This Week In My Home: The Next Thing

This week in my home...

...I am in recovery from the Thanksgiving holiday, lol.   For someone who hasn't had opportunity to have very many family Thanksgivings over the past 10 years or so, this one was a doozy.  We had 18 visitors and this little house rocked with noise and good cheer.   There was far too much food and far too much work.  We had guests who stayed through Friday and guests who stayed further through Sunday.  We ate leftovers, we ate out.  There was too much and it was all wonderful.



 I've already made out my New Year's resolutions and I'm anxious to begin the New Year.  I have plans for learning new things, organizing, etc.  All the usual things for a new year.  When informed a couple of weeks ago that they would be moving this next year, Josh got up the next morning and told Bess "I'm done with this house!  Let's go on and move now!"  It does seem after Thanksgiving it's a bit of a fast downhill ride while saying goodbye to one year and hello to another.  Like Josh I'm a bit anxious to just get on with it, but I know from experience that we must finish one thing before we can begin another and then we must do the next thing and the next, before we arrive at the much anticipated new thing. So now I look at what's next.    In my instance, it means getting through all of December before shaking off the dust of the old year and getting on with the new.  In Josh's case, there's a house to sell and a new home to buy and a big move...and a lot more than just December to see it all through.

Here's what I have coming up next: an EMS Christmas party the 1st week of December.   A BIG Jamberry nailwraps party (see link for those interested) that lasts for 12 days starting December 1.  Anyone interested in joining in, email me, see me on facebook etc.   This is a MEGA party where Bess' head consultant for her region is hostessing and the prizes are phenomenal and the prices are pretty amazing as well.   I've taken care of the two December birthday recipients.  I have to finish shopping for Christmas and get my presents all packaged up and/or mailed off.  I need to plan a family day dinner in two short weeks.  Yikes!  That's when the bulk of presents must be ready as well, lol.  Oh my.  And finally there is a Christmas dinner invitation for Christmas day.   Somewhere in there John hopes to go see a cantata which I'm having a very hard time finding one in our area.

So those are my next things.   Then I can start my new year.  And just maybe Josh's house can get put on the market and sold in record time and he can move.  You see, he's going to move right next door to me...and I'm sort of like him...I am ready for them to be HERE.

...I worked:

I generally put up my Christmas tree on Thanksgiving evening but we were busy from dawn until well past dark with dinner and supper and guests.   I brought the tree in on Friday and then tried to put it up Saturday morning but it wasn't going well and with guests getting ready to go out for the day (John and I were ready and waiting) he felt it a bad time for me to start a project.  So I left it off.  I didn't feel like even pretending to attempt it on Sunday when our last guests went home.  I eventually had to resort to using my tree stand to have it stand up properly.  I brought in all the decorations and two wreaths to try and reuse, both grapevine wreaths.   So far, the tree is done.  I'm not perfectly happy with it.  I'd love more Aqua color on it but as I told John even if I bought more I couldn't fit them on without redoing the whole tree.  He suggested I just wait until we have a container to put it in. so the tree looks more substantial and less fragile.  I'm thinking a nice silver tub.   We'll pick one up over the weekend.


It was not easy to work the Jamberry party with guests in the house but Bess and I seemed to carry it off between us.  She had a guest at home, as well.   We had a party set for mid December and it got moved to December 1 as a start date.  That necessitated quite a bit of work on my part.  I had to go from thinking about what we might do to planning actual games and creating them, etc.  It lit a fire under me let me tell you.

We spent one day running a variety of errands.  I needed Christmas stamps to go on the Christmas cards.   We did some banking, asked some pertinent questions about services while there.  This was something I've had on my list to do.   The banking errand provided opportunity for this.

John worked on Tuesday...and that means I worked, too.  I gave the house a good going over.  Mostly it needed picking up and putting things away.   I cleaned out the fridge of the last of the hidden leftovers and set the cans of cranberry sauce we didn't use out to come to room temperature and dry well before putting them in the pantry.

I organized and determined shape of every one of my vintage magazines.  I noted that I have some quite nice copies, some good copies and lots of rough issues.  I'll take my time and replace them slowly or look for new to me issues in missing years.  This task took me roughly two hours.  I was surprised it would take so long.  Naturally I had to vacuum floors when I was done because brittle pages shed little pieces everywhere.

