It's Spooky How Much Candy is in My House Right Now

 

               Happy Halloween, everyone!  We spent the day jetting around the area, visiting a few family and friends for quick, mostly outside, visits.  With everything that's going on, I didn't think my anxiety could handle the usual trick or treating, and some of our usual Halloween was just not happening this year.  A "normal" Halloween would have included a crowded trunk or treat at Kiddo's school the night before, with games and the dance club performance and (of course) lining up with several hundred fellow students to visit all the trunks lining the teachers' parking lot and collect candy while chattering with her friends.  This year, she most likely would have brought Tiny along with her through the trunks, shunning parental involvement until it was time to go home.  The next day being Saturday, we would have gone to the Halloween parade downtown, entering as a family costume (Kiddo as Little Red Riding Hood, Tiny as The Big Bad Wolf, me as Grandmother, and Fuzzy as the woodsman), then trick or treating around downtown, including selecting a few goodies from the free books offered by the comic book store (Waterfront Comics rules, and you should get your comics from them).  After that, we would come home, and I would take a nap while Fuzzy took the girls trick or treating around the neighborhood, ending at the community center for the big Halloween celebration that takes over the whole place, with games, dancing, costume contests, crafts, and treats.  There are usually hundreds of people in the center, with kids running around and screaming everywhere.  It dances merry hell on my nerves, so Fuzzy would call at some point for me to pick Tiny up, then we'd decide what to do next.  Probably, I would go get dinner, then collect Fuzzy and Kiddo, who would be happily hopped up on the unbelievable amount of candy she had acquired.

                I really felt for Kiddo, as the changes to her birthday, Easter, and the Fourth of July had hit her really hard, and I knew that most of the joy of Halloween wasn't likely to happen, either.  She still had fun, though, at the drive-through trunk or treat at school, complete with in-person glimpses of her teacher, and our visits to friends and the community center drive through trick or treating.  After we got home, we popped on to the virtual party one of her Dickens Fair friends was throwing.  Everything else took enough time that she only got to be part of voting for the movie and watching the movie, but the winner was one of her favorites, so she seemed content. 

                After the movie, I had her sort through the candy.  Between doting relatives, the PTA, and the community center, she is all set for the next several weeks without much trouble.  I have plenty of her castoffs to eat away my election week worries, too, though I'm trying to eat better foods that don't add to my anxiety right now.  Nutritional value will set you free, but peanut butter cups will make you happy about it.  It's a balance. 

                Now that it's November, I'm seriously looking at my goals for the year, and attempting to salvage them as best I can.  I try to set ten goals every year, then do Facebook posts every month to keep myself accountable for them.  I usually accomplish at least half of them, though this year has been a bit fraught.  Some of the goals stopped making sense or feeling relevant as this year steamed forward.  All the same, here they are: 

1. Physically read at least 12 books.  (I average about 100 audiobooks in a normal year)

2. Become a blue-ribbon anxiety cucumber by drinking the correct amount of water and taking my vitamins.  

3. Remain out of credit card debt, and continue work on the 2029 Freedom project. (2029 Freedom is the plan to have the mortgage paid off by the end of 2029, a full ten years early)

 

4. Change the sewing room from a dragon's hoard of cool crafty stuff to an inspiring, organized place of creative business.

 

5. Start writing for the blog again, and recognize the small audience as an opportunity to say anything I want.

 

6. Clear out the bedroom to convert it back into a place of relaxation.

 

7. Use what I have before shopping for more, in both the crafting world and the domestic one.

 

8. Give more of myself to my family.

 

9. Practice being the kind of person I respect.

 

10. Plan my grocery trips better to prevent having to acquire more plastic bags.

 

                I'm having varying degrees of success with this year's goals, but I'm proud of the progress I'm making.