This Week’s Miscellany: Vol. 162 (DC Edition!)

I don’t always remember October being such a whirlwind! But it’s been quite. a. month. I don’t even know where to start. So, here’s my attempt at a recap….

We got a dog! We adopted a two-year-old Goldendoodle named Olaf. He is THE SWEETEST love muffin. I’ll tell you the whole story sometime, but suffice it to say we are head over heels for our little snuggle bug. He is in danger of being smothered in affection.

Daniel planned and cooked for two five-course farm-to-table dinners for about 70 people. My favorite was the appetizer: Rosemary biscuits with farm-raised ham and homemade tomato jam. He rocked it and I was so proud.

The day after the second farm dinner was sweet Lucy’s fifth birthday party. She decided on a “spooky fancy” theme.

Then we had two days to catch our breath before Daniel headed off for a goat conference in Austin. That’s right. GOAT CONFERENCE. I can’t tell you how much I love that his job involves going to goat conferences. Farmers, man.

He returned home at bedtime that Thursday night and at 4:30am the next morning we packed up the kids in the van so Daniel could drop me off at the airport for a speaking event in DC. Getting everyone out of bed at 4:30 am was a TREAT lemme tell ya.

Y’ALL. I had never really been to DC before and I loved it. My plane arrived by noon and after much agonizing over what transportation I wanted to use, I tried out the metro to meet up with a lovely gal who was coordinating the event, Stephanie. I felt VERY GROWN UP taking the metro. (It’s the little things, folks, I don’t get out much.)

We walked to the Mall to see the monuments and memorials and I was a little bit blown away. Everything’s so much bigger in real life! More imposing. More awe-inspiring and moving. We walked past the White House and saw Marine One taking off which was exciting.

Then we took a brief stop into the Museum of American History to see Julia Child’s kitchen, Dorothy’s ruby red slippers, and the Star-Spangled Banner.

That evening I had a blast chatting with the lovely folks at St. Peter’s on Capitol Hill about liturgical living. And meeting sweet readers! Such a treat.

And afterwards I met up with my dear friends Brandon and Marianna (Benjamin’s godfather and his wife who was one of our housemates in college) who live in DC now. We spent all day Saturday catching up and exploring the city.

The Capitol, y’all! It’s HUGE and beautiful!

But the best part was probably the National Gallery of Art. Marianna is a fellow medievalist so we spent most of our morning nerding out over medieval art and figuring out which saint was which. I guess I always think of the good art being in Europe, but wow. The National Gallery is amazing. And free! You just waltz in.

We saw a daVinci, some Botticellis (he’s my fave), and just swooned over everything. But the piece that most surprised me was this van Eyck painting of the Annunciation. Y’all. It is FLAWLESS. It’s small, but when you get up close, there are no brushstrokes. The details look photographic in quality. It was just splendid. I could have stared at it all day.

Then the Library of Congress was stunning. I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t this!

We went to a Vigil Mass and then I was on the plane at dark-thirty the next morning to get home in time for some Halloween prep before Hallowtide started.

I give you a fairy godmother, an elven princess, and Iron Man. Benjamin was pointing in the direction of trick-or-treating which in our neighborhood is a BIG DEAL. They block off a road not too far from us and there are literally THOUSANDS of trick-or-treaters. Really fun.

I love Hallowtide. All Saints was great (just went to Mass and made a special meal) and then we went to our first Latin Requiem Mass for All Souls with the catafalque (empty casket). It was incredible and I will never miss it again. The kids helped me make Soul Cakes (which turned out to be muffins this year) and when it stops raining, we’ll head over to a cemetery to pray.

Congratulations for making it through all that, folks!

Before we get to my favorite links from the past couple of weeks, just wanted to remind y’all that the Cherubalm giveaway ends tonight! So if you read this before morning, be sure to get your entry in. And if you don’t, make sure you check out this chrism-scented baby balm because it is DREAMY.

Oh! And if you’re starting your Christmas shopping (as in, if you’re not procrastinating like I am and are actually ON THE BALL about this sort of thing) remember that you can support Carrots by purchasing Amazon items through my Carrots affiliate link. Some of you make an extra effort to do this every year and it really makes a huge difference to my family, so thank you!