Jane’s been asking me all month, as she’s counted down the days, “Aren’t you excited for Halloween Mom?” Mostly, it seemed tiring!--not only getting pumpkins and costumes and candy and an early dinner ready, but also making sure the house was all clean and activities ready for this party Anne was hosting. (that’s how fun of a mom I am).
Thankfully, there wasn’t a whole lot else going on. I even cleaned out a few drawers and closets and dug up some overgrown bushes during the day, which felt so good--& Hooray for neighbors and YW activities having so many extra pumpkins to share! We painted pumpkins Mon and Tues night (by we, I mean I watched on the couch while the kids dug in), Brian & the youth went to a corn maze Wed night (and Lucy babysat neighbors!), and after joining Brian at his GI appt, we carved pumpkins Thursday night. Spencer got a badly irritated nerve trying to give blood last week, so his tennis serving arm has been trying to regain mobility, but he did get in a fun double date back to the corn maze Friday night, and Brian and I took a drive up to Snowville for ours-almost like a time travel to a fun little cafe. I had a beautiful run around Mantua Reservoir Saturday morning while the girls were nearby at orchestra practice. Being outside calms me faster than anything, but Utah sent out a phone alert about rising Covid numbers on Friday, so I wondered if everything should just be canceled, and stressed about whether to keep this party going or not. Thursday, the kids all started a new schedulewith the first hour of school cut out to give teachers more prep time as so many students are in and out with quarantines.
Sweet Mom came and joined us with DREAMY donuts as we finished cleaning up the house & ate Jack-o-Lantern pizza. Before she headed home, we took the younger kids trick-or-treating on a perfect full moon and friendly night, and then the party chaos began!
But I actually enjoyed the girls coming over! The caramel apples even worked! A bunch left early, and I got to sit in playing games with the end of the crowd. I loved being with them! (why do I ever stress?!!)
Even with all the work and stress, it was worth EVERYthing to have Anne building good friendships and seeing the strength there, (which has been a journey).
There is such a blessing in friendship and community! I was a bit worn down heading to church Sunday morning, but it was our first testimony meeting since March, and my heart just swelled being able to hear from the hearts of ward members again, and enjoy that unity of all of us trying to follow Jesus. (Thank goodness for those tear-catching masks!) I’m pretty feeble & easily stressed out alone, but having Mom visit, or friends come play games, or people join us at church makes life so do-able and more enjoyable. As I sat in church, I thought about Pres Eyring’s talk in the last Women’s Session about building zion, and it hit me that we can’t have Zion alone--Zion is always a community, and we really need each other!
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| Baby Thomas Octopus |
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| Witch, 50's girl, and Rosie Riveter |
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| Run around Mantua Reservoir |
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