This week was full of so much fun! So let's jump in.
Last Saturday was Reformation Day (also known as Halloween to all you heathen). Covid actually made the day kind of nice - we typically have to figure out how to cram trick-or-treating into an evening that is already set aside in our house as a church celebration. I know, I know, I could go the way of shunning Halloween altogether like a good fundamentalist, and save the hassle of squeezing in two parties, but here's my thing: we're Americans, and that's not an accident.
I want my kids to grow up celebrating the good things that are deeply ingrained in their culture, because God has made people to shape, and be shaped by, and celebrate culture. (Note to shuddering Christians here: you can't escape culture, nor should you. You are to play a meaningful role in shaping culture, and then reveling in it.) I want my kids to know and participate in their history, and Halloween is cultural in both a national sense and a religious sense. So we, as American Christians, love the good parts of Halloween (namely the cute costumes and the crazygonuts amounts of candy), and are also always looking for reasons to party together. So sue us, and the horse we rode in on, but I warn you our horse has excellent legal defense on retainer.
Anywayzzz.
I headed out on Saturday morning to hit up the antique mall and buy some cute corbels for my living room, because Reformation Day is only made better when it's also Decor-mation Day. (Had to do it. Haters don't hate.) I headed home in time for the kids to finish up their lunch, and then we pulled out our Bin O' Costumes (a little Celtic flavor in honor of Halloween) and got the kids dressed up.
For any of you that still aren't convinced that we should be participating in Halloween, let me offer up Exhibit A: "BABY LAMBY." See? I was right all along. No one should be deprived of this pastorable pygmy, so you're welcome world!
Not thrilled with the promotion to Sergeant Officer BABY LAMBY, but I trust she'll get the job done.
We have here a fisherman, a bumble bee, a soldier, a fairy princess, the Hamburglar, Little Red Riding Hood, and BABY LAMBY.
We headed out the door for a 'drive-thru trick-or-treat' experience, which was just as mediocre as you can imagine. We drove through a parking lot full of a waving, costumed adults (one of whom won my vote with just a bunch of masks stapled to him, and an eye mask and a cowboy hat. Anyone figure it out?, and another of whom won the kids' vote, dressed as an inflatable piece of poop), and then ended our 'tour' with a stop at a tent to collect pre-filled bags of candy. Not the worst way to get free candy, though, I have to say.
On the way to the D-T T-o-T, we discovered a solid Little Tykes wagon on the side of the road, put out
After that, the kids stayed in their costumes and enacted their own neighborhood trick-or-treat festivities: they set up the playhouses in the back, drew a road on the concrete, and the big kids passed out candy to the little kids, who just hiked from Playhouse 1 to Playhouse 2, and back again. They shuttled Juni around in her new wagon.
Anxiously awaiting her first trick-or-treaters of the night, who coincidentally will also be her last trick-or-treaters of the night.
After all of that, I put Juni to nap and the kids changed into play clothes, and we painted pumpkins. (Correction: the kids painted pumpkins while I started cleaning out the garden.) Then I did a load of laundry because: obvious.
Callista's masterpiece.
For dinner, I assembled a cheeseboard, the first cheeseboard we've had in months, and the first of many to come in the upcoming celebratory season. It was so good to feast together again!
Then after dinner, we watched Luther together as a family, and it only took us about three hours to get through, since we had to keep stopping to explain things. ("Those are indulgences. Indulgences are..." "That is Wartburg Castle. He is translating the New Testament into common German." "Katarina von Bora looks janky right now because nuns would shear all their hair off, and also she just spent three days in a fish barrel.") Then the kids went to bed entirely too late, but who cares because it was Daylight Saving, and we were all in for a night from hell anyway. (Side note: Daylight Saving is so much less exciting once you're no longer young, and you have tiny children who can't read a clock and don't find the opportunity to sleep in quite as luxurious as you do. Or, as you would if you could remember what that's like...)
Sunday was full of church and naps and cereal for dinner and Harry Potter for movie night, just the way I like it.
Monday was nothing, but TUESDAY WAS ELECTION DAY! (Or, so we were led to believe at the time. It is currently still Election Day and the excitement has worn off a bit.) We took the kids with us to cast our votes, and it was such a great experience. Our polling place had no lines, we weren't harrassed even a little bit for not wearing masks (if anything, people seemed extra nice to us; it must've been nice to see a human face for the first time in months), and we attempted to make our voices heard. I didn't know beforehand that we'd be competing with every last dead person on the planet, but oh, well. I guess the dead have strong opinions on things, and have as much of a right as anyone else to vote whenever they feel like it, and who am I to begrudge them that? I hope that when I'm dead, America is still holding elections. Maybe my voice will be louder by then.
If you squint hard enough, you can see that there are nine of us, standing in front of the Kraken, being photographed by a kindly but camera-challenged volunteer in the parking lot.
Won't this sticker look even better on me when I'm a skeleton, all those years in the future when they resurrect my memory (or just my pertinent information) to allow me one last vote?
Wednesday was ROCCO'S BIRTHDAY! This strong, brave, broadshouldered boy just gets more and more awesome by the day. He is so kind and relaxed and un-ruffle-able. He is agreeable and funny, and so incredibly smart. He has a raspy voice and beautiful eyes and a crooked-toothed smile and he always falls asleep on the couch during read-alouds and I just LOVE HIM TO TINY LITTLE BITS.
Yesterday, one of the kids woke up with Tummy Stuff. I mean, TUMMY STUFF. I mean, "loss of control of important bodily functions" stuff. Luckily, we got through it in just a few hours and it didn't seem to spread to anyone else, but DANG, it has been a while since I've parented on that level.
And that brings us to today: Glorious 75-degree Friday. Earlier this week, I donated some furniture pieces to make some more room in my garage, so I'm hoping to do some organizing out there while this weather holds out. (I'm trying to make room in the garage for storage bins, which I'm moving out of the basement, to make room down there for a potential piano). (Yes, we already have a piano, but who can't use more pianos?)
And with that, let's soar into the weekend as though we believe simple, honest election results are imminent! WHOOOOOO!!!
