Halloween Wrap Up

 Something to know about me: I always have house envy. Like, no matter how great and perfect and cozy and wonderful my house is, I always want MOAR house.

When we lived in an apartment, I could not wait to buy a condo. When we did finally buy a townhouse, I couldn’t wait to have a house in a neighborhood. Now? I want a giant house (which is not happening before the kids go to college and then our house will feel giant because there won’t be any kids— my rational mind knows this, and, yet).

ANYWAY, I bring this up to note that when we had a townhouse/condo, I was SO SAD on Halloween because we really couldn’t trick or treat our neighborhood. We went to community events with the boys and went to friends’ neighborhoods instead, but I felt like a Halloween fraud and just wanted to give my kids the same ToT experience I had as a kid— swarms of costumed children lightly supervised collecting pancreas-shattering amounts of candy by just gathering friends and stepping outside their own front door. IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK FOR??

No— not in our current cozy perfect house, anyway. We have THE BEST trick or treating neighborhood— truly a fall dream come true.

Is it weird that our high school senior is handing out airplane bottles of whiskey to adults while his grandparent-age parents walk their 3 year-old around the block? MAYBE. Is it awesome that our high school sophomore is in charge of his middle school and elementary school siblings? DEFINITELY.

(I told Dorothy and Cooper that next year, they can have a Halloween party— or at least use our house as a home base to eat pizza and meet up before and after, but this year it was fun to watch them giddy with the thought of no parental supervision and SO MUCH CANDY on their horizon.)

(I only bought full size candy bars because I thought it would stop me from eating candy the night of and the days leading up to the big event— AND I WAS RIGHT!! Unfortch, the rest of the fam had no reservations, and I bought 5 boxes of Costco candy bars because I had to restock. LOL LOL LOL.)

Dorothy had one more dance dress up day, and she went classic pig:

Harry decided at 10:45 on Monday that he needed a costume for school

He’s an honors student, you guys.

NOT TO BE OUT DONE:

We went through 120 full size candy bars in 90 minutes

Ben went to Target, but the candy was GONE, so he got chips and fruit snacks and Dum Dums. Those were gone by 7:45!!!

Next year, I will do a better job of hiding the candy ahead of the big night ** eye roll**

MINNIE WAS ADORABLE:

Everyone had a blast, including Harry and the friends he roped into answering the door. I LOVE HALLOWEEN.

October: What I Read

I don’t know how it happened, but I was really off my audio book game this month. I think I am at a rough patch in my Libby holds, and also I HATE spending money on Audible books beyond my membership credit BUT KU audiobooks are sometimes unsatisfying. ANYWAY, onto the TL; DR:

The Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlain: This was a random Libby skip-the-line, and it was the perfect things to listen to in the background while doing housework, etc. It claims to the the first in a series, but it’s from 2014 and there haven’t been any more books about these characters, so… **Audio

To Die For by Lisa Gray: A Kindle Unlimited pick. Not my fave. **2023 **Kindle

Woke Up Like This by Amy Lea: I am trying to make My Kindle Unlimited worth it by listening to audiobooks through it as well. This was pretty adorable, and Dorothy liked it , too (we listened to some of it on the way to and from her dance convention). **2023 **Audio

Forever, Interrupted by Taylor Jenkins Reid: A good, solid backlists title. **Kindle

The Breakaway by Jennifer Weiner: Terrific! fast! Made excellent points about fat phobia. **2023

Hello, Stranger by Katherine Center: This was darling. I really like her books. **2023

The Comeback by Lily Chu: Loved this! Breezy and so fun but also predictable. **2023 **Audio

The Fraud by Zadie Smith: I liked this, but also, it made me think too much (like, in a following the book kind of way, not in a deep thoughts kind of way). **2023

Congratulations, the Best Is Over by R. Eric Thomas: This is a delightful collection of essays. Loved it. **2023

Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood: She writes the most adorable academic romances, and this one did not disappoint. **2023 **Audio

 Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen: I loved this thriller and flew through it. A very creepy and engaging story with plenty of surprises. **2023

Everyone Here Is Lying by Shari Lapena: I have a really soft sport for scary books about unhinged kids, what can I say? **2023

Holly by Stephen King: A new Stephen King? WHAT A DELIGHT. **2023

Happiness Falls by Angie Kim: THIS WAS TERRIFIC. Sad, yes, and sometimes hard to read, but so suspenseful and even funny. I loved it. **2023

This Month:

14 books

12 books published in 2023

8 print, 2 Kindle, 4 audio

This Year:

181 books

97 books published in 2023

98 print, 12 Kindle, and 71 audio

Sandwich Parenting

 On one hand, we are staying up late waiting for our high school sophomore to be done at his fall play cast party.

