Happy Halloween
Breakfast.
Lunch
Dinner
Late night snack.
Remember
Almost 3 in a homemade costume
Historically, Halloween is big business in our home. Our house all decked out in purple lights and spider webs. Homemade costumes obsessed over for weeks. Hard-core negotiations over candy in the supermarket holiday aisle.
However, last year found us in a hotel. This year, throwing around references to gopher wood and Noah’s Ark as the rain comes down in relentless sheets. While our weather is nothing like the images being broadcast of the wreckage of Sandy (we’re praying for you East Coast) this constant downpour has my kid retreating to a youth group candy pot-luck and me considering turning off our lights tomorrow and munching on candy in front of a roaring fire.
Despite the change in plans, there is still the issue of a costume. Going to a church function puts a real crimp in any ghoulish ideas he might have entertained. I say might, because he recently told me, “Oh, I’ve outgrown the desire to scare people on Halloween.” Yay?!
And being nearly 16 creates a whole different dynamic to the costume considerations. Gone are the years when I could say, “Look at the great costume I made you, don’t you want to be a spider?!” Now I have to find a subtle way of suggesting that the best way to combat your “I’m a science geek prodigy” reputation, is to go BIG. Make fun of yourself. Be silly. But no LARPing costumes.
That would be weird.
We’ve settled on something. I hope he’ll go, have a good time, and not obsess too much on how people react to his costume. I pray the other kids get his joke and are kind, because historically they’re not so good at either of those things. And I hold my breath against the impending tidal-wave of emotions that come with parenting a child nearly grown and gone. Gone, too, are the days without a thought or care of an empty nest. Or, if the thought did come, it was in relief. Then I’ll sleep. Then we’ll be alone.
Because now it is. . . we’re nearly there.
On This Week’s Agenda
Pie! We’re traditionalists at heart.
It’s nearly the 4th of July, but unlike most years I’m not so frazzled. My traditional schedule of deep cleaning the house right before the arrival of guests over the holiday was put on hold this year. IZ’s sister isn’t feeling up to making the drive this holiday(it is a hike out to Astoria!) because she has to work the next day. So, while we will miss getting to visit, I’m not running around like a nutty person cleaning things that no-one will ever see.
Of course, that means I’m not running around like a crazy person cleaning. Um. That might be a problem. We’ve not reached code “pig-stye” yet, but we’re on the way if I don’t get to that long to-do list. That’s the upside to incoming relatives: I get compulsive about cleaning the house. Otherwise, I find different things to occupy my time… the yard calls, I answer. The thrift store beckons, I succumb. The lounge chair and a good book and a cup of tea, and I have a case of cleaning amnesia. Cleaning? What’s that?
However, while the deep cleaning frenzy will be happily over-looked by the men in this house, I’m not off the hook for baking pie. It’s just not the 4th of July without pie. IZ asked if I wanted to cheat this year, but it’s Cherry Pie. I’d prefer to cheat on hard things. Like laundry. Or painting. Or exercise! No, Cherry Pie is easy. So, in addition to breathing, I’m baking. You know, sometime between that book, the lounge chair, and a cup of tea.
It’s all on a week’s agenda.
May Day Gifts: Fabric Wrapped Potted Plants
Who doesn’t love a sweet Viola wrapped up in vintage fabric and baker’s twine?
It’s hard to believe May is nearly here. I usually give little bouquets of lilacs to our neighbors for May Day—trimmed from our massive lilac in the back yard. But this year my tree is looking a bit put upon. Every time I venture into the backyard with shears it says, in what I imagine to be the most perfect of southern drawls, “You’re friendly with HOW many neighbors? You’re planning to cut HOW many bouquets?”
My lilac tree might have a point this year. New energy has moved onto our street and we’ve mended fences with others. The number of May Day gifts are growing past what my tree can endure without feeling naked when I’m done. Clearly, it’s time to plant more lilacs!
So, this year for May Day, I decided to wrap up some adorable violas in a stash of vintage hankies and pocket squares I’ve been hoarding. I love the result, don’t you? It’s an easy project to do! And you could just as easily use a bit of fabric if you don’t have hankies floating about. (Just pink the edges for a pretty touch and keep the edges from fraying too soon.)
I still need to find small tags to put on these lovelies; but then, I have until tomorrow. Nothing like a bit of procrastination.
Want to know how I made these? There’s a wee tutorial below the jump. And really, you still have time to spread a little joy in your neighborhood tomorrow.
