1 Nov 2025 Hello November

Hello to you on this crisp first day of November. Can you believe how fast the year is going?!

Last night was uneventful. I watched one of my favorite live streamers on Tik Tok NYCTHRASHER stream the New York City Halloween parade. There was quite a turnout! They even had the Michael Jackson Thriller dance. Afterwards I watched an old classic Rosemarys Baby. The night before last I watched original The Crow . Both were free with ads on YouTube. I wanted to watch something spooky but not too spooky! Did you hand out candy? My Aunt said they had about 50 kids! When I first moved in I tried doing it but there were no kids so I stopped participating. Halloween used to be one of my favorite holidays!

Psalm 8:3-4: “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?”.

3 May 2023 Favorite Holiday

What is your favorite holiday? Why is it your favorite?

Hello to you – how is your day going? I’m doing ok. Todays prompt is a tricky one to talk about. My favorite holiday used to be Halloween but with all the controversy around it I decided Thanksgiving is my favorite instead. Really there isn’t a holiday we celebrate that doesn’t have some conflict about it. Most if not all holidays have pagan origins! I like Thanksgiving because it’s about food and family – being grateful for everything we have.

Halloween got ruined for my ex and I living in Texas. The churches would do trunk or treat which meant less trick or treaters in the neighborhood. A lot of the families that took their kids to the trunk or treat would then come to the neighborhoods anyways! It felt hypocritical to us that towns that forbid trick or treating came to our town. When the new houses went in, the kids mostly went there and we hardly had any kids come through our neighborhood. Halloween is kind of a holiday like Easter and Christmas. There are double meanings. Is Easter about bunnies and Easter egg hunts or about Jesus rising from the dead? Is Christmas about Santa Claus and presents or about celebrating Jesus being born? A lot of Christians do pagan things with their children – they do both as a right of passage. The holidays have been for so long about how much money can be made – so materialistic!

https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween

I have a lot of happy memories of Thanksgiving. It was a time of getting together with family and sharing food. My favorites have always been the desserts – pumpkin pie. Sadly as our country has become more aware, there are some not so happy things about the history of Thanksgiving from a First People perspective:

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/holidays/thanksgiving-ideas/a33446829/thanksgiving-history/.

Philippians 4:6-7
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

1 November 2021 Monday

Hello. Good morning from here. I have a cup of coffee and my writing buddy Link beside me. How are you? If you celebrated Halloween how was it? Did you get a lot of trick-or- treaters? I had about ten or so. Turns out most people in my neighborhood go to the other side of town. Aw well….me and my hat with goggles showed up !

Someday I’m going to get more of a costume together!

Now there will be a lull for a couple of weeks and then it will be Thanksgiving. I am trying to keep my heart in the center of my chest and out of my stomach. I’m trying to push myself more…..baby steps.

“The Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear. … I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.” (Dune)

31 October 2021 Crystal Empowerment and Halloween

Hello! How are you? I’m doing pretty good. Last night I had my very first Zoom meeting on Meetup. The group was called Crystal Empowerment. There were four of us and we had a nice visit learning about how you can use crystals in healing. We were able to share some of our crystals and I got to make a plug for my Meetup Group. A couple of the people even had drums! Athena, the organizer for the meeting, has a shop in Boise here is her website: https://www.crystalempowerment.com/

So today is Halloween and I’m having lots of mixed emotions about celebrating it alone. There is a part of me eager to don my top hat and steampunk goggles. There is equally a part of me that wants to say screw it and hide inside! As we get closer to trick-or-treat time we shall see which side wins!

Last May was a very creative time for me

What is Gods plan for me as we move so quickly through the last months of the year? It always feels like the fast forward button gets pushed from Halloween on into New Years. I will need to be vigilant! I’m feeling like there is much good to come….healing and growing.

I hope you have fun however you celebrate today!

28 October 2021 Breaking Through

Hello to you . How are you today? It’s a sunny start to the day. It feels so nice! I am doing ok today. I’m thinking about Halloween. I bought a couple small bags of Snickers to pass out and am thinking about wearing my steampunk hat and goggles! I am having to break through my grief. Halloween was our favorite holiday.

I did this last May

Who am now? So much of my identity was plural! It was Kyle and Jackie not just Jackie. I am having to find out who I am now. Yesterday I deleted my Tinder (dating app) account because I realized I have no business being there. Like I talked about in my previous blog. I am walking around carrying a bag full of holes!

“Gradually, carefully God unravels the mystery that is a life. Be it mother, sister, friend or wife. Previously curtained paths do a slight reveal. A joy is found that no one can steal.”

12 October 2021 Tuesday

Hello . How are you today? I am doing ok. I finally decided to go get groceries and it wasn’t cheap and a bit of a scavenger hunt. I spent $103 for just me. I was relieved that they had drinking water but it looked like the toilet paper aisle had been raided. I don’t envy the people that work there trying to keep the store shelves stocked !

So I found a YouTube channel that was interesting: Living Life in North Idaho. The host, Trent has lived in Idaho for 30 years and is a realtor. This video done just a day ago mentions Middleton: https://youtu.be/SxrTGg48npY . He does a variety of videos some of which I wish I had seen before deciding to move here!

I thought about buying Halloween candy today but decided not to. This is my first Halloween in the neighborhood and I don’t know what to expect . There are a lot of kids living here but I don’t know if they go trick or treating or if they are just going to go the trunk or treat route. I miss dressing up with my ex husband and handing out candy. We had a steam punk theme and I had my plasma lamp that I would bring out and light up light bulbs wirelessly!

Do you decorate and celebrate Halloween? I’d love to hear about it!