Hello Monday…the Candy Coated Version

 

After saying “I feel like this week has run me over” and “I’m exhausted” one too many times, I decided last week to take a rest  from everything not completely necessary for our everyday lives.  I took a lot of naps, cancelled a lot of things on our calendar and made a lot of sandwiches for dinner.  It’s really hard to commit to rest when life is whizzing by you but I’ve learned over the years that if I don’t want to hit the wall physically and emotionally, when my body says it needs rest, I need to listen.  Amazingly, at the end of the week, the world was still turning, nothing had fallen apart, and I was a much happier and well-rested wife and mama.  If you’re feeling chronically worn out, like life is dragging you through it, please let me encourage you to REST!  Even God rested after six days of creation – if He needed a rest then us mamas need one too on a regular basis.  

Let’s say some hello’s, shall we?

Hello Monday…

Hello candy…

Halloween is still three days away and already my house has been overrun with candy.  Today I bought four large bags of candy to hand out, which I’m sure will all be gone before 8 pm, just like it is every year.  This year, we’ve decided to have some hot chocolate and apple cider for parents to drink while they’re taking their kids door to door.  It’s gonna be a bit chilly out! Ross will stay home and hand out candy and drinks with me in the front yard, while Michael takes the girls around the neighborhood to collect their loot.  I love greeting the kids, seeing their costumes and handing out candy! 

Hello pumpkin…

My children made the comment the other day that they’ve never carved a pumpkin before.  At first I told them, “Of course you have!”, but after thinking about it awhile, I realized the last time we’d bought and carved a pumpkin was the first year in our house, nine years ago!! So technically, Ross has carved a pumpkin before but none of the girls have.  I picked out a nice big one this morning and now it’s sitting on the porch, waiting to be cut.  After about ten minutes on Pinterest looking for ideas, I’ve decided to delegate this task to Michael.  It will be a great bonding time for him and the kids, right??

The kids on our street, ready to go trick or treating (2011)

Hello costumes…

My favorite part of Halloween is making costumes.  I love to come up with “out of the box” ideas and then tackle the challenge of how to implement them.  My kids are getting really good at coming up with costume ideas.  Here are the plans for this year: I’m going to be a smarty pants, complete with big nerdy glasses and smarties candy taped all over my pants.  Ross is going to be Pumpkin Pi (orange shirt with a Pi symbol on it).  Gracie is going to be a scarecrow – I love her costume because she will continue to wear the jeans and plaid shirt through the rest of fall and winter, so it’s cute and thrifty! Amber chose one random, obscure character after another before finally settling on Pocahontas’ friend.  Luckily, she was already Tiger Lily at her Peter Pan birthday party, so we already had everything we needed for her costume. Georgia wanted to be a green fairy, but not Tinkerbell.  I had a really hard time finding green fairy items that weren’t Tinkerbell, so we switched to a pink fairy and now her costume is all set.  Michael has more fun watching us dress up and usually doesn’t have a costume, unless we’re doing a group thing.

How about you? Do you like to dress up for Halloween? What’s your favorite Halloween candy? What are you saying hello to this week?