Homemaking Goals for the Week: Prepping for Homecoming and Halloween, and other Autumn Vibes

September 29, 2025October 19, 2025

Good morning! It’s such a good feeling to start my Monday morning off with a planning session for the week! I’ve missed this part of my routine—there’s something about having a deadline to post about my plans that makes me far more likely to make the planning happen.

Conditioning

I’ve added two new categories to my homemaking planning routine: Conditioning & Currency. Conditioning encompasses the various categories of self-care that keep me healthy: Physical, spiritual, emotional, intellectual, social, etc.

Physical Goals this week: 3 swimming sessions, 15 minutes of sunshine/outdoor time each day
Spiritual: Pray once a day, read one article a day on LDS Circles (I’ve backslid a bit in this category over the summer and am slowly rebuilding my spiritual health habits. Slow and steady wins the race.)
Emotional: Go through my Morning Manna ritual each day
Intellectual: I am trying to transition to reading actual ink and paper books at night, rather than e-books and/or scrolling on my phone in bed. This is proving harder to do than I would have thought. So, for this week’s goal I’m going to shoot for loading my nightstand with three books to choose from in the evening when I’m tired and don’t want to think anymore: 1 fiction, 1 serious non-fiction/informational, 1 creative/beautiful. I also need to figure out where my phone is going to live while I’m sleeping.

Currency

Update my money book/register twice this week. The ultimate goal is to do this daily, but I fell out of practice over the summer, so we’re rebuilding. Everything else is pretty much automized, so yay.

Cooking

This week’s meal plan: It looks like we’re heading into some seriously autumn-feeling weather this week! Cooler temperatures and some rain means it might be time to start dipping into some soups and comfort food! Woo hoo! Yay for autumn!

Monday: Corn Soup with Bacon & Sage, green salad with Italian vinaigrette
Tuesday: Quesadillas
Wednesday: Baked Chicken Parm, Caesar Salad
Thursday: Waffles, Bacon, fruit
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: Chicken Pad Thai
Sunday: Chickpea & Quinoa Chili, cornbread

Clothing

The regular upkeep plus getting Rachel ready for Homecoming. It’s that time of year! I’ll need to do the autumn wardrobe rotation soon, but Homecoming prep takes precedence this week. Also need to check with the kiddos to see if they need anything for their Halloween costumes. (Are they even planning on trick or treating?)

Cleaning

I’m still slogging along with the house decluttering. We did a phenomenal job of getting the kids’ rooms done over the summer, so I’m still very proud of that. I’m currently in the process of moving my home office out of my bedroom and into my craft room, which will require decluttering both of those worlds so they can fit into one room together. It is not a fun task whatsoever. But I’d like my bedroom to be less “business” and more “sanctuary,” so I’m making this long overdue move. I’ve been hit with all the back-to-school sicknesses in the past couple of weeks, so I don’t know if I’ll make any novel gains this week because I’m just trying to get caught up on the regular cleaning tasks around the house.

Caring

Getting Rachel ready for Homecoming.
General Conference is this weekend, so it’d be nice if I could do something special for that. It’s a busy, busy week leading into it, so I don’t know what I’ll actually be capable of doing.
It’s Week #13 in my 12 Week Year goal cycle, so I’m also deciding and planning my goals for the upcoming Autumn Cycle. I’d like to revisit my Life Vision plan and rework it, as the last time I updated it was in 2020 and things have changed A LOT since that time.
Nathaniel Driver’s Ed drives and tests scheduling
Make optometrist appointments

