September, my favourite: What’s ahead

Photo: @kimbingmei_

It’s the first day of high school and grade 11 for my two (no kitten!) and as much as I love the quiet in the house ahhhhhh I miss them too. Even after all of the pushback and general snarkyness we got yesterday over just about everything. I went to bed feeling totally depleted and *still* can’t help feel a bit sad about how fast they’ve grown and wonder what they’re doing and how it’s going. 🤦‍♀️ That aside, I love the fresh-start feeling of September and I’m looking forward to all kinds of things, some new and some more of the same. Here’s the plan.

More reading · I’m a slow reader and always plan to get to more books than I do but I’m really enjoying a David Sedaris book I found at Homesense (probably the best $7.99 I’ve ever spent). Maybe you saw it in my stories? It’s Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977 — 2002. After that, I think I’ll start I’m a Fan by Sheena Patel or Lisa Jewell’s None of This is True. And I’m dying to read Becca Freeman‘s first book, The Christmas Orphans Club, but I prefer reading Christmas books much closer to the holidays so I’ll probably wait a while on that one. It’s out September 26.

Harvesting our cherry tomatoes · ‘tho “harvesting” is probably too lofty for the seven or eight tiny ones we’ll probably get (if the squirrels don’t get to them first). This spring we had grand plans to plant all kinds of things and what did we do? Almost nothing. Our friends gave us the cherry tomato plant and a pot of peppers that never amounted to anything and le monsieur planted a couple of green onions. On the upside, the rhubarb that was here when we moved in last summer has flourished. We’ve shared some of it with friends and want to can a bunch in the next week or so. And this weekend we made a big batch of jelly using some of our next-door-neighbour’s crabapples. (It’s the second year we’ve done it.)

Having a lawn sale · Long overdue but we’re finally doing it! Really really hope we don’t get rained out because it’s going to be so much work. (I’m so glad my mom’s coming up to give us a hand.) We’re planning to do it on Saturday, September 23 and the next day is the BooknBrunch event here in Ottawa to make new reader friends and chat about Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano. (I haven’t read it but I want to!) I’m going to be exhausted after the sale and my mom will be visiting so I probably won’t get to this one please let me know if you do. (I have major FOMO already.) There’s only a small number of tickets to keep the group cozy.

Horseback riding · Way out of my comfort zone but our daughter really wants to try it. It’s been years since I’ve been and then only a couple of times so time to get back on that horse (literally 😉). Probably this coming weekend if the weather’s decent ie. not hellfire hot. 🥵

Blogging · Sharing August’s box from Laid Back Snacks, the Fall Acre75 Box, September’s Vellabox, Fall’s Little Box of the Prairies, the Wanderlust Hygge Box from Hygge in a Box, Ruby Crate‘s Fall Teen Crate and Fall Mini Crate, and maybe (hopefully!) a couple others. And some books! 😉

Watching · The rest of season three of Only Murders in the Building, finishing the second season of The Bear (I’m waiting til my mom comes up so we can watch it together) and The Parisian Agency: Exclusive Properties (a reality show about a family that sells luxury real estate in France — je l’adore! 🇫🇷)

Plus! · Some batch baking and cooking (Aimée has all kinds of fantastic-looking recipes here on her blog, Simple Bites) and getting back on the bike to get those endorphins going and just generally feel less like a lazybones.

Okay that’s it for now. Tell me something you’re looking forward to this month! And thanks as always for reading. ❤️