The End Is Near...ish...

Here we are, the end of October is visible and I'm so ready to breathe a hefty sigh of relief.  The only thing left on my plate (until a few days into November when I realize oh-my-goodness, only how many days until O's birthday and Thanksgiving??) is Halloween.  And after the past two weekends we've had, that's looking like a piece of cake!  Costumes are bought and hanging out in the back closet, just waiting.  We'll hit up the church parking lot for Trunk-or-Treat and the accompanying festivities, and then make it back home by bedtime if we play our cards right!  Darth Vader and Minnie Mouse will have enough candy to last the rest of the year, they'll go to bed hopped up on sugar, and then (crossing my fingers) crash hard and sleep well.  We'll see how that last part goes...   

Just Add It To The List

It's been busy around here, lately.  October started out quiet and unassuming, and now it is rearing its giant head (shaped like a pumpkin, naturally) and mocking me, saying things like, "You knew all of this was coming up as long ago as July... you're really just now getting around to doing something about it?"  October's giant pumpkin head spares no compassion for my fragile self-esteem and disregards all of my excuses.  This month, we have three big weekends in a row (one of them is done, two more to go).  Time for me to start repeating to myself: take a deep breath... decide if it's worth freaking out over... make a noble attempt at not freaking out if it isn't... repeat.

This past weekend was giant boatloads of fun, but it also came at the price of giant boatloads of to-do's being ignored.  We went to DeLuna Fest on Pensacola Beach and got to see some awesome concerts.  It was a great day-- time with hubby (sans kids, who spent the day/night with their Neena and Poppy), and hanging out on the beach, one of the best live concerts I've ever seen/heard (311, if you're curious), and Stone Temple Pilots. Live. On the beach. About 20 feet (and 2,000 other people) away from where I stood.  Oh yeah.  It was a good day.  Followed by what I can only describe as a hangover, even though I've never had one of those, and did not actually drink any alcohol at all the previous day.  (However there were some Rastafarian-types standing near us.  Devout ones, if you catch my meaning.  The air quality wasn't quite the best, is what I'm saying. I was torn between leaving and giving up our hard-won view of the stage.  Hard-won view was the winner.  A Pyrrhic victory, apparently.)  I had a raging migraine and an earache.  And, like October's mean old pumpkin head, they seemed to me mocking me, reminding me that I am 27 and ought to start considering the idea that I might be getting too old for these kinds of things.  I refuse to agree.  But it also meant a lazy Sunday, spent watching football and telling myself, "I really, really should wash some dishes/fold some laundry/pick up the mess in here."  (I'm still telling myself that, actually, and today is Tuesday... although in my defense, I spent yesterday running errands all over the place, so that's why it didn't get done yesterday..... I'm still working on today's excuse.  It's gotta be a good one...)

This weekend will be spent mostly in a car (about 17 hours, round trip), and then partially on a beach and in a hotel room.  Hubby's sister is getting married, and of course we're making the trip to be there for it.  It will be fun, I know... I'm just having a little trouble right this moment seeing past the whole trip-preparation aspect of it.  That is most decidedly not the fun part.  We will pack up and leave on Friday, then re-pack up and drive home on Sunday.

And of course, the weekend after that is Halloween.  I cannot even begin to explain how excited I am to witness that sugar-high.  We've also got to fit in a trip to the corn maze at some point, too, because Ben is pretty bummed about trading off a field trip there with his class for 8 1/2 hours in the backseat of our truck with his sister.

Now, this just in-- my driver's license expires today.  Because, you know, I was really hoping for just one extra thing to add to my to-do list.  Honestly, I thought it expired in October of next year.  I'm not sure why... but I guess it's a good thing that I checked.

It's been busy around here lately.  And it looks like it will remain that way for awhile!

Change-y Stuff

I am currently in the process of dropping my Spanish class (I should just be able to click "drop" on my schedule on the school's website, but it says I have an "advising hold." So, I'll find out what that's all about Monday).  Which, of course makes me feel like a total failure at life.  But despite all my efforts, and despite all of my confidence in my knowledge of the material, I just kept bombing the tests.  Somewhere between learning all the grammar rules, and putting them into context, something just went flying out of my mental window.  So, I will use the next few months to work on all of this on my own-- practice, practice, practice-- and give it another go next semester.

No more school on Mondays and Wednesdays means I will have tons more spare time-- and my home can stop looking like a frat house by the middle of the week!  Crock Pot meals will also be a little less necessary, however since it's winter (ok, fall... but it was 39 degrees this morning) I'll probably still try to get a Crock Pot Mondays post up once a week.  I'm going to put something in the slow-cooker today, I just haven't decided what it will be yet. Wait, scratch that. I just remembered I've got chicken thighs in the freezer and a whole day ahead of me-- chicken and dumplings tonight! Oh, that's gonna be soooo yummy!!

Oh! I suppose I should also include an update on our pumpkins... Brace yourself: They died.  Same as last year-- they grew beautifully, got gorgeous giant orange flowers all over them, and then withered up and died.  (And yes, I did remember to water them regularly.)  We'll try again next year, I suppose, but I'm not getting too hopeful!

Crock Pot Mondays: Fall Break

Have you noticed I'm only posting to the crock pot feature lately?  I guess I was right about one thing-- it keeps me coming back once a week.  I'm sure I'll have more brilliant blogging ideas at some point...

This week is fall break.  That means no school and no real need for the slow-cooker-- I can "regular" cook every night.  In fact, yesterday was the first time in quite awhile that I made a real hands-on meal rather than dumping raw ingredients in the crock pot and walking away, or throwing a frozen meal in the microwave.  It felt great!  I absolutely love the feeling of chopping and stirring and taste-testing as I go along.  It's a cathartic thing for me.  Some people are overwhelmed by the idea of preparing a meal at the end of a long day, approaching it thinking, "After all that, I still have to cook..."  But me?  Not at all.  It's a quiet time for me-- no matter how crazy my kids might be in the background.  After making supper last night, I was happy as a clam!  (Side note: Just how happy are clams?  Whose job was it to determine that clams were so happy we should measure our own happiness next to theirs?  These are the random thoughts I have...)

However, I can't imagine that I'll be letting my crock pot totally off the hook this week-- it's suddenly feeling very fall-like around here, with temperatures in the 40s in the morning and nothing more than the mid-70s by the afternoon.  I think tomorrow will be the perfect day to try out that Tortilla Soup I was talking about last week!