doing what I like, liking what I do....

There is a huge difference, by the way. You can't always do what you like, but you can choose to like it anyway. As a mom with lots and lots of kids, I don't actually get to do what I really want to most of the time, but hey, that's real life. So I do the next best thing: I enjoy life.

It's a chilly morning here in central New York state, as my mother used to say, there's frost on the pumpkins. 29 degrees. Oh yeah, now I remember why I wanted to buy that heater for the living room last winter. The trees are still brilliant, and the pear tree is overflowing with fruit. I am thinking to make some pear pies again...they are too good. Rainy weather is moving in tomorrow, but today is going to be chilly and sunny. So, this afternoon we might take a little field trip down the road to buy some pumpkins.

Halloween is almost upon us, which I love. When we were growing up, way back in the 70's, dressing up and dragging a pillowcase door to door, trudging through the neighborhoods until we thought it was heavy enough...dumping the loot on the living room floor, trading. Those paper straws with the flavored sugar, Pixie Stix: my little brother and I always used to dump a few of those into a glass of water for our after-trick-or-treating beverage. When we were kids, we didn't get much candy for the most part, so this loot was important, we made it last..it was sibling currency, too. Snicker bars were a hot commodity, and back then, most of them were the big bars.

One of my favorite parts about Halloween is simple: getting outside, walking around, and enjoying the night. Our weather can vary so much, we just hope it's not raining. Or snowing, which could happen too.

BTW, after a wonderful weekend in D.C. with Samuel, enjoying going out to dinner a few times, and a few slices of Dominoes pizza, my weight is back where it was before we left, yay. Now, one could argue that if I had really worked hard and stuck to plan better, I would be down a few more pounds, and yes, I agree. But it's hard to find high fat low carb options all the time, and sometimes it's nice to just say yes to the pizza. When you rarely eat something, it is so appreciated. And on Saturday night, we went to this Green Turtle restaurant. I had ribs, which came with fries, which I could have substituted...but we had walked all over creation, and skipped lunch...and I had behaved bigtime at breakfast, no Belgium waffles for me...so I had the fries...they were made fresh from potatoes that still had the skin on them, and it would be fair to say that I scarfed them down. They didn't stand a chance, I cleaned my plate.

Anyhoo. It was a good weekend, and I am glad it balanced out, the extra exercise and the extra carbs:)

Yesterday, we did some school, then went outside. It was just too nice out to sit there doing work all day. I took a trip to the small city in the afternoon with Suzanne after she got off the school bus, to change the oil in the old minivan. We did it at Walmart, so poor us, we had to spend a half hour walking around waiting. Suzanne needed a new mirror for her room, and I bought some baking supplies. The auto guy said we really need new tires on the van, the existing ones are too awful to even rotate, it's always something. Anyway, we went to B.J's for coffee and coconut oil and I picked up a few Christmas presents and a birthday gift for Camille...next month, she turns eight. I bought a package of burger, and when we got home, I quickly made up a huge batch of meatballs...an eight o'clock dinner doesn't hurt anyone once in a while.

I need to get up and get moving. The girls are giggling in their room, and Jonathan is flying his remote controlled helicopter. Time to be mean and hit the books:)