Fall Prepping

So I don't know about you, but this time of year gets super hectic for me. It seems like every year I spend months waiting for September to arrive and in a blink of an eye it's the new year and I'm packing up the Christmas decorations. It never fails, once October hits, one thing snowballs into the next and I'm feeling overwhelmed and completely unorganized. Anyone else with me? So since I can't really avoid any of the items on my to-do list, I've learned (and still learning) that anything I can tackle ahead of time and cross off my list, will help me immensely!!!

Now that the Halloween decorations have been sort of put away... OK so they're gathered in my entryway right now waiting to be packed up. I've started on a couple of things on that to-do list: 1) Party planning for Rory. I say this every year, but I can't believe how old he is getting. And 2) Prepping for Thanksgiving. Oh and by the way, I've also started my Christmas shopping and I'm almost done! That is huge for me. But back to Rory and Thanksgiving...


A little mom confession: Sometimes Rory's parties are sorta just thrown together. Last year, I sent out emailed his invitations (because that's what just seems to happen), and then I just set all planning aside to tackle all of Novemeber's stuff. And 7 days before his party, I realized that I hadn't done a single thing for it, no cake, no piñata, no goodie bags, nothing! Poor Rory. Needless to say the week before, which included traveling to CA for Thanksgiving, was crazy.

Because of the craziness, I feel like I have pretty much found a formula that works for his parties and I just sorta plug in the theme he has requested and voila! he has a birthday party. Thank goodness he's a boy and doesn't require a lot of attention to detail. This past Sunday was our planning session where Rory sits with me and we create his invitations, go over his cake and his piñata.

I have found that any prepping checklist that breaks up the tasks week by week works really well for me. That way for the weeks that I'm short on time or energy, I can get the bare minimum done and be done with it and still be on track. For the weeks I'm feeling ambitious, I can tackle items for the upcoming weeks. I've included some checklists for any of you that are planning any get-togethers or holiday parties or Thanksgiving.


//Checklist found on Pinterest//


//Checklist found on Pinterest//


We're having Thanksgiving here this year. So I've got two checklists going as well as my planner. I don't really divert from my usual Thanksgiving menu, and this helps me a lot because now is not the time for me to be trying out new dishes. I stick to a traditional menu with all our favorite holiday foods. I've been doing Thanksgiving for many years now, but every year without fail I forget to take the turkey out to defrost. So I use a checklist and an alarm on my phone to remind me to take the bird out of the freezer.

//Checklist found on Pinterest//


And while I was at the market yesterday I grabbed one of these handy dandy checklists that the market has provided. Because we all know there's always one item we I forget! Thanks Albertson's!!! So if your store provides a checklist with aisle info, grab it! That way you know exactly where the turkey oven bags are when you go racing in on Thanksgiving morning. Haha!!!


And I just had to include some pics of the kids from this past week. So there's this boy and he absolutely loves to read. A year ago Rory was struggling with the process of learning to read and now he says library day at school is his favorite.


And Maggie always sits with him when we read at night. It's so sweet.


Rian isn't quite as excited about books just yet. She's more artistic.


Shopping with her is always an adventure! Haha!






Oh Snapchat, how we love your filters!















For anyone feeling a little overwhelmed by holiday entertaining, or just entertaining in general, I hope the checklists help. I'm pretty sure that most of us feel a little overwhelmed during this time a year at one point or another. Just take a deep breath and breathe and refocus...at least that's what I tell myself several times a day. Haha! And because I just don't seem to have enough on my plate, a group of friends and myself have decided to a 15K (9.3 mile) run in February. So lets add another weekly schedule to the pile. Haha!!! All kidding aside though, I'm super excited to do this run and I know that training with be really fun. So if anyone has suggestions on good running shoes, please let me know ASAP!!!


Well I think that is it for my randomness today. I hope everyone is enjoying their week and thanks a bunch for stopping by!

xoxo
-aMie