The Soft Week Menu: What I’m Taking Into Fall

Hi Besties, Every year I joke that once autumn starts, someone presses fast-forward. So first it’s fall and all things cozy, then Halloween, suddenly we’re talking about Thanksgiving, and then Christmas is everywhere. Before I’ve quite processed any of it, we’re counting down to a new year. I love so much about those months, but I also know how quickly they can become a blur. So before September begins, I’m doing something different: I’m pausing. Last week, we talked about the soft launch of fall and letting ourselves enjoy the anticipation without rushing the season. This week, I’m thinking less about what I’m excited to add to fall and more about what actually deserves to come with me. Because I don’t think a seasonal reset always needs to mean reinventing ourselves. Sometimes it’s editing: keep this, leave that, do more of this, and make less room for that. And when I look back at the Soft Week Menus we’ve built over the summer, there are already things I know I’m taking with me: reading slowly when I need to, coloring simply because I enjoy it, letting my hobbies evolve, journaling, and creating little pockets in my week that aren’t asking me to accomplish anything. So this week isn’t about becoming a new version of myself for fall. It’s about deciding what the current version of me would like to keep.

This Week’s Soft Week Menu

Reading

• If you’re ready for something dark and atmospheric, I’m starting Stay Buried by Jennifer McMahon, a horror thriller about a woman confronting decades of secrets and superstition as she tries to uncover the truth about her mother’s death.
• If your summer reading isn’t finished, keep going, September doesn’t automatically require a completely new TBR and I have a wide range of recommendations in the summer guide.
• If your reading life needs a reset: choose one book purely because you’re excited to read it, not because it’s new, popular, seasonal, or something you think you should finish.

Hobby

• If you want familiar comfort: Color something. I’m alternating between Cozy Reading, Bookish Quotes, and Bookish Halloween depending on whichever page I’m in the mood for.
• If you like remembering what worked: Start a coloring journal, craft notebook, recipe log, reading notebook, or another simple record of the things you might want to recreate later.
• If you need a completely different kind of focus: Pull out a puzzle, Sudoku, journal, or another screen-free hobby that makes you forget about your phone for a while.

This Week’s Focus

• Edit before you add
  Before deciding what I want to start this fall, I’m asking which parts of my current life are already working well enough to keep.

Ritual

• Begin September by noticing what’s already good.
  I’m doing a month of gratitude journaling using my 30 Days of Gratitude Journaling Prompts, and you’re absolutely invited to join me.

Reset

• Choose what gets to come with you.
  Keep what makes your days better. Adjust what isn’t working. Release what you’ve outgrown. You don’t need to rebuild everything.

Question to Carry

• What deserves a place in my next season?

Reading: I’m Ready for Something Darker

Apparently my reading brain has officially crossed over. Last week, I was still happily taking my time with The Wind in the Willows while cautiously eyeing darker books from a distance. Now I have a copy of Stay Buried by Jennifer McMahon in my hands, and yes, I’m ready. It’s described as a horror thriller following a woman who must confront decades of secrecy and superstition to uncover the truth about her mother’s death. Secrets, superstition, and a mysterious death are exactly the kind of reading shift my brain apparently wanted as August comes to an end. What I don’t want, though, is to lose what I learned from my summer reading. After months of reading early for the Fall Reading Guide, The Wind in the Willows reminded me how much I enjoy reading slowly when a book invites me to. I don’t want fall reading to immediately become another race through a TBR. So that’s something I’m taking into the next season with me. I want to follow my reading mood more, I want to linger when I want to linger, and I want to keep making room for books I’m reading purely because I want to know what happens next. So while Stay Buried feels like my first proper step into darker fall reading, I’m not creating a giant list of books I absolutely must finish before November. I’m starting with one, then I’ll see where my reading mood takes me. So if your own TBR is beginning to grow wildly because fall books are everywhere, maybe borrow that reset too, and choose the book you’re most excited about. Start there.

Hobby: I’m Starting a Coloring Journal

Coloring is obviously coming into fall with me, there was never really any question about that. What has been fun lately is alternating between our three coloring books: Cozy Reading, Bookish Quotes, and Bookish Halloween, depending on what I’m in the mood to color. Some days I want something purely cozy, some days a quote catches my attention, and now that we’re moving toward fall, those Halloween pages are becoming even more tempting. But I’ve developed a very specific coloring problem. I’ll finish a page and love the colors I used, then weeks later, I’ll want that exact combination again and have absolutely no idea which markers or pencils I chose. It drives me nuts, so I’ve started keeping a coloring journal, and it’s nothing complicated. I can record the colors I used on a particular page, make little swatches, jot down combinations I loved, and actually find them again instead of staring at my markers trying to reconstruct what Past Me was thinking. It’s such a small addition to the hobby, but I already know it’s going to make coloring more enjoyable for me. I also think there’s a larger lesson in that. Sometimes a reset isn’t about finding a new hobby, it’s about noticing one tiny frustration in something you already enjoy and fixing it. Maybe you keep losing your place in a puzzle and need a puzzle mat. Maybe you bake the same recipe repeatedly and should finally write down the changes you always make. Maybe you’ve discovered the perfect reading-light setup and want to leave it that way. So ask yourself: What would make something I already love slightly easier to return to? That might be the only hobby reset you need.

