Fall 2026 Curriculum

For most of the year, I’m more of an organizer than a nester, but something strange happens to me at the first sign of fall. One step into a crisp, cool morning or one sniff of cinnamon, and I’m off to the races—gathering blankets, candles, and ingredients like we’re on the cusp of an autumnal apocalypse.

Before I know what’s come over me, I’m donning fleece and setting out squares of coffee cake on cute pumpkin plates. When you see it happen, watch out and make room: I’m just getting started.

Summer is finally over. Praise be to God, we made it!

This last one was especially tough on me, and I’m eager to say goodbye to it. Hives are humbling, y’all. As much as I like to think I can push past any vanity I have, it’s simply not fun to show up in the world with bumpy skin and rashes.

Over the last few weeks, though, the hives have cleared, and I’ve been able to spend time outside again. I’ve taken full advantage with walks and a little backyard birdwatching.

Wait—do chickens count for my birdwatching Bingo card? ;)

I’d like to share my fall plans with you today. I’m hoping to find a balance between learning, homemaking, adventure, and connection. There are so many good things on this list that my only sadness is knowing I probably won’t get to all of them. Still, there’s something sweet for my soul in looking over all the possibility and potential joy this autumn brings.

I hope you enjoy reading through my ideas and grab up a few for your own fall.

Reading Riches: 
My Stack for the Fall Season

This is a plus-sized TBR that will almost certainly spill over into the winter months. I started pulling books I wanted to read this fall, quickly realized I had way too many, and then decided I’d rather have options as the season goes on than narrow it down.

So, onto the shelf they all went! I’ll just see where my mood takes me and what actually gets read. I’m pretty happy to have so many thrifted gems to choose from this season.

That said, let’s talk about what I’m hoping to read, because I am so excited about this stack. There’s such a fun mix of themes and moods here that it feels like this TBR is saying, “Whatever you’re in the mood for today, I’ve got you.” 

Spine 

The backbone of my reading curriculum will be Jane Smiley’s 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel. I thrifted this hefty hardcover about six months ago, thinking it might make a good textbook for a DIY creative writing course. A few months later I heard Anne Bogel recommend it on What Should I Read Next?.

That was enough coincidence for me. I’m only a few chapters in, but already learning so much. I’ve been following my curiosity into little research rabbit trails whenever I come to something that catches my attention, so this one will be with me for a while--unless another book pulls me away. 

Poetry

For my fall poetry selection, I chose William Wordsworth: Selected Poems. It was between that and English Romantic Poetry, a collection which also features Wordsworth. 

I opted to study one poet in the hopes of becoming familiar with his writing style.

Shakespeare

I took a long break from The Bard over the summer. I think I just needed some space after the disappointment of As You Like It, but now I'm ready to resume my little Shakespearean scholorship program. ;) 

This fall, I plan to read The Tempest using the No Fear Shakespeare edition, which has become a favorite resource of mine. As I make my way through the play, I’ll stop after each act to listen to the corresponding episode of The Play’s the Thing. The podcast adds so much to my reading experience.

They say the best person to learn from is someone who is genuinely passionate about the subject, and that has certainly been my experience with Sean and his guests. I always come away from an episode with a fresh rush of enthusiasm after hearing them dig into the language, characters, and ideas of each act.

Nonfiction

A Severe Mercy, Call the Midwife, and Tolstoy and the Purple Chair are the only nonfiction works I have planned but I'm 5/5 excited to read all of them. 

My girls read A Severe Mercy in high school and raved about it but for some reason I've not picked it up. I normally make a point of reading the books they recommend, so this is an anomoly. Easily fixed, though! 

Fiction

Say it with me now: "We can't read all the books." 

We can't read ALL the books. 

I mean, we really can't... 

*whispers quietly...but we can try???

I've got a stack of fiction novels that look like dessert to me and can't wait to dig into each of them! 

Classics

My Fall 2026 TBR is heavier on classics than is normal for me, which I think is a response to the lighter, highly readable books I enjoyed this summer. Now my heart is reaching for meatier matter--which is an accurate description but sounds grosser than intended. Sorry about that.

Speaking of gross, I read Frankenstein last fall and was happy to finally understand all of the pop culture references I've encountered my whole life. This year, I decided to take on Dracula as my spooky classic of the season.

