Nothing Special

 Just another Saturday.  Mr Merry was busy all day with his rakes and leaf blowers loading up the truck for the compost pile. My dead flowers in the hanging baskets made the cut, as did the last of the tomato plants.  

I don't know if I shared the story of the truck, but when he retired he used his work truck for his twice a month, May-Nov, trips to the compost pile. 

One memorable weekend, the truck conked out at the compost pile and had to come home on a flatbed trailer. When unloading it, I took a look UNDER the truck and it looked like rusty lace!  I forbid him to get it fixed again (if that was even possible). Somehow this morphed into a brand new truck, complete with everything his work truck never had, with air conditioning, upholstered seats (do they even make vinyl seats anymore?), automatic transmission, back up camera, dual temperature controls. . .  On a truck that goes to the compost pile twice a month.  I've told myself he worked very hard, mostly outdoors, on the railroad for almost 40 years and he deserves it.  Sometimes I tell myself that. 

So - ignore that paragraph because I just wanted to share the power of a smile. 

I was out foolishly wasting money today and stopped at a store. I was smiling because I was reminding myself how lucky I am that I have the money to foolishly waste on trivial items that make me happy.  A woman older than me was unloading her car and I offered to take her cart back.  She smiled back and we talked for a while and she gave me a big wave and said "Have a Happy Thanksgiving, too". 

This made me smile bigger just as I was passing a tired looking young mom with a baby and toddler in her cart.  She saw my big smile and gave me a big smile back. I swear she walked taller, too.  I let someone pass in front of me and they smiled and waved.  

It really does brighten your own day when you smile at others.  

What trivial items was I buying? I hope they are cute enough to show you, but my plan is to make charcuterie cups for my fellow election workers on Tuesday. I think they will be easy to snack on and other people won't be fingering all the food. Of course I had to have special cups and cute skewers and individual food bags to package each one in addition to special foods and garnishes. The hardest item to find without leaving our small town was individually packaged plain crackers.  Dollar Tree had one package of 6, but I need at least a dozen.  So much more expensive elsewhere, but I guess I am set.  

I also picked up gingerbread houses for the youngest seven grandkids so everyone can have their own at a decorating party. 

Have a good weekend.  I need to dress up in my sequins because I am going to the drive in to see the Taylor Swift concert! And - we are going to drive THE truck because three of us can sit on the front seat. So I guess it was a wise purchase after all. 

Spooky Supper

I have no idea when I started serving Spooky Supper.  My Facebook memories tell me that it was before Facebook.  My goddaughter used the idea when her family moved to a remote farm twelve years ago and had no where to take her young daughters to trick or treat. So, it has been a while.  It takes a lot of planning and a lot of work (especially yesterday when we had three young children underfoot all day) but my grandkids all look forward to it! 

I will share some dishes from last night: 

This severed chicken hand doesn't look too bad, but I used to make them from the marinated chicken breasts from our local butcher. Now the breasts he sells are trimmed into a filet type shape (instead of the large raggedy natural ones) and they were out of marinated when I was there so I threw some bbq sauce on them.   I think this is our last year of chicken hands. 

First year for this Kraft Mac & Cheese dish I saw on Facebook. It was a hit, but I am not sure why it looks so dry in the photo. The kids loved it.

There were two meatloaf feet complete with toe nails.  The kids were leery but this was a hit with the dads. Behind are cobweb stuffed eggs. 

Ham and Cheese mummy calzones and hot dog fingers.  No one really ate either at the supper, but the calzone was popular at lunch today, as were the hot dogs cut up for preschoolers. 

Moldy potatoes. This was just cheesy (funeral) potatoes made with Potato's O'Brien instead of shredded potatoes and topped with frozen purple cauliflower.  Again, a big hit with adults, children not so much. 

Jack-o-lantern mini pizzas. I ended up adding more cheese and pepperoni shapes after baking since they blended in the oven. 

All those entrees and the kids preferred peanut butter and jelly cut with my pasty cutter with pretzel legs. 

