In the past week, our parched and sun-weary spirits were treated to rain and clouds. I can feel the summer weight lift. We still have many days of 90º+ ahead but we’ve made it, once again, through the worst of the long tail of a desert summer.

Good Things This Month

+ The kids are all doing great in school and generally being amazing humans. I’m so proud of each one and dwelling in gratitude to be here: still enjoying the younger years with Maeve, watching the boys step into being teenagers (Cedric isn’t there yet but he’s as big as a teenager so he’s a teen already in my mind!), and appreciating that parenting isn’t as much of a grind. (To be clear: not easy and breezy, but less of a grind.) I genuinely love hanging out with my kids and seeing who they are emerge.

+ We’ve been watching The Office with the boys. We started this last spring but have made it a more regular weekly habit lately. I love hearing them in stitches over funny scenes and getting to all watch something we enjoy. It also feels like such a win for connecting with teens.

+ Dash and I ran errands together the other day. I find myself appreciating the fun and silliness that teens bring to my life. They’re always looking for fun and are just goofy in such a sweet way. Dash cannot walk past a soccer ball without doing something with it so there we were in the sports aisle of Target counting how many juggles Dash could do. Delightful.

+ We’ve been quite social! We’ve had two outings with friends recently and I have a book club brunch this weekend. Along the way, I’ve also found two great new-to-me restaurants: Mensho and George & Gather.

+ One afternoon I hosted a play date and it felt like such an ideal afternoon. The girls played while I enjoyably prepped dinner in the kitchen with my fall playlist going. It was a these are the days moment.

+ Maeve got slime in her hair (she says Dash did it) and we were able to get it all out (using detangler and a comb). My friend has a strict no slim rule in her house and we are one incident away from the same!

Fall Things

+ I made an apple pie for a family gathering and it was so good. Even Chris, a die-hard chocolate dessert fan, said he has new appreciation for apple pie. I used all honeycrisp apples and Trader Joe’s pie crust. I followed this paper bag apple pie (which I usually make for Thanksgiving) but did a lattice top crust and did not bake it in the paper bag.

+ Chris is starting to get Halloween decorations out. When I came inside from a meeting in the studio I was greeted with this scene:

+ Maeve and I watched Fly Away Home last night which I hadn’t seen in years. She loved it. Do skip the intro scene which is a car crash (if you’re watching with younger kids), but after that it’s an absolutely gorgeous and heart-warming movie. Great fall vibes too.

+ We watched Over the Garden Wall as a family which has great fall vibes and just the right measure of slightly weird. A couple scenes were a little scary for Maeve but she loved it. And – fun fact! – my nephew is the voice of Greg.

September Goals Check In

In September, I said I wanted to:

+ Complete all my work before fall break. I still have a couple days and I’m trying my best! I think I’ll have all my podcast work done. I need to finish a newsletter draft for a volunteer commitment.

+ Start an embroidery project. Yes! I got started. I traced the pattern and started one color of thread.

+ Check off all our tech to-dos. We cancelled Bark because we could not get the boys’ devices to sync properly. I would still like some kind of monitoring service and we are considering Qustodio. Do you have any recommendations? We did follow up on our intermittently bad internet service and although they didn’t find anything maybe it’s a little better? But really we are just biding our time until fiber gets to our area. I see signs all over Gilbert so surely it will be to our neighborhood soon!

+ Plan fall break. We do have some plans in place but Chris and I need a planning session to finalize. I really want to have one activity per day, even if it’s something at home. That will help me feel some structure.

Thinking About

+ The combination of the slightly cooler weather and thinking about our house a lot has reignited my passion for plants and improving our yard. At one point a few years ago I loved our yard. We had plants and shade. But over time we lost our two beautiful palo verde trees to storms (the heartbreak!) and other plants died, too. Growing things in the desert is not easy! Now I feel very blah about our front yard. Which I realized bums me out!

For a while I felt defeated by growing things in our western facing yard. The sun and heat are soo intense. But I’ve been checking out lots of desert landscaping books from the library and am planning some nursery trips. I also love the archives of the AZ Plant Lady. I would love to have an interesting yard full of plants and color. I also love tending to plants and puttering in a yard. I’m starting to feel more optimism about making it happen! With so many years of desert living, and plenty of failed and a few successful plants under my belt, I’m feeling ready to embark on a project of slowing improving our yard.

+ After the public school bond campaign is over, I am promising to not take on any more commitments. It’s so hard to know what your capacity is usually until you’ve exceeded it. Although in some ways I have more time as the kids get older, in other ways I have less time. The kids need to be more places and I also want more time to be with them which is harder as the boys are busier. I also want to lean into my flexibility and enjoy the everyday things like making dinner and tending to our home.

But speaking of the campaign, please enjoy two of our great social media posts: Gen Z script (with the former superintendent who was such a good sport) and sunglasses (I took the photos, our amazing social media lead made the video).

What’s on your mind at the end of September, friends? I hope you found good things this month!