Pumpkins, Buildings, and Baking...Oh my!

Saturday was a wash, weather-wise. It poured on and off for the entire day and through the night. So, it seemed like a good idea to carve my pumpkin. The only problem was that I didn't have one yet. This meant I had to go to the store and carry it home, it under one arm, my umbrella in my other hand. It was a little uncomfortable, but it worked.

I had a few hours on hand before I would be going with a friend to some sites involved with Open House Chicago, so I sat down and started transferring my design to the pumpkin. (The "Harry Potter" marathon on Freeform was on in the background.) Then, it was time to scoop and clean the pumpkin seeds. So far so good...

The carving went well; though, it took a lot of patience because of all of the small cuts where the knife was almost too big.

When the final cut was made, I turned down the lights, put in the candle, and lit it. Magical.

The timing could not have been more perfect. As I finished cleaning up my mess and drying the pumpkin seeds (for later roasting), my friend called and told me she was at my apartment. We were ready to go. We ended up heading up to Evanston, checking out "The American Toby Jug Museum," the Alpha Sigma Epsilon building (at Northwestern), and the Baha'i temple. All were quick stops, but it was definitely worth it.

My friend invited me to go swing dancing, but I passed this time around. The weather was swaying me in the other direction. But I will go soon - I love dancing!

Later in the evening I baked those pumpkin seeds. And, because the oven was on, I baked some cookies for my faculty too.

When the cookie recipe calls for softened butter...you hold it in the oven, naturally!

I must say, it was a delicious way to end the day. As for today, I got a run in this morning (though there were many puddles!), and I'm off shortly to see "The Princess Bride" and to attend the opening dinner and Mass at my church. Happy Sunday!

The Art of Pumpkin Carving

As I've likely mentioned before, I grew up in a family that practiced non-traditional pumpkin carving. So, after all those years of haunted houses, college mascots, favorite characters, and more being on display in your front yard for all the neighbors to marvel at, it makes me realize I will never be satisfied with a regular old jack-o-lantern.

To illustrate my point, here are the past few years of pumpkin carving (in order starting at the top left and going clockwise - Arizona cactus, my church, Olaf (from Frozen), and Mickey Mouse):

This year, I probably should have carved the Cubs logo for Halloween. (Or, I could have "flown the W".) Then again, maybe that would have given rise to the "curse." 

Since I am just slightly obsessed (if you didn't already know) with the musical, "Hamilton," I decided to not throw away my shot to capture the iconic cover art.

So, I made my (rough) sketch...

And I searched all over Trader Joe's for the perfect canvas - I mean, pumpkin.

I tried to be as symmetrical as possible...

And I made some pretty ugly sketches on the pumpkin...

Until I finally got the ideas I wanted translated onto the pumpkin.

And then, as much as I wanted to carve it right away, I decided it was better to wait for it because otherwise it might rot before Halloween.

(Alexander Hamilton, we are waiting in the wings for you...)

Finally, at one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine... there are 10 days till Halloween, I grabbed a few kitchen knives, newspaper (thank you, Chicago Tribune), and got to work. So messy, yet so wonderful!

My hands were covered in icky pumpkin slime, so I didn't get any pictures along the way - just before and after. As you can see, I was planning to cut out the individual Hamilton letters, but they were too small, so I made some minor tweaks.

And lights, camera, action!

The A.Ham pumpkin hasn't made it to the window yet, but I've been watching it burn while grading and while cheering on the Cubs, so it's served its entertaining purposes so far.

It's far from perfect, but it was really neat to be able to bring my idea to life. (Sometimes in the classroom, things look a lot better on paper and then completely flop...you know how it goes.)

Now it's time to sign off and get ready for some friends' wedding celebration.

I have the honor to be your obedient servant, KMF

This is Halloween...This is Halloween...

Most kids prefer trick-or-treating...and most adults prefer costume parties...but me, I prefer pumpkin carving!

Growing up, we never had traditional jack-o-lanterns at our house. Not only were our pumpkins non-traditional, but my dad usually carved two, one for both of his daughters. Bert and Ernie, Gators and Spartans... What a champ.

It comes as no surprise, then, that when faced with my blank canvas (aka newly chosen pumpkin), I am ready for anything but ordinary. In honor of today's holiday of Halloween, I have compiled my 4 most recent pumpkin carvings below. In reading clockwise (starting with the top left), they are as follows: 2011 - Halloween in AZ (cactus and sun), 2013 - St Clement (my parish in Chicago), 2014 - Olaf (from Frozen), and 2015 (Mickey Mouse - this one's for Aunt Marg!).

I hope your Halloween is full of all of the good things you like to do. Happy Halloween!

"Fall"ing

I keep joking with coworkers, family, and friends that maybe after the 6th grade girls' volleyball season is over I just might have a life. Seriously, though, there have been so many things that have been piling up that I want to blog about, but I just haven't had the time to sit down and do it.

And, just to be clear, I'm not saying that I'm not enjoying and learning from every bit of what life is throwing at me right now - don't worry, I haven't gotten to this point:

If I ever do get here, you'll know - I'll be miserable. :P

Enough about all of that; let's turn our attention to Fall!

Don't you just love the Daily Quipple?

Fall is my favorite season - it always has been, even though growing up in Florida we never had the changing leaves or cooler weather (at least not until January, really). It's football season, and school is still fresh & new. There are apples to be picked (doing that with some friends today!) and coats to be taken out of the closet (need to do that sometime soon). There are pumpkins to be carved and pumpkin treats to bake/taste.

And change is in the air - both changes we're excited about and changes we may have mixed feelings or be sad about. One of my good friends from church just got a new job (awesome!)...in St. Louis (not so awesome). As a few of us (including the gal who just got the new job) were sitting around at dinner last night (see image below for what our sushi looked like), we were talking about how on one hand we are going to miss her a lot but, on the other hand, how it's impossible not to be thrilled for this new opportunity where she will have more job satisfaction than she does now and be back with her immediate family. One of the other girls said something along the lines of "It's not about me. If it were, it'd be easy to say, 'You can't leave. I need you here.' But since it's not, I want what's best for you."

Mixed emotions, there we have it.

But all in all, there is so much to look forward to and be excited about on personal and professional levels. Here are just a few things:

Personal --> upcoming young adult retreat next weekend, apple picking with friends (today!), Chicago marathon cheering, friends' birthday celebrations, CST show...
Professional --> ongoing leadership opportunities with my school's data/school improvement committee, a unit on Catholic Social Teaching with 8th grade, a field trip to the theater with 6th grade, continued collaboration with the middle school team...

So, there you have it: Fall in a nutshell. I hope you find change and contentment in the beauty of this Fall...