The crew looking scary. 

This was going to be a spider web dip except I ran out of time.  I was also going to do a monster fruit tray and a Hocus Pocus vegetable tray and those did not happen either. 

For Muffin Tin Monday with my preschoolers we had the favorite Spider Sandwich, with an orange pumpkin and ghost banana. 

Happy Halloween! 

Still Here

 Just letting you know I'm still here. 

October has been a whirlwind of grandchild activities ranging from the 10 days I spent out of town with teen grandkids to pediatrician visits with grandchildren with strep throat which ended with a two-hour ER visit for a child with a brand new penicillin allergy. Oh, and a bunch of kids went to state in various sports and contests. 

Our town had a Halloween decoration contest so we have been shuttling overnight guests in car seats to see the sights (with the windows rolled up for safety). 

Tomorrow night is our youngest grandchild's trunk or treat and we are decorating my SUV in a Grinch theme because I already have Grinch decorations. A pleasant surprise today when I looked in the box and found a Grinch costume I bought last spring on clearance for $10.  It's my husband's size and I am not sure he is as thrilled as the four year old. 

Tomorrow I attend my second election worker training for the election in November, our third election this year. I feel very well trained at this point and hope the people in state offices could keep the same procedures for a while so we don't have to keep being trained. 

The city is in a mad race to complete some major street projects on most of the streets that lead to my house before the asphalt plants close for the year. The main route on the way to my house has HUGE road closed signs and what I call a moat in the middle of the lanes. This has not stopped people from racing up my street and dragging their vehicles over it to cross the intersection. 

I had lunch today with my friend who is battling breast cancer for the second time. She is so positive and determined and I am so proud of her. She really is an inspiration.  

I'll leave you with this funny. So true, especially since I am trying to clear out closets holding years and years of craft supplies. 

It's My Cabinet of Curiosities!

Many moons ago I was the girl scout leader, the 4H advisor and the Sunday School Teacher. And the mom of five and the party planner of the neighborhood. Halloween was always a fun time.  I used to have fun houses in my garage before trick or treat, and after I was promoted from first grade to the confirmation class, my middle schoolers and I would do a "barely scary" haunted house for our church little ones following a costume contest. 

Thanks to the inspiration from my friend decorator extraordinaire Debbie-Dabble who blogs at  (I'm sorry, it won't link so I guess you will have to cut and paste.) I created my own curiosity cabinet. 

https://debbie-dabbleblog.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2023-09-29T10:42:00-04:00&max-results=7&start=2&by-date=false  

Even though it was a last minute project, the grands love it and I already have some better ideas for next year!  I had disposed of most of my barely scary items, but Dollar Tree and Dollar General had some perfect supplies for less than $3! 

I will share some close up of the shelves. 

Dollar Tree still had one of the inspiration signs for the top remaining in stock!

Next year I will start by clearing the shelves instead of shoving to the back, LOL. 

I have been finding more Halloween items as I go through boxes so some of these shelves are scarier already. This hand used to move on it's on in the olden days, now it is just "curious" to see. And the skull is resting on it's "microphone" and the kids used to be able to have him "talk". 

I bought the beaker at Hallmark at least 10 years ago, the cat is a bank filled with dimes that used to sit on my Great Aunt Betty's vanity. We use the plastic goblets for juice in the morning. 

I created the scary jar by adding cooking oil to water but did not get the effect I wanted after making it "too purple" with food coloring in a pickle jar.  I was not disappointed enough to waste more cooking oil. 

Thank you again Debbie for the fantastic idea! The kids all spotted it the minute they entered the room and it is just enough that the four years olds are not afraid.  I will take some more of her advice and see what might be available after Halloween at sale prices. 

Now I am off to supervise my three oldest grandchildren - TEENAGERS - for 10 days while their parents travel to an island.  I am a little intimidated as I know they are smarter than I am, but mostly because they live in a big city and I am terrified to drive there. Wish me luck!