A Weekend Retreat

Wait a second, Madeline? Didn't you have a retreat last weekend? 

Why, my friend, you're right! Yet again, I had one this weekend. 

It was the First Reconciliation Retreat, and you know what? It went pretty well. 

Husband had been out of town last week, which was so busy, and adds a different dynamic to everything, doesn't it? 

This was the only picture I took of the retreat. 

Luckily my friend took a few! It is always hard for me to know how a retreat goes but it went about as well as it could. 

Saturday, we also went to Mass and then to see The Sound of Music. I didn't take pictures of that. 

And yesterday, also a day with no picture, was GLORIOUS. 

I slept in. 

I wrote my review. 

But otherwise did a lot of nothing. 

And it was GLORIOUS. 

And now here we are on Monday! Let's make it a good one! 

The Sky's Awake, So I'm Awake

Like everyone in the Midwest last night it seems... we could see the Northern Lights! 

Now I live in town. On a road my mother calls a highway. (It's not. I swear.) But with street lights aplenty. And even still, this was the view of the aurora borealis last night from that well-lit house.

This is just regular camera mode. These others are in night mode. 

This was after bedtime but C was still awake so I had him come out to see. And then about an hour later, I felt bad, so I woke M up for a minute and had her come out to see. It wasn't as vibrant at that point, but still visible, and she liked it. And then ran right back upstairs to sleep.  

My parents' house had a nice view too. 

But my bestie, who lives in the country (Like it kind of scares me to try and find her house in the dark kind of country), absolutely won! 

I said to my friends who know me and my general lack of interest in nature that this definitely counts as my allotment for nature appreciation this month. 

It also counted as some time with God. I am so grateful to be on an Earth that surprises us from time to time with goodness. There are plenty of bad weather surprises. (It sn*wed on Saturday. I was unhappy. It has since melted, but it was there and I saw it.) So the good ones are worth appreciating. 

Retreat Weekend

So the first full week of November flew by. 

It was actually a short week for conferences, which I enjoyed! We spent all day Thursday doing yard work, and then we went to see a show. 

That was good and fun. 

Friday, I cranked my review out early in between deep cleaning the house before my parents got to town. They came because Husband and I were on a retreat team. 

It was a really wonderful weekend with some great teens in grades 8-10. And I am glad we were able to help out. 

The best part was that we got to sleep at home and not there! 

While we were gone, the kids had a great time with my parents. They went to Costco. They swam at the hotel. They ate out. 

They say that they missed us, but I am not convinced. 

I am kinda bummed it's Monday. And that the retreat is over. It was a big commitment, but I am going to miss the weekly team meetings, and honestly, the kids I spent the weekend with were delightful. 

And here's November

I know. We're all thinking it, how is it November already? 

Halloween was truly wonderful. As promised, they looked much the same.

We went around from 5:30-7:00, and then everyone was glad to be home, eating pizza and ready for a good sleep. 

Their pumpkins could literally not hold another thing. Please excuse the playroom mess. 

Saturday brought a pumpkin smashing. 

We waited in a very long line to smash C's pumpkin. (M didn't want to bring hers and later had regret about that.) But the wait wasn't so bad because every minute there was another pumpkin launched and it was fun to watch. Big ones went splat. Small ones blasted out like a bullet. Then the goldilocks of pumpkins soared and landed dramatically. 

After a little prodding from his mom, C made a few adjustments to his pumpkin to help it weigh a little less to get it right in that sweet spot. It totally paid off! 

And wouldn't you know Husband was recording his news spot at the exact moment we made it through the line? Murphy's Law!! 

All in all, a fun way to spend the afternoon! We are looking forward to next year already. Really! 

Happy Halloween!

We crammed a few more Halloween things in just in time. 

Last night was the Halloween piano recital. 

Then we headed home to eat dinner quick and carve pumpkins. I genuinely enjoy the smell of pumpkin innards. I mean, not in like a "I want to buy this candle" kind of way. But in an annual tradition kind of way. It smells like a memory. And all the years of my life, where that smell connects to every other time I have carved a pumpkin.

Today was obviously a chance for the kids to wear Halloween costumes or clothes to school. 

And tonight they will once again don their Pirate and Nerds Gummy Cluster costumes for an evening that is totally ours. It will look an awful lot like this: 

M had been invited to go with friends. We had all been invited to go to the next town over. And we (Husband and I) decided that this year, 2025, was a year for us together. We have so very few years of this left after all. Before costumes and walking with your parents isn't even appealing anymore. 

