Welcome to my favorite month of the year! October, when you can watch all the horror, eat all the chocolate, and dress up like your favorite characters! What are you going to be for Halloween?
In this edition of The Jubilee you will:
- Meet Weekly Woman Madison Caprice, mother of 5 year old Max and forever called Moody till she started taking Jubilance
- Creative Ideas for Fall Decorating and budget-friendly Halloween Costumes
- Learn how to make the best Pumpkin Bread and Chili for all your October needs
- How to Dress as Your Self for Halloween with Becca
- Why Halloweentown is the most Feminist Horror Film Ever!
- Halloween in Texas with Kellidawn
“Weekly Woman — Madison Caprice”
I’m excited to introduce you to Madison. Madison has always been called “Moody Maddy” up until last month. This mom and Bar Manager out of St. Louis talks to us about growing up in the city, being a big craft beer girl, and how she was completely transformed that she didn’t even realize her period was coming!
She celebrated her birthday by going out of her comfort zone and talking to us about her period and what it means to have PMS… or not this month!
We spoke with Madison Caprice about how she found relief from her emotional PMS! Here’s an excerpt from the interview!
Jubilance: What do you think is your biggest success story to date? You have a son, you’re a bar manager, you make people smile. What do you think?
Madison: Yeah, I would definitely say that I’m an overcomer. I’ve had depression and anxiety pretty much as long as I can remember. But I definitely think your mind is such a powerful thing, it can be your worst enemy or it could be your secret ally. You know, women, we’re so strong and precious and our mental health is so important. I think I’m just a really big advocate for speaking about mental health. So I guess my biggest success story would be that when I put my mind to something I usually succeed and the opposite, you know, when you’re feeling down or, specifically me, my PMS is debilitating, it’s been awful. But when I do put my mind to something I definitely succeed. My biggest example of that would be the birth of my son. So I always told myself that I was going to have a natural childbirth so with no medication, no nothing. I set my mind to it–
Jubilance: Wow!
Madison: Yeah, it’s okay.
Jubilance: It’s great that you’re able to talk about mental health because it can be such a taboo subject. It’s something that we really need to talk about, especially as women, because PMS affects everyone. Can you talk a little bit more about your PMS experience? You said– you commented that you’ve had it for years and it’s just been this debilitating thing.
Madison: Absolutely. I’m glad you mentioned that everyone has it. Because for me it was very isolating and “I felt alone and a lot of my thoughts, my feelings, I felt like, Man, I’m such an alien. Why am I feeling this way?” Roller coaster, up and down, so hard to just be stable. I just felt so unstable. So I guess with Jubilance if we want to go there, I am so grateful I stumbled upon an Instagram post and I watched the entire podcast with Alan. Is that his name, Alan?
Jubilance: Yeah.
Madison: It was an hour long. I was in tears. I was watching him and learning about science and how maybe it’s not just our hormones, and maybe we’re not crazy. And–
Jubilance: You’re not crazy!
Madison: How groundbreaking that the way your cerebellum is processing sugar could be the culprit here! I mean it blew my mind and I was just like, “I have to try this!” Do you know? I was reading people’s comments and I’m like, “Okay, a trial, let’s try it!” It’s been a month and I– this whole month, I haven’t had PMS and—
Jubilance: We’re so happy it can help you.
Madison: I started my period– it’s was last week and I had to wake up my husband and I was like, “Oh my God, I started my period,” and he’s like, “Okay.” I’m like, “I haven’t had any PMS this month!” I didn’t even know my period was coming!
Jubilance: That’s how you should always feel! That’s how we want women to feel.
Madison: I’m blown away, I really, really am. It’s been such a life changer for me. I’ve been telling everybody, I literally keep it in my purse and I pull it out and I’ll sit on my bar and I want people to ask me about that and I’m like, “Oh, you want to know about this? Let me tell you! It only has two ingredients!” Because everybody knows Madison doesn’t take medicine. I didn’t want anything that was going to have my hormones changing or anything that could be habit-forming. I just– I don’t even take Advil, I don’t like to take medicine, I’m kind of stubborn. I had a natural childbirth. I wouldn’t even let them give me an IV. I was like, “Don’t touch me!”
