A Blessing

Family dinner begins with Brian or me asking who would like to say the blessing.  Usually Elizabeth volunteers first.  Lately she's been singing it for us.  It's one of the prayers her class says before snack at school.  The other night, I surreptitiously recorded her.  Below is about 20 seconds of wonderful.  (Just ignore the visual.  I couldn't point the camera at her or she would've been on to me.) 

"The Lord is good to me.
And so I thank the Lord
For giving me the things I need --
the sun and the rain and the apple tree
The Lord is good to me.
Amen.

The Mermaid and the Movie Star

Evening, Oct. 30:

Amanda:  Mom, can I go to bed early tonight?

Me: What's the problem?  Are you feeling okay?  Let me take your temperature?  Do you need to blow your nose?  Do you have a tummy ache? Why do you want to go to bed early?

Amanda:  Because I want Halloween to be here FASTER!

 ****

We spent our Halloween this year in our easy breezy well-established way.  Not a lot of fuss, but just the right amount of fun for a school night.  Pictures with the Iversons, trick-or-treating with them around the block, then handing out candy at the Brantley grandparents' house.  (Except this year Brian couldn't make the trick or treating portion of the festivities because of work.  And also because I start trick or treating way too early.  And also, let's just tell the truth here, Brian hates Halloween.  He hates watching our kids knock on our neighbors' doors looking for a hand out; he hates the spooky decorations; he doesn't even really like candy!  So, he's basically the Ebenezer Scrooge of Halloween.) 

The Iversons and I had great fun shadowing our kids around the block, reminding them to be polite (even though they didn't need too many reminders), and making sure they skipped that one house where that one guy lives who gives us the creeps.  God bless him; I hope he's got a bright future ahead of him; but there's no way we're letting our kids knock on his door.

The Iversons and I joked about how our kids have definitely entered the gender-identified phase of costume wearing.  Miles and Silas were a Ninja and Thomas the Train, while Amanda was a movie star and Elizabeth was a mermaid.  Girlie girls, my two were.  And that's ok.  

What I savored this Halloween:  That they both still want to hold my hand while we walk around the block for trick or treating; that they still love to dress up; that they are old enough to remember trick or treating with the Iversons last year and that they looked so forward to doing it again; that they are no longer afraid of scary Halloween decorations, so we were able to put up a spider web and a fake spider this year, while the girls gazed at it and shouted "OOOOH, SPOOOOOKY!"  

So, all in all, another successful Halloween!