I've enjoyed doing the 'Worth Sharing This Week' posts a great deal and likely will continue to send those at the end of each week, but for the beginning of this week I'm ready to get back into routines. I've felt the urging all the last week as I've noted the neglect of the past months has caught up with the house and yard and shed.
After returning home on Thursday afternoon, I knew that no matter how worn I was from the long day I had to get my closet and desk in order. It was all a huge mess. I sorted out all the shoes that don't fit and started a donation spot. I cleared my desk and filed paperwork I'd let stack up.It looks much better now but there are areas that still need a little extra work. On Friday I walked out to the shed and realized it had been badly neglected. I'll have to work to get to the Christmas things. I cleared out the drawer of clothes I wear about the house and got it all straightened up. I was so distracted by the work that was needed that I almost forgot to make bread for Shabat!
The house is not a horror but it's not up to par. But there's more than that...I generally go into a New Year with the same need to declutter and organize that most people do. Only this year it seems I want to do this in November, not January. I want to go into the New Year with my house at it's best. I've said before that it's been a tough set of years and we seem at last to be on the backside of the latest lot of worries. I'd like to make the next year a fresh start in every sense of the word.
The holiday season this year will be a busy one for me, but in a different way than usual. I'll be cleaning and clearing and organizing as though the New Year had already come.
Work this Week:
Prepping for Thanksgiving dinner.
Get the brakes done on my car...John has put this off for months now. I'm ready to just get it done, so I plan to take the car over myself and have the work attended to.
Get the Christmas tree up and begin Christmas decorating.
Meals This Week:
Meals have been unplanned and haphazard. We've eaten well enough but boy have I flown by the seat of my pants for weeks now. I've managed cost wise because the meals I like best this time of year are inexpensive enough, but I could do better. I always lead out with the meal we ate on Shabat.
Beef Braised with Cherries, Mashed Potatoes, Green Salad, Rolls, French Apple Cake
I have leftover beef
on my own x 2
Spaghetti Diable, Green Beans, Garlic Bread
I believe I shall move this to next week. We've plenty of poultry for this week. I'll use the leftover roast to make a small Shepherd's Pie which would be a good way to use up the roast beef.
Stuffed Turkey, Dressing, Gravy, Green Bean Casserole, Mashed Potatoes, Sweet Potato Casserole, Pineapple Casserole, Cranberry Salad, Homemade Cranberry sauce, Pies (Some dishes will be brought by others).
Leftovers
13 comments:
Hi again Terri's! Congratulations on your completed items on the to-do list! I'm inspired! Just wanted to let you know. 😊
Much love,
Tracey
Xox
You're always so busy cleaning and organizing that it's hard to believe that things have gotten out of control in some departments!
You are doing so well on your "to do" list! I started out thinking that I didn't need a list at all this year - having been thru so many holiday seasons it's bound to all be routine by now, right? But nope! I found I was forgetting various items here and there that need to be done, so out came the list again. For Christmas planning, I use Flylady's Holiday Control journal. When I faithfully use it, I'm weeks ahead in being ready for Christmas and it gets all those little details out of my head (that cause me stress) and onto paper. Here's the link if anyone's interested, and it's free:
http://www.flylady.net/i/pdf/hoj_coj.pdf
Good morning sweet friend,
I’m glad you have help with the thanksgiving food this year. I do too and I’m very appreciative.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and all your family ❤️
Sounds like you have been busy!
Your menu sounds delicious, and I'm glad that you are having your favorites. I have never heard of pineapple casserole though, otherwise we are having the same menu plus corn pudding and fried oysters.
Have a very happy Thanksgiving.
All the cleaning is finished here for the week and we are on to food prep. We did have to make a menu change in the middle of shopping today because of the romaine recall but all is well. One young couple we just wandering around Aldi trying to decide what to have for Thanksgiving dinner and adding items to their cart including a frozen duck. Ah, to be so young and relaxed about the whole thing!
Terri, I too have to get in gear and do a bit more work than I have been. It seems that when we have the time change and it gets dark here at 4:30, I feel like it’s supper and then I’m done! Dinners have been haphazard here too. I spent some time yesterday making two pans of enchiladas so today I could concentrate on the 3 gluten free pumpkin pies (I baked two pumpkins from our garden).
Your Thanksgiving dinner sounds wonderful! We are driving up to Green Bay to be with family. I just have to make rolls tomorrow and watergate salad early Thursday before we leave.