Took Mama grocery shopping.  Picked up some necessities and some things I can't get at Aldi.

Baked a lemon cake.


...I made meals:

We ate out Saturday.

Golden Mushroom Chicken Pasta, Mandarins
Half this recipe went into freezer for a second meal later on.

We ate out on Monday.

I ate leftovers.  I had some chicken livers in the fridge that we'd picked up on Saturday evening, thawed and heated a twice baked potato half I'd had in the freezer and cut a tomato as a salad.

Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans, Corn Muffins

Spaghetti Pie, Steamed Broccoli, Green Salad, leftover Corn Muffins

out with Mama

...I saved money:

We paid for dinner out on Saturday.  This was a planned expense, something we wanted to do with John's brother and wife.  It's a savings only because we PLANNED this out prior to the meal.  I set the money aside from our last pay check.

When we ate out on Monday while running errands John paid for it out of his pocket money.

I bought another pair of shoes.  These are more casual shoes, meant for walking, but they are also cute.  I paid out of pocket for those, using my allowance.

When I realized I was getting sick, I started taking Vitamin C and Zinc and made sure to drink plenty of water and rest as often as I could.  I used Vicks Vapor rub on my nose and chest and throat since this started out with a burning sore throat.  Mostly I managed with Tylenol and lots of fluids and resting.  It seems to have worked well.  I'm feeling better and sounding less sickly just 7 days later.

We didn't eat all the deli lunch meat I bought, so I put some in the freezer.

The food cleared from the fridge was not entirely waste.  A lot was eaten by the pets.  I think I got three days of food from these bits and pieces.   They also ate food scraps over the weekend left from the Thanksgiving meal.

I tossed 2 tbsps. of cranberry jelly, 1/2 a jar of homemade yogurt, and about 1/2 cup of fruit salad that looked the worse for wear.  There was more 'waste' but as I said the pets will eat it.   Most were leftovers from restaurant meals over the visit.

Saturday I packed away Sweet potato casserole and dressing in containers in the freezer.

Did lots of laundry and lots of dishes.  We hung as many clothes to dry as we could and I air dried the dishes once they were done washing.

We opened windows several days this week while it was nice out and let the house air well.

We were given some bakery cookies.  They had dried out a little despite being packaged nicely.  I put a slice of bread in with them and let it soften the cookies once more.

Packed work lunches for John and made him breakfast on work mornings.  Sent him off to work with coffee in hand.

We finished up our major Christmas purchases.  I need to wrap our gifts and get them set up and mailed off.

Used a free shipping code on one order and used a shopping code on another order.  I did Swagbucks shop and earn on the second order, as well.

I forgot to use shop and earn on Wednesday but I placed an order with Amazon for Channukah gifts for John and I.  This will be our sole 'bought' gift this year.  Anything else will be handmade except our gelt coins which we bought at Aldi last month.

I used a pound of ground beef to make up my meat loaf.   Part of this was put aside to make sandwiches one night for supper.

I made jello  to go into John's work lunch one day.  I also packed him leftovers as well as sandwiches.

I picked up some more pineapple on sale for 99c a can.  This time it was tidbits.  I got four.  I also bought four cans of beans, two red beans and two of Kentucky wonder beans which John likes better than green beans.


...I had my leisure:

Sunday we did very little beyond vacuuming and two loads of laundry.  We were well and truly tired after our long holiday weekend and felt we needed that respite time.  I even took a nap.

For the rest of the week, I indulged in reading vintage magazines or the current Emilie Loring book I've had by my bed.

....I lived well:


 I invited our guests to join us in our Shabat evening prayers Friday night and that seemed to please my sister in law a great deal.  It's not often we get to share that tradition with family.  It was rather nice.

Mostly my living well this past week has been going with the flow.  I followed the guests wherever they cared to go and didn't protest over plans made even if they didn't coincide with my own pre-planned activities.   Later I followed the lead of the cold I'd gotten and rested when my body felt tired and worked when I felt rested.  It meant a lot of things got done more slowly than I'd like but that's okay, too.  Sometimes we need a slow phase and I think I got more rest than I'd normally take because of it.

Sometimes living well is about what we don't do...In this case, spending time with family was more important than any plans I had and getting well was the next priority I needed to devote myself to.  Keeping that in mind is often difficult but necessary.