If you are on my email list this “Halloween Challenge” post will be familiar. You see, I sent out this email to my subscribers this week and it seemed to hit a chord with young mothers out there hanging on by their fingernails as they gear up for Halloween.
Halloween can be a lot, am I right?
So this message is to you:
YOU’VE GOT THIS!!
Oh I remember so well all those Halloweens-gone-by.
We’d get costumes all ready to go and without fail, someone would change their mind.
I remember the mess. The sugar overload. The make-up to get them gussied up strewn across the counter. I remember being loaded up to the brim with their discarded costume parts by the end of the night.
The school carnivals, trying to keep track of kids. The school parties I showed up to help with, lugging a toddler along. The late nights and the wailing that ensued when we were all living on so little sleep.
The candy wrappers strewn around the house and under the couch cushions. Sticky candy too.
But sitting here from my vantage point with my last daughter who has decided she doesn’t actually like Halloween, all the chaos has melded into such tender and happy memories.
The Good Stuff
The excited sparkle in kids eyes.
The glee when the “perfect” costume was finalized (for the last time:).
The smell of the Halloween isle at Target.
The interaction with friends and neighbors, the chili cook-offs, taking turns with hosting pot-lucks in our driveway. The candy-exchanges at the end of the night.
Sometimes I would give anything to go back and re-live what you, young mamas, are mustering through right about now.
Some day you will be sitting alone at your house, your kids grown out of that eye-sparkle that comes with Halloween, and you’ll miss it.
My Halloween Challenge to You:
Oh, I’m not here to tell you to love all that Halloween chaos. I’m just challenging you to take a minute this season to memorize one moment.
How it smells, what it sounds like.
How does it feel.
Slow down for long enough to look right into your children’s eyes.
That slow-down you take to memorize even one little moment will solidify a little of the magic for you to hold onto. And some day when those kids hanging on your arms are all grown up you’ll smile thinking about it.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!
I just love this post. As a Mom now of 3 in their late 30’s….it just brought it all back to me. I made ( sewing machine and I ) most of their costumes. Just sweet memories now.
Thank you.