Some Ideas for Fall 🍂

Turmeric Invisible Ink, Pretend Elixirs, Bird Bingo, Easy Pot Roast, and More

Hello! I hope your October is off to a meaningful start so far. Here are some ideas in various categories that I hope help and inspire you! Personal greetings are at the bottom.

Invisible Skeletons (with Turmeric Invisible Ink)

Whether you choose this as a spooky craft or an anatomy lesson, this is super fun and surprising! Shout-out to our local library for this one. The librarian prepped by painting a basic skeleton using water + baking soda. During class, the kids mixed together hand sanitizer + turmeric, then painted that mixture over their little human outline. The bones inside were such a fun reveal! I don’t know why the baking soda turns red, but how cool! Instructables has more info and ideas.

Fall Leaf Crowns

All you have to do is make a head-sized loop of wide masking tape (sticky-side out) and place some leaves on it! We used painter’s tape here.

Pretend Elixirs

My kids came up with this one and all five enjoyed it together. They put a little bit of chalk powder into Zip-loc baggies with water and labeled them as “elixirs” with varying abilities and special kinds of water. Some of my favorites: Flying Potion, Healing Water, Disoriented Elixir. The imagination can grow wild!

Botanical Pumpkins

Simply mod-podge leaves, ferns, and other plants onto pumpkins! Some people have gone all-out and made true artwork; see inspiration here. Also, as far as I can tell, Aldi has the cheapest pumpkins; they’re $3.69 at my store. Gourds are mini-pumpkins are about 80 cents at Trader Joe’s, which are also fun for crafting with.

Bird Bingo

Fall migration is a great time to see birds. To learn the birds in our area, I got onto Canva and made six bingo cards. We drew bird squares from a bag and used dried beans as our markers. It’s a very efficient way to identify birds!

If you have any interest in Tennessee birds, here’s the PDF, or you can use my Canva template to make your own!

Bird Bingo Tennessee

11.9MB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Slow-Cooker Pot Roast

If you haven’t gotten comfortable with using a slow-cooker, pot roast is an amazing thing to learn first. Some variation of pot roast is one of my kick-butt meals that’s on the weekly rotation.

Sauté chopped onions and garlic (and maybe ginger!) in some olive oil or butter until everything is brown and smells amazing. While it’s cooking, pat a chunk of meat dry and rub it with salt and pepper; my piece of chuck roast pictured here was $12 at Aldi, and we got a lot of meals out of this. When your trinity of aromatics is done, pour it into the crock pot and fry up the meat in its stead, maybe with a drizzle of oil. Then throw your browned meat in the crock pot, too.

To make the veggie part super easy on yourself, pour in a bag of baby carrots and a rinsed bag of little potatoes. Then add some kind of liquid, maybe beef broth or a can of beer. Add seasonings like herbes de provence, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, smoked paprika, etc. Cook on high for about four hours or low for about eight hours. Crock pots are pretty forgiving, but you have to make sure you leave yourself enough time to let everything be fall-apart tender.

Life Hack: Knitting > Fidgeting and Doom-Scrolling

Several years ago, during a particularly frustrating season of teaching one of my children how to read, another mom told me that knitting helps her not lose her mind while helping her kids with school. I tried it and it worked. When my hands are busy, I’m a much more patient person. If I knit while watching my kids play, hanging out in a group, being a passenger on a long drive, etc. it’s easier for me to be a better listener and spend less time checking my phone, picking at my nails, and other unwanted habits. I’ve never done anything more complicated than a basic knit stitch, but guess what! I don’t care; I can literally do this with my eyes closed because it’s so simple. Without much effort, we can make things that will bless our kids and the unhoused people our my cities, and each scarf can reminds us of the sweet memories made while knitting in the background.

Maybe a mindless handicraft is a hobby worth taking up this fall…for your own sanity, maybe 😉 There’s probably an older relative—or even nine-year-old girl—in your life who would love to teach you.

Picture Books

Here are some great picture books that aren’t necessarily fall-ish, but I think you’ll like them.

The Mushroom Fan Club by Elise Gavel is a unique, zine-style book with adorable illustrations, lots of interesting info, and—most importantly—awe from a grown-up. The author-illustrator’s adoration of mushrooms (and their funny names) is contagious.

Watercress by Andrea Wang and illustrated by Jason Chin is one of those books that takes your breath away. There are so many layers of richness and beauty to this story about immigration and being proud of your heritage.

Bessie Smith and the Night Riders by Sue Stauffacher and illustrated by John Holyfield is about the famous singer whose concert was interrupted by the KKK…instead of retreating in fear, Bessie herself scared them off and resumed her performance! Takeaway: My courage in the face of difficulty might help others who are watching gain confidence, too.

A Little Ferry Tale by Chad Otis is a super cute book about being thankful for who you are, as you are, with all your unique strengths and weaknesses. Another good one on this topic is I Want to Be Spaghetti by Kiera Wright-Ruiz and illustrated by Claudia Lam, which is about a package of ramen that wishes to be something else.

Mighty Moms by Joan Holub and illustrated by Joyce Wan isn’t trying to be a spectacular piece of literature but it’s a board book that my truck-loving 3-year-old is obsessed with, and yours probably will be, too. On every single page my son says, “That mommy garbage truck is you and that baby garbage truck is me!”, or whatever the vehicle is. There’s also a Mighty Dads.

Read-Aloud or Audiobook for Older Kids

I love people who love Halloween—see these great book suggestions by my friend Sarah!—but it’s not personally my thing. However, last October I listened to the audiobook of The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman with my oldest child, and it was a treasured memory. The first chapter is very dark and sad—a family is murdered—but I promise it gets lighter. Even though most of the characters are ghosts, ghouls, werewolves, etc., this isn’t a book about death as much as it is about life. It’s about belonging and love and the wonderful gift of being a human. Plus, it won a Newbery. I even made my mom read it. Let me know if you like it.

Personal Greetings

Howdy! I’m sorry this newsletter was sent out later than intended! I had a restful writing break in September and even got to hike thirty miles of the Appalachian Trail last week!

I have some special posts planned for the next two or three weeks about some wisdom I’ve picked up from others and from personal experience about pregnancy, birth, and the early years of parenting. If you have any questions, tips, or anything you’d like me to cover, please reply to this email or reach out to me! (Spoiler: I have no advice about naps or sleep training. Even with five kids, I never figured that out 🤪) Personal storytelling is my favorite kind of content to read and write, so hopefully it’s a blessing to you. I’d love to hear how your fall is so far.

I love you all. Thanks for reading.

Warmly,

Hope from Family Scripts