Adventures in La La Land

1. I read an interesting book this week: The Alice Network  by Kate Quinn. It was actually for book club, which I ended up not going to, but I enjoyed the book! It was based on a true story about a spy network run by women during World War I. I love books based on real events for two reasons: 1. I get to learn about history, but 2. it's fictionalized so it's not boring. Haha. Sorry to my non-fiction lovers. Anyway, it is astonishing  to me that women were willing to risk so much for their country in a time when women tended to be sheltered and shielded. I've grown up in the age of female empowerment, and I would never  be on board with any of the things these women had to do. Haha. The whole book was a little risque, but it wasn't obscene. And I couldn't help but laugh at a certain quote in light of this week's events. The context is that the main character (Eve) is moving into her apartment in German-occupied France for her first official spy job. Her mentors a

1. On Tuesday morning, I glanced out the window as the kids were getting ready for school and noticed there were smashed pumpkins in our street. My heart sunk a little bit as I crept down the stairs and out the front door to check our front porch. Sure enough, where there once had been 3 pumpkins, there were now only two. Lena, of course, noticed my absence and followed me out. She laughed at the squashed pumpkin. When Levi joined the party, he was not as jovial. It was his Halloween pumpkin, that he had painstakingly decorated that was smashed to smithereens in the street.  I tried to explain that his pumpkin was dying anyway and it was almost time to get rid of it. I offered him my untouched, undecorated pumpkin to decorate any way he wanted. But he just kept crying, "I worked so hard on that one. It was my special pumpkin. The best pumpkin of my life." Doesn't that just break your heart? Lol. He cried the whole way to school, and was still crying when I left. Later, as

1. I got most of my Christmas shopping done this week. Wednesday was my favorite Kohl's sale of the year ($10 off $25 + 30% off + free shipping!). I made 12 orders this year, and each averaged between 11 and 13 dollars. That's my kind of deal shopping! One perk of Covid is that many stores are doing pre-Black Friday sales in an effort to dissuade people from shopping in-store on the day after Thanksgiving. So I've also been getting deals from Amazon, Target, Ulta, etc. After all the spending this week, though, I'm feeling the need to hide my credit cards. Lol.  Now that all three kids are at school two days a week, I can sort, organize and wrap  the presents as they come in!  I've been wanting a pair of booties for a while, but didn't want to spend a lot. $12.99 at Aldi? Score! 2. Monday was our last day of nice weather. 75 degrees in November? Unheard of! My kids took advantage of it, though, and apparently word spread to the neighbor kids: 3. I went to confere