Creativity

Rotation Project: I am currently working on Renaissance’s Christmas quilt. All the penguins have fully formed heads! Next up is the wings and bodies. It’d be great if I could complete all of those this week.
Scrap Project: Rainbow Coin Strip Quilt. Why am I still working on this?!?! It’s gathering dust somewhere; the goal for this week is to unearth it and put in some work on the last bits of quilting it needs before it’s done. The resistance I am feeling towards this, guys…yeesh.
Crafting-in-the-Van Project: I am currently working on a Christmas EPP quilt that will look a lot like, if not identical, to the Tales of Cloth “Bonnie” quilt. I should probably count how many “blossoms” I’ve completed and extrapolate how many more I have to go. It’d be good to cut up the charm pack of Christmas fabric I bought a few months ago to add to this project and make sure I have enough fabric cut for the remainder of the quilt. I’ll get an hour’s worth of work done on it while I’m waiting for the kids at Mutual this week, and I’ll also get some work done on it during a kid’s dentist appointment as well. I also need a name for this project…Peppermint Blossoms EPP quilt.
TV Handwork Project: Uhhh, *checks notes*…huh, I’ve decided to unearth another long overdue project that I think I started working on back in 2005? Decluttering the craft room will have you finding all sorts of stuff! The embroidery floss has long since been lost or allocated to other projects because I thought I lost the instructions to this project, but I FOUND THEM while decluttering, so I really want to finish this up and be proud of myself for finishing a thing. I need to go shopping and purchase replacement embroidery floss this week, hoop the embroidery back up, and hopefully get some actual stitching done whenever I’m watching television/movies. This also needs a name…Christmas Alphabet Embroidery Sampler.

Gardening

Yeah, work should be done out there. We’ll see. Michael went through the yard this past weekend and burned away all the weeds and it looks so nice and neat. There’s a FAT SQUIRREL that is snapping off the heads of all my sunflowers and stealing them away to his nest, so I’m leaving them up while he does his harvesting. All the herbs have bolted so I probably won’t try to save them.

Oooh, I’d also like to start up my countertop AeroGarden, probably with herbs or lettuces, because The Big Dark is creeping in and I like the extra “sunlight” that the countertop garden shines on us during breakfast and dinner time.

Celebrating

Put out the last of the September apple decorations that I still haven’t gotten to. (Oops.)
October starts on Wednesday?!?! *sighs* Alright, put out the Halloween decorations, too.
I’ll have to tell you more about my newest obsession when I get a chance: Whimsical Days, where I just spend a day getting ready for the next holiday/celebration. I generally have been doing them on Wednesdays, so with October starting on Wednesday this week, I’ll be focusing on Halloween this week.
Beginning of October means I need to send out some birthday cards to Canadian family.

Community

I’m not involved with a lot of stuff this year. I’m focusing on getting Rachel and Nathaniel to their various activities.
I am still in charge of music at church and we’ve been taking a little break after a jam-packed summer of music. I should do a debriefing on that because I’d like to do things differently next year. I need to get the Christmas Sacrament Program written up and submitted for approval. I also need to get October and November’s special musical numbers planned and organized. And get October’s sacrament hymns chosen and posted.

Top priorities this week:

Homecoming Prep
Driver’s Ed schedulings
Swimming & sunshine
Aerogarden
Halloween decorating
Church music stuff
Consistent time for creativity so I don’t go insane

As I look over this week’s plans, I’m reminded that homemaking is less about checking every single box and more about creating an environment where peace and progress can flourish. The lists keep me moving forward, yes, but the ultimate reward I’m aiming for is the good feeling that comes from making my home a place of care, order, and creativity. Here’s to a week of steady steps, small victories, and the joy that comes when we pause at the end of the day and see the good we’ve accomplished. Let’s get to it—one task at a time! And Happy October!

Handknit socks made with red, green, and white self-striping yarn.

Stripey Christmas Socks

February 26, 2025February 22, 20252 Comments

Hurray! A beautiful finish that will now go live in a trunk for eight months. *groan* I’m really looking forward to debuting these on November 1st while decorating for Christmas while wearing my Hermey the Elf shirt. *happy smile*

Details:

Pattern: #216 Beginner’s Lightweight Socks, by Diane Soucy of Knitting Pure & Simple After all this time? Always.

Yarn: West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4 ply Self Striping/Patterning, colorway #886 Holly Berry, Cascade Yarns Heritage, colorway #5607 Red, Lang Reinforcing Thread, colorway #60.

Needles: US 2 (2.75 mm)

Modifications: I saw a sock knit up with this colorway and did not like it, so I added the solid red heels and toes. Now that they’re done I realize that I probably would have liked it if I had also knit the ribbing in solid red as well. (I also would have preferred if I had done a 2×2 ribbing on BOTH socks, and not just one…whoops. Doesn’t the 2×2 ribbing look SO GOOD?!?! I’ve been a 1×1 forever, but I will be changing my ways from here on out.)

