Skipping Halloween

October has been a tough month. It started out well...with some great conference talks to inspire and renew me...but by the end of the month I was feeling run down from a hectic schedule that's created a downward spiral for me. Never finishing my 'list of things to do' at the end of the day... lack of quality sleep... less patience... discouragement...
So this month we skipped most of the traditional October family things. Some things were omitted by choice and others were just squashed by the circumstances - we even filed for an extension on my birthday (we'll celebrate that next week), no pancakes at Grandma and Grandpa's for Sunday morning session of Gen. Conf. (actually, they were out of town so we had them here, but we slept in so used a mix to save time and they were not very good), no pumpkin patches (Megan got to go with another family - thank you, Tresa, for inviting her!), no carving pumpkins since we didn't have any ...by the evening of Oct. 30 when I realized that all my kids had plans for Halloween day and evening and I hadn't even bought any treats for the trick or treaters , I thought that it might be OK to just pass this year.
So the 31st - last day of October - not Halloween for me:
*I went to work. I usually have Fridays off but we did our first implant case and that was very interesting. I enjoyed that.
*I was off at 2 and was supposed to have a massage a little later but there was a mistake in the scheduling...chalk that up to the way October has gone. I rescheduled.
*I got a letter and pictures from Ryan in the mail.
*Jeff and I went out to dinner. We tried an old restaurant in town that has changed ownership several times. I haven't been there since it was Mediteranian. Our meals were very good.
*Dropped by the Trunk or Treat to find Caylin and make arrangements for her to stay with Amy a little longer.
*Then off to soak in the hot tub at Mom and Dad's. Nice warm night the stars were out - very relaxing.
*Picked up Caylin , came home and watched a movie. It was a nice way to end this month.
I'm going to have a better November. I'm going to focus on gratitude. I'm going to do the best I can and know that at the end of my day the 'in box' may still have a few things hanging around. If I can really do that, I'll go to bed earlier, get more sleep, and that should definitely help my outlook! I'm going to listen to Pres. Monson's talk again and "...find joy in the journey, now... "