While the days were lovely this weekend it got really chilly overnight. So I was glad I was not the one camping! My 17-year-old and 11-year-old went camping with their scout troop in Hershey from Friday to Sunday and I think it got close to freezing. I had urged the packing of cold weather clothing and they mostly complied but as I was walking to my car for something on Saturday night and I was shivering I was picturing them and was concerned. But as I’m writing this on Monday morning I know they survived and mostly had fun. The 17-year-old drove the two of them out there and did responsible things like packing a mess kit with two sets of plates/utensils so he had one for his little brother.
Meanwhile, the 6-year-old was with a sitter on Friday night, which meant we only had one kid at home! So my husband and I took our daughter out to dinner at a Mexican place (not our favorite one, alas, which is still closed for renovations). Then we went shopping at Costco. I don’t love Costco but with three people it was kind of fun. I wound up stocking up on Christmas wrapping paper and bows, which they already had out. Looking at the receipt, I’m reminded of why we go there sometimes. The price for 2 dozen organic eggs was about the same as one dozen at our local store. Though of course if you buy stuff you don’t need (extra Christmas ribbon!) then you don’t necessarily come out ahead.
After, my husband and I watched this BBC/PBS show on evolution we’d taped. I’d been excited enough about this to put it on my calendar several months ago (it came out in the UK this summer, but the US version wasn’t out until October). It was OK. Some interesting points. It reminded me of what I tend to wind up watching on airplanes. Oh well. I’ll probably watch the rest of the series. Meanwhile, I started the Janet Browne biography of Darwin (the 600 page one, not the two volume series).
On Saturday I got up early and ran with my friend Jane along the river trail. The trees were definitely looking nice — a good reason to be outside. Then I took my daughter to brunch at White Dog Cafe nearby. This was almost disastrous as she was really excited about the strawberry cheesecake French toast that was on the menu online, but then they had just switched to the fall menu, which had a stewed apple French toast that seemed less appealing. Fortunately, the waitress then mentioned they had an off-menu Nutella strawberry French toast, so that saved the day.
In the afternoon, I took the 6-year-old to a massive Halloween party that a classmate’s family was hosting. This family really did it up with craft stations, a haunted maze, etc. It was hard to extract him after an hour to go to baseball, but we had a very small team for baseball so it was good he went. Then I dropped the 15-year-old off at a costume party, and went to get my hair cut. There was more BBC Evolution watching at night while waiting for her to text for a ride.
Sunday was church as usual, then tennis for the 15-year-old. I’d canceled for the 11-year-old since I wasn’t sure when he’d be back from camping. But I think they were cold and broke camp early. They were home when I was back from church at 11:15. I ran during the tennis lesson, which was a nice way to spend 45 minutes — much more pleasant than scrolling. When both kids have lessons back to back that doesn’t work as well but it did this time.
After that I had about an hour to hang out (during which I talked to the college kid, who was up in Boston visiting friends over his fall break) before taking the 6-year-old to his Halloween piano recital. This was really cute. He had composed a song about bats and his teacher sang while he played. There was audience participation (“bats are not real, true or false?” and “bats are weird, yes or no?”) and as you can imagine, audience participation made it a hit. I was really proud of him and I love that he is getting the bug of performance. I know it is a thrill to get up on stage and make an audience laugh, and he saw that too. And then on the way home, I played Thriller in the car for him and he listened to it and said “this sounds like Michael Jackson.” Whoa! More knowledge of 80s pop than I would have imagined.
Meanwhile, my husband was with our 11-year-old at his baseball game, where he made a good play to get a runner out at 2nd. I think my husband would have liked to see the recital, and I’m sure it would have been fun to cheer that play but the thing of having a lot of kids is you can’t go to everything. So you go to what you can.
After that the evening was pretty chill. I got the kids outside to bike around the driveway for a while. I harvested some tiny carrots from the garden (not a stunning crop) but the pumpkins we got were pretty amazing. The kids carved those at night, so the jack-o-lantern picture accompanying this post is from a home-grown pumpkin. We grilled steak, I roasted pumpkin seeds, and I worked on a very atmospheric fall puzzle called The Quilt Barn. We are talking full on autumnal scene with a barn and a truck with old quilts. Good times.
Meanwhile, if you’ve made it this far, Sarah and I have figured out the dates for our last two Best of Both Worlds Patreon meet-ups of the year. On November 18 at noon, eastern, we’ll be talking holiday planning. This is a chance to get ideas on fun ways to celebrate the season plus some hacks for doing so effectively. Then on Dec 16th at noon we’re doing the annual Goal Setting Workshop — Sarah will lead us in figuring out what we want out of the next year. These are always some of the most anticipated meet-ups of the year, so please consider joining us. Membership is $9/month.
What do you do with your completed puzzles? You have inspired me to add puzzles to my roster of leisure activities, but I am not sure of the best way to handle completed puzzles.
glue them and wallpaper your basement or den with them? donate them to the library?