Hello, October!

My September was packed with good stuff and busy life stuff - a trip to California, a surprise birthday weekend for Chris in Tucson, lots of solo daycare drop offs/pick ups and some evenings too. Plus I've been busy with Girl Next Door Podcast stuff. 

This year Chris took on a leadership position within his school which he has been loving. But it's definitely made our lives feel busier. Chris used to be able to work from home one or two days each week. While he was home, he would always get a chore done around the house, like a load of laundry, get dinner going, and prep the next day's lunches. He is amazing! Now with a much busier meeting schedule working from home is pretty hard to manage. We are missing that mid-week house reset.

This past weekend was a good time to check in and take a deep breath. We had all of Saturday evening and all of Sunday free and it was glorious.

We chatted about ways to be better prepared for the week (commit to having laundry done and the house clean by Sunday night) and ways to try to be less busy (fewer weekend commitments). Life always gets especially busy heading into the holidays but I'm hoping we can strike a good balance. What's working for you lately to slow down?

September wins:

+ Spent Labor Day weekend with my book club in San Diego. 

+ Pulled off an awesome surprise birthday trip for Chris. We stayed at the historic Arizona Inn where we had coffee in the library in the morning and read by the pool while sipping pina coladas in the afternoon. It was perfection! As part of Chris's birthday gift I also collected audio birthday messages from friends and family and played those all for him on his birthday. It was a lot of planning but everything turned out perfectly and it felt like we did 40 right. 

+ Birthday dinner for Chris with family. The weekend after our getaway I arranged a nice dinner out with our family to celebrate Chris some more.

+ Took a freelance writing course. Although I didn't have the time to engage as much as I would have liked, I did get connected to some great resources.

+ Lots of Girl Next Door Podcast activity: sent a newsletter (subscribe on our website!), recorded our Fall Extravaganza episode with some special features, participated in a podcast collaboration, and coordinated with Pantsuit Politics to record an episode together. Oh and Chris and I recorded a guest spot on the Vernacular podcast - look for it in October!

+ Started our Christmas card. Picked out some family photos, located the Photoshop files, and started collecting inspiration.

+ Decluttered in our office. Mailed things I've needed to mail for weeks, dropped off donations at Goodwill, mailed in a ThredUp bag. I also weeded through preschool art but haven't documented it yet.

+ Celebrated our 7th Falliday! We had some cooler (ahem...less hot) weather just in time for the official first day of fall and celebrated Falliday that weekend. I bought all three of my boys new slippers from LL Bean.

Big things happening in October:

+ Attend an evening gin workshop with a good friend. YES.

+ A visit from my parents!

+ Chris goes away for a guy's weekend.

+ Halloween! and other fall fun, like a Dia de los Muertos festival. 

In October I choose to:

+ Order Christmas presents. A hold over from last month! I have an Amazon cart filled with just about all the Christmas and January birthday gifts we need.

+ Design our Christmas card.

+ Buy colder weather clothes for the boys. Eventually we'll need them...

+ Stick to my personal allowance spending budget. I've been over budget two months in a row - time to rein it in!

Happy October, friends!