It's time for JEI (Just Enough Info) with The Zelie Group!

Link up your answers to this week's questions or answer in the comments!

This week we're talking about our upcoming feast days of All Saints and All Souls, and Halloween! 

1. How do you celebrate the All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day feasts?

I call these three days the Catholic Halloween Trifecta. Because why have one day for remembering the dead and dressing up when you could have THREE?!

We do Halloween big y'all.

All Saints - I have dreams of this day involving a pageant with other Catholic kids dressing up as their favorite saints. Right now we page through our saint books, watch a CCC saint movie, and talk about how awesome heaven must be.

All Souls - This is the day I focus on prepping our family altar for the month of remembering the dead. I cut out a big, red, construction paper heart and I write the names of all of our friends, family, and loved ones who have died. (This might be the year I make two. I'm gaining a lot of buddies waiting in heaven.)
Ideally we would visit a cemetery this day, but I think that will happen this Saturday instead.
We are planning on attending mass as a family this day to honor our family's little saint.

Our friend's are hosting an All Souls potluck the following weekend. We're supposed to bring drinks or dishes that mean a lot to us in memory of someone who has passed.
Kind of like a wake for everyone you've ever known.

I really love celebrating all three days because this is one of the few times in our society when discussion of death can be had when the deaths themselves are not as raw as they are at a funeral. As a Catholic kid growing up, the idea of the communion of saints was such a comfort, and these feast days are an opportunity to have a tactile interaction with that concept.

2. What was your favorite costume as a kid growing up?

My mom sewed my sister and I matching Thumbelina outfits one Halloween. I was very into Thumbelina since the movie had just come out that year, and my sister and I were used to being dressed alike. Being 10 months apart will do that.

(Y'all, I couldn't find one picture of this dress to show you that wasn't covered under copyright. Just google Thumbelina 1994 and you'll find some examples.)

3. What candy are you most likely to “test for safety” from the kiddo’s loot?

Well, I have a secret for y'all......I'm not really into chocolate. Or candy. Or really sugar.

It's not that I don't like it (I do!) but I never hit that "oh my gosh this tastes amazing and I want to keep eating it" thing. I feel a little bit like I'm missing out on some awesome human experience. I can see that other people very much enjoy these things. I love that you love it, ok?

Twix is probably the closest thing I have to enjoying chocolate. I'm a very not hipster milk chocolate + caramel person.

Your turn! Answer the following questions:

1. How do you celebrate the All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day feasts?

2. What was your favorite costume as a kid growing up?

3. What candy are you most likely to “test for safety” from the kiddo’s loot?

Next week - we're talking sports and exercise!
What sports do your kids play?
What do you do for exercise?
In the Mom Olympics, what would your event be?

Harry Potter Halloween!

Happy All Souls everybody! We had our Harry Potter Halloween party this past Saturday, and had a blast.

It's baby Dobby! I know you were just dying to see this cuteness.

John also had a mace. That proved to be a very difficult aspect of his Halloween costume around babies.

Honeydukes! There was more candy later. I either made up names or used names of actual candy reference in the books to label the jars.
Colorful little jars in front are real herbs and spices I have that I thought would look cool.

The only food out was pumpkin seeds when I was going around and taking pictures.

Food was Chicken Tortilla Soup, with homemade tortilla chips, and crispy Mac and Cheese.

We ended up with many leftover wands. I think I overestimated how many of them would break/get slobbered to death by the baby.

How did I not get a non-blurry picture of this?!

 My favorite DIY, the thing I really wanted to happen, was the floating candles. They took about four engineering attempts before we had a successful design.

And I didn't get a single non-blurry picture.

It's a cactus! Holding Dobby. With unnamed Hogworts student.

Lesson: fully chill jello brain before dumping. Still yummy!
And Butterbeer is delicious! Especially when mixed with mead.

Our fierce Bellatrix Lestrange

It's Teddy, Lupin, and Tonks! Tell me how your heart isn't melting right now?!

Men in White

This party probably wins as the one I spent the most time DIYing things for, but it was also a lot of fun. I like for crafts to have a purpose and a party is a good purpose in my book.

The Other Things Are Still Happening!

Linking up with This Ain't the Lyceum for another round of 7 Quick Takes!

Some of you know it's been quite the week, but there have been other stuff going on in our lives. Promise.

1

We celebrated a belated Feast of Pope St. John Paul II last Friday with dirt and worms! 

I learned that the only candy my kids agree on are gummy worms. I can roll with that.

I also made some for my Endow group. I make the grown ups have liturgical fun too.

2

This little monkey has zero interest in walking, but an insatiable thirst for climbing.

Finding her under the cart is becoming a regular occurrence. 

3

As is this.

Obviously, it is easier to climb over every single pot and pan than it is to go around the corner.

Babies!

4

We have been in full swing Halloween prep time for a while, but things are coming together now!

I almost always carve my jack o' lanterns with a moon and stars.

