{ Halloween: A Family Tradition }

(I cannot take credit for this very cool picture of a hard working spider and the full moon in the background...the family photographer took this one. But I thought it fitting for Halloween.)

Halloween was a big deal in my house growing up. My mom made nearly every costume...I cannot honestly recall ever buying one. We had a dedicated "costume box" that lived under my parent's bed. Chili dogs were the traditional dinner of choice and Mom always broke the speed record to get home in time to feed us, help us with our costumes and take us around the block. Dad was in charge of door duty back at home. In our neighborhood we had hundreds of kids and the streets were FULL of us all running excitedly. Halloween was an EVENT. I remember two neighbors on the other streets who decked out their garages as haunted houses. When I was 7 I had an extensive surgery that left me casted for several months. The thought of missing Halloween was unthinkable so Mom (or maybe my sister) pulled me in a wagon. The Halloween of my 7th grade year was my last for trick or treating. I was a black cat with a tail made of braided yarn that year.

My sister and brother in law carry on the tradition now. They usually host a large party and decorate the house. The kids have been indoctrinated in the family tradition, although my niece swears she's not going to be as crazy as her parents...time will tell. Our own tradition is to go to Dori's http://www.islandteacompany.com folk's house and pass out candy there. In our rural island community only a handful of neighborhoods are equipped for trick or treating. Whatever traditions you have for Halloween, I wish you all a good time!

{ Pumpkins in Portland }

I'm heading off the rock this weekend to the big metropolis of Portland, Oregon to see the extended family. It will be a glorious Pacific Northwest weekend that I hope, includes a visit to a local pumpkin farm. While I'm terrible at posting pictures, perhaps my friends will do it for me! Check out their blog early next week and see if any appear. http://www.kintropy.com/

Happy Weekend!

{ A Message From My Grandmother }

As most of you know, my mother was taken from us in March of 2006 by cancer. What you may not know is that I've been blessed with "other" mothers...primarily my Mom's mom, whom we call Honey. In my youth, my mom powered through each day to support her family, grocery shop, build a business, make dinner each night and keep us all on track. It was Honey who would make scrambled eggs and toast if I was home sick or teach me craft projects on Saturdays...she was the back up team to my Wonder Woman mom. On my recent trip home I was able to put a short cut to my blog on Honey's computer...a tool she is still not entirely comfortable using. Well, she read it yesterday and I was given a clear and distinct message from her...lighten up. While she is proud that I share her frugal side, I am apparently just too serious about it all. I was directed to go out to eat twice a month, not just once and to set aside a little mad money for myself...in short, to live a little. Since Honey is now the eldest family member, living through the Depression, several wars, widowhood at an early age and burying a child, I will assume she knows a thing or two and try to take her advice to heart. The very first post I ever put on this blog was about the early lessons of my grandmother and she continues to offer those lessons today. Honey, when you read this, just know that I am listening. Today I will stop off at http://islandteacompany.com for a cup of tea and lovely lemon cookies as a special treat for myself.

{ Breaking the Silence }

I have three girlfriends who will be coming over for dinner tomorrow night. We are always looking for a reason to leave our busy lives and gather and we have learned to just take out the calendars and pick a day. So tomorrow is that day. I will be making pumpkin risotto and roast chicken with winter green salad. For dessert something with apples since our case came in the other day from east of the mountains. I really am looking forward to this dinner not just because I love my friends and I love to cook. No, I am finally getting these women whom I love and adore together for the purpose of discussing money...particularly THEIR money.

While I am not a financial advisor, I have gleaned over the years that these self supporting rock star community mover and shakers have under utilized their significant power in the realm of all things personal money. I hope after our evening tomorrow they can leave even more powerful then when they arrived...and well fed to boot. When I shared with another friend my plans she asked me why I felt compelled to do this and I realized that I want to break down the wall of silence around money that most of my friends share. Together we support each other through kids, divorce, menopause and pregnancy, relationships, illness...why not support each other to financial well being?

{ Off To The Homestead }

I'm off to the homestead to see my Dad, the kids, my sister and my Honey Mom (grandma). Wishing you all a happy weekend!

{ Embracing A Season of Change }

Change is in the air....literally. Summer changes to Autumn around here pretty quickly and we've already had two storms blow through and there is tell of snow in the higher elevations already. The only remnants of summer plantings left in the vegetable garden are the late potatoes, which will overwinter in the beds and we decided against fall/winter veggies since both our CSA's will continue to produce through the winter. Maybe I'll cave this weekend and put in endive...my favorite winter salad green. But the plan is to sow cover crops this week.

The big change isn't just the garden or the weather though. This weekend we had a family pow wow and decided that as a unit, we will attempt to live on 60% of the take home pay this year. While paying down the newly acquired debt is a priority, more importantly, it will enable one of us (not me) to perhaps make a career change after 2009. Wow. To contemplate that in times like these is huge (and maybe even crazy) but I have been afforded several opportunities over the last 17 years to make these leaps of faith and I am glad to finally be able to return the favor. It makes tightening the belt and giving up the splurges in life easier when you know someone you love may be able to make better life choices for themselves.
Blue sky just broke through on this blustery October morning. Just in time to go out and pick some hydrangea and mums out of the garden before the first client.

{ Will They Learn? Or Will You? }

So now that the bail out has been approved by the Senate and most likely will be passed through the House, what has Wall Street learned? What have we learned? Only time will tell. But like being told that the chest pain you have really is only indigestion and not a heart attack or the small lump under your arm pit really is just a fatty deposit and not cancer, this is our second chance to go back in and do things better. Will you learn from the lessons of the last few months (dare I say years?) and stop over consuming? Will you take a hard look at every item in your cart, in your house, in your fridge and ask yourself how necessary that item really is to your survival? Will you now begin to be honest with yourself that happiness does not come from stuff or food or travel or spending, but from within? Go read a book. Go write a letter. Go clean out a closet and donate stuff you don't need. I'm even shutting down the computer entirely in order to save a few pennies tonight. I hope you do the same.