If you told me fifteen years ago that I would be going apple picking and frolicking around pumpkin patches, I would have laughed in your face. For a long period of my life, Fall wasn’t even a season I acknowledged (thank you, Florida). Then, I moved to the Northeast and I learned about pumpkin spice lattes, hay rides, and warm, spiked apple cider and boom! I became a Fall lover. I have always loved pumpkin and squash flavors, so it was pretty exciting to have a whole season where that food gets featured in everything.
Once we bought a house and had kids, Fall started to become stressful. Let me be clear that it is only stressful to me and not my husband. Why, you ask? I wanted to have all the decorations, the right towels, plan the best Fall activities for my kids, and of course, have the best Halloween.
I am writing this blog post to give permission to myself and really anyone else who needs to hear this, that it is ok to go full Fall mode, half-way mode, or skip all Fall things if that sounds better.
There are several categories that I’d like to discuss:
- House decorations: I struggle between wanting to make the house super scary and awesome for Halloween but also have lots of fun and warm Fall decorations, like mums, pumpkins, and scarecrows. I don’t think I will ever manage to fully embrace either but I am thinking that once my kids are old enough to really help decorate, I am going to entrust them with this task. For now, we have a little bit of everything, although we are running behind putting out our skeletons and giant spider.
- Weekend activities: so many farms, festivals, haunted houses…it can be overwhelming to decide what to do. I typically love planning things but there are so many options near us, that it feels impossible sometimes to pick one thing. We often end up doing whatever is closest to us or going to something other people tells about. I have learned to let go of wanting to plan everything and really enjoy doing what other people invite us to do.
- Food: I don’t get stressed about this one! I don’t care if people call me basic, but I will order those PSLs (pumpkin spice lattes!) until mid-January if they are still around. I love cooking with butternut squash and eating all the pumpkin things but if you are someone who doesn’t like any of this, just skip it!
- Halloween: having not grown up with this holiday, I am still trying to figure out what it is I am supposed to be doing with my children. We are lucky to live in a pretty cool neighborhood with lots of activities but before we came here, we definitely had some misses trick-or-treating in empty, dark streets. Since my kids are still young, I still have a chance to take it easy and do as much or as little as I feel like without much complaining from them (as long as there is candy!).
- Everything else: my other first world problems include wanting to buy as many Fall decorations as possible for inside the house, worrying that I don’t know how to carve pumpkins, and regretting not spending as much time outside as I wanted, especially using our outdoor firepit.
I hope everyone is enjoying this season very much. This blog post is mostly tongue-in-cheek but I find that a lot of the drama about stuff is all made up in my mind and once I stop to actually be present with what is happening around me, I can relax and have fun. If this is you as well, be kind to yourself, grab a PSL, wrap yourself in a warm scarf, and do whatever it is that you feel like doing!
