November

      Oh, but it has been a lovely weekend.  Often, when you have a feisty one (or even if you don't) life gets so hectic you forget to take joy in the absence of a catastrophe.  This Halloween was awesome.  Feisty Pants went as Wednesday Addams.  Goo was a low rent Uncle Fester.  (He let us put make up on him, bless his whining little heart, and discovered he is not really a fan of wearing makeup.)   Hippie Pants was a beautiful Morticia.  And Dinkypants was totes adorbs as Pubert.  We had a blast making Jack O' lanterns and  turning tp rolls into scary eyes looming at you in the darkness.   (Take an empty tp roll, cut eyes out and insert glow stick -in the dark it looks just like eyes staring you.)  It was dark, and chilly, perfect spooky weather. The only minor incident was Dinkypants found where we had hidden the candy bowl and had a wee bit of a sugar high. (Am I mean thinking it was funny watching his mother try to corral him?) We love Halloween here.  It's the only day of the year we come close to passing as normal.  We even fun watching the live exorcism on tv on Friday, although FP was disappointed that nothing burst into flames when the priest was sprinkling the holy water.   Best of all, the night coincided with the end of daylight savings (NOW that's a demonic scourge upon humanity.) so an extra hour of sleep (cue sounds of angels singing and contented sighing.)

       But now it's November, and we have a few weeks until the Holiday Express comes roaring back with its chaos and food and crazy relatives and gift buying, making, and giving.   Not that the holidays aren't a beautiful form of chaos and love, but chaos nonetheless. A few weeks of simply raking leaves and battening down the hatches for winter.  A few weeks of quiet dark evenings and blissfully boring weekends.  Of eating up all the Halloween goodies and arguing over who is bringing the pie for Thanksgiving.  These quiet down times are what sustains anyone who has to live with incipient chaos like a disabled family member (or anything that brings  the uncertain into one's life.)  When you live life rolling with its punches, you learn that you have to savor the quiet moments when you get to just stand still for a minute in between one crisis and the next...

       And, so , we are going to enjoy the hell out of this lovely in between time.  No one is sick at the moment.  No grand death march of appointments for a few weeks.  No trying to make everybody fit in the schedule or please every crazy relative for at least a few weeks.  Just quiet blissful boring November. We will argue over football and watch tv and pretend to be normal. I will listen to my loony family dig out Christmas carols early to annoy me. Feisty Pants will have a blast nagging her father about "Kistmas Lights!!!"  I have to be honest here, Halloween is starting to feel a lot like Christmas to me.