Halloween has already come and gone - in a glory of little dinosaurs and witches trick or treating in the neighborhood - and as I looked at the calendar yesterday morning I realized that there are only two (two!) weekends before Thanksgiving. I've been extra busy lately launching a small business, launching Neighborly Advice and doing all the other work of parenting two small boys, working full time, producing two podcasts and keeping the cobwebs away from this blog (just barely lately!).

Honestly it's been too busy. Is that a surprise to anyone? But new ventures always need more tending to at the beginning when each step requires learning and nothing is systematized. Going live with Neighborly Advice required a flurry of texts between Erica and me and technical tweaks until the very last minute but now we know how to do it all and the next ones will be so much easier. My small business venture, Copper Quail Style, has required many more steps to learn but already it feels less overwhelming than it did one week ago. 

Through all of it I'm reminding myself that I'm learning. Learning new skills and new information. And learning how much I can comfortably handle. In the midst of it all thoughts of my goals and intentions for 2017 have begun to drift in and tellingly I've been thinking about things like, "don't start anything new" and "less is more." We'll see what I come up with but leaving more space in my days and weekends is something I'm looking forward to. Or at least re-focusing on where I most want to spend time - with family, friends and on the things that fill me up.

And so, on to November and the holidays are upon us! It's sunny here but the mornings and evenings are cool and we can head to the park any time of day - what a difference it makes! My boys are so little but growing so fast; Cedric will turn two at the end of December. I am trying to soak it up.

Big things happening in November: 

+ A visit from my mom. This happened this past weekend and was so fun. 

+ The election! Whew, it's been election season for a looooong time and I'm eager to vote and have the election behind us. I'm actually taking this Tuesday off from work and plan to take comfort in being home and in the kitchen for most of the day and we'll go watch returns in the evening with friends. I'm hopeful and excited to vote in the first woman president of our country and to move on from the stress of the campaigns.

+ Copper Quail Style Saturday market. We'll be setting up a booth this coming Saturday. Now that we've done it once it feels much less stressful!

+ Thanksgiving! We'll be here in Arizona with family and I'm looking forward to a long weekend, being outside and PIE.

November goals:

+ Design and order our Christmas cards. As I've done for the past few years I'm planning to design our cards in Photoshop Elements and order prints online.

+ Continue buying Christmas gifts. I already have a spreadsheet with gift ideas for just about everyone on our list and started ordering a few things. This month I'd like to get most of it done as December always whizzes by.

Recurring monthly goals:

+ Exercise three times per week. I'm finally making this happen consistently and I feel really good. I added an extra session of Orange Theory to my schedule and now go Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Keeping up exercise during life's busyness has helped me to not get completely overwhelmed.

+ Publish to RISING*SHINING at least once a week. 

+ Record and produce new episodes of The Girl Next Door Podcast and Matrimoney on schedule.

Happy November!