Friday Quick Takes

~ 1 ~
Confession time: I am a Halloween Grinch. I just hate it. I didn't always hate it, but it wasn't always this much work. In fact, I don't have a lot of religious or philosophical complaints about this holiday, as many people do here and here. For the most part, to me Halloween is harmless fun, as long as little trick-or-treaters avoid getting run over or swallowing a razor blade hidden in a Hershey's bar. But I don't like, at all, dealing with costumes--I never have--and it seems so dumb to decorate the house just to un-decorate it again a few days later, when I'm pretty much perennially de-cluttering already. I also particularly loathe carving pumpkins--messy, boring, and stupid. (Kids, if you're reading this, I am SO sorry!) We don't do gory or gruesome or very scary costumes or decorations of any kind, either--there is so much gross stuff out there! And all that candy--yuck! I can't imagine letting my kids eat all that; they each get to fill a ziplock sandwich baggie with their favorites, and it usually lasts them at least until Christmas, and we give the rest away to candy tithing at our church. (They send it to Iraq and to college kids.) Mostly, Halloween just seems to be to be a kinda stupid waste of time--totally secular, nothing meaningful to celebrate, just plain consumerism in every sense of the word. Not to mention that I have so little self-control that I will totally pig out on candy myself--double yuck!

The one thing I do like about Halloween is the fall decorations that are cute and kind of folk-artsy. Those, I'm a sucker for. And of course I like taking pictures of my kids in their costumes. Stay tuned for that post tomorrow! :)

~ 2 ~
Our move is now less than three weeks away. I feel something akin to being at the end of labor--I know how it's going to end, but between now and then, it will be SO painful! I have been finding it almost impossible to get started packing, for various reasons (see #1, above, for one!), but the time for procrastination to stop is right now, this weekend. Really. Just after I finish this blog post.

~ 3 ~
I discovered a recipe using leftover soup or chili that I think is so cool! It's a cornbread version of chicken pot pie or shepherd's pie, from the Dairy Hollow House's soup cookbook. Why didn't I think of this by myself? Yummy!

~ 4 ~
MPD is now really for sure weaned. <> It's time, I know--as I've said before, I am not one to nurse a toddler and beyond...but my little sweetie boy is growing up. It's funny, too, because his personality seems a bit different now too. He's more independent and opinionated. Great, because we don't have enough independent and opinionated people in this family!

~ 5 ~
Yesterday WWD went to an open-house visit day for the middle school we're considering. He loved it. <> It's between this school, which is a very small, very Catholic, college-prep school for grades 6-12, and homeschooling. I have no idea which way we'll go--after all, last year at this time I never would have imagined that we wouldn't be homeschooling everyone right now! Thy Will Be Done!

~ 6 ~
This fall I have started a Little Flowers Club for the girls at school. It is a little bit like a Catholic version of Brownies, but there is no national organization--it's just a tiny little club, almost like a bible study group, with my 2 girls plus 10 friends from school. It's so great! Each month they study a virtue with a corresponding flower and female saint. Each girl has a sash on which to sew their badges, which are each flower petals, and by the end of the year the flower will be complete. So cute and so much fun! I am trying to keep this as simple simple simple as I possibly can--at my house, after school, once every other week for an hour and a half. We do art, crafts, games, reading, prayer, discussion, and, of course, snack. It gets quite crazy, really! It is a challenge to fit all the fun ideas for each virtue and flower into this small amount of time, but so far it is just right. Our little group is so blessed, and I am really loving getting to know all the girls at the school (most of them are signed up.)! It is certainly helping me get my homeschooling ya-yas out too!

~ 7 ~
The kids have a break for a 4-day weekend this weekend--hooray! I love when there's no school, almost more than they do. It is very rainy--supposed to clear up for trick-or-treat tomorrow--so we are having a cozy indoor weekend. Don't you just love trick-or-treat? I can't wait--NOT! And any minute now, I'm going to start packing...