I have some bragging to do. I sewed! I fixed three items of clothing: a winter coat that was losing its buttons, a pair of my son’s corduroys that had a big rip near the crotch, and a sweater of mine that was ripped on a seam. These things had been sitting around waiting to be fixed forever. I wanted to donate the coat to the school’s coat drive, but not with the buttons all hanging loose. So I found my wee sewing bag (it must be meant for traveling) and got started.

My mom taught me the basics of sewing when I was little, maybe 8 or 9. I remember getting into it for a while, doing some small projects. Doll clothes, maybe, or even a small stuffed doll. The muscle memory was still there; my hands were sewing without my brain fully thinking about it. Now, I don’t want Tim Gunn coming around inspecting my stitches or anything. But for my purposes, they were fixed and functional. Woo!

It was also very relaxing. Hmmm, maybe I could do a quilt this winter, like I always wanted to do.

Last weekend was productive. I did a lot of cleaning and finally, finally got rid of a stupid old file cabinet that was sitting in our upstairs hallway being a junk collector. The files inside all were from 2006 or older. I switched out the basket of bating suits and goggles for one of hats, gloves, and mittens, and figured out which kids need new items. As always, I did lots of wash. The weather was nice and the kids played outside with their friends after soccer. I threw the football around with them, too. Saturday night, I lit all our candles and turned off the lights while we watched “scary” movies (Addams Family, Monsters University).

Sunday, I went to Target early in the morning and found a dress on clearance that could serve as a witch’s dress for my daughter. The dress was less than the witch’s hat that I also had to buy. Ever since Sunday, I’ve been trying to figure out my oldest’s costume; it wasn’t resolved til today, when I found what I needed at Goodwill, plus lots of other stuff (more pants for me, shirts for me, a new Pyrex small measuring cup, some clothes for the kids).

I’ve been feeling sick most of the week but I have cooked. Last night we had homemade chicken soup, with tortellini, and garlic bread with Italian bread I’d been saving in the freezer. It hit the spot. Confession, I did take the kids to Friendly’s on Saturday for lunch, mainly because my husband was away in NYC, and we are going out to eat tonight (but it’s a fundraiser!). And we had pizza on Sunday night. I was paralyzed after all the cleaning; it was really a lot.

Eating some leftovers now for lunch to make up for all that.

This week I binge-read Sisterland, by Curtis Sittenfeld, my new free Overdrive library book. I really enjoyed it. It’s about twin sisters who are psychic and one of them makes a prediction about an earthquake in their town (St. Louis). A thousand years ago, I used to read Seventeen magazine religiously. It always published a short story, and one of the few that I can still remember now was by Curtis Sittenfeld. It was about a teenager whose boyfriend dies of cancer and she develops an obsession with trash and recycling as a result. (You can see why I liked it.) Random side note, the other story I remember was called “Frederika the Beautiful” and was about the trials and tribulations of being gorgeous.

Anyway, Sittenfeld also wrote “Prep,” which I liked, and some others that I haven’t read. Maybe one of them will be my next book… if it’s free.

Happy early Halloween!