Good morning! I can hardly believe Halloween has come and gone and now it is November. Hard to believe we only have a little over three weeks until Thanksgiving here in the US and then only a little over 50 days until Christmas! Before we move on to prepping for other holidays, though, I must recap our Halloween night.

I could sum it up in two words – fun! And exhausting. That would not make much of a blog post though, so I will add a little more detail. After church and relaxing some in the afternoon, my parents arrived to hang out with us. They wanted to see little M all dressed up and have dinner together. Plus, they would be our candy passer outers while we were out with M (to the total SEVEN kids we had show up – lots of leftovers to handle).

We got M all dressed up, for the third time, and were ready to head out at around 6 pm. Except no one was out yet. No one. So, we did dinner first! I made a crockpot vegetable stew from a recipe my friend gave me, which I slightly modified. You can figure it was easy and healthy with me making it. Fortunately, it was incredibly tasty too.

Italian Vegetable Stew

• 1 red onion, diced
• 2 zucchini, diced
• 1 small package frozen vegetable soup mix
• 1 can Navy beans (or other white bean)
• 1 can Italian seasoned diced tomatoes
• 1 can vegetable broth (low sodium if you can find it)
• 1 can condensed tomato soup
• 1 packet pesto mix

Simple place all the ingredients in the crockpot. Stir to combine and cook on high 4 hours or low 8 hours. I think it could have gone without the condensed tomato soup. Or I would try to find one without HFCS as the 3rd ingredient.

After dinner, we began to head out. Peter, Makenzie, & I…

…and of course the little man came along for the ride as well.

How do you like my “costume”? 😉 I didn’t get many pictures trick or treating because it got dark fast. We started at 7 in the neighborhood next to us. It took a lot longer than we anticipated. We only hit a very small section of it, but there were so many hills and each house had a ton of steps to climb up (or down) to the front porches.

Holy leg workout! Plus, the entire neighborhood consists of one big hill after another. After making the small loop there, we headed back to our neighborhood. We considered just going inside since it was already 8:15, but knew we had to stop by Peter’s brother’s house to say hello and a couple of our neighbors. So we hit up 4 or 5 more houses to visit them, then came home around 8:45. I was beat! Lugging a 25 lb kid around that long gets exhausting. And we can’t forget the jack o’ lantern I was hauling either.

We spent a few more minutes talking with my parents and then quickly went to bed after they left. By the way, I love my mom! She did dishes and cleaned up some to help me out while I was gone. Thank you, mommy!!!

Alright, that was our night. But I can’t leave out the one creepy moment. It was Halloween after all. After visiting one house, we turned around to start heading back down the driveway only to look up and see this…

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…standing at the end of the long driveway, somewhat across the street, under the street light. Freaky!!! He just stood there staring like Michael Myers until we were down the driveway and moving down the street away from him again. If he started walking after us with the creepy Michael Myers walk or if I had seen him again that night, I think I would have screamed. There’s my Halloween moment for the evening. Now, have a great Monday!

• Do you like scary movies? I used to love them a lot more. They scare me more now than back in the day. I don’t do gory ones at all now…only the psychologically freaky ones.
• Look for my first day of the Q + A series in tonight’s post. ASK ME ANYTHING if you haven’t already.
• Congratulations to Julie on her wedding!!!! Love her and I wish her the absolute best. 🙂 Next time I see you, Julie, you will have been married over half a year! And to think, we talked wedding this past summer. Time flies!

Good morning! Or whatever you call 11 am. I’ve already been up for 6 hours. Likely longer, in fact, since I did not sleep much at all last night. I maybe got 3 or 4 hours total. I laid down at 10:30 and was up by midnight tossing and turning from the worst lower back, hip, and sciatic pain I have ever felt. On the bright side of this oh so fabulous pregnancy, my blood sugar levels are perfect and I don’t have gestational diabetes. Yay!

I really do feel thankful for that. And for hot tea, Tylenol, and a daughter willing to let me chill on the couch until I can move again without wincing. You know, until she needs something. So an entire five minutes at a time people! Woo! I sure do love her though. Despite the fact I almost considered still going to Power class because it could feel easier on my body than the up/down/up/down of chasing after and helping her.

What? Did I say something wrong? Oh, you’re just reminding me of that whole role model thing? Thanks. I needed that. 😉 In all seriousness though, I am taking a rest day today because I know my body does not feel up to doing much. I always remind myself of the fortune of this pregnancy and the child it will bring. And I will enjoy my day, even though there is no rest for the weary mother. So now we shall move on to this morning’s sleepily written post: my favorite oat concoctions!

As you may know, I set up a place for you all to easily ask me questions for the Q + A series I hope to do in November. I also realized this morning that I typed the link incorrectly, so I apologize to the the 20 or so of you who clicked and found a missing page in the past few days. HERE IS THE CORRECT LINK if you feel inclined to ask me a question. I’m an open book, so ask away. You can also post a reader’s request topic there, as someone did requesting a post on my favorite ways to eat oatmeal. And here we go!

I make my oats the same way every day I have them, which is most days because they are easy, versatile, and delicious. I always make my oats hot. I do not do overnight oats. Something about the texture bothers me. I do the eyeball method, so you will have to bear with me here. I add about 1/3 c oats with cinnamon to a microwave safe dish and then add enough water to slightly cover the oats.

I microwave (yes, microwave – I’m the notorious lazy cook remember?) for 4 minutes at 50% power and it always gives me the perfect creamy consistency. At this point, I add my toppings. I add any variety of the following that sounds good on a particular day: sliced banana, berries, sliced peaches, “baked” apples, dried fruit, coconut, nutella, honey, peanut butter, greek yogurt, maple syrup, maple almond butter (thanks to Janetha!), pumpkin, and on the rare occasion some protein powder. I’m sure I have forgotten some favorites in there too. Below are some of my favorite combos:

Berries + Nutella

Pumpkin + Maple Almond Butter Parfait

Greek Yogurt (usually strawberry or honey flavor) + Peanut Butter

Dried Fruit, Honey, and Peanut Butter (a current obsession for the whole lower volume eating need)

Banana, Coconut, and Peanut Butter (although I bet this would be amazing with Pineapple Chobani instead of the pb)

• What is your favorite oat topping combo? Or, if oats aren’t your thing, what is your favorite go to breakfast?
• What’s your favorite tea? I’m loving me some black chai vanilla right now. So calming! And hot!