Whoa! It's October already. And then some.

I'm having one of those moments where I realize how overwhelmed I am...but specifically at the speed time has been flying by.  There seems to be an incredible amount of things to do, things which will get done but may or may not be truly necessary accomplish.  Example:  just how many trunk or treats do we really need to attend?  Every single one to which we are invited?  My children seem to think the answer to this is a resounding YES!  Ahhhh, youth.

Still.  It didn't stop me from buying 4 bags of DumDum suckers to give away. 

Did that make you flinch, Gentle Reader?  If so, sorry.  Though it does beg the question:  who doesn't enjoy a tiny lollipop now and then?  Plus (and maybe a wee bit sadly), it's one of very few types of candies that is safe for me to have around the house.  I may enjoy an occasional DumDum once or twice a year, but it won't have me downing a whole bag on a day when my overwhelmedness by life hits hard.  Know what I mean?  Because even "fun" size Snickers or M&Ms or 3 Musketeers or KitKats or Mounds or...yegads, the list could go on and on...well, they are infinitely edible.  And thus must be avoided.  Because after Halloween come THE SEASON OF BAKING and GIFT GIVING and all that goes with it.  HOLY COW time is going fast.

But to refocus, here is this palate cleanser:

We got to attend a very sweet Halloween party thrown by some neighbors (Oh, wait.  Before the palate gets cleansed, I should explain that neither Super J nor I are into Halloween as far as holidays go. Seriously, we put together our "costumes" about 35 minutes before we had to leave for the party.  Every year I promise myself I'll do better, but...there so much other stuff to buy, and I don't really want to shell out the cash or spend the time doing anything else, because I'm really just trolling the Internet for new recipes to try.  It's all about priorities, Gentle Readers. Priorities).

Okay, now back to cleaning thing: 

We went to this Halloween party and all the kids were sent home with a tiny but appropriate gift bag that had 2 pieces of candy, a pencil, a pencil sharpener and a spider ring.  Oh, and each family got a thing of play dough.  The girls played all afternoon yesterday with the play dough, and it is now pretty much in the garbage.  But the pencil sharpeners?????  Miss O, all by herself, has hunted down any/all pencils that might-maybe-could need to be sharpened, including colored pencils in the art supply area and wee little nubs of pencils with the erasers chewed off (ewww.  I know).  I love it. I hate the shreds she leaves behind as she seems to be missing the garbage can that she's supposed to be sharpening into, but still.  Work it, Miss O.

Anyway, I sure wish that for Halloween, we could just have neighborhood kids bring those pencils you know they are going to be getting in their class Fall Festival Parties and let my girls sharpen them with those amazingly effective sharpeners (I think they actually have Sponge Bob on them).  Can you imagine how awesome that would be?  And budget friendly????  Maybe next year.

DumDum anyone?