East of Eden, Brideshead Revisited, Death Comes for the Archbishop, Far from the Madding Crowd, Great Expectations, The Importance of Being Earnest, Our Town, and The Woman in White—along with modern classics The Feast, Stoner, Right Ho, Jeeves, and Angle of Repose—should give me plenty to sink my teeth into. 

*Edited to add: The Close Reads crew just announced that they will be doing Brideshead in the 2027 lineup, so I've pulled it from mine and will read it then. 

Think I’ll get them all read before 2027? Probably not. I’m not afraid to DNF a book that’s making me miserable, and there are only so many reading hours between now and January. I guess we’ll see!

Contemporary Fiction

Empire Falls, Go As a River, Other Birds, Rules of Civility, September, and These is My Words are all on the docket as a counterbalance to all of these classics. 

Along with these, I'm looking forward to two fall releases by amazing writers: Barbara Kingsolver's Partita releases on October 6th and Bonnie Garmus' Peck & Peck comes out the following week. 

Artful Hours: 
A Dutch Golden Age for Fall

As I mentioned, I've been busier in recent months, so I'm taking it easy on art study this season. I grabbed a free 6-pack of printables from A Humble Place, printed them out at Office Depot, and stuck them on my fridge. 

My plan is to grab one and sit with it while I eat lunch each day. These days I'm home alone at lunch time and art study is a better way to spend that time than scrolling or checking emails.

Ambleside Online grouped Jacob van Ruisdael and Pieter de Hooch, who I learned were two Dutch painters during the Golden Age. So: the Golden Age for the golden season. Yeah?

Sounds Like Autumn: 
Music for the Comfy Hours

I'm using the same instrumental playlist that I listened to last year. It's a collection of calm music that's perfect for reading, studying, cooking, puzzling, or anything else you find yourself doing this fall. 

Popcorn & Cider: 
Movies for Our Harvest Nights

Can I admit that I always get a little nervous when I post about the movies we watch? There are so many opinions about movie standards--too dumb, too coarse, too violent, too whatever. It kind of makes me want to skip this section altogether. At the same time, I wish more people would make curated movie flights so I can get ideas from them. 

Movies are a great way to create cozy, funny, happy family memories. In the past we’ve built movie-watching forts, dressed up for themed tea parties, made recipes to match our movies, and invited friends over for themed movie nights. We even watched favorite movies while traveling around the United States, linking those stories forever to memories of the places where we saw them.

The movies we’re hoping to watch this fall are: 

From my “List of Movies Everyone But Me Has Seen”: The Godfather, L.A. Confidential, and The Cider House Rules. 

Mermaids is a movie I watched many times as a child but my girls have never seen. I remember there are content warnings that make this movie better for adults, but it's a movie that impacted me so I want to share it with my daughters. 

The others are old fall favorites--movies we’ve probably seen a dozen times or more. They’re films we play in the background while we bake, work puzzles, or play cards. With the recent passing of Diane Keaton and Dolly Parton, the girls and I are especially looking forward to Steel Magnolias, Father of the Bride I and II, and The First Wives Club. They are movies that mean a lot to us.

What are your favorite movies to watch in the fall?

 Chasing Joy: 
Outings for Crisp Days

One of my biggest Idaho fails so far has been developing a routine of actually getting out into nature. I’ve been kind of beating myself up about it.

I realized recently that I’ve been repeating a story about southern Idaho: that it’s hard to navigate, hard to find things, and then, when you do manage to find the thing, it’s rarely worth all the effort it took to get there.

For five years, I was spoiled by a life pointed directly at finding and enjoying some of the most beautiful landscapes in America. While we traveled, we hiked, swam, discovered, and ate our way across the country. We took tours, listened to ranger talks, wandered historic neighborhoods, and visited museums and art galleries.

Before that, we lived on the Oregon coast--one of the most beautiful places on Earth. It’s full of easy-to-access beaches, well-maintained hiking trails, pullouts for swimming spots, and stunning scenery.

In our first few years in southern Idaho, I really did give it some effort. We visited the top sights, tried the restaurants, walked the Canyon Rim regularly, and went in search of wildflowers and hiking trails. I followed Idaho travel influencers on Instagram and made lists of places to visit. 

The fails have been comical. 

GPS doesn’t know where things are.
Road conditions are rough.
Signage is sparse, sometimes nonexistent.
Parking is a joke.
Travel accounts often gatekeep. People say, Don't post where this is located or it'll become overrun with people!  I understand the impulse, but it can feel inhospitable when you're genuinely trying to enjoy the place where you live.

