All Souls’ Day

Mallory and I attended the candlighting ceremony at the cemetery this evening for All Souls’ Day. My parents and sister were also there.  It is a really neat ceremony and I love seeing all the candles lighting up the cemetery.  We can all use more people to pray for us, and it is a privilege to be able to pray for the deceased members of our communities and family.   

Including my brother and grandparents.  I miss them and I pray that we will all be together again some day. 

These two are adorable. This is their All Saints’ Day photo.  I believe they celebrated with attending a volleyball game for Tatum’s little girls team and eating French dip.  Good job on celebrating the good holidays! 

If you ever want proof that Madison married a man like her father, hang out with the two of them together.  It’s a mess.  I’m glad they get along.  But….

I’m not convinced Jim needed an ally.  

We had a good weekend even if I didn’t get my list even started. So much fun and lots of family time.  

 

 

Happy Halloween!

We had a great day here!  I heard from all the kids, hat a great time with my sister and my friend getting a tarot card reading.  And Harper let me help her with a last minute costume where we made her into Medusa.  

We got our 50 cent corn dogs! 

 L

Rescued a turtle 

Had a wrestler man 

Dracula and Doc McStuffins 

Homelander 

Medusa 

The cutest Tigger I have ever seen 

My absolute all time favorite day of the year.  Halloween is happiness.  

33 years

Today is our anniversary.  We have been married 33 years.  When we were in our 20’s, planning a wedding, I knew I wanted a fall wedding.  We picked a date based on when my cousin, who was also getting married that fall was getting married.  I liked the date because it was close to Halloween, which I have always loved.  I never gave a single thought to what our anniversary would always be. We have spent almost every single anniversary making treats for school Halloween parties, gathering costume parts, shopping for trick or treaters, running kids to parties, and today, watching grandkids in their school Halloween parade and handing out candy.  And we wouldn’t change a single thing. 

The last 33 years have flown by.  I don’t know how we got here. Three quarters of our kids are out in the world living on their own. Our grandkids are blessings that we feel so lucky to have in our lives.  We truly are living the dream.  I love you Jim, it hasn’t always been easy, but we have managed to figure it out, together.  

 

Spencer is 30

Our bonus daughter - and the mother to our first grandson, turned 30 today.  

Spencer is an amazing woman. We all love her so much.  She is a great mother, a great wife and a great addition to our family.  I love so many things about her - the way she keeps Colin safe, but without being mean to him. The way she works beside him to make their family and their home awesome.  She is funny and sweet, smart and driven and a little touch sarcastic.  I have loved her from the beginning, solely based on the way my son looks at her.  And he was absolutely right.  She’s great!   Happy birthday Spencer.  I hope it was amazing!  Love you!  

And now, because this is my blog and I can do what I want here, a couple of things, side notes if you will.  

When I was at work today, a recipe for butter swim biscuits popped up on my email homepage.  I had forgotten about them, but then when I saw the recipe, I had great memories of my mom making them and of having them with honey instead of the gravy everyone else was having (because I really don’t love gravy). I also recalled trying to make them once with margarine instead and how awful they turned out.  So I quickly printed the recipe, stuck it in my pocket and decided I was making them to go with dinner. They were just as good as I recalled.  I texted our little group chat and told my mom I had made them and they were just as good as I recalled.  She texted back “what the hell is a butter swim biscuit?”  Followed by my sister asking the same question.  I’m like you remember making them?  You make the dough and pour it over melted butter and bake it?  Nope. They seem to think I’m crazy.  Well….who the heck’s childhood memories am I having then?  Anyway, they are good. And Jim liked them too, so I’m counting it as a win.  

Also a winner - my pepper plants have picked back up since the weather cooled down.  I had a ton of pretty small jalapeños.  I decided to put them in the dehydrator and make jalapeño powder.  It turned out amazing.  If I had any popcorn, I would totally sprinkle it on top!  I also have been drying a ton of herbs from my herb garden beds.  I probably don’t really need 94 pounds of dried basil, but hey, if the plant wants to grow, who am I to stop it?   I am definitely not the world’s best gardener, but I am trying to get better and learning  a lot as I go.  

But for now, happy birthday Spencer and good night to all.