Because I'm not trying to win any contests. 

But it's pretty, no?

5

I thought about getting a better picture, but I kind of like photo bombing wand in the front there. He's got spunk.

One of the successful Potter DIY's...WANDS! 

These are made out of paper, hot glue, and lots of metallic spray paint.

They also had glow in the dark spray paint at the store, but I resisted.

But how awesome would that be though?!

6

You might have noticed there have not been homeschool preschool updates for a bit. 

(Or not, that's fine too.)

We are on our halfway point vacation!

This is one of my curriculum policies. We steam ahead trying out different approaches on a curriculum until we find our groove. Once we reach about halfway, we have normally found the groove and a break will not be too detrimental to getting back on track.

Halfway is about how long I would give a little kid program to work. If it was not going well, this is the time I would use to find something else. 

But it's going fine, so this is Halloween fun time instead!

7

Reminder, time change this Sunday! Don't let this be you!

Credit: Catholic Memes

It is really sad to be ready to sing awesome songs on Sunday....

....and then look out at a very sparse church.

Because they couldn't be trusted to notice things like Daylight Savings Time ending.

Don't make your church ladies sad!

Fall Celebrations, Rosaries, and Crafty Crafting

Linking up with This Ain't the Lyceum for another round of 7 Quick Takes!

We have a had a very busy week/weekend! Since we are approaching the middle of John's preschool homeschool with 26 Letters to Heaven, we are taking a little break. It's a good thing too because we needed some time to do crafting to get ready for Harry Potter party!

1

We went to the parish Fall Festival last Saturday! This was our first time attending post-wedding, so first time with kids. Like many things in life, it's a lot more fun with kids.

This is a game where you shoot a little boat with a water run and race to get it to the other side of the gutter faster than the next guy. Surprisingly fun.

John got his first face painting. He picked out the pumpkin image himself, but he was pretty suspicious of this process.

Check out that side eye.

2

We also love our ecumenical relations in this neck of the woods. Check out the festival spirit shirt.

3

We also had rosary making that evening!

You know what is a good idea to do BEFORE an hour or two before the event starts? Make sure you actually have rosary supplies.

I had nothing besides tools and string. I don't know what happened there.

We made an emergency Joann's run, and the event was saved!

Evidence that I ordered a LOT of new supplies. They got here yesterday. Sorry y'all.

For the interested, we did mediocre at trivia and did not succeed in securing the table with good light, so no rosary making at the bar. But someday...

4

John played his first Monopoly game and it was pretty funny. "Gotta hold on to your monies."

When paying rent to Matt: "Con-GRA-tulations Dada!" 

The guy who has taken a vow of poverty beat us all though. 

5

And it's prep for Harry Potter time! I made these pipe cleaner Happy Potter glasses just for fun to kill time on a no-nap afternoon, but John REALLY liked them. Might just make a few for the littles on Halloween. I don't know if I can size it up enough for an adult size.

I put together the sorting hat! This is precisely the reason I will go through the trouble of picking up stuff let by the side of the road. So many fun scraps of fabric!

Me and the hot glue gun are good friends now. This week, we'll include some spray paint in this party.

6

Today on the left, late August on the right. I work on it at least an hour every day. Oh dear.

I am making progress on the enormously complicated Christmas stocking! Hopefully, I can get it done by Christmas. There is still a lot of work to do.

7

Our bonus questions for Link-tober Fest on 7 Quick Takes is to add our most popular 7 Quick Takes post. Since this is only my tenth, ever, with only 59 views, it's....

7 Things That Make My Life Easier

And, for fun, my least popular, with 24 views is....

Friday Update!

Which is not at all surprising. It was clearly not a good titling morning for me.

A Catholic Halloween Trio

I have read a bunch of blogger's posts about what they do for Halloween, All Saints, and All Souls, but they are almost always AFTER those days have happened. And I tend to forget before the next year. So I decided to write up my plans now so these ideas are fresh for anyone who wants to give them a shot!

I decided after my first Halloween in college that kid Halloween is the better Halloween.
Candy, costumes (the non-Playboy variety), and doing things just for fun. The kids got the better deal.

I figure other people about my age might feel that way too, and they might not have little kids of their own as a built in excuse for participating in kid Halloween.

Enter, the Catholic young adult Halloween party!

I theme it, decorate like mad, whip up a lot of food that is of the "looks cool but is secretly simple" variety, and invite ALL of the Catholic young adults I can find.
It's a hoot.

This year it's a Harry Potter party!

I've been reading aloud the first book to 3 year old John as a special mom and John only thing. I thought he wasn't listening too much, but some of the storylines have worked their way into his playing lately. (And the nerd time begins...)

He got to pick his costume yesterday (at the Dollar Tree). Behold Sir John!

I'm not sure if we're going to call him one of the enchanted suits of armor or make him into one of the ghosts.