Jubilance: That’s incredible.
Madison: So it’s just for me, it’s not something I would normally do. But the fact that it was two ingredients and completely vegan and just varied– you know, cut dry, like two things, I’m like, “Okay, I can get down with that.” So, Alice, it’s been life-changing.
Do you know an amazing woman that you’d like to hear from? We want to hear about her! We’ve started a new Podcast and Facebook Live event where we interview women making strides in her community each week! We’ve recently had on an amazing entrepreneur and podcast maker, an actress/activist, and a mom and bar manager! Do you know someone to nominate? Just shoot me an email at [email protected] with their contact information.
“Best ideas for October Decorating”
One of my favorite things about October is decorating for both Fall, Oktoberfest, and Halloween! And you can keep the basic decorations for Thanksgiving!
- Fall Leaves. Add leaves to your table, your coffee table, your outdoor table. I like to put leaves down and then put a candle in the center of them.
- Place Pumpkins Everywhere! I always buy the tiny pumpkins from Trader Joe’s so I’m saving money! I’ll buy 5 of them for less than $5 and put them up on my outdoor fence!
- Hollow out the tops of apples and add tea candles! The look is gorgeous and perfect for a Fall party.
- Add Candy Corn to your table. I love the pumpkin candy corn, they’re perfect to put around your fall leaves to decorate!
- Mums! Mums are the perfect decoration that go into Thanksgiving as well.
“How to find YOUR costume with Becca”
Halloween is quickly approaching and with that might come pumpkin inspired home décor, snacking on bite-sized treats, and planning for the ultimate costume. Why might we do this? There are a sundry of explanations that might lead to us to change up our home style or crave individually wrapped chocolate delights. After all, Halloween time is fun and those things can make us feel good.
However, I am fascinated by the notion of dressing up as something or someone else and what that might mean. What if we were able to just come as ourselves for Halloween? What would that look like?
A major idea that has me curious about what it might mean to just show up as ourselves is the notion of how we go about forming our identity—who we are and who we want to be.
Have you ever been listening someone else’s’ story about their lives and thought, “wow, that is totally me!” Or, have you ever declared yourself as something when getting to know someone? This might look like, “I am totally a type A” or “I am a mess”. How come we take ownership of that one particular role? How come it’s so easy to seek comfort in just one? What compels us to claim our identity as just one thing?
I’m not totally sure, but Vivienne Burr suggests that, “We are the end-product, the combination, of the particular ‘versions’ of these things that are available to us” (p.34, 1995). What Vivienne Burr is saying is that we are a combination of so many different identities. We might not act the same way in front of our coworkers as we do with our family members or best friends.
This can be a challenging idea to get behind—the freedom of being able to claim more than one identity statement about yourself. Those in mental wellness might be curious about this freedom and how you might choose to identify moving forward. How might you dress up this Halloween knowing what you know now of not necessarily needing to be just one thing?
I have no conclusive answers, but I would love to pose a challenge to you all this Halloween season. Lean in to all of you—all that makes you, you. Check in with yourself in all of its states—the colleague, the professional, the student, the mother, the sister, the friend, the daughter, the partner, or whatever else you might be. All of those pieces make you your wonderful self. So, visit with them, see how that might be, give them thanks, and if you get scared, just remember it’s only a costume.
Reference:
Burr, V. (1995). An Introduction to Social Constructionism. New York, United States: Routledge
Becca Lantry is currently pursuing her MS in Marriage and Family Therapy from San Diego State University. She currently holds her MA in Counseling and Education and works with youth, young adults, and families around confidence, love, relationships, and empowerment. Becca has been taking Jubilance for the last few months and she is able to love herself more during those times of emotional PMS because of it.
“Did someone say Pumpkin? The world’s greatest Pumpkin Bread Recipe”
Pumpkin Bread
It’s Fall, so it’s time to break out all of the pumpkin: pumpkin Lattes, pumpkin ice cream, and even pumpkin bread! Here’s an amazing recipe that will have your guests oohing and ahhing over your creation!
