karafleck

the third week of October

I have my routines and rituals in a file I call The Big List. Compiled from years of calendars and To Do lists, it is a list of what I want to remember, celebrate, and accomplish. Arranged weekly, I print out The Big List and carry it around the house on a clipboard, checking things off as I go.

From cleaning routines to celebrity birthdays to my obsession with listening to records from our vinyl collection on the date they were released, The Big List is the things I want to do, observe, and spend my time on in any given week.

So, a Big List of the little things.

As I dip my toe back into blogging, it occurred to me recently that it might be fun to talk to myself here and let you eavesdrop on the conversation: I’ll share each week’s Big List, the week I hope to have.

Hopefully, you’ll find something here that is helpful to you, inspires you, or at the very least gives you a laugh at my expense. We’ve got to hold each other’s hands these days, babies, and help each other remember what is good and sweet and silly.

10.16.22 – 10.22.22

  • 16th – IND Senate debate 7pm WFYI
  • 17th – Rita Hayworth’s birthday | I have never seen Gilda. Fix this.
  • 20th – Tom Petty’s birthday | listen to the Wildflowers album
  • Oct. 21 – Frasier 1:7:scene 2

I plan to put up my feet and knit along to …

  • Hocus Pocus (the original and perhaps the new one)
  • Halloween Baking Championship
  • Halloween Wars
  • Outrageous Pumpkins
  • Halloween Cookie Challenge
  • Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)
  • Curious George Boo Fest – the one my kids call “No Noggin”

To Do / Enjoy / Remember:

  • Get cold weather gear out of storage
  • Bake shortbread (MS) Or, in my case, purchase
  • Final touches on Halloween costumes
  • Take pictures of fall foliage
  • Use the Felt app to send Halloween cards
  • Extra blankets on the beds
  • Declutter the living room
  • Organize media and entertainment
  • Refresh faux candle batteries, set the timer for earlier in the evenings
  • Decorate for Halloween
    • Indoors
    • Outdoors
  • Review family holiday music collection, Spotify, and Amazon Music playlists
  • Review family holiday movie collection, and online streaming services to double-check what is currently available
  • Start amaryllis bulbs IF I can find some locally
  • Change the letterboard
  • Work holiday cards (create 2022 photo collage)
  • Buy Halloween trick or treats (spread this out over a few paychecks)
  • Purchase some Christmas gifts (spread out over a few paychecks)
  • Update Roku screensaver – I use family photos
  • Halloween crafts and decorating with the kids
Remember how I said I missed old-fashioned blogs?
I think that is going to look like these lists for me.

My lists are personal to my family and myself. Please take what you can use and roll your eyes at the rest. I want to make sure to give credit where it is due and cite my main influences:

  • Martha Stewart, specifically the monthly calendars that were in her magazine (no longer printed). She and I go all the way back to my new bride days of 2000.
  • Cynthia Ewer’s Organized Home, which she has retired from. Her holiday plans especially have been part of my routines since my earliest days of motherhood. Her lists were a huge help to me as a new and overwhelmed mom with a very messy home but loads of holiday dreams.
  • Alison May’s Brocante Home website and online community as well as her seasonal home books.
  • Frasier. Yes, the television show from the 1990s. You can laugh, but it’s true.

Okay, that’s going to do it for me this first week. I hope you got what you needed from life today, babies. If not, I hope tomorrow is better.

Be brave. Be kind. Keep going.