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Dear friends,
October is Fall’s December. We had four Harvest Fairs, two birthday parties, two performances, one play date, and two other events this weekend which were all great but it all feels a bit frantic. I enjoy having stuff going on but I think we crossed over into too-much-land. Don’t get me wrong—I love pumpkin cookies and costume season like the best of ‘em. I’m just…tired.
Now I need to borrow a sewing machine to make some Halloween costumes, clean our house for guests, and finish several writing exercises for job interviews. Again, all good stuff but it kinda requires Mom Robot Mode to check it all off. There’s also the weight of difficult family things, and friends worried for family and friends back in the Middle East. The reckoning of me thinking and worrying about jobs and Halloween costumes and family to-do’s while across the ocean, terrorist attacks, deadly drone strikes, and geopolitical upheaval is breaking families. It’s heavy.
Yesterday I walked with my two youngest kids to a birthday party at a local park. We gave ourselves extra time and we used it. The Halloween decorations are ON POINT this year. Forgive me for not snagging any pictures. But here’s a quick sprint through my top sightings:
Drunk pirate skeletons on a boat
Giant spiderwebs with giant spiders
Creepy baby dolls with crazy hair
Ethereal ghosts
Witches in trees
Spider web made out of metal and trash bags (incredible!!)
Grave of Fred B. Dead
It was delightfully creepy, bordering on a little too much. However, I appreciate the effort people put in and I’m here for it for Trick or Treating because that is one of my favorite nights with my kids.
It’s a saying-yes night, meet your neighbors, wear weird things time. We let our kids eat whatever, walk around at dusk, and chat with other parents. I love seeing people’s costumes, wishing I’d put more time into mine, and admiring how dumb/cute my boys look in theirs. Kids in costumes bring me inordinate joy. I really wish kids wore them all the time. We’d probably all be a lot more chill if there was a baby pumpkin in a grocery cart over here or a toddler banana waddling over there.
What do you do for Halloween? What are you looking forward to most this year?
Watching / Reading
Beckham. Thoroughly enjoyed. Ugh, the purple tux!
Soup of Doom. What a great graphic novel. (Plus it has a playlist!)
The shrimp recipes in Campire Cuisine sound easy to make on the grill or in the oven. Yum!
Golden Bachelor still hitting the spot.
I attended Button Conference last week. Can’t wait to go again next year—it was amazing. Content Designers unite. :)