On the other hand, our 3 year-old has a bad dream and needs to sleep in my bed at 4 am.

YIKES.

This past weekend, we enjoyed a robust mix of big and little-kid stuff. 

First, though, another dance dress up day on Thursday:

Friday morning, Minnie reminded us that “hot chocolate” is her favorite thing about fall (even though she had never in her entire life had hot chocolate), and Dorothy asked for a cozy breakfast. Sooooo, I went with a high/low version of cozy breakfast, kind of like those IG outfit posts with $30 jeans and a $750 blazer.

We did delicious homemade stovetop cocoa and cinnamon rolls from a tube (yay/**whomp whomp**)

Then it was the moment Minnie has been waiting for her whole life since she found out it was a thing: COSTUME DAY AT SCHOOL!!

Side note: Minnie’s beloved teacher was out sick, so they had a sub AND everyone looked different in costumes AND they were making witches’ brew for snack— so many changes. I left a very discombobulated group of 3 year olds (and did not look back because 3 hours of freedom goes FAST).

Friday night, Dorothy and I went with Harry to see Jack’s fall play (Rumors by Neil Simon). It was darling, and Jack played an excellent tough guy.

Saturday morning, Cooper scored four goals to open his hockey season, and we tagged along for excellent donuts 

(Why yes, that IS a formal holiday dress from Costco, why do you ask?)

I went shopping (jeans! A sweater! A cute tunic! Ridiculous hot pink platform Mary Janes!) while Ben took one for the team and supervised pumpkin carving

The it was BEN’S turn to watch the play (with Coop who missed opening night for hockey practice)

We planned to go out while Jack was at his cast party, but the party went from10-12 and most bars near us close at 11. SO GREAT **eye roll**. 

We ended up dropping him off, going home to take showers and out on our pajamas, and then going back to get him. Harry was like oh cool I stayed home to babysit for that, and we agreed. And yet, sandwich parenting, you know??

Hey— by the way— catch me at Elisabeth’s blog today!!!!

5 on a Friday: Things That Sucked About Yesterday

 1. It rained all day. ALL DAY. And I had the muppet-looking pigtails to prove it.

2. I decided to only record 3 lectures in a super fancy recording studio and knock off early to go to Costco because my family ate 2 boxes of Halloween candy bars, and our dinner menu said “something from Costco.” I got SOAKED walking from the fancy recording studio to my building and decided to see if the software I needed was on the podcast suite computer in our media center, thinking I could record without the terrible walk at least and sort of at my leisure. It wasn’t, so I stopped by someone’s office to ask them if it could be and to see if the university had a license for the software for my own computer. It did!! I suddenly pictured myself recording lectures in my closet on rainy days instead of getting soaked on campus, needing to schedule rooms in advance, etc. BUT. To install the software, I needed a key, etc. I decided to stay on campus and get my computer ready with IT supervision. This sucked because it was time less well spent than either recording more OR shopping. But just wait…

3. To install the software, I needed to update my iOS. Which completely crashed my Mac Book Air. That’s 5 years old and scheduled to be replaced next week but also hasn’t been backed up for 1300 days because I AM STUPID.**

4. IT has my computer. . . Indefinitely? Also I was at work past 6 and never went to Costco.

5. Harry lost his wallet which had my Target card in it, and I was stuck in  horrible loop of trying to cancel the card without the card (I instantly deleted it from my app because STUPID which meant I had no card numbers anywhere) and a bunch of automated menus that couldn’t help me without my card numbers and BLERGH!

** Most things are in the cloud, I am pretty sure. BUT STILL. GAH. (The data is still on my machine, so eventually, all will be fine, and my new computer is GOLD (Starlight), but still— NOT IDEAL when I am crunched for TIME. LONG, DEDICATED WORK DAYS do not grow on trees.

