Happy belated Halloween. Hope you all had a fun and spooky day! 🎃
We got our first snowfall yesterday morning. Here is Charlie licking it to find out what the heck this cold wet stuff is:
And now, on to November! Wow. There is a big part of me that keeps thinking it is like, March or April and that I should really take a look back at my 2023 Yearly Goals List to start getting organized for this year. But then I realize the year is almost over, somehow. So, yeah. 😆
Missed a month?
Also, part of me feels like I may have missed the month of October. SHU mentioned this general idea in her post yesterday, after her recent injury completely dominated her thoughts for the last couple of weeks.
In my case, it has been this guy:
I know I did not actually miss October, logically.
I:
- turned 40
- went to Aladdin
- went on a Michigan trip with Ethan
- planned Hawaii trip (next June)
- did a big work project
- decorated my house for Halloween
- am undergoing a bathroom remodel
- went to Ethan’s soccer banquet
- sent Asher to D.C.
- had my parents at my house a lot (bathroom remodel…and my dad is the “contractor” and laborer all in one, 😉 )
But in my head, I feel like everything is blurry. I feel like all I MOSTLY did was:
- take Charlie out
- feed Charlie
- walk Charlie
- research stuff about puppies
- try to train Charlie
- buy dog stuff
- repeat
I think this may be a personality thing. It is hard to explain, but I really struggle with “seeing” the bigger picture when my brain is obsessed with any one thing.
This happens any time something kind of consumes me- an issue, a worry, a problem, or just whatever, really. I am not great at compartmentalizing.
I think this is also a reason I actually preferred 12 hour shifts when I worked in the hospital. On days I worked, I just WORKED. On days I was off, I was just OFF. No blurred lines. Working 8 hour days where I had to “mom” and “wife” and “nurse” and “commute” etc all in one day often felt very tiring and overwhelming and chaotic.
So while I know I did not actually miss October, but part of me still feels like I kind of did. I just wasn’t aware of the season in my usual way. Oh well!
Halloween 2023:
I took a record low number of photos. The boys threw on some old masks last minute and went trick or treating with friends.
I made our annual chili and cupcakes. Ivan’s sister and family stopped by and I recruited my 5 year old niece to help with cupcake decorating:
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for dog toys.
GRATEFUL KAE 
Aww. So nice to get an update. YES, having a puppy sounds like it’s all-consuming and you already have a lot going on. But isn’t he just the sweetest?!
I took so few pictures this year too, on Halloween. The kids were grumpy about the ones I take, but not a single action shot and I haven’t even taken a picture of their candy stash yet.
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Yeah, I don’t know why I didn’t take more! I think things just feel extra chaotic with Charlie around, and the house seemed extra messy, and things didn’t feel organized…so I was like, meh, forget it!
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Looks like a fun and low key Halloween! Love Charlie in his costume. You are so right about how being consumed by something can make everything else fall away. I feel that way about this move. It is has completely taken over my life! Where have the past five months gone?!
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Oh, I cannot even IMAGINE how you are feeling amid your big move and all of the complications, etc. you’ve had to deal with related to that! That is like my situation with the puppy but multiplied several times over!
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What a cute plaid coat for Charlie! I know puppies can be just as challenging as raising a newborn in many ways. At least they’ve got the “adorable” and “cuddly” qualities going for ‘em, right? Ha! 🐶 Anyhoo, sending you best wishes for your bathroom remodel and upcoming adventures (Hawaii will be awesome to look forward to over this winter!).
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Thanks! I know, isn’t the plaid coat just perfect with his fur color?!? 😍 It’s Eddie Bauer but I found it at TJMaxx!! And thank you for the well wishes.. I just really cannot wait til the bathroom remodel ends because having only one bathroom on our main level is so annoying!!! The boys keep using our master bath to shower, brush teeth, etc. (mostly bc they are too lazy to go downstairs to the full basement rec room bath, which would actually make a lot more sense… eye roll…).
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I think you did a lot for “missing” October.
