My sweet boy and I finally made it to Screams last night. I'd almost have to classify it as a disappointment, though. It was an hour drive each way and $20 a head for admission. The lines were sooooo long that we had only been through two of the five haunted houses by time it was midnight. The boy's leg was tired from hauling around his casted foot and he is not used to being up that late, so we called it a night and went home.

Of course, we did have a good time, but it was sort of disappointing that we got to see so very little of it. While we were in line for one of the haunted houses, we passed my son's old children's pastor. He told us that the church pastor's wife had passed away the previous Monday and the funeral was this past Friday. We just ran across the pastor and his family at a restaurant not even two weeks ago (after not having seen them in well over a year). It was such a shock. They have three beautiful daughters, two of which are still in high school and one just started college. This is the first unexpected death that has ever occurred to someone I know and it is rough. I just keep thinking about those girls and how their mother will not be there to see them graduate, marry and become mothers themselves. How sad for that family. She was such a wonderful person. I just can't stop thinking about them.

On a lighter note, the boy decided that he wanted to make roast chicken, macaroni and cheese and peas and carrots for his first try at meal prep this evening. It was VERY entertaining watching him dig out the neck, heart and liver from the chicken and he was pretending the chicken was trying to "fly away" while he was washing it. He has quite a developed sense of humor for being 10. I am chuckling again just writing about it.

I had him read the cookbook directions for roasting a chicken and he took it all very seriously. He decided on this peppercorn rub that we had in the spice rack, rather than using the recommended oregano and basil, because he liked the way it smelled, better. Too funny! It still has an hour to cook and it smells really good in here. That is one of my favorite rubs, too.

I have this sort of generic rule in the house that each meal cannot exceed 600 calories. Once dinner is ready, I am going to have him figure out how much of each item he wants, while remaining balanced, to reach approx. 600 calories. I don't make it an exact science at this point, since it is just about awareness for now. Good times!!!