Inspired by Halloween 2012

Happy November! A new month means it’s time to check the progress on the goals you’ve made and to make new goals if necessary. You are making goals right?

For the past two months I’ve started to do some type of monthly challenge. You could think of these as monthly goals. Or something. In September it was the 30 Day Fitness Blogging Challenge and then last month it was my personal 30 Day Paleo Challenge. While I had little hiccups here and there during those challenges, they kept pushing me throughout the month and I did things, ate things and thought about things I wouldn’t normally have. {For the record, I still don’t like sweet potatoes. Try as I might, I just can’t tolerate more than about 2 bites before I start gagging. I want to like them!}

For my November challenge, I’m going to be participating in NHBPM (National Health Blog Posting Month). The idea is to write 30 posts in 30 days. We’ll see how it goes!

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Halloween 2012

I am a fan of Halloween by nature. I love all the decorations, I enjoy scary movies and I should also admit that I have a love/hate relationship with being scared. I’m happy when I feel spooked, but once that line is crossed and my heart jumps into my throat, I get angry. I’ve been known to slap, punch and kick as an immediate reaction to being frightened. If you’re gonna scare me, you better do it from a distance.

So anyway, Roger and I took two of our boys out trick-or-treating last night and I was amazed at the lack of homes with their outdoor lights on (hello!, that’s the signal for “no candy found here”). What’s going on? When I was younger it seemed like everybody was in on Halloween. I know not everybody celebrates Halloween to begin with, but still. There was an entire street in our neighborhood that was black – on both sides! Not cool guys, not cool. (you know, from a child’s perspective)

Of course the kids did come home with plenty of candy anyway. I am as big a fan of Reese’s and Rolos as the next guy but I can only handle so much of it in my house. Mainly because if it’s here, I’ll eat it! But also because our youngest wants it alllllll the time when he knows it’s around. I’d rather just hide it and pretend it’s gone than deal with that business. For Easter and Christmas we don’t do candy at all. It’s overwhelming with 4 kids! They get plenty of it from other resources. (Grandparents….)

When I was checking out costume pics in my Facebook feed last night, I realized that you can donate your candy to various organizations that will send your extra candy to troops. A-ha! I’ve heard of the Halloween Buy Back Program that some dentists participate in, but it never occurred to me that I could send candy to active military personnel myself.

What a great idea!

{I should mention: Before Blake left for school this morning, I had him take out pieces he’d like to give away. Then, while I was typing this, my 4-year-old woke up and came straight downstairs to the kitchen where I’m sitting and proceeded to sneak those same pieces off of the kitchen table and into his bucket. I can’t wait until the extra candy is gone!}

The Candy Reduction Plan

Here’s what I plan to do:

• Let the kids pick out their favorite pieces
• Pack up the rest!
• Hunt for some other goodies that I can include in our package

On my 101 in 1001 Days list I have a goal to put together and mail out 6 Operation Christmas Child Boxes (one from each member of our family) and I’m gonna do this in addition to that. I can’t say I’ve been inspired by Halloween before, but this year has been an exception. Giving makes you feel good and we all have something we can give to help others in some way. It doesn’t have to be money. It could be anything! Your time, your skills, homemade gifts or just your pretty face – as long as there’s a smile on it.

xo Mindi

P.S. I realize I contradicted myself in this post with all the hiding neighbor talk yet still trying to find ways to get rid of the excess candy we do end up with. It’s like that.