It’s a late finish, but I didn’t want to rush ’em. This is such a great colorway and I enjoyed knitting these so much! I’m very tempted to commit to the idea of new Christmas socks each year, but even I can recognize the insanity of such a pledge, so these may remain my only handknit Christmas socks (for a while…it’s loads of fun to knit Christmas socks!).

Two Weeks of Creativity in One Post: A Birthday, a Quilt, and some Music

February 21, 20253 Comments

The past two weeks have been full of color, celebration, and music! Here’s a quick recap of what I’ve been up to:

Birthday Magic

We celebrated Rachel’s seventeenth birthday last week with doughnuts and a tea party! We had to postpone the family birthday dinner due to last-minute glitches with the tea party scheduling, but that will happen pretty soon. She had a fun time with her friends and I tried to make things nice for her last “childhood” birthday. I can’t believe these kids are getting so old!

Nearing the Finish Line

The King David’s Crown quilt is nearly complete. The “finished” photos of it were due this last week, so those have been taken and submitted, but there’s still some last bits of quilting to do on it and the binding and labelling, which I’m going to do slowly because I’m really burnt-out on crafting at the moment. (Blame the Februaries…blah.)

So Much Music-ky Goodness

The past two Sundays had a lot of music in ’em. Ren and I performed a beautiful arrangement of “I Know That My Redeemer Lives” two Sundays ago, and last Sunday the choir sang a really pretty arrangement of “My Shepherd Will Supply My Need.” Music takes a lot of work to happen, but it’s work that matters! I love the enthusiastic musicians in our ward who are always up for the next thing. Work continues on the Easter program and I also need to spend some quality with the latest batch of newly-released hymns so I can write up a game plan to get them introduced to our congregation.

Also Some Sugary Goodness

Renaissance was asked to help out at the Relief Society activity this week and showed the ladies how to decorate cupcakes in three different ways. She did so good! Yay for fun church activities!

Up Next…

I’ve got some “finished project” posts coming soon…there’s a pair of socks that took a tub-tub this morning and currently drying on their blockers. I’ll try to get that post written up ASAP to share with you! Happy Friday and have a great weekend!

A Week of Wins…and some Weirdos

February 8, 2025December 26, 20252 Comments

Congratulations on making it through the first full week of February, y’all! We had a lot of snow around here—nothing that really stuck until today—and some late starts to the school days, which were appreciated because no one really wants to leave the house when it’s cold out anyways, right? No all-out snow days, though. Sigh.

Top priorities this past week:

Vet appointment for Quesnel
Rachel’s birthday
Valentine’s Day
Getting the quilting going on the King David’s Crown quilt

Caring

I was able to get Quesnel in for a vet appointment on Wednesday and it turns out that she had a kidney infection. It also turns out that vet bills are ridiculously expensive. But we now have a kitty that is acting more like her usual self after three days of antibiotics. Poor thing, she was so miserable.

Celebrating

I really didn’t do much work on Rachel’s birthday or Valentine’s Day. I think they’re as taken care of as they can be until a day or two beforehand. Gotta love all the last-minute work that can’t be done ahead of time, eh?

Creating

The King David’s Crown is not only basted, but the quilt also has its basic foundational quilting complete, BUT my quilting stencils are STILL NOT HERE YET. They sat at their post office of origin all week and finally moved yesterday across the country to Montana. I imagine the earliest they’ll get to me is Monday afternoon, but with how slow this is all going I’d gamble on them not arriving until Tuesday.

It turns out that I can baste a twin-sized quilt in thirty-five minutes. That was not the case the last time I attempted that sort of thing. Thank you, Yoga. [insert weird Gen Z hand-heart motion here]

I finished the Stripey Christmas socks! They are in the process of having their ends woven in and then they’ll go have a tub-tub and I’ll be able to show them to you!

I started BOTH the Midnight Lark socks and the Cherry Twilight socks this week. The Midnight Lark socks are my “waiting for kids” van knitting project, so they’ll come along at a slower rate than the Cherry Twilight socks because those are in the house and will be worked on whenever I have downtime at home.

