Jenyfer Matthews

My daughter decided she was too old to trick-or-treat this year (sniff) but she still dressed up for the school Halloween fair. Doesn’t she look great?

And don’t tell him I said this, but my son was perhaps the most adorable mummy ever.

Yes, we did trick-or-treat a day early, but you have to be flexible when you live in a foreign country. The kids didn’t mind – they were too hyped up on sugar

When did Halloween get to be so complicated?

Get ready for it… I remember when I was a child, Halloween was thrillingly easy. You put on a costume, you grabbed a bag, and as soon as it looked as if it was getting the least bit dark away you went. There was a period of years where my family lived in a very child dense neighborhood and those are the Halloweens I remember the most fondly. My father would take us around a few blocks of houses, then we’d come back to our house and drop-off loot and go back out with my mom. Everything was pretty well finished and wrapped up by about nine o’clock tops. I don’t know if my memory is accurate in this respect, but I recall collecting a veritable mountain of candy. My sister and I would spend the rest of the evening sorting it out and trading things. The things neither of us liked much went to my father, LOL.

I haven’t lived in the US with my own children but I still do my best to give them a taste of the sort of experience I had. We lived for a while on a residential campus and that was easy – anyone who wanted to trick-or-treat just went out and the houses who were participating decorated their doors. That was a great night all around – and easy. My children were especially young then and it was wonderful fun to watch them toddle up to a door and then race away to the next one as fast as they could.

For several years now, I’ve been hearing how tricky (ha!) Halloween has become in the US. Communities will set times for trick-or-treating and even age restrictions. Okay, that doesn’t seem so bad or unreasonable – who wants a teenager ringing their doorbell at ten or eleven o’clock at night? Now I’m hearing about places that are actually shifting the night trick-or-treating is allowed entirely because it’s a school night or it’s on a Sunday and that might offend some people. Hmmm…last I checked no one ever shifted Christmas because it fell on a school / work day or because it landed on Saturday and that might offend orthodox Jewish people. It seems kind of crazy to me to slap all these restrictions on what really ought to be a simple event.

Unfortunately, it’s almost as difficult here in Cairo to tell the truth. Not only finding houses where the children can go to trick-or-treat but the sheer number of events. Their school hosts a Halloween fair one evening, typically the last day of the week before Halloween. There are a few parties hosted by private clubs. Tonight the big American school in the neighborhood will host their private Halloween fair, which typically also draws hundreds of Egyptian teens to the surrounding streets who focus entirely on the “trick” aspect of things – usually by throwing eggs at any hapless individual who passes by. (Last year they toppled a street light on to a car). The US Embassy has actually issued warnings about avoiding the area on the night of the fair and also on Sunday night (Lucky me, we live across the street!)

Even we have had to succumb to shifting the night of trick-or-treating to Saturday. What can I do? It’s the night when things are being organized – and it has to be organized because how else can you find the participating houses in a neighborhood full of apartment buildings primarily inhabited by people who could care less about Halloween? We’ll be issued a list of addresses to visit before we go out.

If I really wanted to go all out, I could even go back to our old building on Sunday night for one more go-round of trick-or-treating, but I don’t think I’m going to remind the children about that event. Surely by then even they will be weary of dressing up and going out? (Right???)

I decided to take advantage of the “free time” I had on Monday as a result of the maid being here and get some baking done. I made a batch of banana bread muffins and took my cast-iron waffle iron for another spin. That used up about ONE of the EIGHT hours she was in the house. The rest of the time I read and lurked. It was a very LONG day. Next week I pledge that I will do something more productive with my time – like maybe write a book or something.

I still haven’t gotten out my ceramic jack o’lantern decorations, but I did at least hang up a Halloween wall hanging I made several years ago.

I have been in a bit of a creative funk. I want to do something, just didn’t know exactly what. Yesterday I decided that I would get out the wall hanging kit that my step-mother gave me going on two years ago. After the jigsaw puzzle moose, I put off doing this one, but it seemed like the perfect project to get me back in the mood – especially since my work desk is actually usable now.

