On the First Day of Fall

I'm drinking pumpkin spice coffee and my toes are chilly in flip flops.  There's a little pile of leaves in the backyard that they raked this weekend and they're already jumping in the pile.  I'm thinking about picking out front porch pumpkins and mums and trying to make myself wait until October 1st, though I'm not really sure why. There's an entire dogwood tree in our backyard (our only official backyard tree right now) that has already turned completely red.

Fall is always such a strange time.  It's my favorite season for the weather and the fun and my birthday, but it always feels like such a whirlwind that starts in September and ends with a snowy January and you look back and wonder how the heck it all flew by so quickly.  So I kind of don't want to do much. Is it weird to acknowledge out loud that I'm a lot better at doing seasonal projects than I am at just keeping up with the day-to-day stuff that needs to happen in our house?  John is a million times better than me on most days, especially when it comes to dishes and laundry.  So this year, I want to focus more on just keeping more basic holiday sanity by keeping up with the normal, everyday stuff.  I've already decided that there's only one thing we (John and I) "need" to get for Christmas: a dishwasher.  ("Need" obviously being completely relative since we don't truly NEED one at all. ) And there's not any sort of great space in our kitchen, so we're thinking about one of the small versions on a counter.  We have a perfect corner that's basically unused space that would work well for a counter top version and I keep reading that they rate a ton better than the portable options.  Anyone want to give any input or share experience?

In the meantime: I'm getting some mums and pumpkins to place outside my door and if I can be patient, I'm making myself wait a few more weeks for them.  Nick is being the same thing for Halloween that he's been the past 2 years (a firefighter) and Mia just needs a cape and vampire teeth to be Dracula.  Throw in a day of pumpkin carving with friends and the possibility of a Libby's pumpkin bread kit and I think we're completely set for fall.  If we feel really crazy, we might pick apples.  But we probably won't and I'm kind of happy about that.  I'm feeling the same about Christmas. (Am I annoying you by talking about Christmas already?) Usually I make a million lists and plans and all sorts of stuff, all in the name of trying to keep it simple.  So I think I'm going to skip the lists and if I feel motivated for a holiday craft for the kids, get out the red and green construction paper to make chains.  Maybe slice and bake some oranges.  I'm not wrapping books, I'm giving them to the kids in a big basket to go nuts.  After all, she can read now.  And he's trying  Which means she can read all of the Christmas books! And I wouldn't want to deprive them of any reading time by having the books wrapped;)

Does someone want to remind me that I said all of this in the next few months when I start thinking about making lists??  All they really care about is the time with family and putting up a tree.  A few presents are the icing on the cake and the rest is just gravy if we have it in us to make it happen.  I need to remember that.