October in Words and Pictures

As I mentioned in my last post - before falling off the face of the blogworld for three weeks - I've recently taken on a lot of commitments.  Life has been busy busy busy, and it's been hard to spare many moments for blogs - either writing or reading them, so my apologies to those whose I try to keep up with!  Here's a look at a few of the things that have been going on for me.

Crafting

I've been trying to plan out one (easy!) craft a week to do with the kids.  They really enjoy it, and I get the benefit of having free but cute seasonal decorations for my house.

Some of the recent ones were...
Paper-bag puppet owls.  They look great on the wall and I may even save them for next fall, but I don't recommend making these with really young kids.  I pretty much spent a half hour cutting tiny things out of construction paper, while the kids sat - impatiently, of course - and waited.

Various ghosties for the chandelier.  Kleenex wrapped around a balled Kleenex, and cotton balls glued onto card stock.  Very simple.

And some gorgeous fall leaves ironed between waxed paper.  The number of stained-glass windows in the house just doubled!

I've also been working on some crafts of my own.  Mainly, the baby quilt I'm making at my quilting group.  I don't have any in-progress photos now, but here's the fabric I'm using:

Halloween
Sly couldn't decide what he wanted to be until the last minute.  I wasn't too worried, because we had his costume from last year as a backup. He finally settled on being a cowboy, and luckily, I was able to throw it together with things we already had around the house.  I pleaded with Stella to be a cowgirl, because how cute would that have been?  But she insisted on wearing a masculine-looking pre-packaged bunny suit we had.  Oh well.  Linus wore his winter bear suit.

Our new neighborhood turns out to be a great place to trick-or-treat.  Our block was packed with kids, and most of the neighbors came to the bottom of their stairs/end of their walkway to hand out candy, instead of staying indoors (we also had pretty mild weather).

Some friends invited us all to a Halloween party after trick-or-treating.  Costumes were "encouraged," so Tom and I scrambled to get something together, literally minutes before leaving.

I dressed in orange and black, and threw on a bunch of dead animals [minks].  Aaaaand....yeah.  I don't know what I was, but I looked Halloween-y, anyways.

Tom slicked back his hair, put on a power tie, grabbed some dry wall tools and went as "a banker on Dry Wall street"....Okay.

Soul Cakes
For several years, I've been wanting to bake soul cakes.  I can't really figure out if they're more appropriately made for Halloween or All Soul's Day.  In the end, I decided not to make them this year for the same reason I've always declined to in the past: we're already eating WAY too much junk food around Halloween, and we absolutely don't need any more!

All Saint's Day
We went to Mass on Saturday, which is when my church observes the feast.  And....that was it.

We had the opportunity to go to a couple different dress-up-your-kids-as-Saints parties, but I opted out.  Figuring out Halloween costumes for the kids was enough for me this year, and I didn't think they were quite old enough to really understand or appreciate dressing up as Saints.  I know some moms just do one costume, having their kids trick-or-treat in their Saint outfits.  My concern is that doing so would just be an invitation to your neighbors to be labelled as "the Catholic weirdos." Perhaps if I were holier, I wouldn't mind so much.

I promised Sly we would try to go to an All Saints party next year, though. He's already decided who he'll dress as: St. George.  A knight who slays a dragon?  I would guess that he is many little boys' first pick.


Other Autumnal Happenings
We're still soldiering on with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons - Sly and I, that is.  The daily lessons have been earning me some time off Purgatory....or sending me to confession.  Depending on how much patience I can muster that day.

ready to read!

Stella got into a tube of brand-new (and not-that-cheap) long-lasting lipstick and put it all over her face.  I may have freaked out a bit and caused her to cry uncontrollably for the next twenty minutes.  It took two days and several hard scrubbings to get it all off.

 
After a lifetime of half-doubting the existence of most people's "allergies," I finally had to humble myself and go get allergy testing done, at the recommendation of my doctor.  And guess what?  I've got 'em!  Among a couple more minor things, I am allergic to dust mites.  This explains so much.  I won't bore you with all my symptoms, but basically I wake up many mornings feeling like I have the worst sinus infection ever.  Because, uh, dust mites live in my bed (and yours too!).  It feels pretty empowering to know this, actually, and to know that there's hopefully a way to make things better.