Ingredients:
- 3 ½ cups of all purpose flour
- 2 cups of sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoons of salt
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 cup of oil
- 2/3 cup of water
- 4 eggs
- Chocolate chips (optional)
- 1 16 oz can of Pumpkin (2 cups)
Directions:
- Heat the oven to 350 degrees F
- Grease two 9×5 baking loaf pans (or you can make muffins)
- In a large bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients
- In a medium bowl, combine the oil, water, eggs and pumpkin
- Pour the medium bowl ingredients into the large bowl and beat for 1 minute at medium speed
- Pour the batter into greased pans and bake at 350 degrees for 60 to 70 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean
- Voila! You have pumpkin bread
Oklahoma Born Chili
This Chili is our family recipe taken from a cook off in Oklahoma City. It’s Southern born and the easiest thing to make. It reminds me of the Fall with it’s warm, delicious aroma, and make sure to throw it in the crockpot so it’s minimum effort! You can still have a backyard party, this is perfect for large or small crowds and not too expensive!
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 pounds lean, ground turkey meat
- 1 chopped onion
- 1 small green bell pepper
- 2 minced cloves of garlic
- 2 cans of red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
- 2 cans diced tomatoes
- 2 to 3 tablespoons chili powder
- 2-3 cups of chicken broth or water
- 1 can of cheap beer (my mom swears that’s the key ingredient)
- Cheese (for garnish)
- Green Onion (for garnish)
Directions:
Place everything in a crockpot and wait 4 hours!
“Halloweentown”
If you were a child of the 90’s or 2000’s you most likely have heard of and/or watched Halloweentown religiously every October.
Halloweentown was a 1998 Disney Channel Original Movie and with a budget of $4 million, they were ingenious on creating a campy and fun family Halloween film that’s unique and a pop culture classic. The story centers around Marnie, a girl who finds out she’s a witch, and uncovers a hidden land, Halloweentown, that’s only open to Earth every October 31st. Debbie Reynolds plays the grandmother and the movie was so successful that it spawned three other sequels! The residents where it was filmed celebrate a Halloweentown themed festival every October in St. Helens, Oregon.
It’s been 21 years since the film made it’s debut, but I would argue that it’s the most feminist Halloween/Horror film to come out and here’s why:
- The film is made up of women! Marnie, her little sister, her mother, and her Grandmother, the goddess, Debbie Reynolds, find that they have to band together to fight evil. It’s only by acknowledging the power within themselves that they are able to conquer the darkness. Girl Power for sure!
- Nothing Normal. An iconic line from the film that Debbie Reynolds character exclaims is “Being normal is vastly underrated.” This was a film where it was ok to embrace your weird, to live fully and differently. The characters were happy to embrace their power as witches, but it also taught young people watching to be themselves, to not conform, and to love themselves!
- Can we talk about the microwave that Grandma Witch uses during the film? She hits the buttons “Bubble,” “Bubble,” “Toil,” and “Trouble.” Thank you production designer Alfred Sole for this amazing gag. But at the same time, YES, it’s harping back to Macbeth’s witches, the traditional girl bosses who lead Shakespeare’s antihero to his fate. By creating a parallel to witches from the 16th Century, Halloweentown acknowledges the power of this family, but also the inherent influence of all women to create the things they need. By adding these buttons to the microwave, designer Sole recognizes the gender inequality of the inherent tasks women take on in the household. Creating a comic element with Grandma Witch hitting the microwave buttons and allowing her the “shortcut” as opposed to the cauldron, Sole plays with how a female witch of the 20th Century might go about her tasks.
- Marnie’s asked out by the hot bad boy archetype and turns him down! Can we just say YAS QUEEN and BOY BYE. Marnie, you’ve done what no female in the horror film has done before, you’ve said no to the hot guy asking you out. Marnie has a clearer head on her shoulders acknowledging that she’s not impressed with his attitude or the way he treats others. He asks her out for ice cream and she responds with, “You know, I was hungry but then I smelt something stinky — it must have been the big cheese.” Get it girl.
- All that Bite. At the Hair Salon, a lady getting her hair done is reading Vampire Fair, a play on Vanity Fair, the production designer gives some bite to the traditional magazine amping it up with more power for the women reading!