My two oldest sons will be home for Christmas and I am so excited to have all four of my boys home! It’s been two years since we have seen the oldest who lives in Seattle. He is bringing his girlfriend and I think that means that he is thinking of marriage (he just turned 30). It really is the best Christmas present I could ever ask for! I do have to mention the separate bedrooms thing (they started living together this year), but hopefully he expects that anyway, We are old fashioned that way and like to follow the Bible in that regard, whether our children do or not.
Well, my dear husband is taking off tomorrow so we will have a date finally! Then it is cooking and catching up on some cleaning. When we return late Friday, I told my husband that we are going to rest this weekend. It has been an especially busy 3 months with work and my FIL being ill, that I don’t think my husband has stopped since September.
I hope you have a lovely Thanksgiving with your family! I can’t believe you are doing major cleaning AND prepping for the holidays! If you can do it, then I can try to do a bit more too! Hugs to you and all the sweet ladies on this message board! This is such a lovely online neighborhood to be a part of. Off to check my pies...
What is pineapple casserole?
My routine right now is NO routine.
Our first only us for Thanksgiving... grilled whole turkey ( never had it, Hubby wants to try it and if it is nasty I have bagged cooked turkey in the freezer)Brining it today. Nuked sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts, pumpkin roll, Stove top dressing and homemade cranberry sauce.
Chef Owings, grilled turkey is delicious! Enjoy!
Karen in WI, good for you for the separate bedrooms! What a blessing to have all your kids home at once. It has been five years here.
Lana, it’s such a change when your kids leave home and you find yourself setting fewer places at the table. I hope you will have all your kids home some holiday soon!
Happy Thanksgiving to you Brenda and to all the lovely ladies on this blog!
Please tell us how your pumpkin pie turned out Brenda! I made 3 from my garden pumpkins and they were good, but needed just a bit more spice.
Hello all! I have been remiss about answering comments this week and I apologize. Karen, I used an old Betty Crocker recipe for my pies this year and it was plenty spicy even with slopping half the mess out on the counter when I turned on the mixer, lol.
I hope you fully enjoyed your boys..and yep, we've had the same discussion in our own home. I felt like a heel about it too because before I was saved John and I lived together and obviously slept in the same room whilst raising our children, but I've explained to my children all that my heart was changed following my salvation and I'd appreciate if they honored me in that way and they did without quarrel.
Lana, I feel for you...I had two children home yesterday, will have three next weekend but I haven't seen Amie in 13 years now...I did realize years upon years ago with the boys in the services that I'd likely never have my family all about it at once ever again and it's been quite true...Still they do manage to check in and make me FEEL they are present which is lovely.
Juls, I've never had a grilled turkey, just a fried one or a traditionally baked one. I should think it would be good though...Let us know!
Pineapple casserole proved to be quite good. I know it's got pineapple and cheese and crackers but I don't know exactly how she met it. Katie assured me it wasn't like her former mil's so she was going to check with her about HER recipe. It really reminded me of a Pineapple cobbler recipe from the 1950's that had a cheddar cheese crust. It wasn't too sweet and it tasted good.
Tracey, I completed the bulk of my list this week...Can't say the same for the menu. I just looked over it and shook my head, lol.
Carole, it's the little things, you know? Not great piles everywhere but just a messy drawer, a disheveled closet, a spotty fridge. Easily remedied and not hard to set right but a matter of getting my mind on doing those things.
Kathy I love reading what others are having It's all very traditional for us in our home, traditional as in what we've always had etc. Are Fried Oysters traditional to you? Bess thinks it's not Christmas without a can of smoked oysters...
Lana, It sounds romantic to buy a duck to roast for Thanksgiving, lol. Oh to be young and untouched by family traditions! lol
As always, delightful to take my ‘break’, brew a cup of tea, and enjoy this ‘community’! Terri - I, too, have never been comfortable making pie crust/pies. Recently, though, I tried Lilli’s recipe (she blogs at Creative Savv) for Foolproof Pie Crust and have found DELICIOUS Success. For the shortening I use coconut oil; use the part whole wheat option, and, as she says, the crust works for sweet AND savory pies! It has made wonderful meat pot pie and, for yesterday, ‘pumpkin’ pie (I used butternut from our harvest of 60 squash grown this year from one packet of seeds!).
We had a quiet and lovely holiday. A local son invited us but we chose to stay home, entertaining the son that lives here and the widow staying in our ‘cottage’ (a tree destroyed her home earlier this year). The meal was ‘hitch-less’, and we played a board game afterwards (Sequence). After years of doing the BIG family gathering (six kids, m-i-l, etc.), and a tiring schedule, this was PERFECT (but, as we all know, each year is different!).
Blessings to all!
Grilled turkey was good. Hubby found the recipe from Taste Of Home mag. Brine had soy sauce and the turkey was suppose to be 14 lbs
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