August is a month of waiting. Waiting for the kids to move up a grade or classroom, waiting for the college students to return, waiting for textured tights and tweedy skirts to go on sale, and, of course, Pumpkin Spice latte season begins on September 6th. August is also a month of planning. I've learned that homemade Christmas gifts and crafts are best begun in early autumn because I make things slowly and am frequently distracted by books.
The rest of this month is made up with a heap of planning and I've got some exciting -- to me -- things underway:
Books -- September 1st marks the beginning of my FAVORITE reading challenge, Carl's R.eader's I.mbibing P.eril challenge. I'm piling up books for that challenge. I'm also planning on joining in a Gone with the Wind read-along. Also Read-a-Thon should be happening some time in October. I will also be embarking on a quest to listen to all of the Harry Potter audio books.
Food -- Every Friday I plan meals for the next week. I pour through cookbooks and store ads and it pretty much consumes my entire evening. I don't have enough up front cash to do once-a-month-grocery shopping (Sam and I are paid weekly), but I CAN plan out a month of menus and at least buy meat and paper items (diapers, toilet paper, etc...) once a month. For the month of September I'm going to attempt a month-long meal plan.
That isn't the exciting part; the exciting part is that I've decided that every Saturday (from September until January at the very least) I am going to declare a soup-making day. Yes... Souper Saturday. Soups are cheap, filling, can be healthy, and are pretty delicious. Commence soup planning... ohhhh... maybe I should add some bread baking in on Saturdays!
Vacation -- My job has a pretty generous vacation leave policy. Nearly everyone in the office saves their vacation for the late spring and summer months. Blah.... I hate beaches and since being credit card free, Sam and I can't dole out the cash for vacations that last more than a day. So I take my vacation in the fall and winter months. Sam gets less time than I do, so sometimes I find myself with a week of vacation, the kids in school and daycare, and Sam at work. I use that time to prep for the holidays, do some cleaning, bake to my hearts content and, yes, read.
Halloween -- I'm planning a separate blog post to discuss my brilliant Halloween plans for this year. I'll bring more on that later.
Yarn -- I've been in a knitting/crocheting/embroidery funk. I've pretty much wanted to do nothing but sleep or read in my spare time. Cooler temperatures always tempt me to take up some sort of cozy work. Perhaps I can finish my crochet cushion covers by the end of the month and start something else (a baby blanket perhaps?). I so over my intricate and arty embroidery piece. I've been working on it since last September and I think it is time for it to go on hiatus. I may finish one of my 5 million other WIPs (only a slight hyperbole) or -- gasp -- start something new.
To say I'm quivering with anticipation over the slow approach of autumn would be an understatement. Cheers for sweaters, tea, and chilly mornings under a quilt.
2 comments:
Autumn is my favorite season. :-) And YAY for Gone With the Wind!!
I love fall so much!! And RIP - the only book challenge I still participate in, and will participate in this year even if I don't blog about it. I have a list of books waiting for me. :D I'll just have to unofficially post in at Carl's blog, since I don't think it's the sort of post that would mix in with my new weigh tloss blog, haha! :D
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