September 2025 Recap

Well, I went to write my October Recap and realized that I never wrote my September Recap! I can’t have that!! I have not missed a single other month.

I was going to attempt to combine Sept and Oct but as soon as I started I was like, nope. Who am I kidding. I don’t want to cut things, because then it wouldn’t be complete. 😉

September sort of feels like approximately 5 years ago now, at this point, lol, since October was a BIG month for me. But thanks to the beauty of my highlight journal, I was easily able to generate this list.

Highlights of September were just getting into the new school year routine (now with both kids in school- E started in August), SOCCER SEASON, my mom’s 75th birthday and their visit, followed shortly after by my in-laws’ arrival! And, of course, the initiation of FALL! (Although frankly September did not feel particularly like fall- it was very warm.) But it’s still my favorite season.

Accomplish List:

September:

• Kicked off the new school year (for Asher, this time- 10th grade)
• Drove Asher back and forth to school 1 million times. (His fall schedule of lifeguarding after school until 6:15 (he has been preferring to work weekday shifts to have weekends more open…), but then wanting to get picked up to go home and eat quickly before turning around to go back to the school for 7:20 swim practice has been… a thing. It’s close to 10 minutes each way, so, it goes: 20 min to/from LG pickup, 20 min to/from swim drop off, 20 min to/from swim pick up = 60 minutes (at least) driving, almost every night, splattered across the evening beginning at 6 pm and ending at about 9:10 p.m. BUT he gets his license in about a month now, so, I’m also trying to sort of cherish these last days of carting someone around!!! 🥹)
• Put up my fall decor
• Drove my sister-in-law to a far away medical appointment on my lunch hour one weekday…
• We (Ivan) painted some siding that needed it.
• Scheduled doctor appts, picked up prescriptions, etc… this is time consuming!
• Shopped for and bought my mom’s 75th birthday gifts, balloons, etc.
• Painted our deck 😳. This took longer than expected, spread over a few days and was not especially fun. (Would have been okay if I’d had more white space to do it but I really did not have time for it and was therefore rushing so it felt Stressful.)
• Attended a bunch of Ethan’s Varsity soccer games!! (All a minimum of 35 minutes from home, many on weeknights…)
• My dad and Ivan dismantled/ cut down the boys’ old wooden swingset/ playhouse! (This was on my annual Goals list, so, yay!)
• Bought fall mums (the same ones I forgot to ask Ivan to water while I was in Nova Scotia and they are now… dead. 😩)
• Attended swim team board meetings/ volunteer work.
• Bought food donations for soccer team overnight trip
• Took Charlie to grooming
• To Ethan’s friend’s house for Junior Year Homecoming pics!
• Replaced our guest room mattress pad in advance of my in-laws coming.
• Cleaned the house.
• Went to the hospital all day for an onsite meeting.
• Drove to Chicago on a Monday night to pick up my in-laws! (with Ivan)
• Hosted my in-laws for several weeks, beginning 9/22
• to Brookfield for Ethan’s weekend soccer game
• Not represented: a ton of meetings, work, etc… the usual, I guess, but I feel like it warrants listing here since it eats up a massive part of my brain space on a weekly basis.

Happy/ Gratitude:

