Make Monday: Happy Halloween!

We went Trick or Treating last night (beggar's night here in Des Moines) and half way through, the five year old was begging (no pun intended) to go home and go to "B-E-D" (since we're into spelling things when we mean it).

The baby however, LOVED it. It was cold and thankfully, their costumes were big enough we could fit their winter coats on UNDER the costumes. Although we joked that the baby was a spring Robin, because he looked so fat.

Yes, he didn't want to hold still for a picture. And someone else was holding his bucket of candy.

But they got SO much candy. SOOOO much candy. I do need to have a talk with my kids about picking and choosing, though. Believe it or not, we went to houses that were giving out FULL SIZED candy bars (and I thought that was just a myth). And do you know what my kids chose out of the FULL SIZED bowl? Fruit by the Foot. Granted, they may have picked the "healthier" choice, but at the second house with FULL SIZE candy bars? They picked the Scooby Doo granola snacks. Really, guys? Really?

And now I understand why my parents followed, and then much of my candy was missing the next day...Trick or Treating ISN'T so much about the kids, but the parents.

I'm hoping that I can find a good food recipes for everyone to use up all of the candy...because we all hate to have candy go to waste!

Salvation Sunday: Trust in Him

When I was younger, I would get mad when people would tell me that God has a plan and "everything happens for a reason". To be honest, the older I get, the more I believe it.

Of course a kid isn't going to understand why her Grandma had to die and that they're would be a reason good enough for it.

But yes, everything happens for a reason. Like our oldest son. David and I didn't intend to have a child before marriage, but we did. As soon as we found out I was pregnant, there was no question about it, for either of us. We didn't know where this journey was going to take us, but we knew we had a baby on the way.

And as often as our oldest makes me want to pull my hair out (he's WAY too logical and smart for five) I can't imagine my life without him.

It's because of moments like this. He came out of his room with his magna doodle and said, "See what I wrote, Mommy?"

God has a plan. God knows. Everything happens for a reason. We just need to trust in Him.

Shuffle Saturday: Waking up on the Weekends.

Why is it on our one day of the week to be lazy and sleep in, your kid wakes up earlier than they usually do?

This statement rings so true though. Most kids have this six sense that you need and can FINALLY sleep yet they still choose to wake up earlier than any other day of the week. Mine does this like clockwork every weekend. Not just crawl in bed to cuddle you awake but really, hyper, let's play mommy and daddy awake.

Then every other day of the week that you need to get up and get out of the house at a timely manner, you guessed it, they are still sleeping. Some of these mornings, I can even open the door, turn the light on, and move around in the room before Judah wakes up.

So how do you adjust to the fact that Saturday morning kids are early risers? Perhaps this is why our own parents allowed us to watch hours of Saturday morning cartoons when we were little.

Maybe date night should not be on Friday nights. The baby sitters are really putting the kids to bed too early for some free time while you stay out late on the town. Just a guess. But then what date night.

Perhaps Friday nights are so low key and after a long week you all are lazy. This means that the kid does not let all that excess energy and saves it for Saturday morning.

Well whatever the reason, we are stuck getting up early on Saturday mornings. My husband says save the babysitter for Saturday morning when you want to sleep. Any thoughts? What do you do?

Food Friday: Getting through the cupboards

If you're an avid Mommy's Recess reader, you know we're moving. You also know I like my stockpiles. My husband calls me a food hoarder. We're at the point where the excitement of moving is kind of wearing off, and the "do I really have move all of this crap" is setting in.

And then I swing open my lazy Susan cupboard and sigh. All, those, cans. Cans are easy to move, yes, but I've begun the "eat our way through it so we don't have to move it" process. I'm also creating a "food pantry box". Really? Like I ever thought I'd eat gritz?

Any helpful suggestions on how to dress up Chef Boyardee would be appreciated. I can't believe I thought that was tasty when I was a kid!!

Toy Thursday: Christmas Toy Catalogs!

We have not even had Halloween yet I find myself being bombarded with Christmas. You? Every department store has had their Christmas trees up and decorated next too all their Christmas wares and merchandise for over a month now.

My husband even took our son Judah to Menard's one night to look at tools. Instead, they ended up going through the Winter Wonderland complete with a tunnel of lights, big snowman inflatables, and lots of decorated Christmas trees of every shape and color. Now my son talks about seeing Christmas trees when we come to every nearby Evergreen tree. Even the decoratated trees outside our neighbors house with orange lights are Christmas trees.

We limit our television time to watching mostly videos, thus avoiding commercials on regular programming. However, I can only imagine the toy commercials have increased on the air. And soon we will be listening to Christmas music as well.

Now I typically enjoy the Holiday season especially as Thanksgiving is my favorite Holiday (perhaps because it is like Christmas only not commercialized). Yet, I always enjoy the activities of Fall so much as this is my favorite season of the year. This year I feel cut off from wearing my orange and making my pumpkins as the rest of the world seems ready to move onto Christmas.

In spite our efforts to avoid commercials, the advertising world has taken a hold of our mailbox filtrating it with Christmas catalogs and coupons of all kinds - pajamas, clothes, tools, plants, and yes TOYS!

This is really the first year I have seen Judah sit down with the toy catalogs turning the pages and looking at all the bright colored pictures. And I have heard him say, "Neat" and "I want to play with this" as if the item will magically jump out so that he can touch it and play with it. I guess you can say the advertising world is clever when it comes to marketing toys.

The toys though on the market this year are actually not that cool. To me they scream mess, noise, and boring. In the back of my mind, I have already picked out some educational, fun, and neat toys for Judah. And I plan to go and look for these regardless if they are in the catalog or not. So good try toy stores.