It’s slightly more sophisticated than the above wall hanging. While fairly easy to assemble, it took forever to cut out all of those intricate shapes!

Maybe it’s just the pretty batik fabrics, but it certainly makes the first hanging look juvenile and clumsy, doesn’t it?

The next challenge is quilting it. I love how the instructions say “may be raw edge applique” – as if I was actually going to sit there and needle turn all those tree branches down! The glue will have to do. It might actually be done before Halloween if I get my butt in gear today and tomorrow.

I looked back in my posts to see if I could link to the picture of the jigsaw puzzle moose and realized that I never did post a picture! I think I had intended on posting it hung in its new home but was then distracted by all the real wildlife in the area. So, much delayed, here is the moose.

(click image to enlarge)

All the varying shades on its antlers and body? All different slivers of fabric – which then each needed to be quilted down. Shudder. Just remembering all those bits and pieces makes me appreciate the simplicity of the witch hanging above all the more!

There are many, many things I want to teach my daughter about life, and this video represents one of those lessons. (There is one big F-bomb in the video so it probably isn’t safe for work unless you have your own office!)

I wish someone had said as much to me – I’d have eaten more as a teenager and spent less time worrying about my hair.

It’s week two of our new maid and I’m still not sure that I’m totally enthusiastic about this idea.

She only comes once a week, all day on Monday. My biggest hurdle so far is to figure out how to let her go about her business and still use the time productively in other ways. Last week I was in the kitchen nearly the whole time, cooking and baking for my son’s birthday. This week? So far I’m just lurking.

While it’s nice to have someone else do the heavy cleaning, it’s also hard to let go. She doesn’t do things the way I would do things. I’m reminding myself there is a settling in period and to give it some time because it’s nice to have someone else do the heavy cleaning. And it’s only once a week.

One benefit to having a maid come in is the sudden inspiration (shame) to clean up the trouble spots in my home that have been ignored basically since we moved in. For example, the pile of miscellaneous papers, sunglasses, and phone chargers that have accumulated on the counter near the microwave and the drips that have run down the front of my white cabinets. I mean, I wouldn’t want her to think I was a total slob.

Last week, she attempted to tidy my work desk. I didn’t think to tell her not to bother because I assumed that the sheer magnitude of the mess there would keep her away. She’s a professional though and she gave it a shot. I was so embarrassed that I finally got off my behind and did it myself this week. I finally took the bags of clothing destined for the consignment shop over to the shop and sent two other bags of clothes to the charity shop. I sorted through a pile of papers, magazines, and books (most of which was trash) and once I could see it, I washed the desk surface so I could put out my cutting boards.

Best yet, I finally (finally!) made my way through a pile of mending. There were items that had been waiting around for more than a year, many of which I decided I didn’t really need and either donated or tossed in the rag pile. I sewed on buttons and mended ripped seams and darned worn spots. I even dyed two pairs of pants for my son. I couldn’t resist buying them when I spotted them at the thrift store for $0.50 but they were stone colored twill, not an active boy’s best color. Think instant stains. So I bought two packages of RIT dye and dyed one pair dark brown and the other forest green – the colors of dirt and grass, as my husband pointed out.

The desk actually looks like a desk now and not just a pile of trash. I might actually be able to do some quilting there soon. And I really want to try. I seem to have lost my way creatively in all aspects. It’s time to start playing again.

All week I’ve been stewing about my daughter’s soccer team. I wrote before about the children and their bad attitudes. This week it was their parents who got on my nerves.

The team has lost badly several weeks in a row, not because they cannot make goals, but because they cannot stop goals. The only thing most of them can think of is to make a goal but no one wants to put any effort into defense. I appealed to the parents to talk to their children about shifting their focus a bit, both to point out that they need to cooperate and play as a team rather than as individuals and also to realize that you can win a game with 1 or 2 goals but only if you keep the other team from scoring.

