Discover simple fall homemaking rhythms that make family life easier, from seasonal meals and meal planning to creating a cozy home for the colder months.
There is something about the change of seasons that makes me feel like I need to start over.
Every time the weather changes, it seems like the routines that worked so well a few months ago suddenly don’t quite fit anymore. The days get shorter, we’re spending more time inside, the kids’ schedules change, we’re cooking different foods, and somehow I find myself looking around the house thinking, Okay… how are we going to make this work?
And maybe you’ve felt that too.
Why does every season seem to require us to start over? How do we keep up with meals when life gets busier? Why does the house sometimes feel harder to manage when everyone is home more? And how do we settle our families into a rhythm without creating another complicated schedule that we’re just going to abandon in a few weeks?
I don’t think we need a perfect fall routine.
I think we need a few simple rhythms that make life a little easier.
So today I want to share two questions I’ve been thinking about as we settle into this fall season—and some of the simple fall homemaking routines that are helping our family right now. I actually had three questions when I first drafted my ideas for this post and video, but I ended up trimming it down to two questions that are the crux of where we stumble as we transition into fall routines. I hope they are helpful to chat about today. Welcome to Healing Home. I hope you are encouraged and inspired by your time here.
Fast links from the YouTube Video:
Skylight
Where Wonder Leads Book
Fast Einkron Bread Recipe
Autumn Wild Rice Soup
Papa Bear Naturals (get 10% off)
My New Substack
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How Do I Get Everyone Settled Into a Good Rhythm When the Seasons Change?
This might be my favorite question because I think this is where we can so easily put too much pressure on ourselves. We want everyone to be settled. We want the children to have a good routine; we want homeschool to run smoothly; we want meals to happen on time; we want the house picked up; and we want everyone to get enough sleep. And sometimes we start creating schedules and routines and systems because we think if we can just find the right one, everything will finally work.
Actually, just yesterday I watched a child have a complete meltdown because they didn’t want to leave a homeschool function. This was an older child, probably six or seven, and I immediately sympathized with the parent because you could tell they were embarrassed. You know those environments where it feels like everyone else has their picture-perfect family and somehow your child is the one who has completely fallen apart?
But honestly, I also felt a little relieved. Because just the day before, I had two of my own children have major meltdowns. One happened in our church building. And another happened shortly after we left, and they were the kind of meltdowns that don’t just last five minutes and then disappear. It felt like it took almost the entire day for everyone to come back down from them, and it was just awful.
So when I saw that other parent standing there with their child, it was this little reminder to me that we’re all doing our best. Your child is not the only child who is having a hard time right now. We’re all moving through these transitions, and sometimes our children feel those changes just as much as we do.
I’m learning that our families aren’t machines, and the rhythm that worked in July might not be the rhythm that works in October. The days are different, the weather is different, the amount of daylight is different, our children’s needs change, our responsibilities change, and even our own energy changes.
So instead of asking, What is the perfect routine? I think a better question is, What does our family need in this season? Maybe fall is the time to start school a little earlier in the morning. Maybe it’s the time to make sure we’re getting outside before the weather gets too cold, or maybe our evenings need to become a little quieter because everyone is tired from the day.
Maybe we’re simply spending more time around the kitchen table. We’re pulling out the warm blankets, making hot drinks, reading a good book, and embracing the fact that we’re going to be home more. There is something really beautiful about allowing our homes to change with the season instead of constantly trying to make everything look and feel the way it did a few months ago.
We don’t have to recreate summer inside our house. We can let autumn be autumn. We can let the days get a little slower, make comforting meals, enjoy chilly evenings, and appreciate the beauty of this season rather than feeling like we need to fight against it.
And I think that’s one of the reasons I love the idea of homemaking rhythms rather than homemaking routines. A routine can sometimes feel like a checklist that we’re either keeping or failing at, while a rhythm has a little more flexibility to it. It gives us something to return to without demanding that every day look exactly the same.
How Can Fall Meals Make Homemaking Easier?
I don’t necessarily mean that I have a strict meal plan where every single day is planned out weeks in advance. That’s never really been how I operate. Instead, I like having a handful of fall meals and fall staples that I can come back to throughout the season, because knowing I have a few dependable meals takes away some of the mental work that comes with feeding a family.