- Matriarchal Society. There are multiple female leads in different age groups from Sophie, the littlest 7 year old sister, Marnie, a 13 year old, their mother in her 40’s, and the Grandmother in her 60’s. It’s unusual to have so many women in a Halloween film, let alone generations that all have agency and confidence. These females have to take down the male warlock plaguing the town, but it’s really about the younger generations following the example they have in an authoritative female leader. It’s a matriarchal society, with the Grandmother leading the family and de facto the town itself.
This leading lady film is free on the Disney App on your Roku or found at your local library. It’s the perfect hit for October for young and old, it’ll keep you smiling and enjoying the strong women.
Photos in this essay from Disney Channel.
“Happy Halloween with Kellidawn”
I love Halloween. I love dressing up, scary movies, giving friends “you got BOOed” packages, taking my boys trick or treating, and greeting trick or treaters.
Here in Austin, Texas we are really hoping the weather gets out of the 90s, so we don’t sweat buckets while trick or treating. However, hot or cool weather, we are ready for Halloween….we will be, once my boys decide on our “theme”. They have been going back and forth between Stranger Things, Marvel Villains, and horror movie monsters. It’s important to pick the perfect Halloween costume, so I understand their indecision.
This year we are trying something new. The two Saturdays before Halloween we are going to have a haunted trail. We have a open space path that runs by my house and my boys and their friends have been planning this activity since July. They decided to ask for can food donations for entry into their “Psycho Path” (they came up with the name). I’m very proud that they are planning to donate the food donations to the Austin Food Bank.
They reminded me that even with our fun traditions and celebrations in the coming months, to continue to think of others and help in anyway we can. If my boys and I can put a smile on someone’s face or make something easier in their life, then we have had an incredible Halloween and next we will be THANKFUL for that moment.
Have a fun and happy Halloween!
Kellidawn is a true southern girl at heart. When she’s not wrangling her three boys, she can be found broadening the minds of high school seniors in her English class. This former college twirler is also an avid Star Wars fan and movie buff who loves spending time with family and friends.
“Easy Halloween Costumes and Where to Find Them”
It’s the best holiday of the whole year! At least, that’s my view of it… Halloween! And you don’t need to spend a fortune to look fantastic! Here are some easy costume ideas and where to find them.
- Party Animals. Wear your best party dress and an animal mask. And live it up as the life of the party! You can get a reasonably priced mask on Amazon or from Party City.
- Britney Spears circa “Baby One More Time.” I knocked this out of the park on a Halloween cruise this year. I just found everything in my closet, a white button down, grey sweater, tall black socks, and a school girl skirt and put my hair in braids. Super easy and you probably have all the elements just in your closet!
- Regina George in Mean Girls Wear your cutest mini skirt and favorite colored bra. Then head to Salvation Army and buy a tank top you can cut up. Cut the classic holes in the tank top in the spots where you can see the bra through.
- Sandy from Grease Grab your black pants and a black t shirt and throw a motorcycle jacket over it! Voila! Easy costume!
- Wear a long gown and carry a rose and you’re The Bachelorette! You can wear that old prom dress, that bridesmaid dress just hanging in your closet, or find one at a Good Will!
- Princess Leia. Wear a white dress and put your hair in the iconic buns! It’s really the buns that will do it.
- Smart Cookie. If you have a graduation robe, wear it and print out pictures of cookies to place all over it!
- Harry Potter Student. You can also use that old graduation robe to wear as a Hogwarts student. Just print out the Hogwarts crest and tape it to your robe!
- Take a slip from your closet and add words to it by printing them out and taping them to the slip like “ego,” “superego,” and “oedipal complex.”
You can find things in your closet to make a great costume and by adding just a few elements, turn it into a success!
“Jubilance Review”
“This really works! When nothing (I tried everything) nothing else worked for 20 years.”
— Rachel
Hey Fall! We’ve got you covered for this sweater weather. There’s the crisp air, footballs games, changing leaves; fall has finally arrived. Only fret the small stuff, we’ll take care of the rest.
As always, Live your Life with Jubilance!