The parents are pretty much as bad as the children – they just don’t want to hear about it. One parent responded to my appeal by saying that the purpose of this league is to teach an appreciation of the game and it wasn’t about competition. I’m sorry, but why does anyone sign up for a team sport if they aren’t interested in learning to play well? If you only want to teach your child a love of the game in a non-competitive environment, watch it on TV and spare the rest of us.

It was very tempting to keep my daughter home this weekend and let them sink or swim without her to prop them up but that would be more punishment for her than for them so we went. However, we requested that they put her in a defense position this week. We played what is currently the best team in the league and due to her superb efforts in stopping goals, the team won 4-1. She was the MVP of the game – without her they would have lost by at least 15.

I myself love the beauty of the lesson we demonstrated by putting her in defense, however I doubt that anyone else will have learned a thing. We are continuing the season strictly for the love of our daughter. Only three games and the tournament to go…

Proofreading is a necessary but mind-numbingly boring aspect of writing books.

Self-publishing is a double edged sword. On the one hand, you can write what you like on your own schedule, and one of the beauties of the digital age is that you can update text quickly and easily. The flip side is that self-published books are more harshly judged by the world at large and so need to be as well presented as possible AND you have to do all the editing and proofreading yourself.

I may have impossibly high standards for my own work, but if someone points out a typo in my book, I need - am compelled – to fix it. But I also know that where one or two typos have slipped through there will be others. And so I am proofing my file of SEPARATION ANXIETY again, to weed out any errors as much as possible.

Imagine you are trapped on a desert island with only one book. It’s a fantastic book that you love, but you’ve already read it. More than once. More than ten times. The pull to read it again isn’t very strong. In fact, you’d probably try to figure out a way to weave a Kindle out of palm fronds if you thought you could download something new to read.

Proofing is like that, but harder. Because you, as an author, already know what is supposed to be on the page it’s much harder to see what is actually there. Or in some cases what has been omitted. The only way I’ve found to find these errors and omissions is to read the book out loud to myself. It’s very helpful but still isn’t hugely entertaining – and it gives you a dry throat.

(Printing it would be better yet, but imagine the stacks of paper I’d go through)

I hope to finish this go-round in the next couple of days, but that won’t be the end of it. I get the rights back to my three Cerridwen books in December, at which time I plan to make them available on Smashwords and also in print on Amazon. I’m pleased about that prospect, but it does mean I’ll not only have to format the books for each outlet, but also proofread them once more for any problems / errors that might be lurking.

Sigh. At least I haven’t read any of those books for a while…

Are you as tired of hearing about birthday celebrations as I am of organizing them? Today marks the end of my birthday efforts for the year. That’s it – I’m done. Obviously there are other family birthdays between now and next July, but I’m not the one in charge of organizing the celebration, the food, the gifts, or the fun for the other ones, thank goodness.

It’s exhausting. In addition to my son’s sleepover party this weekend, he attended two other parties and there are already two more invitations for the upcoming weekend.

One of the nice things about living abroad is that family and friends are a little more willing to share their signature special recipes with you because more likely than not you won’t be attending many (if any) of the same social functions. My step-mother was nice enough to share her awesome fruit pizza recipe with me, which was a huge hit with the children this summer, so that I could make it for my son’s birthday. He always asks for a “cake with fruit on top” and I think this is going to be a success, unlike the pineapple upside down cake I made last year (which we all enjoyed but my son would not even try!)

It doesn’t hurt a thing that it is also my new recipe for October either. (Yes, still on track with my New Year’s Resolution).

This pizza has a shortbread crust, cream cheese frosting topped with the fruit of your choice. It is especially pretty with strawberries on top, but since those aren’t in season yet, I went with pomegranate seeds for that extra pop of color. It would have been prettier in a round pan, but my only round pizza pan has holes in the bottom!

