What you do in your house is worth as much as if you did it up in heaven for our Lord God. We should accustom ourselves to think of our position and work as sacred and well-pleasing to God, not on account of the position and work, but on account of the word and faith from which the obedience and the work flow. ~ Martin Luther

Sunday, November 04, 2012

Halloween

 
Happy November! (I can't believe I just typed that.)

Today it SNOWED. The dusty kind that gets all the children running around like chickens furiously looking for their snow pants and mittens and heading outside to retrieve sleds, before abruptly stopping and melting away. But it was cold! And it was WHITE! It was SNOW (though, barely) so it COUNTS! :-)

What a wacky week last week was! The Frankenstorm (fitting.), that ruined the lives in various ways of much of the east coast, sort of peetered out before it reached us and I am blissfully, enthusiastically, incredibly thankful for that fact. Matt and I woke up every hour on the hour, often sitting up in bed at the latest loud BANG! or the rattle of our poor windows (at several points in the night I woke up to our bed literally SHAKING. I kid you not.) but God was gracious and all was well come morning. No damage to the property. No flooding anywhere. No lack of electricity. Nothing. Praise God.

 In the middle of the week, a friend came over and stayed the night- helping us with Jack o' lantern carving and accompanying us on our candy hunt. We chatted, we yarned, we had fun. And of course, Halloween!

What? A christian who celebrates Halloween? Hey, it happens.

Some years I get all fancy with the costume making (because you KNOW, I am not going to pay store prices on costumes! I wouldn't even pay that price for fancy REAL clothes!) and some years I fly by the seat of my pants. This year fell into the latter category. We totally looted the dress up box.

Now, if I were a good photographer, I would have dressed the kids up-oh, about noontime, spent a leisurely while snapping photos of their cutenes and had them trick or treating and back, unwrapping candies and eyeing their loot well before dark.

 But noooooooooooooooo.

Instead, we carved pumpkins. I made chili. We ate chili (over Fritos- a special treat! YuM!) I sewed an eye patch during supper. I spray painted a hook for my sea-faring lad. We lit the pumpkins on the front porch. The children got their duds on- well past dark- and I took a hurried photo (with flash-eek!) of each before frantically scurrying out the door. Here they are, in all their horrible, ghastly, super scary glory. (The photos, not the children.)
 
We had a Judah Bear. (Get it? Judahbear? har har) This was a handmade costume, but not by me. One of those glorious hand-me-down treasures that you get from time to time.)
 
And a rag doll. Why yes, I totally did this twice. And I'll do it again if I ever have another girl! Why not? We have the hat! (That is from one of my homemade costume glory days.)
 
 
And a pirate. Gotta love the chest hairs. We totally made an El Cid beard during homeschool history a couple weeks ago and were going to use that, but last minute, couldn't find it. Bummer. That would have been awesome.
 
And a jockey. I found this helmet at Salvation Army and snatched it up for our horse-owning days, fast approaching. We had had quite a few calls from neighbors hoping we would be showing up ("And what time?" and "What type of candy do your children prefer?"). Can you tell we are the only family on our road with children? ;-) It was a new experience for me, country trick or treating. More a night of house calls and visits, than a simple trick or treat. But it was nice.

 
Pumpkin carving. It works better with your tongue out.

 
Someone takes after his Mama....
 
(That is an AUTUMN wreath on the door, by the way.)

It was a good night.
 
PS. I roasted the Hubbard the next day. And he smiled still!

8 comments:

ulli said...

So good to hear the storm missed you! I was wondering. Great by-the-seat-of-your-pants costumes and punkins--and the orange pumpkins are cute, too!

Bonnie said...

How sweet that your neighbors were so excited about the kids coming around! I bet not many other children had their trick-or-treat tailored exactly to them!
The kids all look darling, (I remember C. and A.'s raggedy costumes) and I laughed out loud at Andrew. That will have me chuckling all day : )
And a question I remember in Little House in the Big Woods that Laura said Ma needed and ax to cut the Hubbard. True or False? Hopefully a friend and I are FINALLY having our Little House Day this Friday, and I'd like to know before I just randomly try to cut one open... (fun bit of trivia- the Hubbard squash was originated in the same township our fair is held in. One of the diplay barns is named after the guy!)

Rebecca said...

Thanks Ulli!

Bonnie~ I used a knife pretty easily. ONly a teensy bit more difficult than a pumpkin. BUT. I tried to cut a DELICATA squash this fall and COULDN'T DO IT. (Delicatas by the way are so named because of their delicate skin for a winter squash.) The only thing I could figure was that it was left on the vine too long? Maybe that was Ma's problem too.

Before the party- just stab the thing with a knife and see what happens. If it goes in, you are golden and no one will EVER know!

(So jealous of your Little House days. That is such a great idea.) You'd better take pictures Missy. (Yes, I DO demand.)

Terri said...

I love the costumes! So cute!!! We have lived in this area (rural) for ten years and have never had one trick-or-treater! This was the first year I didn't even bother to buy candy. I'm glad the storm didn't cause havoc for you. We escaped with our power intact but have neighbors who still have no electric a week later. And of course, just 70 miles south of us is complete devastation. :-(

Father's Grace Ministries said...

So glad that awful storm missed you. We were glued to the news reports over here that all said PA was badly affected. Very relieved to here all at Hopestead are doing well.
Did you get my email? Just wondering as I've been having issues with it for a few months now.
Blessings
Claire

Megan @ Purple Dancing Dahlias said...

Cute!

Just make sure that with the helmet it is an actual safety helmet. Hunter Jumpers will often have helmets that are for looks and not for safety when showing. Doesn't make much sense but that's the way it is in the show world.

Nanci said...

The kids look wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Glad the storm passed you by. Storm results around here are that a tree that we had been wanting to cut down, was snapped off about 18 inches from the ground. HOORAY! Now all we have to do is take care of the small stump and cut up the limbs. BUT, in exchange for that, we spent 27 hours without power and running water.

Rebecca said...

Terri- so glad you were spared! How awful-to be out of power for a week! And now, a new storm is brewing....

Claire- thanks for the heads up. I'll check it.

Megan~ good point! Thanks!

Nanci- Hurrah for the tree! Hur-stink for the power. I hope you didn't lose much in the way of frozen things? I hope, I hope? Had you had time to draw enough water off? Even then, though, I have found- water goes QUICKLY. So glad you are back up and running (and that the tree didn't fall on anything!) :-)