It is now November, somehow, so I’m going to share my “Fall 2022” recap today. I shared my Summer 2022 recap here, and I enjoyed that format and putting it together.
Fall is not technically over yet, but in my head, November kicks off more of “holiday season”, to me. So, for me and any unofficial purposes of tracking my life just because (lol), fall = September and October.
I have had this occasional thought flit through my head this week of “I missed fall!!” As in, did it pass me by? Did I not soak it up enough??
I think I feel this way because there have been some beautiful fall days where I have just been REALLY busy and have literally not set foot outside or been able to “appreciate” it at all.
But overall, the thought that I “missed fall” is ridiculous, because I know for a fact that we did a lot of “fall things”. So I’m not sure why I would even think that.
You know who also had a great fall? Humpty Dumpty. (My sister sent me this. Isn’t it so cute??):
Anyway, here is what my fall looked like:
SEPTEMBER
- The boys started 7th and 8th grades! Ethan’s final year of middle school.
- We celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary.
- Asher played a lot of sports: soccer, ran cross country, and swim team.
- We went to a lot of soccer games.
- I trained a new employee at work (very labor intensive for me…)
- I started a new gym lifting program! (EmPowered Fitness)
- Asher injured his foot and had to miss a bunch of XC meets.
- Took Asher to the Sports Med clinic, got him shoe inserts (after paying ~$250 for foot xrays, though)
- Ethan got his actual braces put on, plus his lovely expander. I got to turn the key in that until he figured out he can actually do it himself! Score for me.
- Started watching the show Younger with Ivan. Loving it.
- Organized all the volunteers for the October home swim meet.
- Attended several Meet Committee swim meetings in the evenings.
- Drove Ethan to Milwaukee a bunch of times for soccer.
- Went on some early fall walks at 2 different nature reserves
- Queen Elizabeth II died. 😦
- Attended a LOT of extra work meetings this month.
- My mom came to stay for almost a week.
- Bought pumpkins.
- Decorated the house (inside and out) for fall/ Halloween.
- Bought a new bookshelf for our basement rec room.
- Hurrican Ian hit Florida- lots of destruction/ devastation. 😦
OCTOBER
- Went to more soccer games and tournaments.
- Planted a tree in our yard!
- Ordered (and mostly returned) a bunch of pants/ jeans. Why do real pants hate me so much??? Why?
- Helped run the swim meet on October 8th.
- Went on a couple more fall walks (locally/ around the neighborhood)
- Hung the Spooky Guys in our tree
- Deep cleaned my home office! (like drawers, cabinets, etc. too)
- Watched the Packers play, and lose, in London. (I mean on TV. I did not go to London.)
- Did a couple larger work projects. Led several meetings. (One that I did not know about in advance and caused a very stressful week.)
- Toured a high school with the boys and Ivan.
- Went to parent/teacher conferences.
- Cooked several good meals this fall (chicken parmesan, shrimp tacos, pork chops, etc.)
- Ordered 2 travel guides for our spring break trip. (2 weeks in Costa Rica, March 2023)
- Went to a UW Badgers hockey game.
- Spent a weekend in Wisconsin Dells at an indoor waterpark with my family/ parents.
- Went on a great fall hike there.
- Turned 39.
- Went to a dr appt.
- Got my flu shot/ new covid booster.
- Took the boys for their new covid boosters.
- Got an iphone printer and had fun trying that!
- Went to the Broadway version of Pretty Woman with Ivan.
- Got the piano tuned.
- Got an eye exam.
- Ethan went to Washington D.C./ Philadelphia! Helped him pack, drove him to school at 3:30 a.m. for departure.
- Did a little in person shopping. Exchanged my Lululemon joggers (that Ivan gave me for my b-day) for a different size (trying to get more length… kind of worked, but why don’t they make various inseams?!?!!? Also bought some quick dry capri pants from LL Bean for our Costa Rica trip.)
- Enjoyed some warmer than usual fall weather.
