Fall is my favorite season but this past week has been almost too busy to enjoy! (Almost.)

I’m in my second week of a paralegal certification class. My boss is amazingly supportive about education, and in fact, Widget Central has approached me twice about sending me back to law school…I considered it, but with L at the age that she’s at, it’s too much. However, when I asked if I could pursue my paralegal certification, she agreed readily..I have a bachelor’s, and my responsibilities at Widget Central are more middle-management than straight paralegal, but having the certificate can’t hurt in case I ever decide to head out and want to work somewhere else – a law firm, or another corporate legal department.
I opted for an abbreviated yet intensive certification program from a highly rated university. I quickly realized that it’s much more demanding than I’d been envisioning. I’ve been spending my free hours reading and doing homework, tests and essays, and while it’s interesting and absorbing, it’s definitely challenged my time management skills.

On top of the classwork side hustle, it’s always a busy week leading up to Trunk or Treat at L’s elementary school. If you remember from last year, L’s family takes Halloween seriously! We swept the awards last year, with L’s dad and stepmom winning the grand prize and me taking runner-up. This year, L’s dad was out of town for work, so stepmom K and I teamed up and did a joint Harry Potter theme. K is enormously talented and made a spectacularly lovely dragon – she buys material from special-effects shops and her work is boggling. He is a beauty. Unfortunately, when ToT arrived, it was pouring down rain and so the event was moved inside to the gym. We decided not to bring the handsome fellow because of the rain, but she still outdid herself with props and decorations and we won Best Design. L had a great time and that’s what matters most and I have to say, I really enjoy spending time with K – she’s a great artist and a down to earth person and a huge asset in L’s life! We are truly blessed.

Usually I do not post pics of L on this site, but I have to share this one of her Halloween costume because I really think it’s something special. L designed and envisioned a Steampunk theme and K brought it to life.

Before the side hustle started, I also had time for some knitting…Raveled here.

And of course – a Halloween poem – with new word for me – used in the post title!

Haunted Houses

All houses wherein men have lived and died
Are haunted houses. Through the open doors
The harmless phantoms on their errands glide,
With feet that make no sound upon the floors.

We meet them at the door-way, on the stair,
Along the passages they come and go,
Impalpable impressions on the air,
A sense of something moving to and fro.

There are more guests at table than the hosts
Invited; the illuminated hall
Is thronged with quiet, inoffensive ghosts,
As silent as the pictures on the wall.

The stranger at my fireside cannot see
The forms I see, nor hear the sounds I hear;
He but perceives what is; while unto me
All that has been is visible and clear.

We have no title-deeds to house or lands;
Owners and occupants of earlier dates
From graves forgotten stretch their dusty hands,
And hold in mortmain still their old estates.

The spirit-world around this world of sense
Floats like an atmosphere, and everywhere
Wafts through these earthly mists and vapours dense
A vital breath of more ethereal air.

Our little lives are kept in equipoise
By opposite attractions and desires;
The struggle of the instinct that enjoys,
And the more noble instinct that aspires.

These perturbations, this perpetual jar
Of earthly wants and aspirations high,
Come from the influence of an unseen star
An undiscovered planet in our sky.

And as the moon from some dark gate of cloud
Throws o’er the sea a floating bridge of light,
Across whose trembling planks our fancies crowd
Into the realm of mystery and night,—

So from the world of spirits there descends
A bridge of light, connecting it with this,
O’er whose unsteady floor, that sways and bends,
Wander our thoughts above the dark abyss.