Be scared for a cause

My DH is a HUGE Halloween fiend. We have large amounts of Halloween props stored under our house with which my hubby makes our house look spookier and spookier every year. He has always loved Halloween. Our first Halloween together was fairly simple. He wore a spooky mask, opened the door, and scared the kids with a loud Boo or What do you want? while wearing a creepy looking mask. Every year on the first of November, he leaves the house very early and goes to all the Halloween stores and buys props for next year's Halloween at huge discounted prices. He has done this each year since we've been together (almost nine years now) and needless to say, we have A LOT of Halloween props under our house in our storage area.


I have fun participating and helping him scare kids. I have more fun visiting with our friends who help and getting them snacks and drinks while staying warm inside. I most of all love listening to my husband scaring the kids and then them all laughing. He is a HUGE kid this time of year and it is fun to watch.

Something shifted in me this year, though. It is a big shift. It really dawned on me this year that I don't want us to spend so much money on all of this stuff (most of it, unfortunately, made in China, which bugs us both) to just have it up for one day of the year. Getting all of the stuff out is a hassle for my husband, putting it all out in time for trick or treaters stresses him out, and then the clean up takes a long time. All this time, I lose space in my garage and my front lawn looks even messier than usual.

But my husband loves it. I mean really loves it. It's his Christmas and I cannot take that away from him. But because I want us buying less stuff and really focusing on the important non material stuff in life, I had to say something. Then it really dawned on me. It would be okay, but it must serve a larger purpose than mainly entertaining my hubby, our friends, and the neighborhood. It must do good somehow, it must serve a cause. I told hubby this yesterday and he was completely okay with it and ran with our idea.

This year we have set up a small barrel and a sign from the Thurston County foodbank. We have sent a small announcement to the on line version of the local paper and will tell everyone we know. Come see our house, come be scared, come do it all for a cause. Bring donations to the local food bank. I am so excited how my husband got this all in action for me just after a brief conversation yesterday. HUGE KUDOS to him! I am so proud. He can have his super fun Halloween experience. We can make a difference in our local community. It is all good.

Come be scared for a good cause! Happy Halloween everyone! Keep safe. Be warm. Have fun. Help your community.

Knit, paint, knit, paint, I am an addict

My daughter goes to our local Waldorf School three mornings a week at their new preschool. She loves it and the sense of community she is joining and I am joining is sheer bliss. I am so happy we decided to send her there, despite the amount of money it is costing us. It is helping me to see how simply she can live and we can live and live a more fulfilling and rich life. Their world is natural and her school grounds her and I am feeling those effects as strongly as she is.

I recently re-took up knitting. I know the very very basics. I am learning again and am challenging myself to further my skills so that I can knit more than my practice squares or a long rectangle that I can call a scarf. Em's new scarf will have a pocket, which she is quite excited about and has decided it should be green and on the left. I'm not sure she has realized quite how scarves work and that they don't have true sides. I am excited that I can sit with her and knit. I can knit at the library or like last night, while we were waiting for our food and her daddy was telling her silly made up stories about our kitties exciting adventures scuba diving and collecting golf balls. What excites me the most is that this is natural and something that women have done for centuries. It is grounding for me. It is simplicity perfected and I love it and am becoming an addict. We are going to Victoria, B.C. next weekend and instead of silly souvenirs that take up space I don't have and collect dust that I don't dust away well, I am going to a yarn shop for wool! I am so excited!

My other new addiction is painting. I have the front hallway just about all ready to paint. I have the color, I have the desire, I have the overwhelming urge to leap from this table and paint paint paint. I cannot wait to see the color on my walls and see my house becoming a home that is light and warm and beautiful. All that is holding me up is finding the paint brushes and rollers after my husband comes home from work tomorrow. I have shown Em the swatches and she is so excited to see the paint on the walls. What I love about this is when it is done I don't plan to put things back on the wall. Em made a comment several weeks ago that I had too many pictures on my bedroom wall. I agree with her. So I am going to slowly take down pictures and only put up one or two that are natural in color-leaves, pumpkins, sunflowers, oceans, trails in the woods. One picture is worth a thousand words. I don't need lots and lots to confuse me under a myriad of several thousand words enveloping my already busy brain.

Paint, paint, knit, knit. My home is slowly coming to fruition. It will ground us as a family and show us what true happiness is when you can look into the beauty of a newly painted wall without any further adornment while wrapping yourself up in a newly knitted warm cozy pocket scarf. Pics of the finished projects to come next week.