weather tricks and real treats

I know people have raised an eyebrow or two at the fact that we made the choice to stay aboard the boat with children in the path of a hurricane, nay a SUPER STORM.

Well, you can watch CNN and listen to the news and shake in your boots and run for your life screaming that the sky is falling, or you can actually learn how to find and interpret first hand the weather charts that are available free and in real time from NOAA and various other weather tracking agencies. That's what we do. And though from the news headlines said "the East Coast was going to be swallowed by a Zombie Dragon End of the World Stormagedon", we could plainly see by reading the charts and models that our neck of the woods tucked up in the Chesapeake Bay was expecting at most a 2-3 foot storm surge that would be mostly negated by a strong northern wind, which would be changing to a south wind around midnight Monday and enhanced by a full moon. And the winds over all would not exceed 70mph which is totally manageable in our protected corner or water. And guess what, that's exactly what happened. Exactly.

The wind gave us a bump and a jostle, but nothing out of the ordinary as boats are made to take on winds. And the water came right up to the docks, but not above. And the worst fall out for our family was discovering 3 new leaks with all that rain and me getting a wicked nasty sinus infection.

The kids found ways to pass the time...

And before we knew it, we were back to normal and getting ready for Halloween.

Which brings me to my next rant. I understand not wanting your 1-2-3 year old to eat candy. We certainly didn't let Naia have any trick-or-treats, placating her with pistachios and honey sticks while she ran around trying to keep up with the big kids. But for crunchy hippy families like us who live healthy and clean and sugar free-ish 364 days of the year, why on earth would one deny older kids the joy or gorging themselves silly for one day a year? Sugar Fairies and Switch Witches are, in my opinion, a crazy indulgent way for parents to control their ideas of how Halloween should be. It's not about us. It's about having one day a a year where kids don't worry about grow foods or warm clothes or being loud or staying up too late or running in the dark up the street or howling at the moon. It's about treats and imagination and ghost stories that you don't quite understand but make your spine tingle, and stepping outside yourself to be anything and everything. It's about the kids getting to be kids rather than little green smoothie drinking, eco-conscious, mini-adults. Let them just be. It's ONE day. Have some fun.