No Monsters in My Bed: Things to Do - Cherish This Day & Random Links

10/18/13

Things to Do - Cherish This Day & Random Links

This year T has shown an intense interest in Halloween decorations, whereas the girls seem to have cooled off on the holiday. Both P and F still talk about costumes (somewhat) and candy (more than somewhat), but overall the thrill has decreased.

Earlier in the week, I brought T to Party City and let him pick out even more decorations for the front yard, though I stopped short of the fog machine and the talking zombie. We mainly purchased cardboard items that you stake down - tombstones, ghosts - and fake spiderwebs for the bushes. When the girls were little I did not want to own very many seasonal decorations, we didn't yet have a good storage system, so every year we'd lose them again and again. Plus I hated bringing both girls to specialty stores, they'd fight over everything, nobody leaving happy.

This year, as soon as the girls came home from school, T ran up to them, so thrilled to show off all the effort he put into our yard. F shrugged and replied, "it's not scary at all, how come T always gets what he wants?" Usually I let such comments slide off me, as I find them ridiculous and unfair. But, upon reflection, there is a kernel of truth to it - the spoiled third child. Such a cliche.

I hope someday I can explain to the girls that this year the decorations were what I wanted as well - one more October with a preschooler who is mesmerized by Halloween's fake scariness, watching T smile as a cardboard sign transforms into something magical after we stake it to the ground.

A new post is up on Cherish This Day - click here to see this week's photos (some amazing shots this week!)
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RANDOM LINKS:

* I can't stop listening to this song and this song. So so good.

* Of course, I am over the moon about Alice Munro's Nobel Prize. She amazes me (she's even in my bio statement, see if over there on the right?).
(1) I loved this piece where different authors talk about their favorite stories.
(2) The Paris Review's interview of Munro is a must read for any fan.
(3) I also recently finished (even before she won the Nobel) Lives of Mothers & Daughters: Growing Up with Alice Munro, which is written by Munro's daughter, and is a great story - about women, motherhood, art, family history, and fame.
(4) Further, her "personal history" piece in the New Yorker is a pretty awesome read - "I did not go home for my mother’s last illness or for her funeral. I had two small children and nobody in Vancouver to leave them with. We could barely have afforded the trip, and my husband had a contempt for formal behavior, but why blame it on him? I felt the same. We say of some things that they can’t be forgiven, or that we will never forgive ourselves. But we do—we do it all the time. . . . When my mother was dying, she got out of the hospital somehow, at night, and wandered around town until someone who didn’t know her at all spotted her and took her in. If this were fiction, as I said, it would be too much, but it is true."

* I love Ron Mueck.

* The 10 Sexiest Books of All Time.

* Can a feedlot be beautiful? These aerial images are absolutely incredible (both haunting and gorgeous).

* Warped childhood, Restoration Hardware style. Funny.

* Have you ever heard of the Alice books? Apparently they've been banned more than any other books in the past decade. Is it frightening that I now really want my kids to read them? Especially after I read this interview with their author?

* I can't stop perusing this new-to-me blog - great photos and words.
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And to round out the week, I'm including some soccer pics of T and his friends. Coach Emma (UK Petite Elite) is the best soccer coast ever. She's amazing (though I can't say I'm as big of a fan of the Gunston Bubble, something about the air pressure in there always makes me feel woozy.