It’s October! Time to get out the Halloween decorations- how exciting.
Like many others, I’m looking forward to the Girl Next Door Fall Extravaganza episode for 2024. While I’m waiting, I’ve been amusing myself by listening to their old ones. One thing I love about these episodes is, Kelsey and Erica live in Arizona. Arizona weather is not Florida weather, but there are similarities. Mainly that neither place has a true “fall.” While the rest of the country is (hopefully) experiencing beautiful, crisp fall days, we’re still sweltering in the heat.
In this episode from 2016, Kelsey and Erica talked about how they adjusted to fall in the desert. They went through stages of denial, acceptance, and said they are now living in an alternate reality where it IS fall, dammit, because I say so! That’s the way I feel- I put up my decorations and light a candle, so therefore it’s fall.
Switching out my decorations (fall to Halloween, to Thanksgiving, to Christmas) also helps make one month distinct from another. In Florida, we pretty much have two seasons: Summer, and SuperSummer. There’s definitely a difference between January and July, but still- most days in January you can still walk around in shorts and a tank top.
There are many times that I temporarily have no idea what month it is. I know we all have those moments, but I doubt most people up north get confused between summer and winter. In the absence of external cues, it’s important to me to make one season distinct from the next. Otherwise time slips by much, much too fast.
In this week’s Best Laid Plans podcast, SHU discussed how she marks the start of a new month, One of the things she does is switch her screen backgrounds. I like that! I’m going to switch the photo on my phone, and I’m thinking of using this “terrifying” one of Charlotte…
Hee hee… actually, she was yawning. But she looks ferocious. Here she is looking like her beautiful self:
Magical black cats really do guard my home this month!
Do you decorate for Halloween?
Do you feel like you need to do something to make your months distinct, or does it naturally happen where you live?
22 Responses
I also have moments where I confuse the months, especially when we are in Cape Town. Their long summer holidays are from mid-December to mid-January. Their winter is in July. We’ve been going to South Africa for over four years, but I will never get used to July being a winter month.
I like the idea of changing the screen at the beginning of a month! Remember when we used to have paper calendars, and used to have a new picture for each month?
Ha! I still have a paper calendar hanging in my kitchen, and I was excited to turn it to a new month this morning!
Trying to explain to Minnie what was Halloween fall and what was FALL fall in our decorations tub was.. not the easiest task. Love your decorations! It has been In the 80s here all of September– not super fall-like.
80s is NOT super fall-like! I hope you get some real fall weather this month. And yes- I can see how that would be confusing for Minnie, ha.
I feel this as someone who lives in Arizona and is currently dealing with temps that are way above the seasonal average! It should not be in the 110s at the end of September! Even though I can’t wear my fall clothes for probably another month, I can enjoy all the fall foods and decorations. And luckily, I live pretty close to some bigger mountains where hopefully by the end of the month, the leaves will be changing color and I can go up and enjoy that and the cooler temperatures!
Yes, your temps are horrible. On the Fall Extravaganza podcast episodes, they talk about traveling a little to see the fall colors. That’s something we definitely can’t do in Florida.
Our seasons are very distinct so I don’t feel drawn to decorate except for Christmas! That is the only season I decorate for. I do have some purple spider lights for our mantel that I will put out today for the start of October, though. I really wish we had some fun outdoor decorations, but as I’ve mentioned, it is not Phil’s thing so I have just accepted that we won’t have decorations. We do have a lot of fall books, though, so I pulled them out in September and we’ve been reading those with Taco (Paul seems to have grown out of them… womp womp).
Charlotte is so pretty!
I’ll tell Charlotte you said that : )
Purple spider lights sound very spooky and Halloween-ish! I’m sure the boys love them.
My daughter and I are going to decorate for Halloween today! I love your throw pillows. Very cute! And Charlotte is in her element this month.
Yes, it’s her month! We’re giving her lots of extra love.
I do the very bare basics of decor for Halloween, so…not really? Enough the kids think I’ve done something and that’s as far as I’ll go!
It is too cute that you HAVE A BLACK CAT. I mean, if that doesn’t sing “Halloween lover” I don’t know what would…
Ha ha, we didn’t get a black cat on purpose, although I am partial to them- we had a black cat growing up. She definitely fits in with my monthly theme though!
I do like that we gave four seasons. Although my least favorite lasts too long.
My fall and Halloween are mixed.
Your cat is beautiful
Yes, you probably would be happy with your seasons if winter were half as long.
OMG October! I was having a downward spiral this morning when I realized October meant Hallowe’en and that was spitting distance to Thanksgiving and then on to Christmas and the end of the year and seriously I was starting to feel overwhelmed.
How perfect for the season is your cat!
Diane, do not go there! I want the next three months to last a looooong time.
Yes! Try the phone screen thing. I weirdly look forward to it every month 🙂 A free little treat that takes 5 min to do!
Yes, it’s brilliant!
CHARLOTTE!!! My QUEEN!! You are so scary.
Weather does change here obviously and I generally know what month it is, although January through April is one big slog. And frankly distinguishing between July and August can be tricky.
We only decorate for Halloween and Christmas, though. Nothing else. I should be better about trying to make winter better. Maybe decorate for Valentine’s Day or St. Patrick’s Day?
Engie, even down here I find January kind of depressing. After all the holidays, it seems so dull. Lately I’ve been leaving up some white twinkle lights and calling them “January lights,” but it’s still pretty blah.
Yay for having a Black Cat Guard.
If nothing else, we have seasons here…although there is always that rouge weekend in late December/early January when it’s bizarrely warm and then the next weekend there is a blizzard. But one side effect of having seasons is of course that we don’t take the time to appreciate them. I think if it wasn’t for your blog I would just be complaining about the shorter daylight – which believe me I am, but I’m also taking time to savor the cooler mornings and the crispness in the air. And I’m still thinking a lot about a pumpkin cold brew…I might just have to go get one.
I love how you mark your seasons/month. I know you said before why you moved to Florida because you couldn’t stand the dark/cold up north, but do you miss the seasons sometimes?
I must say that I do enjoy the seasons and since we don’t have snow where I leave, but definitely a cooler/wetter winter, it’s quite nice.