So we are leaning into that. Perhaps it makes me overly sentimental and wistful. But tonight I am going to hang out with my people, celebrating Halloween in the best way we can... together. 

Happy Halloween! 

Oh Hey... Fall!

We are a high-needs sleeping family. I'm not going to lie. My kids come by it honestly. 

We use white noise, fans, eye masks, special pillows, and blankets. It's a whole thing. 

We cracked the code to get M to sleep at camp. She took a travel white noise machine that is shaped and put it under her pillow so only she could hear it. They aren't allowed to plug things in at camp, so we bought 5 and charged them up. Packing one with each pair of pajamas so she could pull a new one out every night to make it through the whole night. 

I actually brought one with to Disney World in August, though I could charge it daily, so I didn't need to pack multiple. 

All this to say: at 1:40 AM, the power went out. And 3/4 of us woke up IMMEDIATELY. Luckily, we could pull those discs out and we all went to sleep at least a little. 

Did I spend an hour grumbling and refreshing the outage report to determine when it would be restored? I did. But then went to sleep. 

When the power came back on at about 4:00 AM I was relieved to turn my fan and true white noise machine back on, though. 

In other news, as we roll through to the end of October, trunk or treat was on Friday. An honored school tradition. And might I present to you M's Halloween costume: 

A Nerds Gummy Cluster. 

And C is a pirate. 

M's costume was very popular. And mostly made up for all the effort that went into making it. Friday was actually the end of the first quarter, and it was a 2-hour early out. That was HORRIBLE. My children did not need extra time at home to anticipate the festivities.

At about 3:00 that afternoon, she freaked out, concerned that "no one would get it. " I told her to suck it up because it took forever, and we didn't have a backup plan anyway. Overwhelmingly, people got it. A few said bubble gum. One person said Covid-19. But most people got it right away. 

We had a nice time trunk-or-treating and then I went with my friends to a haunted house. I am not a haunted house person. But it was Marisa's birthday and so I obliged her. I was braver than I thought. Some of the jump scares got me for sure but other parts didn't. They had these things that poofed air at your ankles as you walked by, and those got me 100% of the time. No pictures since it was against the rules. But here's the outside! 

Weirdly, the worst was the very end, and that was the part I was actually most concerned about since it was a chainsaw maze. But it was very lackluster. Mostly, we stood around with another group that came out right after us and then stood there while a few teenagers revved chainsaws. 

Only... they wouldn't let us out. And it wasn't scary. Just confusing. And stinky. Gas-powered chainsaws are very fume-y. BUT THEN... they demanded a sock. Since I had come from trunk-or-treat, I was wearing my favorite Halloween socks. No way was I giving up a sock. 

Finally, Marisa did, and we all left. I was in full mom mode though because... so many expensive Nike socks hanging on the fence! Are those all the rage where you are? They aren't cheap! And you just know there are annoyed mothers at home mad that their teen came back from a night out with friends without the expensive sock they had purchased! 

In other fall news, I went to another String Art class last night. It was good. We made these pumpkin trucks and I actually quite like mine. 

And that's the last bit of the fall activities we have been up to! And why we were up last night! 

My Girly Pop's birthday

School day birthdays, when your mom has to work at night, are not always the most fun. 

But we made the best of it. After our McDonald's breakfast, we headed to school. The Mickey Ice Cream bars were placed in the freezer with the Dilly bars we snuck in the night before. (Mickey Bars for our friend with peanut allergies. It's basically the same thing.) 

I am told she had a good day at school, and the ice cream was a hit. 

When we got home, she had a call with my brother so she could open a present from him. It was a whiteboard! Please know that when I tell you a majority of her wish list was office supplies, I am not lying to you. That's what she wanted! 

One of her presents from Mom and Dad was a purple sparkly Bogg Bagg. 

We went to 4:30 dinner at Texas Roadhouse. She was adamant she wanted to go there but NOT sit on the saddle. Her wish is our command! 

Here she is posing with some of her other presents. An Alaska Bear eye mask. We love this brand, and she wanted an upgrade to the kind with eye cups. 

Mechanical pencils that "look like real pencils like Arlo has." (This went with her Expo Markers, Expo Board Cleaner, Flair Pens, and Gel Pens.)

I had to go back to work to teach the second-grade sacrament class, but when I got back we had her cookie cake. 

We were so happy to celebrate our 11-year-old! What a gift she is to us!