We took a walk in a city park, and got to enjoy the last hurrah of the deciduous foliage.

Oh, and I finally re-painted our bedroom!!  No more peach walls with peach trim.  It looks great, but I'm going to wait to take photos after we hang our pictures and curtains.  And knowing the pace we've been moving on our home improvement projects recently....that might be a while.

7 Quick Takes (Vol. 34)

-1-

Happy All Saints Day!  Once again, I procrastinated about preparing anything for an important feast day.  It  didn't even really hit me that this feast was coming until I realized with inappropriate glee that we could actually eat MEAT on a FRIDAY this week (our family abstains from meat all Fridays of the year, unless it's a major feast day).  I found this cute idea on Catholic Icing that would be easy to do with little kids.  I don't really have any pictures at the moment that I'm willing to let Sly cut up, but I might let him pick some Saints from our enormous stack of laminated holy cards, and tape some of them onto a paper representation of Heaven...

-2-

This morning, I asked Sly what Saints he could name.  He said St. Therese and St. George (every little boy's favorite, especially since Sly is recently into dragons and slaying things - mostly Stella), and he got St. Joseph and St. Sylvester after a bit of prompting.  It's a start!

-3-  

I finished my Jesse Tree ornaments for the exchange.  I did red felt hearts with the Marian "M" symbol from the back of the miraculous medal.  I think they came out pretty well.  I can't wait to get my whole set back in the mail!  

 

 Does anyone have a good book or resource suggestion for actually *using* the Jesse Tree during Advent, though?

-4-

Dragon and ladybug...and a hairy guy and a cat bum

Trick-or-treating last night was a bit miserable.  It was wet and rainy.  Both Tom and I decided to go out with the kids, since we never get any kids at our door anyways (I left a bowl of candy out in case, but it wasn't touched). 

Every year, the local bureaucrats decide to step in and make Halloween a little less fun for the kids.  Last year, they *moved* Halloween to a Saturday, because they worried about a forecasted storm which never came.  You can't just do that!  It falls on a specific day each year.   This year, the official trick-or-treating hours ran from 5:30-7:30.  So ridiculous!  Most adults (both those with little kids to take out, or those who might want to hand out candy at home) aren't even home from work by 5:30.  And 7:30 is barely even nighttime!  When I was a kid, I don't think we even left the house until 7:30.  Why do they have to take all the fun out of everything? 

-5-

There was one event from last night which was pretty memorable, though.  At one candy stop (a.k.a. a house that actually had it's light on, which in our lame city neighborhood is about 1 out of 10), we noticed a praying mantis sitting on the outside of the house.  We talked about how it was an uncommon site for October, the kids got some treats, and then we moved on.  About 20 minutes and a number of houses later, we found ourselves inside a beautiful old funeral home (their door was open and the porch lights on, tricking us into thinking they were offering candy.  They weren't, but the owners were very nice, and invited us inside to gawk over their amazingly ornate and beautiful old building).  Inside, Sly remarked, "there's a praying mantis in my candy!"  And sure enough, there it was, sitting right on top of the pile of candy in his pumpkin bucket!  The poor thing must have had several handfuls of candy thrown on top of him! 

A couple of people have mentioned, though, that praying mantis' bring good luck.  So I guess Sly has some luck coming his way.

-6-

I have an update on the ongoing - yet still mostly casual - search for a house of our own: we found one that we loved, and we actually put an offer on it last week.  Our realtor and the seller's realtor both expressed their belief that we should probably get the house, as it was a good offer and we had no competitors.  But sadly, it wasn't to be.  The seller's realtor sat down with them to go over the deal and their closing costs, and they expressed complete shock and surprise.  They didn't have nearly enough money to sell the place!  Their realtor insists that he had explained the finances to them several times, but apparently, they weren't paying attention.  They have to take the house off the market for an indeterminate amount of time.  I don't even know what their reason for selling was in the first place, so there's no reason to expect it to go back on the market soon.  It's pretty disappointing.  The worst part is, Tom and I had finally narrowed down just what we were looking for (in terms of neighborhood, number of bedrooms, price, etc.), and right now there's nothing else on the market that fits all of it.  So I think we'll continue to wait and pray.

