You can read my latest column, about celebrating a Catholic Halloween, at Crisis today:

Don’t Trade Halloween for Reformation Sunday

And in case you still aren’t convinced, I offer you my annual argument in favor of celebrating Halloween, from a slightly different approach:

Captain America costume in size 3T

[I was browsing through some blog archives today and this bit of family history from 2006 made me smile. Some things never change.]

You gotta love these All Saints Day parties. I like to think of them as a healthy reminder that the saints were human beings. Just like us. Just like our children. And that every one of us is called to be a saint too.

On our way to the much-anticipated party last night, I gave my gang of holy heroes what I like to call a Reminder Lecture about polite behavior at social events. When I was through, Ambrose, in full St. Augustine regalia, turned appropriately reflective.

“I don’t know about you guys,” he mused to his fellow saints who filled the surrounding seats of van, “But when I go out somewhere special, I don’t need a reminder to be good, I just am good.”

Hmmmm, interesting observation.

But the good bishop went on. “Once when we were at a party, some little kid bit me on the leg and all I did was pull him off and tell him he should go see his mother.”

Just as I was starting to feel proud of my saintly son, however, he completed the thought.

“At home, though, it’s waaaaaay different. If anyone bites me, I’m fighting back.”

“Oh yes, definitely,” I heard the sweet voice of St. Clare agree from the back. “Fight back.”

To make this coconut pecan coffee cake, I used the following recipe:

(adapted from Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook)

Dough:
1/4 cup warm water
1 extra large egg
3/4 cup plain yogurt
2 tablespoons butter, softened
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 1/4 teaspoons dry yeast

Filling:
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup flaked coconut
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
1 egg beaten with 1 teaspoon water for egg wash

Icing:
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons warm water

Add all dough ingredients to your bread machine and select “dough” cycle. At the end of the cycle, punch down dough and roll into a 24″ x 8″ rectangle. Spread butter over top of dough. Combine filling ingredients and sprinkle on top of dough.

Roll up tightly, jelly-roll fashion, pinching long seam closed. Form into an oval and pinch ends together. Place on a greased baking pan and cut at 1-inch intervals with a sharp knife, three quarters of the way through. Fan slices open slightly, cover, and let rise 45 minutes – 1 hour.

Brush with egg wash and bake at 375 degrees 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire rack. Combine icing ingredients and drizzle over cooled cake.

And here are the best possible gifts for coffee lovers.

(So! Excited!)

— 1 —
Early Snow

We got a couple of inches last night and they are predicting several more on Saturday night and into Sunday morning. I know we live in New Hampshire, but this is ridiculous. I am not yet ready to begin 6 months of winter. The youngest boys, however, totally are. As the snow fell last night, they shouted and danced on the lawn. Barefoot.

— 2 —
Throwing in the Towel

I wash way too many towels way too often. I am wasting time and energy and laundry soap and water because I have no system. It’s easier to throw once-used towels in the laundry than to to attempt to keep track of them, dry them, and re-use them. There is no way my bathroom can reasonably accommodate the number of drying racks we would need for the number of towels we use daily. My mom installed towel racks in our bedrooms when we were teens (and I think we had color-coded towels) but I am hesitating to take that step. Towel racks in bedrooms? Is there some other alternative? There has to be.

— 3 —
Comments

Guess what? I am opening comments on this blog. Not because I expect all kinds of conversation to be happening in this oft-neglected space, but because I sometimes want the option to ask questions here, and it just feels like a good idea. I do, however, reserve the right to change my mind. Heh.

— 4 —
The Crazy

I had a dream last night that Dan brought me two pumpkin lattes in bed. I rejected them, he got offended, and left in a huff. So irritated was I by his huffiness that I woke up. I lay there in bed at 4 am, really resenting the man lying next to me for his bad behavior. And then I realized that it had all been a dream.

All of this to say: Girls? Sometimes we’re just plain crazy.

— 5 —
Reading & Advent

I had a lot of fun chatting with Sarah Reinhard and Rebecca Teti in yesterday’s Faith & Family podcast. We talked about pleasure reading and (gulp) getting ready for Advent this year. If you have an idea for a topic you would like us to take up on a future podcast, give us a call at 1-413-FAITH-55 and leave a voice recording telling us all about it.

— 6 —
Fitness Update

I am currently in my second month of ChaLEAN Extreme and really enjoying it. I’ve shared my love for P90X before, I still do love those workouts (I still do some of them on occasion, especially Ab Ripper and Kenpo). I found, though, that working out for an hour a day, 6 days a week was getting too intense and time-consuming for me. It just didn’t seem necessary. I find the Chalene Johnson workouts to be a nice compromise in that way. Most are about 40 minutes long, but they still make up a sufficiently challenging weight training program. I like Chalene’s positive attitude and fun personality (But I would not use these workouts with my husband or sons — her fitness attire is a bit revealing).

