The Kitchen Sink V5I23

By Misty Crouse

Fall is HERE! And the Fall Fun is here too! I love the start of fall in Oklahoma, I don’t care what anyone says we have the best sunsets and fall is the best time to enjoy them. Perfect time for smores, weenie roasts, fall festivals, and all the outside chores we have put off because of the heat.

Now that the school routine is in full swing,  we have all these fun events in all our little towns. Prague has its pumpkin festival, there is the Wewoka Sorghum Festival, Drumright’s Oilpatch, plus all the pumpkin patches. Basically, you have multiple events to choose from each weekend. Isn’t that wonderful? Well, it is until you realize you are going to be busy right? When my family is this busy, I hop into planner mode, make my lists, and work hard to stick to the plan so we have more time for fun. I Know some people don’t think planning and organizing is part of housekeeping and I have to strongly disagree. Planning gives me more time to clean and that in turn gives me more free time. When we are busy, I need all the extra time I can get. To be ready for events, I like to clean out my car, that way I can easily spot what the kids have left there. I also like to pack a bag for these events, since I no longer have a diaper bag to carry around (so grateful for that) and I pack a car bag full of things we might need, snacks, on the go stain remover, Clorox wipes, hand sanitizer, bottles of water, even misc. over the counter meds. Things that can help me avoid having to stop multiple times and delay our fun.

I plan out our meals, so I have less time shopping, and the crockpot does the heavy lifting on our busy days. This is also a time when I treat myself to paper plates, it gives me extra time to do extra weekend chores during the week. I won’t lie the laundry gets washed maybe not folded and put away when we are this busy. It’s only temporary and worth it for all the family time and fun.

When it comes to fall yard work. I make a list and we do what we can each week. This year, unfortunately, a raccoon took out all of our chickens recently and we decided to start over in the spring with baby chicks. That means this fall we will take advantage of an empty run and coop. If you don’t have chickens, let me tell you while fresh eggs are sooo good and worth it. The work that goes into maintaining chickens can be a lot. I am grateful my husband enjoys farm chores. Pretty sure he will be spending most of his extra time working on their area. This leaves the kids and I to work on other projects, getting garden & flower beds ready for winter, etc. Doing a little of this each nice day, and we are done in no time at all.

With Halloween right around the corner, it is time to get out those holiday totes. I love Halloween! We have a few Halloween totes (like 3 or 4 now! Lol) and my husband would say a few too many. I like to go through everything and discard broken decorations or find a way to upcycle them. The very first thing I do after that is get out all my Fall/Halloween pillows for my porch seating then a mandatory porch sit to plan how I want to decorate. In Spring and Fall, my porch is like a second living room. I’m typing this from the porch right now. Heaven, I say.

With the weather mild, it is the perfect time to have those heaters serviced. If you have a fireplace or a wood stove, plan on getting it cleaned and ready for the coming chilly days. Replace the batteries in your smoke alarms and Carbon Monoxide Alarms. Don’t forget to get your Fire extinguisher checked too. If you don’t have one, pick up a small one to have on hand. It’s one of those things I hope no one ever needs but it can make a big difference if you ever need it. Plus, you should be able to get a little discount on your homeowners insurance, I think renters insurance offers one too but don’t quote me on that. Doing anything to get yourself winter-ready needs to go on your list, you will still have November to check things off the to-do list.

While it is October now, we are enjoying the weather and thinking about all that sweet Halloween Candy. Creating seasonal routines will have you prepared for the unexpected, like Oklahoma’s crazy windstorms.

Stay prepared, stay safe friends and "Happy Cleaning"

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