 -7-

Now that I know that our new baby is a boy, I want to get to work on knitting him a baby blanket, which I did for the other two while I was pregnant.  Does anyone have suggestions for a nice - but not too time-consuming - pattern for baby blankets?  (I'm on Ravelry as christinewin, if you want to add me!)

Quick Takes is hosted at Conversion Diary

Our Halloween Costumes

 

We all had to dress up this year since we were invited to a party at my aunt's house on Saturday.  Had Tom and I not been totally distracted and stressed by all the moving and unpacking in the week before Halloween, I know we would have tried to put together another family-themed costume.  Alas.

Sly's lion suit was chosen from four (yes, I said FOUR) store-bought costumes that we own in his current size (if you're wondering who to call "crazy" for that excessive purchase, the answer is my mom).  He also has a giraffe, a St. Bernard (the dog) and a monkey suit.  But the lion fit him best, and looked pretty cute.  Since Sly's costume was already decided, Tom and I would have wanted to base our theme off of that.  Most likely, we would have done a Wizard of Oz theme.  I would have been Dorothy, of course, and Tom the Scarecrow (since it's easier to put together than a Tinman costume!).  If I had just had a week to put it together, it would have happened.  Ah well.  Maybe some other year.

Things came together pretty well, considering that the two of us didn't even start looking for something to wear until a couple hours before the party.  I donned cat ears and tail from a previous Halloween.  Tom got a fortuitous last-minute text from a friend, asking if he wanted to borrow the sweet Kool-Aid man costume he (the friend) had worn last year.  Check that thing out: it's homemade from plastic cups and spray paint!

 Here's Tom and Sly, about to head out trick-or-treating on Monday night.  Originally, we weren't going to take Sly, figuring he was still too young.  But I think we were just excited about the thrill of having a KID to share holiday traditions with now!  Tom says Sly just seemed really confused at every door they went to, but that all the people thought he was adorable.  And it was a great way for Tom to meet some of our new neighbors.  So I guess it was a success.

Here we are, forty minutes later, looking over all the great treats he brought home.  We already confiscated the ones that aren't baby-appropriate, like the M&Ms.  And this morning, I had to hide the pumpkin bucket from Sly, because he remembered what yummy things were inside it, and just kept pointing at it and crying "ee-die! ee-die!", refusing to eat his breakfast.

Holidays

I did it! I purchased the gorgeous LIFESIZE Christ child in manger! It's on backorder until December 15th, so I might get it *just* in time for Christmas. And it pretty much wiped out my entire stash of two-years-worth of Christmas/birthday money. But I think it will be worth it.

Beautiful!

Now I can stop worrying about Christmas for a bit, and start thinking about the upcoming holiday, Halloween. Recently, Tom and I have been in no mood to discuss costume ideas, since the packing and moving has been pretty time-consuming and stressful. But we've been invited to a couple parties, so something's going to have to be pulled together. I like the idea of doing a themed family costume, like last year.

A family of street performers: Tom is an organ grinder, I'm a gypsy, and Sly is a performing monkey

But it's hard to come up with an idea that has "two big somethings" and "one little something." So we might just each do our own thing. But I don't know what! Anything we could pull together or make from items we already own would be ideal. I LOVE the idea of Sly being something that would require us to (or at least just give us an excuse to) draw a mustache on him. Because HOW adorable would that be?! Any ideas?

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 8)

1.  Check out this AWESOME idea for a maternity Halloween costume!

If I was ever "big pregnant" in October, I would definitely consider it!