This Week’s Focus: Edit Before You Add

Fall has a way of making me want to start things. There’s something about September that feels like a second January, but I’m trying not to immediately respond to that feeling by piling more things into my life. Before I ask what I want to add, I’m asking: What is already working? In my case coloring is working, journaling is working, reading according to my actual mood is working, having hobbies that don’t require me to accomplish anything is working. Plus leaving some empty space in my week is working very well. So those things don’t need to be replaced simply because the season is changing. That’s why I keep coming back to this idea of editing. When we edit writing, we don’t delete every word and begin again. We look closely, this stays, this needs adjusting, this isn’t serving the piece anymore, or this needs more room. Maybe our lives deserve that same kind of attention. A seasonal reset can be less about creating a completely different life and more about becoming intentional about the one we already have.

Ritual: A September Gratitude Journal

Before we get into the thick of the holiday season, I want to slow things down. Yes, I’m already thinking about the holidays, because this is exactly what I mean when I say fall seems to press fast-forward. September becomes Fall, then Fall becomes Halloween. Halloween becomes Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving becomes Christmas. Christmas becomes New Year’s Eve. Then suddenly we’re standing in January wondering where the last four months went. I don’t want to do that this year. So for September, I’m doing a gratitude journal. Gratitude journaling isn’t new to me, it’s already something I incorporate into my regular journaling practice. But this time I’m giving it a little more attention. I’ll be working through my 30 Days of Gratitude Journaling Prompts throughout September, one prompt at a time. Not because I’m trying to force myself to feel grateful every second of the month. I just want to notice: what felt good today? What made me laugh? What am I enjoying right now that I’ll miss when it changes? Who made an ordinary day better? What tiny thing would I normally forget? That’s what I want September to hold, and if you’d like to join me, I’ll link the 30 Days of Gratitude Journaling Prompts so you can use them too. You don’t need to write pages, a paragraph counts, a sentence counts, a list counts, even one thing counts. The goal isn’t to create a perfect gratitude practice. It’s to make September a little harder to rush through.

Reset: Decide What Comes With You

Here’s the reset I’m doing before September begins. I’m mentally making three piles: keep, adjust, release. Now full transparency, I’m doing this with every area of my life, and I’m not turning this into a giant life audit. I’m just paying attention. What’s been making my days better lately? Keep it. What’s almost working but needs a small change? Adjust it. What am I doing mostly because I’ve gotten used to doing it? Maybe that can go. This feels much gentler to me than deciding I need an entirely new fall routine, plus it’s practical. Because every time we say yes to something new, we’re also deciding where it will fit among everything that’s already there. So sometimes the best fall reset idea isn’t adding another habit. It’s creating enough room to enjoy the habits you already have.

The Question We’re Carrying This Week

What deserves a place in my next season?
I really want to emphasize the word ‘deserves.’ Not what automatically comes with you because you’ve always done it.

• What deserves to?
• Which routines actually support you?
• Which friendships do you want to make more room for?
• Which hobbies make you lose track of time in the best possible way?
• Which books are you genuinely excited to read?
• Which little comforts have quietly become important?
• And what might have served its purpose already?

You don’t have to answer all of that today, just carry the question, and notice what comes up.

Final Thoughts

I don’t want to enter fall by trying to become someone else. I want to enter it knowing myself a little better. I’m taking coloring with me, along with my slightly nerdy new coloring journal because I refuse to lose another perfect color combination. I’m taking journaling with me. I’m taking slower reading and mood reading with me, even as Stay Buried officially starts pulling me toward the darker books I crave this time of year. I’m taking gratitude with me, especially because I know how quickly the next few months can fly. And I’m taking the lessons from these summer Soft Week Menus with me too. So begin even when you’re not good at something, create tiny rituals, leave some empty space, and let yourself anticipate what’s coming without rushing what’s here. Those are worth keeping. Maybe that’s what a fall reset really is. Not an overhaul, but an edit, and a chance to look at your life and say, this still belongs here. So as you build your Soft Week Menu this week, don’t worry about reinventing yourself for September. Choose what you want to carry forward. Leave a little room for what you haven’t discovered yet, and let the rest go.
Your soft week starts here.

Now Besties, I’d love to know: What deserves a place in your next season? And if you’re doing the September gratitude journal with me, tell me in the comments so we can spend the month slowing down and noticing the good together.