I have a file called The Big List. Compiled from years of calendars and To Do lists, it is what I want to remember, celebrate, and accomplish.

From cleaning routines to celebrity birthdays to my obsession with listening to records from our vinyl collection and watching movies 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.

What is making me happy right now? Talking to myself while I’m planning and letting you eavesdrop on the conversation. Here is the week I hope to have:

10.30.22 – 11.5.22

• 30th – Colts football game
• 31st – HALLOWEEN
  • Double check local Trick-or-Treat times

First things first …

• What is essential to complete this week?
• What should I edit or reschedule?
• Are there any shortcuts or compromises?
• What do I need help with?
• What can I delegate?
• What will add beauty to my week? I’ve been pretty connected to my phone lately, so this week I’m going to focus on making sure that I have looked out the window before I look at my phone.

To Do / Enjoy / Remember:

• Change calendars to November
• Charity fundraiser for the kids’ sports team Anything else related to the children’s sports or clubs coming up that I need to make sure is on the family calendar?
• Carve pumpkins
• Use some of the trick-or-treat candy for baking. Maybe some candy bar brownies?
• Write down approximately how many treats we hand out in The Big List to help with planning Halloween 2023
• After Halloween, edit decor to Autumn/Thanksgiving
• Set out Thanksgiving family photos
• Take October FO (finished object) photos As of now, I haven’t finished anything.
• Rake leaves, yard work
• Home preparedness:
  • Have HVAC serviced
  • Purchase HVAC filter
  • Store hoses and cover outdoor spigots
  • Check seals and weather stripping around doors and windows
  • Touch up exterior paint on trim I don’t know if this is the correct time of year or weather, but as we decorated for Halloween we noticed we need to take care of a few spots.
  • Seal up / winterize windows This one is floating from week to week as we keep an eye on the forecast.
  • Check smoke detectors
  • Clean the gutters
• Dust the piano
• Dust all the bookshelves in the house
• Any books we can donate? Are books in the correct places? I also have this fantasy that I get super motivated and organized and store our homeschool books by grade level, but so far that’s staying a fantasy.
• Go shelf by shelf in the kitchen cupboards and clean and declutter. If it isn’t sentimental or an heirloom and I haven’t used it in a year, do I really need it?
• Clean the vacuum pre-motor filter
• Work on holiday cards
• Purchase some Christmas gifts
• Organize holiday recipes and think ahead to holiday baking and cooking
• Plan Thanksgiving menus and start watching for sales and price checking the turkey day grocery list
• Purchase Thanksgiving turkey I’m not hosting this year, so I don’t need to do this.
• Inventory and add if needed containers for freezer meals, baked goods
• Inventory and add if needed serving pieces, plates, flatware
• Reality check! How are holiday 2022 plans coming along? Check in, being realistic about time and money.
• Update Roku screensaver – I use family photos and switch them out weekly
• REST. I deserve to take care of myself and so do you.

I plan to be extra EXTRA couch potato-y in the evenings, and put up my feet this week and knit along to …

• Halloween Baking Championship
• Halloween Wars
• Monsters, Inc. (released this week 2001)
• The Incredibles (released this week 2004)
• The Incredibles 2
• Disney’s House of Villains
• The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
• Holiday Baking Championship

Bonus is that I know the teens will end up hanging out with me in the living room because they can’t resist their childhood favorites. I set out snacks, press PLAY and like magic they appear.

This is a good time of year to bookmark the Christmas TV Schedule site.

My main influences:

• Martha Stewart’s monthly calendars in her magazine (no longer in print).
• Cynthia Ewer’s Organized Home, which she has retired.
• Alison May’s Brocante Home.
• Frasier. I’ll show you guys my Frasier scrapbook sometime, a project I started in the early days of quarantine, but you have to promise not to tease me too much. (It is fair for you to tease me a little bit.)

I want to express my gratitude for how kind you’ve been as I dip my toes back in the blogging waters. Please know that I don’t take fresh starts for granted.

I hope you find beauty here, a tiny joy that you can tuck away in your breast pocket. We can place our hands over our hearts and think of each other.

Be brave. Be kind. Keep going.