We had a really fun Halloween. As promised, my parents came to stay with us the day before. All Saints Day is traditionally a huge holiday here, meaning lots of people go to church the day after Halloween – and the kids therefore didn’t have school. Their father and I still had to work, and though we invited my parents before we realized this was a random mid-week day off, it worked out that they could stay and watch the boys that day. I think a fun time was had by all – they really enjoyed having Nana and Grandpa Doc in town (as always), and I got my dad to paint the boys’ faces like he used to do for us kids when we were little. Jack was a power ranger with a zombie-looking face, Liam was a green ninja with face paint of his own design, and Craig was a little bat – wearing an old costume I’d made for Jack years ago. I didn’t realize til later that it suited him perfectly since he was recently bitten by a bat! (And had to receive rabies vaccinations and everything!)
There is a street here in uptown New Orleans that just goes wild on Halloween – the houses have amazing decorations, people come for miles to trick or treat, and the street is effectively closed off (though not technically, and some stupid drivers try to wend their way through the crowds, which never fails to make my blood boil). One neighbor had a little boy dressed convincingly as a Halloween skeleton decoration who would lay perfectly still and then creep up on you suddenly, giving you a heart attack as the decoration came to life – my mom got me good with that one. Another neighbor hosts an insectarium on his screened front porch, with real live glowing scorpions, giant beetles, all kinds of creepy stuff. It’s truly a sight to see. The police patrol on horseback, and the horse this year was dressed as a unicorn. I can’t even describe it – it’s New Orleans at its finest. The people who live there must spend a million bucks on candy.
The day before Halloween, my mom came to Scottish music Sunday at church, which was really pretty special, with bagpipers playing out front, fiddlers playing in the fellowship hall, a beadle, and our pastor in a kilt. I throw that in here just so that I will remember it – I don’t have much time to describe it better but the music was stunning. The day after Halloween, the boys had a great day doing science projects with their grandparents. My dad also fixed some things and hung some things and all around helped out. It was great to have them, not just for the help but the company as well. We were sorry to see them go, but they’d been gone a while and were happy to get home.
Now it’s the next weekend. We staggered through the week, but a friend came to town Friday and I had a great catch-up lunch with her, followed by early drinks with the whole crew from work. We really enjoyed an evening out on the town – I got to show her my new city (she’s from the old city in Alabama – a dear friend.) This weekend has been mostly chores – I spent most of yesterday comparing old grocery store receipts to find the cheapest places for staples, as we really spend a staggering amount on food and I think I could cut several hundred from that budget if I was more strategic. There’s only so many hours in the day, of course, and I can’t clip coupons or go to eleventy million different groceries in my tiny amount of time for domestic chores on the weekend. But I thought a one-time deal, where I really compare prices and see what’s cheaper where, might be worth my time. In the end, we decided to buy a Costco membership, so I’m about to head there. Buying bulk chicken, chicken stock, eggs, ground turkey, etc. may really help this creaking grocery budget.
The week’s meals are mostly pre-made soups, yum. I had lots of dried beans and tis the season for bubbling pots of beans, so I’m doing lots of crockpot/stockpot pre-cooking this afternoon. I already have slow cooker refried beans going (one deviation from this recipe – I always saute the onions first, or your whole house smells like raw onion for days). I’ve got tons of wild rice and some leftover heavy cream, so I’m making chicken and wild rice soup as well. Some old split peas need used up or tossed, so I decided to try Ina Garten’s recipe for Parker’s split pea soup. And I have dried red kidney beans as well, currently soaking in a pot for me to use later in Emeril’s red beans and rice. In addition to these, we’re also having a night of ravioli and red sauce, and another night of chicken broccoli mushroom stir fry. Funnily enough it’s still in the 80s here, so it’s not even like a chilly season for soup. Nevertheless, DST ended and it’s about to get dark at 5pm, so I need my comfort food.
Last week I made corn chowder with chiles (a fan favorite) and chicken tortilla soup, both of which I highly recommend and both available at this link. I poured the tortilla soup over cubes of swiss cheese, and cut up strips of corn tortilla to sprinkle on top – I wouldn’t have it any other way!
Hope your November is cruising along nicely. I’m headed to Costco to buy All the Things, then come home and work on cleaning the floor and cracking the whip over those boys to fold their laundry. (Jack does the laundry now, and it’s wonderful. I keep telling the Prof to make Liam do all the dishes (he can’t quite reach the laundry machines, which is why that job falls to Jack, but with a stool and/or his brother’s help, the dishes would be totally within reach)). I need to delegate the floor cleaning and bathrooms too, and then we’ll be in business. We don’t currently have a maid service (we have a private school bill instead, yuk), but truly I wouldn’t need one to come but maybe once every other month to do windows/fan blades/baseboards/wash the floor, etc. – if I could get these kids doing more chores!! (And if I had a magical non-shedding dog, which I do not, sadly.) We are slowly working our way up to that. Gotta get ’em trained on the first thing before you add more, and they’re really getting pretty solid on the clothes-folding.
Anyway, enough rambling. Off to join Costco and try to save some dolla billz.