My hopes/plans for fall

We have less than one week before my sweet boy heads off to first grade! With every back-to-school season comes routine, which we all love around here. I've been thinking about how I want this year to be different in a few ways:

• I want to have most of our Christmas shopping done by the first week of December. This means I need to start NOW. I want to be really intentional about the gifts we give the kids. I throw away and donate WAY too many toys over the course of the year. 
• Make date night a priority again. This summer has been so busy for us as employees, parents and mentors. We've happily invested in others (which is so amazing) but we need to do the same for our marriage! It makes the biggest difference in our communication when Jimmy and I can sit down at dinner and have someone serve us. No kids, no clean up. It helps us to get on the same page about life!
• Get a new car. Well, new to us :) There have been some changes in Jimmy's job (all good) that will require a bigger vehicle. We need to buckle down and make up our minds about it all. 
• Organize. I'm a pretty organized person but I want to organize my home more and purge things that we just don't need/use. 
• Finish painting! We started painting our downstairs last weekend and we are in love! Having every room a different color was feeling very chaotic. We want every room to be the same color downstairs so that it feels more spacious and clean.

• Clean up our backyard. We are fortunate to have a large backyard, but it slopes all the way down to a creek and is really hard to manage. Bushes and vines have overgrown and there are piles that are too much for us to handle alone. We need to tackle this with lots of help! Or maybe hire someone…..
• Make organizing at night a priority. All too often I'm too tired to pack lunches and lay clothes out the night before school. It makes the biggest difference when I do and I thank myself the next morning. 

• Get back on track with my workouts. I was doing really well with sticking to my routine until a major stomach illness took over. I couldn't quite figure out what was going on and workouts fell to the back burner. Along with that went my eating habits you know how this story goes :)
• Get a new crockpot and put it to use. My crockpot has had it. I'd love to get one with a few more settings and have that baby cranking during the day. We've been really lazy about cooking this summer.

Now to put it all into action… :) Happy Wednesday!