Highlights of the Week

Nathaniel did Solo Competition today on the xylophone and received a Superior rating! That’s pretty awesome for a freshman!
Rachel had a big choir concert this week and it went really well.
I basted a quilt in thirty-five minutes! It was basically an intense thirty-five minutes yoga practice, and I was worn out afterwards, but still, I DID THAT.
Had lunch with a friend and it raised my spirits immensely. Friends are good.

Lowlights

I cannot escape weirdos sitting behind me at choir concerts, apparently. The couple sitting in front of us smelled of weed so badly it gave me a splitting headache, and the family sitting behind us was very adjacent to drunk, smelled like it, and didn’t shut up the entire concert, even breaking into song when the choirs sang familiar tunes. Whoever was sitting directly behind me also tapped their toe on my chair about a sixteenth of a beat off from the music, not only driving me crazy but also jarring my back the entire time. I could not get out of that venue fast enough once the concert was finished. I need to come up with some sort of mindfulness practice or something to help me get through these nightmares of concerts because this kind of occurrence is now the norm and it’s destroying my enjoyment of the concerts, which is not how I want that part of this chapter of life to go.
Poor Quesnel being sick. But she’s lots better now.

All in all, it was a lovely week—it’s always nice to put the final stitches into a knitting project, I was thankful to be granted more snuggles on the couch with Quesnel, and there are few things more perfect than drinking white chocolate peppermint herbal tea with your kids while you all watch the snow fall outside the kitchen windows. It was a week full of simple joys—Nathaniel’s Superior rating was a welcome development, and a simple lunch with a friend went way too long due to meaningful conversation. I hope the slow mornings keep coming, that the snowflakes keep falling, and the smiles keep happening.

Oh, and for those quilting stencils to get here faster…

A Woven Star quilt block made by That Crafty Cara (Cara Brooke) for her Star Climber Scrap Quilt.

Starry Stitches & Snowfall Wishes: A February Fresh Start

February 3, 2025March 24, 20254 Comments

Happy Monday! Happy February! I don’t know if you can wish anyone a happy Monday or a happy February, but here I am, trying to inject some semblance of cheer into the grayest part of the year! I found an image on the internet last week that I absolutely loved from Pippi Post, and I have been quoting it to myself over and over again ever since:

There’s a lot of stuff going on right now that is upsetting for people, it’s February and we haven’t seen the sun in months, and almost everyone I know is recovering from some bout of illness. We’re all tired and we’re all overwhelmed, so prioritizing joy is a good idea right now. I’ve been trying to avoid being a grump and it really is weird how you can just choose to be optimistic if you really put your mind to it.

Something that brings me joy is figuring out my week ahead, so here we are with a Crafting a Plan post! Enjoy!

Cooking

This week’s meal plan:

Monday: Tuscan Meatball Soup with gnocchi
Tuesday: Grilled Cheese & Lunchmeat sandwiches, Salad with creamy cider vinaigrette
Wednesday: Breakfast Soft Tacos
Thursday: Costco Lasagna, Caesar salad
Friday: Chicken-Tomatillo Soup with Chipotle Chiles
Saturday: TBD
Sunday: TBD

Clothing

I am so caught up with laundry! It is exhilarating! I actually have time to work on rotating our wardrobes at the moment, so there’s a big upheaval with the warm and cold weather clothing. I read a fantastic book about decluttering over Christmas Break and am applying the principles to my wardrobe as I work through the rotating.

Cleaning

I’m trying to do some decluttering and it’s going pretty good. The book I read is called Decluttering at the Speed of Life: Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff, by Dana K. White, and it’s got a completely sane approach to dealing with decluttering that does not involve dumping out an entire anything and spending hours at a time on the process à la Marie Kondo. I’ve gone through the front entrance of the house, the dining room, and I’m slowly working on the craft room. All the background thought that goes into the process makes the upkeep of the cleaned area much easier, so those areas of my house are looking really good, even weeks later. Very good book, highly recommended.

Caring

Haircuts for Michael & Nathaniel
I need to make a vet appointment for Quesnel. She’s not looking like she’s feeling very well.
I need to keep an eye on spring sports registration for Nathaniel.