Therese is going to be Dobby. As in the house elf. She is going to be a baby house elf! I'm saving that cuteness for the post-Halloween version of this post.

The extra creative fun part comes in for all of the days post-Halloween: All Saints and All Souls.
And John is finally old enough for my awesome ideas to go into effect!

On All Saints, you get to keep wearing your costume, but now you have been transformed into a saint!

John will probably be St. George, but we might find someone more obscure for funsies. Therese will probably be a beggar girl of some sort.

The highlight of All Saints is All Saints Dinner. I try to make a dish that reflects each of the individual saints. The fun part is the kids get to wear their costumes to dinner but (as much as age possible) they have to be in character. So if you are Roman, prepare for the pig Latin!

On All Souls the costumes get put into their "grave" (aka. the box I will hide at the top of the closet until the next rainy day) and we get ready to remember our dead.

I try to go to the local Catholic cemetery, even though we don't personally know anyone there. I make a red construction paper heart and we write down the names of everyone we know who has died. Our family altar will morph into a memorial altar with the paper hearts, I buy extra large white votive candles to try and keep burning whenever we are home during the month of November.

This year, there is a neighborhood Dia de los Muertos celebration just down the street from us, so we might participate in that. That involves a candle light procession and collaborative memorial altar. That obviously won't be distinctly Catholic, but it's about a pseudo-Catholic of a celebration that I can ever hope to happen in Berkeley.


So what are you doing to celebrate the trifecta of mid-fall holidays?

7QT: The "It's Fall!" Edition

It's fall, it's fall, it's fall! Linking up with This Ain't the Lyceum to bring you 7 Quick Takes with all of the reasons fall is my favorite season.

I will preface this by saying that this opinion comes from experiencing falls in North Texas growing up, and the San Francisco Bay Area college and beyond. My falls have been pretty temperate so far.

1. It has two big holidays but they are at the END, or late middle, of the season.

I love holidays! Making fun themed things, throwing parties, excuses to dress up - all things that cause me to spend a lot of time scrolling Pinterest. But I feel like I get so much more time to slowly DIY decorations and attire with fall holidays. There is all that lead up during September and most of October that is just begging to be used for projects!

These may be some of the things one could look forward to seeing at my place come Halloween....

2. Football!

I'll admit that I got way more into football when I started dating a guy (my now husband) who was REALLY into football. Because our teams (Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles) are in the same division, we will never play each other in the super bowl. But that still leaves a lot of "friendly" competition for all of the other games, and the inevitable knock out of the playoffs by one or the other.

3. Just for Fun Traditions

Fall is full of little traditions and has a knack for a lot of "just for fun" traditions.

In Texas we have these things called homecoming mums. . It was fun to pick out the little extra ribbons, bells, and other add ons with my mom and sisters at Michaels, and the hot glue bonanza, back at home, to attach them all.

I was really bummed out when I learned they were not a thing outside of Texas

Note these are not the monstrosities that require straps and other supports. Those are way too over the top. If it can't be held on by a safety pin or two, then your mum is wearing you.

4. Making New Decisions

With wrapping up summer adventures and getting back into the school/work swing, fall has been the time for making new decisions for me. Maybe I will go make that faith study group! I always did want to learn how to knit. What if I just went and auditioned for that play?

It's in the air to make new decisions, and hopefully better decisions, in the fall!

5. Airing Out the House!

Fall brings that first (relatively) cool breeze! It's finally not too hot to open up the house, and not yet cold or rainy. I love how it feels inside when I have every possible window open!

6. Harvest Festivals and Pumpkin Patches

I'm new to the harvest festival and pumpkin patch thing.

Our CSA puts on a pretty awesome harvest festival called Hoes Down Harvest Festival up in Guinda, CA. We can't make it this year, but the whole thing is filled with great stuff like sheep wool shearing/carding/shipping/knitting, a hay pyramid for kids to climb on/through, and a lantern lit fire show on the river when it gets dark.

I went to my first pumpkin patch my sophomore year old college. Corn maze, haunted house, the works!

Corn mazes are a lot of this.

Rewarded with a little of this. I'm the one in the white shirt, if you haven't guessed yet.

7. Halloween

Halloween, in my opinion, is the most fun when done with kids. Kids are the ultimate excuse to do celebratory stuff and skip the adult awkwardness.

Carving pumpkins! John is already asking when he can "scoop out the pumpkins". Baby Therese can probably help this year!

Halloween parade in Oakland! Loved this little parade. It ends in Mountain View Cemetery, and they have crafts, bounce houses, food trucks, and a pumpkin patch.

This Halloween it's a Harry Potter themed bash! I could not resist the pinterest ideas any longer!

We do celebrate All Saints and All Souls days as well. I like to visit a cemetery if we can on All Souls. I'll also write down the names of everyone I know who has died on a paper heart that is placed on our family altar with a vigil candle. John finally knows enough saints to choose one for an All Saints dinner this year! 

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