Being Thankful

 

Confessions of a Night Owl Living on a 5 AM Schedule

 

 

"Bittersweet October. The mellow season of the year, when the earth seems to pause, and rest, and be satisfied." (Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne's House of Dreams)

Hello, my lovely friends!

    First off, I am so sorry for missing my posts on Tuesday and Thursday. Life got a little chaotic this week, or maybe I should just say my alarm clock started ringing at an ungodly hour. Mike started his new job on Monday, which means he has been up at five in the morning every single day. Now, as most of you know, I am strictly a night owl who thrives in the quiet midnight hours, but I’ve been dragging myself out of bed right alongside him to pack his lunch and kiss him goodbye. Afterward, I usually wander back to my room, attempt to get a few small things done, and then crash right back into bed. It’s safe to say I desperately need to figure out a new routine that works for me, because trying to go to sleep early just results in me staring at the ceiling and tossing and turning all night.

On the bright side, Mike is absolutely loving the new role so far. He’s working in the warehouse for Ethan Allen furniture, where he spends his day loading and unloading trucks and even assembling some of the pieces. It’s a small team of just three guys, and the workplace is a quick ten-minute drive from our house, which is such a nice treat. Plus, he gets weekends off and just found out they get a four-day weekend for Thanksgiving next month. Seeing him enjoy what he does makes those painful five-in-the-morning wake-up calls completely worth it.

Hopefully, over the next couple of weeks, my body gets the memo and adjusts to this new morning rhythm without me needing a mid-day collapse back into my blankets. Thank you all for being so patient with me while I navigate the sleepy adjustment period.

    Fall and Halloween decorating around here is in full swing, and honestly, my mom has completely taken the reins and run with it. She is in absolute cozy season mode, which makes the whole house feel so festive. I’ve been meaning to get around to setting up the coffee bar, so that’s on my schedule for today or tomorrow. I’ll definitely take some pictures and post the final setup for you guys as soon as it’s put together.

We ended up making the call to skip the outdoor decorations this year, mostly because we’re still working on trimming down the yard and getting everything cut back for the season. But I can't leave the front completely bare, so I think I’m going to do something cute with the front windows to give it a little cozy glow from the street. We did make sure to stock up on candy for the big night, so at least that part is taken care of.

Now we are just keeping our fingers crossed that this gorgeous weather decides to stick around through Halloween night. The last couple of years have been a little quiet on our street, and everyone around here keeps complaining that there aren't nearly as many trick-or-treaters out on the actual night anymore. It seems like everyone goes to the big Trunk-or-Treat events the weekend before instead, so we ended up buying a little less candy this time around. Here’s hoping we still get a good crowd of kiddos showing off their costumes.

    We had these big, grand plans to head downtown this weekend, but let's be real—Prime Day got the best of us. After a little too much late-night add-to-cart action, we now need to actually be home so we can rescue all those cardboard boxes from the front porch before the local squirrels claim them. So, the city will have to wait, and honestly, staying put isn't the worst thing in the world.

Instead of wandering around shop windows, it turns out to be the perfect excuse to step outside and get some good old-fashioned yardwork done. My tomato and bell pepper plants are still somehow holding on for dear life, bless them. I have been obsessively checking the weather forecast every night like it is my full-time job, and so far, the temperatures are playing nice enough to keep them alive. Every single day they keep producing feels like a tiny, triumphant victory over the season.

At the same time, we had the guys come by to blow out the sprinklers, which always feels like the official end of summer. Now the rest of the yard just needs to be put to bed for the colder months ahead. It is a bit bittersweet pulling up the old vines and raking up the leaves, but there is something so cozy about tucking the garden in for its long winter nap. Here is hoping that next year's crop comes back bigger, sweeter, and way more abundant, but until then, I am going to enjoy every last little harvest we can squeeze out of this one.

Thank you for being here. It’s always a treat to share this space with you. May your day be sweet, calm, and wrapped in comfort. See you in the next post!

Top Ten Favorites: Horror Comedy Movies

"We have to learn to be our own best friends because we fall too easily into the trap of being our own worst enemies." (Roderick Thorp)

 

Hello, my lovely friends!
    There is a very specific kind of magic that happens when a movie manages to make you gasp and laugh out loud in the exact same breath. As much as I love a good, heart-pounding horror movie that keeps me checking behind the shower curtain, sometimes you just want the spooky vibes without having to sleep with the main lights on. Horror comedies are the absolute sweet spot for those nights. They give us all the haunted houses, hungry monsters, and dark magic we crave, but with enough witty banter and ridiculous antics that we can actually relax with our popcorn. If you are looking to curate your next cozy movie marathon, here are ten absolute classics that get the balance just right.

    We have to start at the very beginning with a silent film gem from nineteen twenty called Haunted Spooks, starring Harold Lloyd. It is pure vintage chaotic energy, following a guy who somehow ends up having to live in a haunted mansion for a week just to collect an inheritance, resulting in endless physical comedy and slapstick ghost antics that still hold up a century later. Fast forward a few decades and you get Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man from nineteen fifty-one, which is peak nostalgic comfort. Bud and Lou play bumbling private investigators trying to help an innocent man who took an invisibility serum to clear his name, and watching them react to floating objects and unseen punches never gets old.

    Moving into the golden eras of horror comedy, nineteen seventy-four brought us Mel Brooks' masterpiece Young Frankenstein. Gene Wilder plays Frankenstein’s grand-nephew who tries so hard to distance himself from the family business, only to end up right back in the lab making a monster dance in top hat and tails. Ten years later, nineteen eighty-four gave us Ghostbusters, a film that somehow made exterminating terrifying spectral entities look like an average blue-collar job in New York City, packed with sharp, deadpan humor that only gets funnier as you get older.

