NaBloPoMo and Other Letters in the Alphabet

A million years ago, back when blogging was at its peak, some wordy bastard declared November as National Blog Posting Month, quickly creating the NaBloPoMo acronym and challenging bloggers everywhere to a thirty-day posting streak. I never personally participated, as I was mainly posting during the workweek while living my life on the weekends.

A lot has changed in the blogging world, thanks to the stratospheric rise of social media, and I'm pretty sure NaBloPoMo went the way of the dodo bird, but, since I've been such a slacker in this space this year, I have decided to challenge myself.

Don't get too excited, I'm definitely not posting daily, but I am going to make more of an effort to be present in this space, thanks to a handful of casual comments my kids have thrown out recently about this space being a time capsule of our lives. They aren't wrong; I've been doing this for almost twenty years and a lot of our memories live here; I'd like to think that the kids will still have access to this space long after I am gone, and, with that, will be able to easily recall our shared history.

Anyway, I'm going to try.

What better way than to document the fun and productive weekend I had?

Hugh and I were disappointed that we didn't have many Trick-or-Treaters on Halloween, but we sort of expected it because of the Trunk-or-Treat downtown. The Man-Cub was the happy beneficiary of our leftover candy, so we at least managed to make him happy. In hindsight, we should have made him dress in costume when he came by to pick up the candy on Saturday. Missed opportunity.

Saturday, I got up early to take down all of my Halloween decor and to pull out the boxes of all/Thanksgiving decorations that were taking up space in my attic. I went through the boxes very quickly, setting aside items that I no longer use for a trip to the Goodwill donation center.

My sister, Barbie, was in Hooterville at Mom's, and we planned an afternoon of thrifting and antique shopping, so I figured I could drop the boxes off, then. When I mentioned it to Mom and Barbie, they were more than happy to look over the items and, in the end, took everything that had been destined for donation.

Fine by me!

That gave us more time to peruse the Goodwill shelves, where I scored BIG time on several pieces for my Dickens Christmas village! $5.99 for a limited-edition piece that I know for a fact sells for over $100 online? Uh, yes, please!  

After the Goodwill, we grabbed lunch at a new place in Hooterville that I had been interested in trying (verdict: limited lunch menu (though breakfast is served all day), good food, a little on the pricier side; will return for the breakfast mimosas, for sure). Then, we hit every thrift and antique store in town before grabbing Happy Hour fountain drinks at Sonic and returning to Mom's house for a marathon crafting session.

Barbie had picked up a ton of vintage Christmas goodies at the Goodwill Bins in her city, and we sifted through them to make a few holiday decorations. It was fun! And, it's always good to spend time with Mom and Barbie.

Sunday, I got the house decorated for Thanksgiving, and Hugh and I joined Shanti and the Man-Cub at Mom's for dinner with her and Barbie. Mom made her famous homemade fried chicken, which she hadn't attempted in years. It must be like riding a bike, because the chicken tasted just the way I remembered.

It was a great way to cap off a great weekend.