2. Sly has had a weird rash in his "diaper area" for a few weeks now.  I've had the doctors look at it several times, and they can't figure out what it is. At first, they were thinking herpes (!!), and were asking me embarrassing questions such as, "has he been sexually abused?" and "who watches him during the day?".  It was kinda uncomfortable.  Thank goodness the tests for that came back negative.  The latest theory is that it's some sort of bacterial infection.  He's on another medicine, and the doctor instructed me to boil ALL our cloth diapers.  Oh man.  Good thing I have that enormous stock pot!

3. I know Christmas is still months away, but I'm already starting to think about a particular Advent tradition that I would love to start in our family.  I want to get a lifesize Infant Christ statue in a manger.  The empty manger could be set out all during Advent, and then Jesus would be there Christmas morning!  I've also heard of families having their kids put one piece of straw into the manger each time they do some charitable act, or make some penance, creating a nice soft bed for Jesus before He arrives.  When Sly's a little older, we might consider that.  This is the particular statue I have my heart set on.

Isn't it beautiful?!  It comes in many sizes: 5", 8", 12", and 20".  I would LOVE to get the 20" one because then it would be truly life-life.  It costs $150, though.  I have been slowly slowly saving up a little stash of money from past Christmas and birthday gifts I've received (Tom is so jealous about this!).  I think this might be a worthwhile use of that money.  It doesn't say anywhere that the child can actually be removed from the manger...but I'm assuming it can (?).  And if not, I'll find a way to get it out!


4.  Another item on my "wishlist" recently is a Dust Buster.  Man, it seems like Sly just leaves crumbs and little messes everywhere he goes these days!  It would be very nice not to have to drag the heavy vacuum up from the basement all the time.

5. At my family's cottage, we've always had an enormous oak tree in the front yard.

Last year, much to everyone's sorrow, it had to be cut down.  It was rotting from the inside out.  The tree was probably a few hundred years old.  In anticipation of the sad day, I had spent our week up there gathering a bunch of acorns from the yard.  I hoped - as several other relatives did - to grow some "babies" of our beloved tree.  Once Spring came this year, I planted a number of them in pots.  Only one ended up sprouting.  But it was better than nothing, and I proudly shared my triumph with the entire extended family via Facebook.
 

My little seedling

With the exception of one aunt, no one else had had any luck in getting their acorns to germinate.  As the summer went on, my aunt and I kept each other updated on the progress of our single trees.  Somehow, mine was growing spectacularly!  By the end of July, hers was less than a foot tall, while mine had grown to about five feet!  The entire family was impressed.  I was told by everyone that I needed to get that tree planted in front of the Cottage this year, instead of waiting until next summer as originally planned.

But then my dad was over our place for Sly's birthday party.  I saw him in the backyard, looking at my tree with a doubting sort of expression.  I asked him what was up, and he informed me that this was not, as he'd apparently been suspecting for a while, actually an oak tree!  It was a huge, stupid WEED!  WHAT?! I've been nurturing this dumb thing all summer!  Transferring it to bigger and bigger pots, watering it every day, staking it up!  I can't believe it.  I still haven't gotten up the courage to notify the whole family about my mistake.  They will NEVER let me hear the end of it!

6. It constantly amazes me how much babies can pick up without being explicitly "taught."  Sly gives kisses on request.  On the mouth.  I hardly ever kissed him on the mouth before.  He could only have learned it by seeing Tom and I kiss that way!  Also, pointing at things.  Just one day, he started doing it, and it was clear that it was intentional.  He'd learned just by watching us.

But dancing?  I really think that one's all instinctive.  Even at a very young age, when he would hear certain little tunes, he'd start rocking back and forth.  So cute!

7. Last weekend, after eating dinner at my dad's house, he informed me that "it was time."  Time to clear out all my stuff from my former bedroom.  Even though I haven't actually lived with my dad for years, I've still been using my room there as a convenient storage space for all the nostalgia and trinkets that I either didn't have room for at my current abode, or that I was just too lazy to sort through all these years.  I have TONS of stuff there.  He agreed that I could wait until we've moved before I have to take anything.  I know there will be things I'm fine with giving away, but there are still so many items I intend to keep.  A lot of toys I'm saving for future daughters, drawers packed with old drawings and notes, decorative knick-knacks, books....Ugh.

See Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes