Hey there friends!

Did you know that October is Family History Month in the U.S.? I found a wonderful article in the Library of Congress blog with ideas on how to get your family involved in gathering family history stories. I’ve linked it below for you to check out.

Now that we’re less than a week from Halloween, I want to direct you to the second Halloween-inspired story prompt in my book.

Today I’m sharing the excerpt “Halloween Traditions.” I’ve been lucky enough to live in 5 different states and all sorts of communities - from small town Tifton, Georgia to the metro area of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I can say with certainty that Halloween is celebrated differently depending on the culture and traditions of the place you are living at the time.

I haven’t written before about a particular quirk of my family’s Halloween traditions. But I’m sharing it with you here today. Consider yourself an insider.

Many of you know that I was previously married to a Baptist minister. All of the churches where we served while our children were young were very much opposed to traditional trick-or-treating. Instead, they hosted “fall festivals” in the church fellowship hall that actually were really a lot of fun.

But these events had strict restrictions on what type of costumes the kids could wear. “Nothing scary!” In fact, the only costumes allowed each year were Bible characters or clowns. I am not kidding!

I have to say I made some pretty creative costumes through those years. I’ve shared a photo of one of my little clowns down below for your enjoyment. Of course it is my “delight” for this issue as I look back to those days!

You also need to know that my grown children now accuse me of depriving them of the joy of going door to door trick-or-treating. And, of course, only wearing costumes depicting Bible characters or clowns. Thankfully they are now free to take their own children door-to-door and experience their delight.

One last thing before I turn this issue over to you. Make your plan to vote. 🗳️

Happy weekend,

Halloween Traditions

Enjoy this excerpt from The Simple Guide to Writing Family Stories.

I bet you have so many memories that begin swirling around in your head every year when you start seeing pumpkins on front porches and giant candy bags at the grocery or drugstore. I love that every family celebrates Halloween in their own unique way.

Write a story about either your favorite childhood Halloween traditions or the ones you created as a parent for your own children to enjoy. Other than a big bowl filled with candy that sat by our front door, I don’t remember my parents having specific Halloween traditions. But I will say my personal favorite part of Halloween was getting to roam around in the dark with our neighborhood gang of kids. And no parents! I’m sure there were parental scouts watching from afar, but as far as we knew we were on our own!

STORY SPARK

Write a story about your favorite Halloween traditions - from your childhood or from your years as a parent or grandparent. Who created the traditions in the first place and why did you love them so much?

ENHANCE YOUR STORY

Got photos? I hope so because some visual proof of some of your traditions will be needed for future generations. How else will they know that you dressed up as a character from a 1960s cartoon show like Fred Flintstone or Huckleberry Hound. If you don’t have photos from the past, check out your local antique shops and markets during September and October. Many of those vendors will have vintage Halloween decorations and costumes for sale and you can snap a photo that reminds you of something from your childhood.

The photo above is another one taken by my dad. This time the setting is the front door of our home in Searcy, Arkansas in 1958. Isn’t it fun to see costumes from those days?

Celebrate Family History Month

I found a great article this week to guide all of us as we try to engage our children and grandchildren to help with building our family story collections. The article was written in 2020 by Kamilah Zischang, who was an intern at the Library of Congress Young Readers Center while studying for a graduate degree in Library Science.

She says, “Talking to kids about family genealogy isn’t always easy and fun. If they are anything like my own, they have very little interest in listening to or even sitting through family history that can oftentimes feel like a boring history lesson. They don’t want to hear about their great-great aunt Petunia from Petaluma, unless she’s done something really cool.”

Kamilah has created what she calls the K-W-L approach to use when trying to get young children to get more involved with exploring family history. Click the button to find out what the K-W-L approach is and how you can use it with your own children or grandchildren - or maybe maybe even grown up family members.

Available on Amazon for Kindle and as a paperback.

Things that delighted & inspired me this week ✨

Seeing this photo of my youngest clown at the 1992 church fall festival just makes me so happy and delighted. I'm so grateful that the organizers created this cute photo spot to inspire all of us moms to take a photo to remember the night by. The clown costume was stitched by me. The blond wig was probably from the Macon, Georgia K-Mart. Oh, the memories. ❤️

My inspiration this week is a quote from Delia Owens, the author of Where the Crawdads Sing.

The photo below is of my favorite tree across the street from my home. Orange and pink leaves have really been flying and soaring on my street this week.

✨What is delighting and inspiring you these days?

#delightedandinspired

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I'd love to have you follow my social feeds. I promise to not be boring but will most likely be cheesy now and again. 😉