Creativity

King David’s Crown is assembled and awaiting basting. I decided that I wanted to quilt it nicely, so I’ve ordered some quilting stencils and the company has taken forever to ship them to me. They should arrive on Thursday, despite having ordered them last weekend. Hmph.
I started working on my scrappy Star Climber quilt last week and I am loving it! What a great pattern for using up scraps! Love, love, love. I’m planning on this one taking all year to complete so that I don’t have to rush it. I really enjoy working with the Woven Star foundation papers* and I think I’ve picked out a great color palette for this quilt that will use up a lot of scraps from particularly overflowing scrap bins. My schedule for this quilt calls for me to complete eight blocks in February, and I’ve finished four thus far. Another two are in-progress right now and I’m hoping to have them done by the end of this week.
It’s quite possible that I could finish the Christmas Stripey socks this week. I’ve made it to the toe decreases, so there’s not a lot of work left on them.

Celebrating

Emily just celebrated her 21st birthday. I think you’re officially old when your kids start turning 21.
Next up is Rachel’s birthday. How in the world is she almost seventeen years old?!?! Nathaniel mentioned that her next birthday will allow her to vote. That was not on my radar. These kids just went and grew up on me when I wasn’t looking.
Michael and I aren’t up for a big night out on Valentine’s Day so we’re planning a family Mario Kart tournament for that evening. Depending on how into it the kids are, there could be some cute things happening. If the cute things don’t happen, whatever; we’ll still have fun and eat tasty treats.
Michael’s birthday is on the horizon, but I’m not quite into planning mode for that yet.
Same with Nathaniel.
Easter IS on my mind because I’m trying to get the Easter Program together for church. I’ve got my rough draft written up and submitted for approval, so we’ll see how much the bishopric likes it. I’d also like to do some planning in regards to Easter dinner; the kind of planning that will repeat itself every year and make my life easier.

Community

Ren and I will be performing the special musical number in church this week because I couldn’t find anyone else to do it. We are becoming very good at throwing pieces together at the last minute! So we’ll need to figure out some rehearsal time during the week.
Track down some flute music for Ren for the Easter Program.
Compose an ending/reprise for my arrangement of “As Bread is Broken” for the choir.
Pick up raffle tickets I had printed for band boosters.
Check in on the t-shirts we’re having printed for the band’s Disney trip

Top priorities this week:

Vet appointment for Quesnel
Rachel’s birthday
Valentine’s Day
Getting the quilting going on the King David’s Crown quilt

I wish you a happy first week of February! We’re getting some snow right now and I’m really hoping it translates into a legit snow day tomorrow so we can just bum around and drink cocoa all day. I’m reeeeeally hoping for that. May you get your snow wishes granted as well, if that’s your jam.

Crafting through the Cold

January 18, 20252 Comments

We’ve hit the third Friday of 2025 and it’s starting to feel like we’ve truly left the holiday season behind us and that we’re heading into a new, fresh year. I am really looking forward to this three-day weekend ahead of us, and really, really looking forward to the end of the kids’ semester at the end of next week with its FOUR-DAY weekend. Yay for extra days off of school during the darkest days of the year!

Top priorities this past week:

Progress on the King David’s Crown quilt
Finish the Piscis Project
Progress on the Stripey Christmas Socks

King David’s Crown Quilt

It’s coming along. The pattern will be released to the public in mid-March*, so you would think I have lots of time to work on this, but photos need to be submitted to Fat Quarter Shop ahead of that release date, so I’m needing to work at a faster pace to meet that deadline. The requirement is only one block to show, but I never want to do just one block so I’m doing a legit quilt at breakneck speed. My goal was to be done with 75% of my blocks this Wednesday and I was very, very far behind on that goal on Tuesday, but somehow managed to bend the space-time continuum over the next two days and I’m actually caught up on my self-imposed schedule as of last night. Woo hoo!

It’s a cool-looking block so I wanted to make a full quilt from it because it’s a little off the beaten path for me. I’m really loving the Creative Grids Starburst 30-degree ruler* that goes along with the pattern, and I have plans to re-use this specialty ruler to make all sorts of projects in the future. I’m addicted to Creative Grids specialty rulers. It’s intense.

