Halloween Dinner

It's Halloween and the kids love it, of course. Early on I started a tradition of making a creative meal on this night. Honestly I am not sure why I chose to make such a big deal of it. I have my opinions of how big a deal Halloween is to people over Christmas but I won't go into that now.

So, in years past I have done foods like hard boiled egg blood shot eyes, stuffed bread snakes, tomato juice blood, grilled hot dog worms worms, cookie & ice cream cone witches hats, hot dog mummies, deviled eggs, olive eyes, pretzel ghosts--just to name a few. some have gone over better than others. Cranberry juice called blood goes over a lot better than tomato juice as blood. "Ghoul"ash is never a hit with my children although I am quite fond of it.

This year we were a little short on cash and I didn't plan in advance so it was up to me to come up with something from our very small pantry. I was feeling very guilty that I couldn't give them some of the favorites. It caused me to get really creative this time.

Don't ask why but I had a packet of lemonade kool aid (so not me) and so I made that up and threw in some green food coloring (again not me) and...Voila! Green slime drink.

(I am so embarrassed. The things I served my family tonight are really quite gross and so obviously against my organic beliefs. I shall now have to detox my family from sugar, dyes, chemicals, gross meats and so on. But I shall pocket my pride and continue.)

I also had a packet of Jello which actually required a lot of thinking but I finally decided on making jigglers cut with Halloween cookie cutters. My daughter saw it and said it was witches blood. The blood kind of turned into a lightly congealed, soupy blood but it was the first thing eaten. We had some little smokies that we turned into worms served with ketchup blood (lots of blood tonight). Tomato soup turned into a warm blood drink. We had (organic) green pea baby aliens. Plus we had some (organic)sweet potato pumpkin guts.

The piece de resistance was dessert. Pus with scabs, blood and dirt. I was quite proud of myself with this one. Very ingenious of me. It was vanilla pudding with a chocolate rice cereal, crushed Heath bars and dried cranberries. I thought it was an excellent dessert that all would love.

An overall "gross" meal if I do say so myself. My children loved it! Or they loved the idea of it! They didn't go for the warm blood. And believe or not, one of them would not touch the pus! And he doesn't even know what puss really is! They didn't eat everything but I think they were happy with it. The girls actually said it was the best Halloween dinner ever.

So what do I know. This again just shows me that I really don't have a clue about what is best for me and my family sometimes--no, most of the time. God had a plan which was not my plan and it all worked out for good. I was able to get creative and try new things. I didn't get to do what I wanted but I made due with what we had. And it was great. Once again proving to me and hopefully to you too that GOD IS GOOD!

Music or Art-which touches your heart?

I was sitting in church today listening to the sermon--mind you I am not sure I remember the real point of it, I might remember later--and Dr. Haney said something about appreciating art. How overwhelmed with feelings he gets looking at beautiful art. I on the other hand just get overwhelmed.

I am not an art gallery type person. It really doesn't interest me. I am also not a museum person. Although the kids and I did go to an exhibit of photographer Chuck Close and it was great. I could stare at his photo for a while. But generally art is not my thing. I appreciate talent and have a few friends that are artists that I really like their work but it doesn't move me.

But Music! Music on the other hand can make me cry in a heartbeat. I didn't cry today but boy Paul Sanchez was amazing. I did feel like he could have done more with the song though. It seemed like he held back or was held back. right when he could have blown me away...bam...the song went soft and it was over. Anyway, I digress. He is awesome but I want more.

Two weeks ago we had some local artists from Austin come and oh, my goodness. Carolyn Wonderland, Guy Forsythe and Shelly King and wow, they didn't hold back. It was amazing. I was moved by their music. They made me feel alive listening to their music. I didn't want it to end. I wanted to go back to the next service and listen all over again.

I cry every time Steve Morris sings. He is amazing and so humble. The last time he sang was when he performed "So much to be Thankful for". It was great. The whole church loves him. I love it when he sings the more operatic pieces. I can't wait until he sings again. The kids choir will be singing with him in December. I told my kids they get to hear my favorite singer!

There are other worship songs that we sing that affect me too. Like "Amazing Grace" and "Great is Thy Faithfulness". I can't remember all of them. I really do hear God in these songs and really feel like I can praise Him. And even when I'm not at church I love listening to music.

Check out some of these songs and artists I mentioned.