Post-Halloween Sugar Crash. . .Gratitude

It was the usual chaos on Halloween evening - making dinner, seemingly barking out endless "Eat," "Where's your ," "Eat," all while trying to fill the candy bowl (and trying to hide my "tastes" of candy from the kids.  Well, they need to eat dinner first!), clean up from dinner, stow school stuff out of the way, and a general tidy up before my evening is spent answering the door.  I was down to two kids - you'd have thought it would have been a breeze.  You would be wrong.  Maybe if I hadn't had to drive the older two to their respective gatherings . . .

But it was a gorgeous night for trick-or-treating - mild, 60-ish, no wind.  We had tons of groups wandering the neighborhood; more than I recall in the past.  They started earlier this year too, before sunset, and you could hear their voices echoing off the houses and chattering away as they moved like herds up and down the streets.  You'd hear the excited voices of kids and their stomping steps running up to the porch, and then behind them the quiet murmur of their parents (with assorted beverages in hand.)  And then at about 8:15 it was done.  Like no stragglers.  Done.  Nothing.  The streets and sidewalks were deserted and eerily quiet after all the activity.  So, I tucked in a tuckered out Doc McStuffins (who was concerned that we didn't paint his face black) and sent a worn out "Jack and the Box" up for a shower.  DH rounded up the 13 y.o. and I brought back the 15 y.o. and by 10:30 everyone was back at home and all was peaceful.

I believe I am going to partake in Cathy Zielske's 30 Days of Gratitude.  I'm not sure if I'm going to take advantage of her free downloads to create an album (I'd like to, super easy and adorable graphics), but I think I'll at least post the entries here.  My soul needs this.  I need this.  I invite you to join me by posting your days in the comments.  I may be persuaded to offer goodies at the end of the month to those who shared their own work - link to a blog post, photos of pages, or just journaling - the brilliance of the project is you make it work for you.

I'm also starting the Rake-Up the layouts/projects/cards as we head into the season of holidays.  Today's challenge is a simple one:  make a list of what you want to accomplish this month and share it in the comment section.  Like, do you have Christmas cards to make?  Are you on a layout roll and you want to keep going?  Do you have a home decor piece you want to make?  Hosting Thanksgiving and you need to make place setting pieces?  Or maybe you want to try your hand at 30 Days of Thankful.  Whatever your goals, make a list to share and then I'll fill the month with inspiration to get you going.  Oh, and don't worry if your list is not complete or morphs - that's just the nature of life.

Happy Thursday.