I figure I’ll be working on this quilt for at least another four weeks, so get comfortable with looking at these fabrics. At least they’re super pretty, right? They’re a handful of prints from the Cali & Co. fabric collection by Corey Yoder.* I really wanted to make the multicolored-on-white flower dot fabric work in some capacity in this quilt, but it just wasn’t mocking up well so I went with the cherries for my background print instead because they are stinkin’ adorable. I love, love, love the periwinkle/cornflower blue of the lighter blue print I’m using and decided to incorporate that and some navy to make a subtly patriotic quilt for the summer months. I’m loving how it’s turning out.

Helpful Hint with this one: Prioritize the skinny tip of the triangle fabric pieces when you’re cutting the fabric and piecing the foundational units of the blocks. Don’t worry about the wide part of the triangle fabric pieces because you’ll be trimming those off. It’s all about the skinny tips on this one.

Piscis Project

I can’t tell you much about this because it’s a gift for someone. It is completed and it’s cute and I’ll show it to you once it is given to the recipient. It’s a small thing, so don’t get too excited about it.

Stripey Christmas Socks

A lot of knitting happened on these this week due to Rachel having two home matches this week and that’s when I’ve been knitting on them. I also knit on them a bit before Nathaniel’s band concert this week as well. I am past the heel and firmly into the foot section! And it’d be a lot more fun for you to read about if I could remember to take a picture of them while I’m working on them…hee hee.

Highlights

I found out at our Band Boosters meeting that we raised an extra $2000 more than we originally thought because the Square app stopped logging donations and purchases at a certain time during the Evening of Jazz and it wasn’t deposited into our account until the next morning. Whew! I was seriously bummed at the end of EOJ because our profit seemed really low for the amount of donations we had this time.
Lunch with friends is always a nice thing
Getting caught up on the King David’s Crown quilt! Didn’t think that would happen!
A friend’s daughter started her mission on Monday! She’s doing at-home MTC right now and it’s fun to hear the updates on that situation each day. So excited for you, Abbie!
We hosted our Potluck Club this past week. I decided this month’s dinner would have a “Winter Wonderland” theme and it went really well! If you’ve been thinking about organizing your friends to have dinner together once a month, just ask! It’s been such a good thing in our lives these past few months!

Lowlights

I am struggling with my points on the King David’s Crown blocks. I think I’ve figured it all out, but geez…

Enjoy your long weekend if you get to have it! I hope you find some time for some craftiness, warm socks, and hot beverages!

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Cali & Co. fabric used in That Crafty Cara's (Cara Brooke) King David's Crown quilt for the Fat Quarter Shop

Goodbye 2024 & Plans for 2025

January 13, 2025December 26, 20252 Comments

2024 Recap:

I always make plans that are way too big for practicality, so I’ve done a lot of thinking and planning to try to keep my aspirations grounded in reality. I feel like I didn’t do a lot of crafting in 2024, but then I remember the prom dresses and the Layer Cake Latte quilt and the Baking Doodle Cowl and I feel stressed out all over again by it all, ha ha. I really hit the ground running hard at the beginning of last year, didn’t I? That was pretty intense. No wonder I took the remainder of the year off!

I was busy in the garden all summer, and did it ever reward us with a delightful crop! I’m so proud of the garden this last year, it was great!

And then autumn came, and with it a whole lot of difficulties. Thankfully, two of those hardships now mean that I’m stronger and more available to do crafty things in my free time. Yay!

Something will need to change in regards to the Christmas season next time ’round, though. I’m drowning every year and family members were complaining this year as well. It’s hard to step back from doing good things, but I think we’ve officially reached the point where we’re doing too many good things and need to cut back.

Looking Ahead in 2025

I have a Fat Quarter Shop quilt a-brewing in the background right now, so that’s fun.

I’m trying to declutter my craft room because it’s officially too full of junk to be enjoyable to work in. I had an epiphany regarding my quilting stash the other day as I was decluttering, and I’m hoping that it will lead to more quilts made from my scrap stash in the future!

Plans for Winter Quarter 2025 thus far:

Fabric:
- Finish King David’s Crown quilt for Fat Quarter Shop
- Begin Star Climber Scrap quilt
Yarn & Handwork:
- Piscis project
- Finish my Christmas socks
- Begin the Cherry Twilight socks