Sweet & Spooky Gets me Going...

It has to be considered common knowledge that if you have named your blog "On the Fritz", chances are, there will be stages (aka many months) when the machine malfunctions so completely that there is a disruption in service. Describing it as an inability to operate isn't quite the correct metaphor. Life, motherhood, & the general basics necessitate tinkering together the requirements for daily survival. Eventually though the piece-meal quick fix solutions wear out, requiring professional service contract workers, revamping the set up, and getting things up and running again. After new implementation there is that transition-in-training period. Instruction manual available, but vague & personal interpretation & application is required and timely. Really it comes down to hours and minutes. Knowing that the condition of your day-to-day has become so precarious that in order to re-establish and stabilize you must hunker down, tighten your circle, and usually that means that even an outlet gets shelved for a time. 

I suppose it was this fall evening after making caramel apples and carving pumpkins with my boys that I considered taking the outlet off the shelf and writing again. Our system for the evening worked well. Johnathan and the boys cleaned pumpkins in the driveway while I stirred caramel on the stove (note to self, next year buy those handy caramel apple wraps). While removing the caramel from the heat, I was beckoned outside to draw an Anakin Skywalker face onto Zayne's pumpkin. I then expertly retreated back inside to dip the apples intentionally bypassing my least favorite Halloween activity (the actual carving). It also probably helped that this years pumpkin carving was NOT interrupted by Zayne disregarding our 5 warnings to "NOT touch the knives" and slicing his finger so that we had a band-aid raid proceeded by a 15 minute deliberation over an Urgent Care visit (such as Pumpkin Carving 2011). However, we did have to hover over Pender in order to allow him to hug the lit Jack-o-laterns with the burning candles inside of them while gripping a warm slice of caramel apple. I shared in his glowing smile, something about the sweet & spooky of this season still gets me going...