But a friend recently took me around the Wendell area to show me some summer swimming spots and waterfalls, and let me know about a few events that happen there each year. She opened my eyes to how wrong I've been. 

The reality is that we do love where we live, and you have to work harder to find ways of enjoying the outdoors than in some other places. 

Once I realized I've become a bit of a whiner and not much of a figure-it-outer, I made a plan to change that. 

• For starters, I have a list of hikes to try this fall. Most are in the Boise area (Camel's Back, Bogus Basin, Stack Rock, Table Rock), a few are in eastern Idaho (Palisades Creek Trail, Greenbelt Loop), one in Stanley (Lily Pond + Redfish Lake), and one is pretty close to home (Eagle Loop). I'm hoping to do 2 or 3 of them over the coming months.
• I'm also planning to visit the Boise Art Museum on one of their first Thursdays and check out a few special treat spots. 
• We may visit The World Center for Birds of Prey, for one of their fall flight shows.
• We couldn't make it to the open house, but plan to visit the Blue Moon Gallery in town, to see their new double-feature exhibits: 

• We hope to visit a U-Pick apple farm before the season is over.
• Lastly, we have tickets to see an orchestra soon. The girls and I attended the fall concert last year and enjoyed it so much!

Hands Busy, Heart Full:
Things to Make, Learn, and Tend

For this last category, I want to share the quieter things I’m hoping to tend at home this fall. None of them are especially grand: a little mending, a few outdoor projects, garden cleanup, winter preparations, and some traditions we’ve repeated for years.

But I think that’s part of why I love this list. There’s something deeply satisfying about looking around at the home and yard we’ve built and asking, What needs care before winter comes? What can I make a little prettier, warmer, or more useful?

Front Yard

The project I’m working on right now is a small front-yard reset. My daughter was given a handful of flowering plants by a coworker, and we decided to plant them in a ring around the tree in our front yard along with some additional flower bulbs. I’m hoping to finish it this week.

I’m also planning to paint the front door and trim the hedges before winter. They’re small changes, but I think they’ll cheer up the front of the house and give us something pretty to look at through the colder months.

Garden Harvesting + Preserving

I already have a jump on this, but garden chores continue until the hard frosts finally tell us we’re done.

Until then, there will be produce to harvest, things to preserve, and beds to tend. Once everything dies back, we’ll pull the garden out and top the beds with homemade compost before putting them to rest for winter.

There’s something comforting about that rhythm—the garden finishing one season while we quietly prepare it for the next.

Fruit Tree Maintenance

Once our mini-orchard goes dormant, I get to use a pole chainsaw to prune the trees for the first time! It feels like a milestone that our little trees are now established enough to require actual machinery.

Chicken Coop Cleanout + Winter Preparations

Soon it will be time for the big coop cleanout, plastic over the run, the yard cleared, the electric de-icer back in the waterers, and everything made as snug as possible for our girls before winter settles in.

One of my favorite little cycles happening in our backyard is:

Chicken litter + garden scraps + ashes from the fire pit = compost!

Fall Cleaning

I think November is the perfect month for preparing the house for winter.

I like to remove window screens so we can see outdoors more clearly when it snows. Then I wash the windows and window coverings, deep clean my living spaces, and work through closets and drawers that have become messy over the summer. 

This is an opportunity to put aside all of the things I might need for hosting Thanksgiving--putting them all in one place--and make a note of holiday items I need to replace or restock. 

Speaking of restocking, November is the month when I stock up on the bulky, heavy things I’d rather not haul home in bad weather—water-softener crystals, chicken feed, Costco toilet paper, and the like. There’s no glamour in this, but apparently preparedness is one of my love languages. It makes me happy to know we’re stocked and ready.

Mending

My mending pile has never been bigger: jeans that need hemming, shirts missing buttons, dresses with straps to repair.

The funny thing is that I really enjoy sewing once I’m doing it. The battle is convincing myself to stop everything else, get out the supplies, and begin.

This fall, I’d like to give those neglected clothes an afternoon and finally return them to our closets.

Autumnal Touches

And then there are the things that aren’t chores at all.

On the first day of fall, it’s become a tradition for us girls to clean our living spaces and pull out a few cozy decorations. Then we bake something autumnal, light candles, and watch our first fall movie of the season.

I’m looking forward to that little reset more than almost anything on this list.

So that's everything on my possibility list this autumn. What are the things that make you feel the magic of fall?