Week in Review: Happy Holyween, Fun Mom and Not Your Doctor's Advice

Happy Halloween!

@musicwithmrsjimenez Seriously though, the last time Halloween was on a Friday was 2014!!! Yes, I looked it up 🤣🤣 We are BLESSED this year, teacher friends! Enjoy sleeping in on Saturday and not having to teach sleep-deprived sugared-up kiddos all day 😅🙌🏼🙏🏼 #musicteacher #teacher #teacherlife #elementaryteacher #teacherprobs ♬ Praise God For That - Jordan Feliz

The kids elementary school had them dress as saints today for "Holyween", as All Saints Day is on a Saturday this year.  They will have a school Mass and a very popular Trunk or Treat in the parking lot.  Brendan went as St. Carlo Acutis, a cool new saint and an easy one to dress up as #jeansandaredpolo.  He even put some sunglasses on his shirt like that.  No photo because we were rushed but you can imagine:

Last Friday it was sunny and warm, so I walked the kids across the street to let them feed the ducks, and sent the photo to our family's group chat which made the college kids miss the ocean.  And that's why we live in New England!

Phil had to snap the picture of us going for our daily dog walk when we realized we were both wearing the same race shirt and weighted vest.  So cute.  So embarrassing.

Who wore it better?

I was tired of looking at the rejected apples in our fruit bowl, and made some homemade applesauce with them.  The next day we made pancakes with applesauce and man, were those good.  I had Declan bring some down to my parents for breakfast and my mom said they tasted just like she used to make us when we were kids.  I always put mashed fruit (applesauce, pumpkin puree or bananas) in my pancakes and think they taste gross otherwise.  I also don't like syrup on pancakes but love to dip in applesauce.  I guess it's from my childhood!

I was a fun mom this year and bought a pumpkin carving kit plus some lights to go inside the pumpkins and we made some Jackolanterns last night!  Messy crafts have never been my strong suit, nor is it easy for me to hand my kids a knife to carve something, but these carving tools made it much safer and we already had the pumpkins on our porch, so it was an easy parenting win.

One of our pumpkins had started to rot, so we borrowed a pumpkin from Gammy and Grandpa!

Andrew and Friends had the same idea out in OH

Eamon's professor dressed up for Chem class

Another intent challenge - at this point I don't even ask why they are dressed like that

When 3/7 of your kids are away at school, "Group Face Timing Late at Night" is the new "Everyone Flop Down on Mom + Dad's Bed Late at Night".  Gosh I love my kids and they are so fun and funny!  Now if only I could request that they call home before 9 pm....

Andrew, JP, Eamon and Maggie

The college boys are on Fall Break and each headed to Michigan with friends.  JP is also headed to Michigan this weekend to visit friends who graduated last year.  I remember one Fall Break when I brought home like 10 friends to my house and my mom cooked for all of us and it was so nice.  Did I ever tell you that most of my college friends were international students and I was the minority in the group?  It was awesome.

Random photo of Lucy Doodle, who is not allowed on the couch

One of my sisters and her husband came to visit one evening this week, and she mentioned she started using Nutrafol recently and I told her I've been using it too!  She is a dermatologist and let me in on a little secret - once you take the recommended dose (4 pills daily) for 3 months, you can cut the dose in half (2 pills daily).  Now she is not your doctor and it's not her medical advice to you (she's not even my doctor), but I am so happy to be able to cut the dose and expense in half!  Swallowing four pills in a row is hard for me and involves much deep-breathing and yogurt-eating to get it done.

The basement cleanout didn't quite happen last weekend, but Phil and the boys did put a few items out on our magical curb that got scooped up quickly.  I hope I will never need that nice bassinet and baby swing again because it sure was hard parting with them.  I'm at the weird stage where I believe I could still have another baby in theory but not in reality, and then I wonder if I should be saving items for future grandbabies, but in the end less clutter is more peace.

On Saturday, Brendan got a library card and Declan kicked field goals with Dad.  (Is there anything more attractive than seeing your spouse be such a good parent?)

Phil had his yearly physical this week and got a clean bill of health!  He has been suffering from plantar fasciitis and the doctor told him to ice and stretch it but no ibuprofen because he's on Eloquis.  Um, whoops, we certainly didn't know that was to be avoided, though it makes sense.  In other medical news, I took Maggie to the oral surgeon for a consult this week, and she has an appointment to get her wisdom teeth out in January.  

This weekend we have Trick-or-Treating (with friends if I'm feeling extroverted), Declan's last soccer game, a basketball practice, a swim meet, and Religious Ed.  I signed up to bring coffee to sell at the swim meet so that I won't be roped into timing - that's the worst part of home swim meets.  I hope you all have a great spooky-fun weekend!