- Visited Ivan’s cousin, then got ice cream on a farm.
- Went to a work happy hour.
- Went on a 1:1 fall outing with Asher to see scarecrows in our downtown/ got tea with him.
- Picked up Ethan from D.C. trip at 11 pm on a Thursday night.
- Attended another 2 day swim meet/ watched Asher’s last soccer game.
- Went to a Haunted Forest!
- Researched flights and rental cars for Costa Rica. (NOT GOOD. Prices are insane right now, especially for March (i.e. peak seaon in CR.)
- Made chili, cupcakes, corn bread and salad for our Halloween dinner.
- Had my parents here for Halloween night.
- Sent the boys out trick or treating with friends.
- Ethan has been working many weekend days….. it’s kind of weird.
Now, on to Holiday Season!
But before I tear down the fall garland and put up the Christmas tree (I’m kidding, I won’t do this for at least a few more weeks 😉 ), here are a few Halloween pics:
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for some amazingly nice, warm weather on Halloween this year. We’ve had some real crappy Halloweens (cold, rain, SNOW….). This one was gorgeous!!
GRATEFUL KAE 
How do they just forget the candy is there?! I will consistently eat one or two pieces of our Halloween leftovers every day until Christmas. LOL. It was a gorgeous Halloween weekend and I’m so happy all the children got to enjoy trick or treating without rain or snow!
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Wow that is a huge candy haul! Paul’s was maybe 1/3 of that, which is good. He only ate one piece on Halloween. I don’t think he is has figured out how to push boundaries there so when I said he could have one piece, he was happy! Now he’ll have 1-2 pieces after dinner until we run out of things he likes. I’ve given Will some candy too. I figure everything is fine in moderation – as is your approach of letting the boys eat to their heart’s delight, knowing they won’t keep eating a crazy amount!
You had a BUSY fall! No wonder your read is a little ‘meh’ lately – when would you fit it in! We’ve had a really nice fall here, too, and have fit in a lot of walks and other seasonal things. Now I am shifting to the Thanksgiving/Christmas holidays and am looking for things to do because we thrive on structure/plans. Or at least the boys and I do. Phil is more of a fly by the seat of your pants kind of guy… but he recognizes that having plans makes our weekends more enjoyable!
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What a lot of candy! That’s awesome. I loved reading this, Kae, it sounds like you had an awesome fall. Maybe even as great as Humpty’s (I love that cartoon). I have started Tiny Secret Festive Season, which will become full-on festive after Nov 11 (Remembrance Day) but the tree probably won’t go up until Nov 25…or maybe the 20th…
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I love posts like this and also think the format is great! You fit in so many items over the fall and it’s fun to see it in bullet points. I’m still shuddering about that Haunted House!!!
What a fun Halloween and an impressive candy haul. I also don’t really limit candy consumption too closely and my kids also forget about it quite quickly.
I put up the artificial tree and the garland on the mantle the week after Remembrance Day (11 Nov) and then just slowly add things over the remaining weeks until Christmas. The real tree goes up sometime near the end of the first week of Dec, usually. I just love it!
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You did most definitely MISS fall… but I understand the sentiment… September and October flew by and the weather here in September was mostly still “summer-y” (too hot) and then October came without a drop of rain. We had some beautiful, sunny fall days but yeah, it did fell a bit like it passed me by, too. You definitely have a lot more fall activities to show for… I love the carved pumpkins. Very creative.
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*not miss… (gah!)
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I feel totally the same about summer (my favorite season), it fees way too short! I love these recaps, a great way to prove to yourself that you didn’t miss fall. You just enjoyed it too much and didn’t want it to end! And LOL about pants hating you!!!
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that sounds like a busy fall. i honestly don’t remember doing much the last 2-3 months. time flied by so quickly, so no wonder you feel like fall went by without noticing. it’s great that you do this recap to see actually you did enjoy fall very much.
love your carved pumpkin pic. and what do you do with so many candies????
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