no point in me paying the large annual fee if I’m no longer doing photography, so I really need to share this last photo session and then cancel the account. No more procrastinating!
- Fix doorbell
- A girl can dream.
And there’s the plan for October! What have you got on your agenda?