• a long weekend for Labor Day!
• Ivan made these amazing steak tacos with homemade guacamole and salsa on Labor Day
• Watching Anne with an E!
• our 18th wedding anniversary
• Ethan scoring several great goals during soccer games
• A random sloppy joes + butternut squash soup dinner on a rare night with both boys home- we lit a fall candle and ate at the table.
• Having Asher along during an ill-timed drive-thru prescription pick up that ended up taking 45 minutes…. but after 10-15 minutes we were too “invested now” to get out of line, lol.. Having him along (in the driver’s seat) made it more fun as he laughed at me occasionally raging “What is taking so long?!!” from my side of the van. 😅😅
• Ethan crashing at his cousin’s house on the West side several nights after late soccer games (Ivan’s cousin’s house is much closer to Ethan’s school, so it just made sense sometimes.) They embrace Ethan like another son basically- even gave him his own key to their house!- and it’s really sweet. They’re so great, and I love how close Ethan is to his cousin.
• A clean house.
• My fall decor!
• The hot tub in the fall = perfection.
• An easy peach cobble recipe I made.
• The Packers off to a good season. Micah Parsons! Daaang he was a good get for us.
• Birthday shopping with Asher and to Ethan’s game (Asher drove the big highways!)
• A walk with Ivan
• A late night dinner out to Buffalo Wild Wings after a soccer game with Ethan’s cousin along
• I liked the NP I saw about my cough.
• Found some new You Tube workout options
• Celebrating my mom’s 75th birthday!! Dinner out, etc.
• Chipotle. 🙂
• A no meeting day.
• Completed my insurance’s health incentive plan and got my $150 Visa gift card.
• Streaming one of Ethan’s away games that we didn’t attend, and being able to AirPlay it onto the big TV at our Mexican place while sitting at the bar eating tortilla chips! 🙂
• A pre-Nova Scotia phone call with Sarah!
• Started my volleyball league on Wednesday nights, fun! Also, we usually get a drink in the bar after and that is also fun, good conversation, etc.
• You Tube quiet fall scenes + music
• Old TV sitcoms that remind me of the 90s!
• A warm night + late walk with Charlie and Ivan
• An open weekend
• A movie night with Ivan
• Ethan looked so cute and handsome for Homecoming!
• My in-laws here, everyone happy + excited, safe travels, etc.
• Lots of big family time (extended family meals w/ Ivan’s parents here)
• Beautiful fall weather (abnormally warm fall)
• My in-laws along for soccer games, seeing the boys’ regular life stuff
• Eating my mother-in-law’s delicious cooking!
• We hosted a big family bonfire night at our house.

Bummers:

• A crabby/cranky day
• Days that are too busy and then either schedule feels totally off, can’t fit in my planned workout, etc.
• Extremely long pharmacy line…
• Feeling like I currently barely see Ethan between school + soccer + work + other stuff….
• Charlie got pelted with a soccer ball in the park! It whacked him right in the back and he didn’t know what hit him and was whimpering and howling and looking around like what in the world?! Felt so bad for my little buddy!
• This dry, nagging cough issue
• Quite a few way-too-late nights between soccer + in-laws and other things this month.
• Painting the deck… just not a fun task, honestly.
• A soccer win where E was disappointed with his personal performance that game
• An extended family member struggling with a stressful, ongoing health issue
• A day where I just felt soooo tired…
• A crabby email response from someone.
• Got a terrible kink in my upper back/neck one day after sleeping wrong, I guess.
• I put a new microwavable hot pack Ivan had just ordered in the microwave for apparently a little too long 😬and it burst. Oops.
• Some annoyances with my clothes…always trying to curate a “better” more efficient wardrobe, weed things out, etc and still end up with too many “meh” items in there and/or feeling like I don’t have pants that I love and fit perfectly… just a whole ongoing thing and it’s irritating to have headspace occupied with this.
• Extended Family Drama Siutation
• Feeling constantly like I have “too much to do”. Bleh.
• Some Little People visiting my house doing Little People things and creating a certain level of havoc and being constantly on the verge of wrecking something…
• Several weeks that felt like a blur with family staying here… all was technically very good overall but it created a constant hum of stress for me just sort of buzzing around in the background. (This may just be a me thing, but, it is what it is and is how it legitimately felt for me, so, it’s valid.)

In the name of time and also nothing too interesting to share, I’m going to speed through my Reading and Meals section here. I spent most of September in a serious reading rut, and I cooked nothing particularly noteworthy. Skimming my pages I see… chicken and broccoli alfredo… turkey burgers.. ground beef/potatoes/pinto beans in salsa verde… a lot of restaurant meals (lol)…. steak and chilaquiles… milanesas… pork chops/green beans/red potatoes… and then I think my MIL took over. Ha.

OCTOBER was up next, but I guess I’ll also skip forecasting the next month, since today is already October 31st. 🙃 (Happy Halloween!! 🎃)

You already know the big highlight of October = NOVA SCOTIA and I promise I will not recap all of that yet again ;). But hopefully I can toss together my October Recap in the next day or two and then I’ll be all back on schedule for my monthly recaps. Yay!