Preparing for a Simple Halloween

This last couple of weeks we've been preparing for Halloween, with decorations, reading spooky books, and finding pumpkins. 

Our oldest grandson loves Halloween and our younger grandson is just learning all the iconic images and words of the season - pumpkins, ghosts, skeletons, spiders, and bats. His spooky  "o-o-o-o-o-o-o" cracks us all up!

The build up to Halloween is all about shifting to a darker phase of the year; darkness isn't bad, but it can be frightening, and having fun with fear is part of the process, something even a toddler can appreciate.

Agenda

1. Decorate inside and out

2. Carve jack-o-lanterns

3. Read "The Power of Less"

4. The Simple Project List

5. Fall cleaning and gardening

1. Decorate inside and out:

I do not buy plastic decorations anymore, so we make nearly everything: One year we made these spiders from pipe cleaners and pompoms. Our spider family drove around in toy trucks all week.

This week we hung our spiders again, some skeletons, our ghosts (made with sheets and wire), and set out pumpkins on the front porch.

As we decorated we talked about the images: 

"Spiders are a little creepy, but they are good for the garden"; 

"Bats are like flying rats - they eat insects"; 

"Skeletons are bones, from inside a body."

"Ghosts are spirits - we can't really see them, and they can't hurt us."

 

2. Carve jack-o-lanterns:

The origin of the Jack-o-lantern can be traced back to Ireland and Scotland, where early Celtic people carved the images of spirit-guardians onto turnips and set them outside their doors to keep out the unwelcome visitors from the spirit world.

(It's possible that they used skulls before they used turnips, and turnips resembled the white bone of a real skull.)

When Irish and Scottish folks arrived in North America, they began to carve the native pumpkins instead.

We managed to gather for pumpkin carving all the way through the pandemic, but this year, with a hospital visit and recovery taking center stage, pumpkin carving became a quiet, one-on-one activity for me and each grandson.

3. Read "The Power of Less":

Continuing with this little book by Leo Babauta, who hosts the Zen Habits blog. I bought it because simplifying is a favorite topic of mine, one I long for and keep trying to perfect.

I'm reading to Chapter 13: Simple Commitments. I've made headway on simplifying my goals and projects, so what's next?

He lists off all the commitments many people have with work, committees, community, family, hobbies, house projects, church, and so on. "...viewed individually , none of them ever seem like too much work. But cumulatively, these commitments add up, so that eventually they can consume your entire life..."

Babauta suggests that I make an inventory of my commitments and then make a short list of my four to five top commitments, that give the most value to my life, and fit best with my values and priorities. For me:

1. Family
2. Earthcare
3. Arts and crafts
4. Reading and writing

Then begin to eliminate the non-essentials.

Ways to practice:

1. Begin with something small, that gives me the least return for my invested time, that's least in line with my values, and cut it out for a couple of weeks to see if I can get along without it.
2. Fill that time with something that has more value, from my short list.
3. Be very careful when adding any new commitments that they fit with my priorities and that I actually have the time.

I'm already so good at saying NO that I have hardly any commitments left to weed out. Mostly I have time-wasters that I have become addicted to, such as the Sims. If I deleted that app, I could fill that time with something fun with my family, or with an easy craft project, or a walk, or with doing nothing at all!

4. Simple Projects List:

I've been using Babauta's "Simple Projects List", with my top three projects only, which I need to finish before starting any others. (A "project" is something that has several steps, and takes only a week or two.)

"The top three projects on your Simple Projects List will be your entire focus until you finish all three ... This ensures that you aren't spreading your focus too thin, and that you are completing your projects." 

It's been great! I have actually been able to chip away at these three projects much more effectively than ever before.

Tips: You can't actually do projects - you can only do tasks. Make a list of tasks for each project, and focus on doing one at a time. Each day, choose three tasks to complete.

My simple projects list this week:

1. Art: Finish sewing the Small Forest appliqué and find a frame and backing. (First task: Finish sewing bottom edge, and add cross-stitch flowers in the field.)
2. House: Paint and re-glaze the bedroom windows. (First task: Clean the dirt and dust off each window.)
3. Celebration: Halloween, Diwali, and Days of the Dead projects (First task: Fix little skeleton.)
4. Kids: Halloween fun and pocket calendar  (First task: frost cookies, make paper bats)

5. Fall cleaning and gardening:

Fall cleaning has an entirely different feel and focus than spring cleaning. In the fall we finish up, pack away, and "batten the hatches" -- we put away all the outdoor stuff, air out the sweaters, and prepare for winter.

This next week I will start my fall cleaning in the bedroom and office, studio and back yard. I plan to:

• Sort and pare down my clothes, store away summer things, and get out my sweaters.
• Clean and repaint the window frames outside the bedrooms, and reglaze the windows
• Clear out mending basket.
• Haul out some of the junk that has accumulated on the studio floor.
• Clear the studio table, and set up Grandson projects.
• Take a load of studio clutter to the thrift store.

I'm doing the same kind of hatch-battening in the garden and the back yard:

• Clean up beds, mulch with leaves and straw
• Plant winter rye and fava beans
• Put away the sand toys, hoses, and yard chairs
• Move volunteer snowberry