It is an interesting thought that you loose the bigger picture when you are focused/obsessed with just one thing. I need to think on that.
A friend of a friend also prefers to do 12 or even 24 shifts in the hospital and be off on her days and nothing in between. She even says she gets more done this way.
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There are definite plusses and minuses to both ways! With the longer shifts you can at least kind of “put your head down” and just work work work and kind of get it over with, which is nice. But, the downside is that then on your day off the next day, you start out fairly exhausted and may not be as instantly productive as one would hope…
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I missed the mark on pictures last night as well. Oh well, I have my memories. Yeah, that’s right the month of October happened somewhere in there but it went by fast.
We got our first snow last night as well. I don’t know what it is about the snow that my dog loves so much, but she’s having a blast.
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We didn’t get enough snow to really accumulate, but I’m curious to see how Charlie reacts when we do!! I see bigger dogs that love to zoom around in it, but I wonder if Charlie, being smaller, will just think it’s really cold? Or, will he think it’s fun?!
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I miss your daily posting for sure but I can understand you are busy with the puppy, he’s so cute!
I used to be easily absorbed by one thing that happens and forget the rest. I’ve been better at that in life and at work as my role has been shifted from doing things to leading team to do things, and many things at the same time, so I learned to switch between tasks and always try to see the big picture, how different pieces fit together to tell a story. I am constantly reminding myself and my team to ZOOM out.
November already… I can’t believe the year is ending!!!
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Yes, the concept of zooming out is a really good one! I think I really need to practice that and be more mindful of that. It’s not something I think I’m naturally great at.
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You did a lot in October! But Charlie- he is your third kid- surely sounds that he needs attention. Good thing he is so cute! And the costume is everything!
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For sure like a 3rd kid!! Maybe even worse! haha!
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I think I am similar in that I can put my head down and focus on something and not take a step back and see the bigger picture. I can also lose time easily if I am working hard on something. I need to work on setting alarms or something to make sure I am not committing too much time to something.
October was kind of awful for us with all of our illnesses. I also traveled twice and it was month 2 of onboarding my new hire which takes up so much time. So I feel very very very over my skis right now. I’m woefully behind on blogs and now the daily posts of November are starting! Leave it me to get stresed by a hobby!! 😉
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HAHA, I hear you on the “getting stressed by a hobby”!! I start to feel that way too when I get behind on blogs/commenting. I don’t like to get out of touch with people, because I really value the relationships I’ve formed here. But I also sometimes just simply don’t have time to read/comment as much as I’d like to, especially as the number of blogs I follow has increased. Then I feel guilty…or I feel bad if I don’t post for a long time…haha. It’s silly, really! It’s supposed to be fun! 😉
I give you a whole hearted free pass to just breeze past my posts at any point! 😉 You have had a LOT going on and I promise I will not feel even slightly offended (as long as you still text me sometimes to say hi;) )
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Omg I love Charlie in his sweaters!!! My sister said it snowed on Halloween (in Illinois) and they got NO trick-or-treaters.
I think you summed it up perfectly when you said you weren’t as aware of the season as you usually are. I can imagine how much of your mental and physical energy are directed towards Charlie. I would compare it to, both my kids were born in December. I definitely didn’t appreciate Christmas as much those years, but it was obviously worth it!
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Yes! Asher was born Dec 2 and I remember that Christmas being kind of a blur. At least he was born early enough in the month that we kind of had a chance to get our bearings a little, but not really. lol!
We got some snow on Halloween too but it was just in the morning and not enough to really accumulate. We didn’t get ANY trick or treaters for the first 45 minutes or so! I thought we weren’t going to get any. I think we ended up with like 7-10 groups of kids total. Very light! But we live on a cul-de-sac and I think several of our neighbors had their lights off/ weren’t participating. So maybe people felt it wasn’t worth their while to come on down. 😉
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Yeah, I can imagine that Charlie basically dominated your life in October … and other things kinda fade into the background, but it does sound like there were some other good things (your birthday! house stuff! a work project! vacation planning!).
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