The little man also requested our Thanksgiving menu for his birthday dinner, mostly because he wanted cranberry sauce (are you sensing a theme of tart fruit here?) I am indulging him by making an abbreviated version of the meal today, but I hope that means we can order pizza or Chinese on Thanksgiving proper!

I am planning on spending the rest of my time this week getting back into my newest story – it was really moving til I hit the month of non-stop birthday parties.

It was touch and go for a while, but I survived the boy sleepover!

The came, they swam, they played tag, they ate, they laughed and giggled. And that was before we even got back to our house for the cake and movie!

The tent was a huge hit with the boys (patting myself on the back). Instead of a campfire and smores, they had twisted puff Cheetos and a movie, but I didn’t hear any complaints. I turned off the lights at about 10pm and if they made any noise after 11pm I didn’t hear them – I was exhausted!

Just like birds, they were up with the sun. It was an earlier start than I generally like on a weekend morning, but at least I’m off the hook for hosting birthday parties for another year…

October is a busy birthday month for me, and this week is a doozy. Monday was my husband’s birthday, Thursday is my son’s party, and the following Monday is my son’s actual birthday.

Shopping for men is just a pain. By the time they get to be my husband’s age, they can already buy whatever it is they want for themselves. I’ve gone with art for many years – something he likes but won’t buy for himself – but I was tremendously pleased this year when he said he wanted a new watch and preferred to get it for himself. I knew the children would be outraged if there were NO presents for him to open though, so I went out shopping on Sunday to get a couple of presents that the children could give to him.

My plan was simple enough: go to some of the local upscale clothing shops and get him a couple of nice cotton or linen shirts for work. It seemed simple at least – cotton and linen are two fabrics Egypt specializes in. I must have gone into six different shops and came out with nothing. Everything was either too conservative or they didn’t have his size. Seriously, you’d think they were hand stitching the clothes themselves for how few items they have on hand to sell. And what is up with all the women’s clothes in what looks like a men’s shop on the outside? I guess they know who is doing the shopping!

On the way home I stopped in at a discount shop in desperation since I happened to be passing and found two nice shirts for about 1/4 of what one of shirt would have cost me in the boutiques, plus two new tops for me. Win-win.

We tried a new Chinese restaurant in the neighborhood for dinner (fabulous) and had blond brownies with ice cream for dessert. A good birthday.

My son’s birthday isn’t until Monday, but I thought I better get out and shop sooner than later so I could come up with a Plan B if my first idea didn’t work out. I had heard that the Toys R Us in a mall downtown by the Nile had bikes, for a price. I’ve got some fairly particular ideas about what I want in a kid’s bike but I decided it was worth a trip to see if they had what I wanted.

The mall where Toys R Us is located is not that far away in distance, but it took us no less than an hour in stop-and-go traffic to get there. Add in the heat and the exhaust fumes and you can imagine how awful I felt when I finally arrived. I went directly to Toys R Us to see if the trip had been worth it. Success!

They had exactly the size Huffy I wanted and I know my son will love the color combination. Yes, it cost more than it would have in the US – but it is here and it wasn’t so very much more than either shipping a bike from the US or buying a locally made bike with hand brakes so I am a very happy mom. It was worth the two hour commute and the migraine headache to think how happy the boy will be when he finally sees it.

(Don’t hate me but I also stocked up on friend birthday presents and got a little Christmas shopping done while I was there!)

I still have to survive the boy birthday party now, however I negotiated down from a full blown birthday party with twenty guests to a 3 friend sleepover on Thursday night. I even borrowed a tent to pitch in our living room to turn up the fun factor. I’m taking it as a compliment that though we are eating dinner at our club, my son has requested I make him a cake rather than ordering dessert there. Cake, popcorn, a tent, and RETURN OF THE JEDI – what more could an 8 year old boy want?

My son’s party is the first of three from his class this weekend (there are two more next weekend!) In fact, one of our guests is having a party at noon the next day. Think I can get them to settle down by 10PM? Going to give it my best shot!