**Harry got a new ID at school, got a temporary drivers license online, and went to the bank and got a new ATM card, after freezing and then unlocking his account. Adulting 101!!

5 things that do not suck— 2023-2024 SCHOOL PICTURES:

Brain dump with cute costumed kids

 Ben is finishing up his current job and preparing to start his new job, and I am just in a holding pattern, noting parts of my current schedule that were desperately in need of a change AND ALSO mourning things we HAVE to change.

The Little Gym.

 You guys. We aren’t going to be able to keep Min in her preschool gymnastics class.

 I am irrationally sad about this. 

I mean, ok, we could keep her in. Like, logistically, it is sort of possible. BUT. Her preschool is very much not a daycare. And yet! She is going to go there every day— but as part of 2 different classes, the 3-day class she already attends and also a 2-day class taught by the same teacher. Soooo, she will have 2 different friend groups. 

Little Gym is during the 2-day class, and I could keep her out and send her to gym or pick her up early for gym BUT that seemed weird since then she would just have 1 day with her 2-day friends (and be the only kid there for 1 day), or she’d miss all the end of day stuff, which she truly loves at school, and I would have to cut out work time, which is silly when I am feeling the pinch. 

There are no Little Gym classes in our afternoon schedule sweet spot. There is a class in the evening one day a week, but our evenings are BANANAS, so that’s not really an option. We are going to try a Saturday class for a few weeks since we have an extra month on our billing cycle, but with hockey, etc, I am not sure we want a weekend commitment for her, especially since we are moving her swim lessons (def keeping her in those— she is on a roll) to Sunday.

A frustrating preschool schedule note: classes are either DURNG NURSERY SCHOOL HOURS (that 8-12 time frame) or DURING BIG KID ACTIVITIES (the 4-6 time frame). Like, both swim and gym are closed from 12-4. WHAT.

ANYWAY. We are losing the Little Gym, and I am super sad about it.

I will say that our current gym day is a cluster of a day for me, and having work time instead is going to be WONDERFUL. I do feel kind of frantic on my current days that move from Minnie’s school pick up to big kid activity hell with just the briefest stop at home, but it s a home-mom frantic since my work mom self gets plenty of time to function. More days like that will make work mom happy for sure, but home mom? Is going to need to outsource some STUFF.

Ben and I are taking a wait and see approach with a google doc to note scheduling and workload issues when they arise and plans to check in at intervals to see what’s working and what needs a tweak. We have bandaid fixes for my current semester, the spring with some breathing room to keep developing a rhythm, and plans to be efficient AF by fall 2024.

But really? I didn’t plan to just whine about my schedule. I wanted to dump some darling pics ahead of even more costumed revelry.

The girls’ dance studio does HALLOWEEN WEEK. This year, that means Tuesday-Thursday of this week and Monday next week are COSTUME DAYS (no class Tuesday, duh).

Dorothy lewk 1:

Minnie also went as a bunny to her dance class, and she wore Dorothy’s old ballet costume

Also, serious dancing Minnie KILLS ME. Here’s hip hop Minnie:

And ballet Minnie

Dorothy showed her true colors for dance day 2:

And! Minnie had a skill celebration class at the Little Gym, meaning parents got to go in (lovely), and she wore a costume. It was so cute that maybe we should just, um, never go back? Make a clean break?

Side note: I have been hanging onto that Pottery Barn Kids skeleton costume since COOPER was TWO, and finally! Minnie wanted to be a skeleton for her Little Gym class. ONLY I COULD NOT FIND THE MASK, which has been living in Dorothy’s top dresser drawer for EIGHT YEARS. But she broke her dresser and got a new one last weekend, and I moved the mask and LOST IT after 8 years of saving space in my brain to know where it was JUST IN CASE we had another fat skeleton. (Found it in the laundry room on a hook. THANK GOODNESS).

Halloween, 2015:

One more random thing: she chose maybe the ugliest dresser I have ever seen in my life (we went to a million local furniture stores and wanted one that was the same dimensions of her old dresser and and ready to come home instantly, so she didn’t have THAT many choices. Still.) YOU GUYS:

(There is a bed to match this baby that is rimmed in LED lights AND chrome. PRAY FOR ME).