October was an extremely busy month!!!! Halloween weekend was the only weekend that we didn’t have prior commitments, and it was so incredibly enjoyable, from beginning to end. Friday night we spent time at our dearest friend’s home with the most amazing group of friends from our Sunday School Class! In all seriousness, we all have a blast together. We sat by the fire until our eyelids grew heavy, which is no later than 10:30pm these days! The conversations that have been had around this fire pit could compile a best seller! Our friend, Chuck, is moving to a new home, and Adam and I feel so incredibly blessed to know that this fire pit will find it’s new home in our backyard, and we can’t wait to add to the stories to be included in the best seller.
Saturday was Halloween, and I have wonderful memories of Halloween as a child! We lived in the greatest neighborhood, filled with kids! We went up and down Glenhaven Drive until we had to put one hand on top of all of our candy to ensure that the bucket didn’t overflow. Because my ‘Ol Dad worked with Colonial Bakery, we didn’t pass out candy at our house. We gave away mini loaves of Colonial Honey Wheat Bread. It was the hit of the neighborhood! His bakery only baked them on Halloween. Here’s an amazing photo that I found of my sister, brother, and myself on this magical night in 1986.
I started off the morning by making a batch of Pumpkin Spice pancakes and homemade Cinnamon Nutmeg Syrup to make the day a bit more magical for the boys. The recipe was somewhat of an experiment. I added 1/2 cup of pureed pumpkin and a little cinnamon and nutmeg to my regular pancake mix, and I added a couple of drops of yellow and red food coloring to make the batter the desired orange color. To make the syrup, I used a regular simple syrup recipe, but instead of granulated sugar, I used brown sugar and added a little cinnamon and nutmeg to the mixture. The brown sugar just makes it a dark brown color, and I added blue and red food coloring a little at a time until the syrup appeared black. It wasn’t anything major, just something fun for my man clan!
Weston spent the entire day asking if it was time to go trick-or-treating! Seriously, at least once every hour, we would answer, “No, not yet,” which was promptly followed by, “UH, why not?????” Well, when it was finally 5pm, he was so excited to put on his costume and hit the streets! He said, “Trick-or-treat” at each and every house with their porch light glowing, and by the time we got back home, he was ready to inspect and eat each and every piece of candy! He couldn’t understand why he wasn’t allowed to eat every piece that very night! Nonetheless, I’m so thankful that he was able to experience the same magic I did as a child, and might I just say, he was the cutest Charlie Brown I’ve ever seen! Although Banks declared himself too old to dress up this year, we were able to get Chrissy into the Halloween fun by putting her in a fairy princess costume, and she was, by far, the prettiest Beagle in Dothan! We walked, as a family, through our neighborhood, and these are the memories that I cherish!
Following our family trick-or-treating, we returned home, allowed Weston to have 3 pieces of candy, and tended to the trick-or-treaters at our own door. Once the sugar high was over and the porch light was turned off, Banks took his turn babysitting his little brother to earn a little bit of money while my honey and me went on a date! It was so wonderful to have time alone for the first time in I’m not sure how long!!!! We both wanted to see the movie Burnt with Bradley Cooper. The movie was fantastic, if you enjoy cooking, 5 star restaurants, and that type of thing. It made Adam and myself eager to cook a nice meal together, so we are beginning to plan something for next month. We will see how quickly the calendar fills up and what his work schedule will allow. Two of my favorite things in life are Cherry Coke from the movie theatre and a pack of Twizzlers. Neither of the two items taste the same from a convenient store or the grocery store, and I had both Saturday night! It was divine! No matter how much I love movie theatre Cherry Coke and Twizzlers, one thing is for certain, I love my husband more than both of them! He’s amazing, and I can’t wait to grow old with him! Life with this man clan of mine is absolutely better than anything I could have imagined!
Next week’s blog will be about a new endeavor in which I’m taking on. It’s extremely exciting and not at all what I ever planned for myself, but I serve The One who has far greater plans for us than anything we could ever imagine. So come back next week to see what big things I’m working on.
Dugouts and Diapers 