— 7 —
Scarf Library

Have you seen this? It’s awesome. I shared it with my daughters, and Juliette has been inspired to try out all the cool ideas. She even came to me with a fun idea. She would like us girls to pool our scarf wardrobes (and add to it, naturally) to build a “scarf library” that we all have access to whenever we like. We already (kind of) do this with earrings and some shoes. This having growing daughters who are my size thing is totally fun.

I hope you have a great weekend! And be sure to check out all the other Quick Takes over at Jen’s place.

— 1 —
Hot Lunch

Here’s an easy lunch I like to make on these crazy school days: In the morning, wash as many potatoes as your family will eat and place them in a large pan. Rub with butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place pan in the oven and set the delay bake for 75 minutes at 400 degrees, ending whenever you would like to eat lunch. Then … focus on school for the morning! At lunchtime, stir up some gravy on the stove top and serve with baked potatoes and bread for a delicious hot lunch everyone will enjoy. Even you, Mama.

— 2 —
McGurk Effect

Does what you see affect what you hear? Oh yes! Lots! This amazing video gives us an example of the “McGurk Effect.”

I can’t get the dumb embed code to work. Here’s the YouTube link.

HT (and great thoughts on the video!): Msgr Charles Pope

— 3 —
In the Swim

After taking the spring and summer off, we are starting the younger kids’ swimming lessons again today. I have a great set-up where we meet a teacher for a private lesson at an indoor hotel pool. I found that swimming was a great way to keep their small bodies moving through the winter months. The kids had a ton of fun last year and learned a lot. This year is going to be slightly more challenging, though, because 5-year-old Daniel will be starting lessons. He used to love the water, but an accidental dunk in the pool during our trip to Florida last year appears to have scarred him. Before his reluctance to enter large bodies of water becomes a permanent phobia cemented in his psyche, we are facing our fears head-on. Starting today.

— 4 —
A Fair to Remember

Our family really enjoyed spending time at the local fair last weekend. As usual, the younger kids prepared baked goods to enter in the junior competition. Last year, Daniel baked Sinickerdoodles and the fact that his creation did not, in fact, earn him a ribbon almost ruined the weekend for our little competitor. This year, as we helped him to bake some chocolate chip scones to enter into the baked goods competition, we all said a little prayer that this entry would earn him some kind of a ribbon. Any color. We were not fussy.

Imagine our delight, then, when we scanned the baked goods display at the fair and found Daniel’s plate of scones in the glass case with a second place ribbon! He was thrilled. We were thrilled. Another crisis was averted.

But imagine our surprise, then, when we discovered that Daniel’s plate of scones had some other kid’s name on it. The tag bearing Daniel’s name was on some other, foreign-looking plate of entirely different scones.

“Wait a minute!” shouted Gabby the Great Clarifier. “Those ARE NOT DANNY’S SCONES! Why do THOSE SCONES have Danny’s name on them??”

To which I replied, “Look at Danny’s scones! They won a ribbon! You did such a wonderful job, Danny! I’m so proud of you! Just look at those beautiful scones and that beautiful ribbon! Scones! Ribbon! Scones and ribbon! So! Proud!”

We moved on to the giant pumpkins next and then giant cups of soda followed quickly after that.

— 5 —
Determination

I am going to make doughnuts this weekend. Even if it kills me and leaves no time for anything else in the world, I am going to make doughnuts.

— 6 —
Christmas!

Another grand plan I have for the weekend is to take the kids’ Christmas picture. Whether or not it actually happens this weekend, just the fact that I have a plan to do this right now, in October, makes me feel fabulously organized. I might ride this feeling straight into Advent. At which point I will panic because I haven’t ordered any cards yet. Or bought any gifts. Or baked any cookies.

— 7 —
Washing Woes

Those of you who hang out with me on Facebook and Twitter already know this, but there is something trapped under the drum in my front loader. I thought it was a marble, but the repairman who came yesterday told me he thinks it’s a few small beads under there.

He also said they won’t hurt anything even if they are terrifically noisy during the spin cycle and he has no idea how to get them out without disassembling the entire machine and he thinks that would be a terrible idea and maybe if I just keep using the machine they will eventually work their way toward the little trap that is supposed to collect foreign objects under there but has somehow failed us this time and so go ahead and enjoy your terrifically noisy machine and give me a call if you need anything else and that will be $74 please.

Thank you.

I hope you have a great weekend! And be sure to check out all the other Quick Takes over at Jen’s place.

Just because this touched me today:

Those Winter Sundays
by Robert Hayden

Sundays too my father got up early
And put his clothes on in the blueback cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,

Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?