    The late eighties continued this incredible streak with two iconic visual treats. Nineteen eighty-six brought the musical reboot of Little Shop of Horrors, featuring a giant, soul-singing carnivorous plant from outer space that demands to be fed, which is as hilarious as it is delightfully weird. Right on its heels in nineteen eighty-eight was Beetlejuice, introducing us to a ghostly couple who hire a bizarre, unhinged bio-exorcist to scare away the trendy new humans living in their house, giving us unforgettable dance sequences and spooky aesthetic goals forever.

    By the nineties and early two thousands, the genre started leaning into pure fun and parody. Nineteen ninety-three gave us Hocus Pocus, the ultimate October comfort watch about three chaotic resurrected witches running amok in Salem while struggling to understand modern technology like buses and asphalt. Then in two thousand, Scary Movie turned the slasher genre on its head by poking affectionate, absurd fun at all the tropes and teenage drama we grew up watching, proving that sometimes you just need to laugh at the monster instead of running from it.

    Finally, the twenty-tens brought us some modern twists on classic creature features. Tim Burton’s twenty-twelve film Dark Shadows took an eighteenth-century vampire, played by Johnny Depp, and dropped him straight into nineteen seventy-two, leading to fantastic culture clashes with disco balls and modern appliances. Wrapping up the list in twenty-thirteen is Warm Bodies, a surprisingly sweet zombie romance told entirely from the perspective of a zombie who falls for a human girl, proving that love really can bring you back to life.

Whether you are hosting a full night marathon with mountains of snacks or just looking for something fun to unwind with after a long week, these ten films are guaranteed to deliver the perfect mix of giggles and goosebumps. Grab your favorite blanket, dim the lights, and settle in for a night of spooky fun that won't give you nightmares.    

Top Ten Favorites: Horror Comedy Movies
1. Haunted Spooks (1920)

2. Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951)
3. Young Frankenstein (1974)
4. Ghostbusters (1984)
5. Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
6. Beetlejuice (1988)
7. Hocus Pocus (1993)
8. Scary Movie (2000)
9. Dark Shadows (2012)
10. Warm Bodies (2013)

It was so lovely having you here today. Thank you for reading along! May the rest of your day be filled with warm smiles and quiet peace. Talk to you soon!

Today Is The New Day

 

Giant Pumpkins, Funnel Cake, and Fall Magic

 "I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers." — (L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables)

Hello, my lovely friends!

    What a wonderful, fun Saturday we had. Our local spot, Nick’s Garden, puts on so many amazing events, and last weekend was the official kickoff for their Fall Festival, which runs all month long. Every Saturday features something a little different, and this time it was a massive pumpkin weigh-off. I had only ever seen giant pumpkins on TV, so I was really excited, and since Mike had never experienced anything like it before, he was totally on board too.

It meant an early morning for both of us. I'm usually the first one awake, so I went to wake up my mom, but she had a rough night sleeping and decided to sit this one out. I honestly thought about crawling right back into bed and calling it a day, but I pushed through, got ready, and Mike and I headed out. I am so glad we went because we had the absolute best time.

The parking lot there is pretty small, so we had to park across the street and walk over, but it was no big deal. Seeing those pumpkins in person was wild—one of them was over five hundred pounds. The whole place was buzzing with energy, from the smell of fresh chiles roasting to endless rows of pumpkins for sale and tons of fun games for the kids. As we walked around, I kept wishing my mom had come along because she would have loved every second of it. We even split a warm funnel cake before heading home. I snapped so many great pictures, so scroll through and enjoy!

 

 It was so lovely having you here today. Thank you for reading along! May the rest of your day be filled with warm smiles and quiet peace. Talk to you soon!

Cauldron Bubbles & Coffee Cups: A Trip to Spirit Halloween

 "Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble." (William Shakespeare, Macbeth)

Hello, my lovely friends! 

    A couple of weeks ago, we decided to drop into Spirit Halloween just to see what kind of weird stuff they had set up this year. Walking into that store is always an absolute sensory overload in the best way possible. There are miles of plastic skeletons, neon wigs, and fog machines blowing mystery mist in your face the second you step through the entrance. Honestly, even if you do not plan on dropping a single dollar, just wandering around and pressing all the try-me buttons on the giant animatronics is top-tier free entertainment.

 

    We must have walked through every single aisle twice, staring at all the crazy decor and trying on ridiculous hats, but we somehow managed to leave without going totally broke. The only things that actually made it to the register with us were the witch you see at the end of the photos and a spooky little Twilight Zone coffee cup that I definitely did not need, but absolutely could not live without. That cup has officially joined my morning rotation, and honestly, coffee just tastes a little better when you are sipping it out of something slightly creepy.

 

    It is just one of those autumn traditions that never gets old, no matter how many times you do it. There is something so nostalgic and fun about taking a mindless afternoon trip to look at absurd Halloween stuff with your favorite people. Half the fun is just laughing at the wildly specific costumes and talking each other out of buying life-sized haunted trees for the living room. If you have not gone for a casual stroll through the spookiest pop-up shop in town yet, this is your sign to grab a cozy drink and go get lost in the plastic madness for an hour.

 

 Thank you for being here. It’s always a treat to share this space with you. May your day be sweet, calm, and wrapped in comfort. See you in the next post!