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Relax - I'm sitting by the fire eating some warm apple crisp with cool whip. I've just finished folding the whites. Of all the types of laundry I fold, the whites drive me most insane. I'll admit it: it matching all the socks. Seven people in the house means fourteen feet. The girls are settling down to bed and a quiet is returning to the house. The day after the autumn daylight savings time shift always seems extra long.

Bathtime - I popped out of bed this morning when I heard Abby shout from the kids' bathtub. She yelled, "Mom! Timothy's pooping in the tub!". We both bolted into the bathroom to handle the situation. Michelle caught Timbo on the early side so he was able to finish up on the toilet. Things got cleaned up and we setup another fresh bath for the two of them.

Years ago when we were visiting River Grove, Abby did the same thing in a bath with Claire. Claire freaked out as Abby, who was then roughly as old as Timbo is now, ruined that bath. Now roughly five years later, Claire feels vindicated. Ah, schadenfreude!

Mass - Timothy is a little bit under the weather and hasn't been the bundle of energy and curiosity that he usually is. Given that he wasn't the handful he often can be, we decided to try for the first time taking all five kids to Mass. We took them to the 7AM Mass. Of course, it didn't feel that early due to the time shift. They all behaved well so we rewarded them by taking them downstairs for donuts afterwards.

Honey-Do's - Most of the day was spent outside. Actually, Michelle did let me nap for over an hour but the rest was spent outside. In the late morning I cut the grass, hopefully for the last time. Michelle made a nice hotdogs, hamburgers, and sausage lunch on the grill. After the nap I changed the oil in the lawn tractor and the snowblower. I figured it's approaching the end of lawn season and will soon be time for Nor'easters and Alberta Clippers. Later I booked my airplane tickets and hotel for Cincinnati for Ed's wedding. I'm excited and yet a little nervous since I'm the best man. Afterwards I picked up takeout dinner from Valentino's — a little Italian restaurant down the street.

Halloween - Tomorrow, of course, is Halloween. The weather is supposed to be quite nice the next two days. Having warm weather should make it easier on Michelle when she's home with all the kids on the day after Halloween. As she did last year, Claire wants to stay with me and hand out candy and hot cider on the evening of Halloween. Michelle will take Abby and the twins trick-or-treating. The twins were supposed to go for the first time last year but the daylight savings time shift occurred on Halloween and really threw off their body clocks. Hopefully by tomorrow they will have adjusted.