The kids  are coming home for a football game today. We’ll have two daughters, one son, one son-in-law, a boyfriend and a girlfriend here. Soon the house will be full and noisy, the dog will be leaping and whining with joy, and I will be cooking and eating, laughing and talking, then hurrying off to the game.

Afterwards we’re going to a local brewery to celebrate our victory (or, drown our sorrows), then  home for  Halloween festivities–caramel apples, spiked cider, pumpkin carving and maybe a scary movie (Alfred Hitchcock is my limit of scariness).

I’ll have candy ready for any trick-or-treaters that come, but with the 45 steep, dark stairs up to our front door, very few actually ring my doorbell. Usually it’s only the kids on the street that we know and later, teenagers with pillowcases bulging, rounding out their candy haul.

I’m dashing off a post today to finish off my 31 Days Challenge to post every day in October–I did it!

It was fun, it was a challenge–I was really dragging at about day 22–but it has been well worth the effort. It has helped me get past perfect-post anxiety, both in content and in proofreading (if you get my posts by email, I’m sure you noticed some typos before I caught and corrected them). To get them posted by midnight I had to hurry up my editing and just hit “publish.” A few times it was literally at 11:59 pm.

At the end, I find myself back at the beginning. My little nest is again full and busy today, but it will be quiet tomorrow. So, today I will enjoy my family, and tomorrow I can get back to reflecting and writing. It may not be every day, but it will be steady.