I'm already behind, but I wrote two days in a row!!! Woo hoo! Now if I can just maintain a story line, a story arch would be nice, and I have to stop eating Halloween candy. Important progress was made off-line in the purchasing of oodles of frozen meals at Trader Joe's on the way home.

I procrastinate at Halloween time. I stall shopping for costumes. I wait to carve the pumpkin, citing the need to not have moldy Jack-O-Lanterns. When I remember Halloween, I remember the disappointment of outgrowing Halloween. I remember the loneliness of trick-or-treating by myself  for year or two because my brother was too old and I had no other friends in our community that were allowed to go out. On top of that, we lived in a very cold, rural place where you had to be driven from house to house, never knowing when a big, feisty dog may come out to greet you.

This year is different. Last night, for the first time in a very long time, I enjoyed carving pumpkins. It started Wednesday night, the night of the Girl Scout Halloween party. My daughter has wanted to be a vampire for about a month. True to my Halloween stalling ways, I procrastinated, but did look for some teeth for her. Well, she has typical 8-yr-old teeth - quite a wonky mix of new and old teeth in a very small mouth. She has the added gift of an extra tooth. As can be expected, vampire teeth don't really work well for her and we just did not have the time to come up with plan B. I said, "I'm very sorry, honey. It is okay if you just decided not to go."

"I'll go just like this." And she did. Her leaders were great in that they immediately declared her costume the Silliest Second Grader. Her bravery absolutely inspired me. Not only did she endure being the only costumeless one, but she flourished. Two days later, for the school celebration, she still did not have a costume. No worries.

Last night we carved pumpkins. As we carved pumpkins, our children told us all kinds of things about school and their lives that we don't even get to hear at family dinner time.

Today, for the first time in a very long time, I am truly looking forward to the fun and silly spirits and goofy fun. I'm even considering donning a costume and going along with the trick-or-treating crowd!

 

I work with toddlers and their families. There is something adorable happening every day, but today a little girl caught me by surprise. My Monday morning challenge of the week was a combination lock that was jammed. This particular little girl was quite concerned, especially knowing about wonderful toys behind the locked door.

"Where's you mommy?" she asked, quite seriously. I didn't have the heart to say she died ten years ago. The pat answer is Heaven, but I'm still debating that one, and am really debating whether that is really an appropriate answer for children.

"She's not here." I took the safe route.

"Well, if she were here, she could fix it." I immediately enlisted her mother as a final effort. Her mom couldn't open the lock, either, but I love the trust that this little girl openly places in mothers.

Moms, have you considered how important you are today? Your children know!

I'm crabby this morning. Too many have-to's, not enough want-to's. Time for an alternate to-do list:

Meet old wine-night crowd for coffee. Write. Get out trombone and find the slide works, despite five years of dormancy. Sit down to do work, only to find there is LESS to do than I thought. Read an inspirational book about a suburban woman. Sleep. Go out for coffee again. Ride bike.

Okay. That is enough, because my alternate list shouldn't be as long as the other list! Oh, I need a deep thought, too. Hmmm... This one is from a walk in college a long time ago... If everyone put a dent in the world, it would be a different shape.

 

 

Yesterday I was driving the car while the kids and I chatted. They were asking me about the personal state of a couple we know. Are they married? Are they going to get married? That’s a good thing that they are going to get married, isn’t it?

Well, yes, I suppose, and… maybe. How do you explain to a 7- and 10-year-old that there are a lot of gray areas. Maybe marriage will be good in the end, but often it is good to wait. Even more important, is that it really isn’t up to us to decide. That being said, of course, I have my personal views. I was just about to blow it and launch into my own thoughts when… I bit my tongue. No, I literally bit my tongue. It was bleeding. The kids even pointed out how there was an extra little flap of skin. “Didn’t it hurt?” they wanted to know.

“Yes, it hurt,” I told them, but I was thinking, not as much as it would have hurt to say too much!