trying to embrace the traditions

There are certain things that we are outgrowing in this household. We have a very well stocked craft room, for example, that no longer sees as much love. Gone are the days of junk journals, scrapbooks, coloring, sewing, and all things girly. It's okay, for now. Aging brings progressing and my little teenager has progressed into a lovely child who crafts less and wants to hang out more.

Gone also are a lot of the cutesy holiday traditions. We have not colored Easter eggs, painted them, or decorated them in at least 2 years. We still have egg hunts, but it's the decorative plastic eggs or the ones filled with fun directly from her Easter basket. That's okay, too. That one always confused me. How did we get from the true meaning of Easter to a bunny to egg hiding? 

No longer do elves hide on shelves for us, either. We do get him out from time to time and hide him from each other. She now enjoys hiding our elf before smaller children come over, so they can laugh at whatever shenanigans our elf is up to. Passing on the joy is part of the fun. We enjoy that part now. 

On to Halloween. Our little town hosts a Main Street trick-or-treat complete with a party and we outgrew that about 2 years ago. Now she trick-or-treats with friends and I pick her up with just enough time to spare to watch her trick-or-treat at 2 amazingly decorated houses on our street before it ends. This one hit me in all the feels. For 3 years now she has gone to a friend's and years 1 and 2, mom and dad trailed behind at a safe distance. Last year they walked the neighborhood alone. 

Halloween has never been my favorite. I appreciate the costumes and decor, but ehhh. Not my thing. I enjoy creating my daughter's costumes and for a while, she would let me go as her matching pair. That was the best. We were Ariel and Irsula. We were Gamora and Groot. We were Alice and the white Rabbit. We were Wonder Woman and Super Woman.

Now that is gone, too. So no matching costumes, trick-or-treats, and no party. Even the pumpkins got the shaft! Last year's pumpkin sat on the porch until it rotted because it was supposed to get painted and never was. Same with the year before. It has been almost 3 years since she willingly carved a pumpkin.

Insert: younger cousins! They wanted pumpkins, they went and got them. She actually enjoyed carving this pumpkin until it came to the goo part in the middle. She says EW to the goo. But she created a design and carved it all by herself. So not all is lost in the land of wonderment and childhood. I have hope yet 😀

It's about that time!

 

Fall is on the back burner, ya'll! We already hit up Curran's Apple Orchard to get our apple cider slushies with a dozen apple cider donuts. And now it's time for the best fall food of them all... Soup season! You make a crockpot of chili for football Sundays, I make soup.

We already made our loaded baked potato soup and even bought bread to make bread bowls. I can already feel the warmth of the crackling bonfire, smell the spiked hot chocolate, and envision the leaf piles waiting to be jumped in. Don't get me wrong. We LOVE summer! No work, no alarms, no worries and tons of camping and day trips, BUT fall... Sigh...

Football, soup, bonfires, movie marathons by a fire in the living room, pumpkin decorating, homemade costumes, fun townie events. I love it! Even as I write this, my heart is fluttering with all the happiness from those cutie fall crafting sessions. Before I get too far ahead of myself, though, our favorite weatherman is informing us it's going to be a HOT weekend. Oh, Illinois! Get it together! Lucky for me, I get one more crazy summer weekend with flip flops and swimsuit options before I pull out my oversized sweatshirts and fuzzy fleece socks :)

in the fall, we call it football season

Last Sunday was a great day. The NFL is back! Even though it was really nice weather, we equate Sundays with football in this house! The Bears pulled a win and we root for anyone playing against the Packers. I even stayed up to watch the entire Cowboys game and even though they lost, there was still a smile on my face knowing that my normal routine is safely back in action. 

On my Facebook memories this morning were pictures of a homecoming parade from years back and I just realized that I haven't seen or heard any local football. I see the local high schoolers practicing after school. They were out on the field a lot this summer. I just never forwarded that thought to a season. And then it occurred to me that it's Homecoming season...

These poor kids lost prom and graduation and now, apparently, Homecoming. Homecoming is the time honored tradition of rivalries and loyalties, dancing and camaraderie. As sad as I am that I lost a trip or birthday plans, I am sad more and more for our kids. I can rebook a trip or postpone a party, but you can't relive high school (and I would NEVER want to do that!). I hope that every kid is happy in their educational journey right now. I hope the schools and communities rally together and find alternatives to the traditions. When I was in high school, we painted the windows of all the local shops downtown. That won't happen this year. 

I don't know what I can do. I will think on it. I know a lot of great people who have big ideas. I do know that if we don't rally together as a community, as a whole, as a world, we are going to lose a lot more than Homecoming fun. Stay strong everyone! Stay smiling! Stay on your couch Sundays and do what we have been doing for a long time (especially if you're a Bears or a Cowboys fan), have faith in something!

Fall temps

Fall is here. Officially. This means it is cold in the mornings to the point where your nose drips and pleasant in the afternoons. You can almost smell the leaves, pumpkin spice and apple sangrias... We officially traded out our summer clothes for fall/winter ones. In the midwest, once you switch your clothes and pumpkin spice appears on every menu, it's fall ya'll!!! Now excuse me while I go pumpkin picking and catch up on my scary movie watching ;)

Fall has finally arrived!

This is the moment we have all been waiting for! It has rained for almost 2 weeks here, which is unheard of in the midwest fall weather movement. So it goes from 80 degrees and rainy in late September to brrrr, fall cold! I will take it! Now we impatiently wait for the wood to dry up from all the rains and it is bonfire all night, every night. Bonfires with hot chocolate and the sound of the local football game coming in from across the field.... Ahhh. I love fall!!!!