One of the things that has made this much easier for me is using my Skylight for meal planning. On Saturday or Sunday, I’ll sit down and choose the lineup for the week. I don’t have to remember what I planned because, quite honestly, I don’t have a good enough memory to keep all of that in my head anymore!
So each morning when I open my Skylight calendar, the meal for that day is right there. I’ll take that meal and add it to my handwritten task list for the day, which is actually a printable template avaliable when you subscribe to my free Substack. That little step helps me connect the meal plan with everything else I need to get done that day, so I’m not getting to four o’clock in the afternoon and suddenly wondering what we’re having for dinner.
This is one of my favorite ways to approach fall meals. Instead of constantly searching for new recipes or feeling like I need to make something completely different every night, I can have a few meals that become part of our rhythm. When the weather turns chilly, soup is an easy choice. When I have seasonal produce on hand, I can build a meal around it, and suddenly dinner doesn’t feel like another decision I have to wrestle with at the end of a busy day.
Today, for example, I’m making my Autumn Wild Rice Soup. It’s exactly the kind of meal I love having in our fall rotation because it’s warm and comforting, it’s filled with autumn vegetables, and it can simmer away while we’re doing other things. Having meals like that in my back pocket means I don’t have to reinvent dinner every time the weather cools down.
This is really what I love about having a meal plan in place. It doesn’t mean I’m making elaborate meals every night or that I never change the plan. It just means that at 8 a.m., I don’t have to think about what we’re eating for dinner. I can look at my Skylight, write it down on my task list, and move on to the next thing.
And this time of year, I find myself naturally reaching for the same kinds of meals over and over again. Soups, roasted vegetables, potatoes, sweet potatoes, apples, and other simple fall staples make up so much of what we’re eating right now. They’re foods I already have around, and I don’t have to make dinner more complicated than it needs to be.
A few more fall-inspired recipes to try:
I’m actually putting together an accompanying blog post for this week’s video with some of my favorite easy seasonal meals. I’ll have the recipes linked there, along with photos from my own kitchen, so if you’re looking for a few new ideas to add to your fall rotation, I’ll have all of those linked for you in the description.
Sometimes I think we make homemaking harder than it needs to be because we’re always looking for something new. But there is so much freedom in finding the things that work for your family and simply doing them again and again. A few meals you love, a few recipes you know by heart, and a few fall staples that you can pull together without thinking too much can make a surprisingly big difference.
We Don’t Have to Start Over – Fall Homemaking Routines
“The woman who makes a sweet, beautiful home, filling it with love and prayer and purity, is doing something better than anything else her hands could find to do beneath the skies.”J.R. Miller
As I’ve been thinking about all of this, I keep coming back to the idea that maybe fall doesn’t require us to start over. Our families are changing, our days are changing, and the way we’re using our homes is changing, but that doesn’t mean we need to throw everything out and create a brand-new routine every time the seasons change.
Maybe we just need to pay attention. What is making life feel harder right now? What does our family need more of? What is one small thing we could change that would make the next part of our day a little easier as we move into the colder months?
And I think those are the things I want to remember about homemaking. We’re not trying to create a perfect home, and we’re certainly not trying to make every day run perfectly. We’re creating a cozy home where our families can live and grow and learn and eat and laugh and rest and belong.
So if you’re heading into this autumn season feeling a little overwhelmed, maybe you don’t need another complicated routine or a long list of things you should be doing. Maybe you just need to notice what isn’t working anymore and find a few simple ways to make this season work a little better for your family.
Let fall be fall. Let your home change with the season. Make the soup, pull out the soft blankets, gather around the kitchen table, and enjoy the beauty of the season instead of feeling like you have to rush past it.
For me, that might mean ending the day with one of my favorite warm drinks simmering on the stove. A little cranberry, a cinnamon stick, some cloves, and suddenly the whole house smells like fall. Those little touches don’t seem like much, but they can change how a home feels.
Because so much of our life is made up of those little things. And sometimes the best homemaking rhythms aren’t the ones that help us accomplish more. They’re the ones that help us make room for the life we’re already living.
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