1. November

It's hard to believe that it's November already. I feel like it should at least still be September - where the heck did October go? We had a busy Halloween yesterday (pics to follow) - it is Steve's birthday so we're always trying to celebrate that, carve pumpkins, get the kids ready for trick-or-treating, show the kids off to grandparents, eat supper, celebrate birthday, gifts, etc. Whew. It's a lot. Too much. We went to Steve's Dad's house for a little Halloween/Birthday celebration on Sunday so we wouldn't have to go there with the kids yesterday. That worked out pretty good. Then yesterday up to his Mom's. His Mom is at home now but unable to eat or drink anything! She is fed through a tube (directly into her stomach) but you feel a bit weird having any sort of food or drink around her. She wants it SO BADLY (the problem is anything she consumes by mouth is aspirated into her lungs - *sigh*). We got up there, I had to make dinner (with everything we brought), frost cupcakes, wrangle monkeys, go trick-or-treating, get the cupcakes/ice cream ready (all while not making FOOD or DRINK a big deal). It was stressful! The kids were pretty good. August walked for a lot of the trick-or-treating. He didn't quite understand holding his bag (he'd just let it fall on the ground) or putting candy in it (he'd try to give it back) but he was getting into going up to each door. Dahlia was a charmer as usual. Everyone up in Carolyn's neighborhood seemed to really enjoy seeing them. August would try to go INTO people's houses - no fear there, kid! Yikes! We were the last trick-or-treaters out up there as we didn't get out the door with everyone til 7pm. Yuck. I am going to plan differently for next year. Sheesh. So what does November hold in store for us? Well....? The usual, I guess. Trying to survive the days with kids that are wound up & not enough room for them to burn off their energy inside. Thank goodness for the Children's Museum! I think we'll be there (& the library) a lot this winter). I have some "Crafterhours" evenings with friends planned. A new book for our book club. Making lots of inventory for CraftyCarrster. Making, buying, wrapping Christmas gifts. Planning Dahlia's birthday party. Getting ready for Thanksgiving & Christmas. It'll be busy. It'll go fast. In a month I'll be wondering what in the heck happened to November!