In My Home This Week: Non-Traditional Holiday

This week in my home, I have planned for a non-traditional Thanksgiving day...and the only thing stuffed this week is my head.   I did manage to get an overpriced turkey breast for us to cook here for the two of us, but our menu for the small gathering at Mama's is Chicken, not turkey.

Katie texted that she feels the 'funk' coming on.   Seeing as how I am now on day 10 of recovery, I don't believe she's going to be up to even such a small family meal as we'd planned.  I'll lay odds she opts to spend the day at home in bed resting hard, especially since she's on probation as a new hire and cannot miss work unless they send her home.   She'd told me on Friday that Matt is ill with the stuff as well...Ugh.  I'm most thoroughly sick of being sick and not feeling well and having family ill.  The little boys and Bess were not much better this past week and Isaac was sick in the night last night.  I am prone to agree that what we've likely had is flu given the duration of it for all households. Mind you not one of us was really ill two weeks ago when we met up except Bess who stayed home.



I am feeling well enough  to look at my home with eyes that see the work required and not a whit of energy I want to part with to do any of it.  It's too cool to even consider going out to finish washing off the porch, especially with me still rattling and snuffling...I can barely fathom where I should be in my zone cleaning either.  I'm thinking this last week was meant to be beds and baths and I barely paid any attention to either beyond a basic clean.  Well, here's hoping I can do something more in the coming month.

Work Plan:  


Finish up the work on our checkbook/bills for Harvest.  This week is a pay week.  I've done this in stages this time around and I'm almost done.  John will pick up his check on Tuesday and hopefully deposit it that day.

Technically, the zone is porches/patio/shed.  I sat on the back porch this afternoon and it looks okay.  I don't have plants to freshen things up with.  I will sweep and wipe off things.  I'll use the blower to blow away the leaves on the patio.   I may even sneak out to the shed and clear up another section of shelving.

Prep ahead our dinner for Thanksgiving Day, namely the dressing is what needs to be prepped and the chicken must be thawed.   John loves his canned cinnamon rolls and I need to pick those up tomorrow while we're in the grocery.  I'll make some Sausage Balls to go with them.

 Black Friday shopping is not on my list of things to do at all...yet I usually manage a quick CVS trip to get a few things that are just too good to pass up.  Easy enough since our nearest CVS is seldom busy during this holiday.

We'll be hanging around the house a lot this week.  On Monday the repairman should have parts to put our heat pump back together.

I typically start to decorate for Christmas once Thanksgiving is done.  I'll definitely be digging around for decorations and the tree.  I'd made up my mind about a color scheme this year and then I went online and looked at some photos that used the same colors and realized it didn't show up well in photos, so I changed my mind...but then I recalled I seldom take pictures of much of my Christmas anyway, so I'm going to see what I have and go from there.  I'm definitely going to put the tree on the floor next to the mantel this year instead of on the bench at the window.

Menu Plan:

Steak, Heritage potatoes, Green Salad

Deli Fried Chicken (if available or something else from the deli if not)

Macaroni and Cheese, Sliced Tomatoes, Green Beans

two times on my own

Thanksgiving Day: (my portion)  Roast Chicken, Dressing, Gravy, Sweet Potato Casserole

Roast Turkey, Butternut Squash, Creamed Cabbage

Reading/Fun:


I need to finish the Roosevelt autobiography,  Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggins and The Man from the Desert by Grace Livingston Hill.   As soon as I get these three knocked out I'm going to gather my favorite books with Christmas scenes in them to read through December.

Josh has asked to spend the night and I'd very much like to have him.  I'd planned to have him and Isaac both today for a morning of play but John vetoed the idea because of my not being fully recovered.  Since Josh is out of school this week I'm going to try to do both these things.  It will give the parents a break and be fun for us.  I do not know if Isaac will spend the night or not.  He gets ready to go home to Daddy awfully quick after he has a meal.