Making our own traditions

Tonight my older two were pretty upset with their dad for not calling as he had promised and not taking up on the offer to take them Trick or Treating. We worked through it with some tears and some prayers. Mostly, I listened and heard my kids' coming to the realization that when dad has better things to do with his girlfriend and her kids or fun outings with friends they are put last. My 9 year old asked me tonight if all daddies put their kids last because she didn't think they did. I was stumped at how to answer this question without putting anything negative into her head and so I just simply said, "I don't think so" and then changed the subject to how it was making her feel.

Tough moments in single mommyhood. Thankfully I only lost a few tears here and there through out the day as realizations would hit me also. Some days I expect to wake up and see the dad I always thought the ex was to come back and at least be a healthy and fit father. Then I realize that I was living in denial and he was only that father because I was doing it all for him. Now that he has no one to force him to be a father, he's really not much of one. And so days like today, I wake up all over again having to accept who this man is that I thought I knew.

And so tonight I decided it was time to continue with making new traditions. Earlier in the week we had already carved our pumpkins for the first time. For some reason every year, this always got put off. I don't know if it's because the ex could never manage money and by the time holidays hit we were broke or if I was simply to busy battling him to even notice simple things like this had gone to the wayside. Regardless, we carved 3 pumpkins and made a Super Mr. Potato head out of the 4th. All three kids were extremely proud of their creations, my 2 year old keeps running to the door and shouting "My pumpkin". Pretty darn cute and well worth the itchy arms I received from scooping out the darn things. We made a dancing monster, a cat and then ___________ Family which the girls really liked because they talked about how we are still a family.

Tonight I decided to make them a gory dinner themed after halloween and served up Monster brains (green quinoa), monster guts (blue mac n cheese), alien octopus (green hotdogs with spaghetti noodles cooked hanging out) and bloody toast (buttered toast with colored icing on it). It was a hit with the girls. They ooh'ed and ahh'ed over it and thought it was the coolest thing ever. My son on the other hand refused it and insisted on good old chicken nuggets and grapes lol. They licked their plates clean and asked if we could do it next year too, so I'm excited that we have started a new tradition where every year we will be doing a halloween themed dinner!

And with that, this worn out lady is off to bed! I hope you all enjoyed your Halloween for those that celebrate and for those that don't, I hope you had a beautiful last day of October. And for all those affected by Hurricane Sandy I hope and pray you have been safe and get through the storm with minimal damage!