Yesterday a friend asked me how much Halloween candy I had eaten while waiting at home for Trick or Treaters, and I will tell you this: zero. My secret? I buy the candy that I don’t like, which is for me a giant box with a mixture of those little Kit Kats, Coffee Crisps, Smarties, and Aero bars. The new young couple down the street – who reminds me of my husband and I many years ago – came by with their two little ones. This is their first Halloween in the neighbourhood, and the woman told me enthusiastically she had bought 100 little bags of chips and hoped that would be enough. I was loathe to tell her that we have never had more than 20 Trick or Treaters, and that she would be munching on chips for some time to come. See, that is a mistake I would never have made – it’s not that I don’t buy hundreds of tiny chocolate bars, it’s that I would never buy that many potato chips, for the simple reason that I cannot resist them. For me, salty beats sweet any day.
Next year I think I’ll buy full size chocolate bars, because I want to feel like one of those fancy ladies; a princess distributing largesse to the populace, as it were.
Thursday after classes I took the Halloween decorations down, with the help of the boys. Normally this is something I would leave to my husband but a) it’s completely dark by the time he gets home and b) today is supposed to be a “rain/snow mix” which would be a bit disastrous for our animatronic thingamagigs. Electric shorting out might add to the creepiness though:
The kids went Trick or Treating with all their friends; I was very happy to see them come back candy-laden and happy, with no one commenting on their giant statures. Does it seem to you that EVERYTHING is a divisive topic nowadays? You name it, everyone has a STRONG and IMMOVABLE opinion on it. Teens trick or treating is definitely one of them. I am of the camp that would give candy out to literally anyone who comes to my door; they could be in university – hell, they could be senior citizens and they would still get a handful of Kit Kats from me. As for my own kids, they can Trick or Treat for as long as they want as far as I’m concerned.
So here we are in November, and I for one am happy about it. Our house was hit by an absolutely deplorable virus, and I seemed to have gotten the worst of it. I recovered enough to be on my feet but the residual exhaustion has been something else. It’s been a week of just setting one foot in front of the other, and occasionally bursting into overwhelmed, exhausted tears. Today I’m finally starting to feel like myself again; I spent some days last week wondering how on earth I usually had the energy to do my normal day-to-day things. Here’s how poorly I felt: I haven’t had a sip of wine in two weeks. Dark times, people.
This morning, after napping all yesterday afternoon and sleeping ten hours last night, I felt well enough to return to my usual Saturday morning spin class. You know how they say the first time back is the hardest? I certainly hope that’s true. All during the class I kept looking down at the little orange warning on my bike: Over exercise can result in serious injury or death. Death! It seemed like a terrible portent. Usually I am filled with all sorts of personal-best goals during the class; this morning my aim was to just make it through without death. If I have a choice in the matter, I would rather not Meet the Maker while wearing sweaty padded leggings.
Fortunately, I am still here to tell the tale.
The kids are in that teenage phase where every morning, they seem taller than the day before. This has resulted in them completely outgrowing their single beds; my older son in particular is several inches longer than his bed, which has led to some uncomfortable nights. We decided to buy them both extra-long-full-size beds, which is more complicated than you might think, given we live in a 1960s bungalow. There has been much jenga-like moving of beds, and there were twenty-four hours when the new beds were delivered into the front entry, in which the entire entryway and front door were completely blocked off. The chaos of this has not added positively to my mental and emotional state this week, but the final result is extremely satisfactory. At one point I looked at all the wrappings and cardboard and craziness and repeated to myself the only way out is through over and over. Happily, after much rearranging and quite a bit of purging, things are looking up! The only problem is that I lay down on one of the beds and damn, it is way more comfortable than my own bed. The only thing keeping me from surreptitiously bed shopping is the thought of going through all this chaos again so soon. Maybe I’ll feel well enough for a glass of wine tonight, to give me some courage. Let’s hope!
Mark is 14, right? That’s when Noah’s crazy 3-year growth spurt started to slow down. Your mileage may vary, though.
North and I gathered all the decorations up onto the porch on Friday afternoon because of impending heavy rain that night. We lacked the energy/motivation to box everything up properly though, so while some of it’s in boxes, we’ve got piles of loose decorations and the witch and zombie still cackle when a big truck goes by and the house shakes a little.
I’m glad you’re feeling better.
Oh my goodness, they outgrew their beds?! I didn’t even know that was a thing that could happen!
I love your Halloween decor. I spend October admiring all the houses with noticeable decorations and wishing I could get up enough energy to do it to our house. But we can’t even bring ourselves to do Christmas lights on the house exterior, so I don’t think ghosts and goblins are happening. (Once we tried the cotton-y spider webs in our shrubbery which was a DISASTER that took months to remove fully. That’s as far as we’ve gotten.)
omg!! yes onb the big beds for big boys! We have to work on a few others here. My hubbie built a loft extra long single for one of our boys. We have 1 more tall boy to get into a long bed.
I soooo want a new bed. Yup. That’s my takeaway. 😀
I am glad you are feeling better!
Well I’m late but am commenting anyway because this whole post resonates with me. I learned years ago that the only way to save myself from mindlessly eating Halloween candy was to buy the candy I don’t like. I can look at the stuff I bought for months and feel zero interest, which my teeth and waistline both appreciate.
I also will hand out candy to anyone who comes to my door and says trick or treat (or similar) until I turn off my lights. I really don’t know why people get bent out of shape about this. Teenagers are still kids and they still like getting candy and I’m already standing at the door handing it out every 30 seconds for two hours (our neighborhood is insane) anyway, so what the heck, just take some big kids.
Finally, Oldest grew something like 9 inches in 2 years from 13-15 and it was an expensive trip but the doctor assured me that his growth will continue but at a much slower pace now and thank dog! I can report that his shoes have actually fit him for almost a full year now (something that hasn’t happened in 2 years) and his jacket that I bought him on clearance last Spring still fits. My wallet is so thankful for this development!