Thanksgiving week

Like most US households, we have a turkey thawing in the fridge.  It was easier this year to get a small bird and I don't know why, but the butterball was on sale for about the same price as the store brand, so we  upgraded.  The menu is written up and soon I'll assign start times to everything and later, I'll assign casserole dishes.  The goal this year is smaller amounts, sometimes cutting recipes in half, sometimes breaking them into two casserole dishes and freezing one to pull out for Christmas, which has a similar side dish menu.  It always seems like there's so much waste at Thanksgiving (even though we waste very little food) and there's no need for that.  Sydney is bringing the pumpkin pie.  Last year, I gave her our traditional pie plate, our traditional mixing bowl (same as the one featured in the cookbook photo), and a copy of the vintage cookbook the recipe comes from...and told her I was not planning to ever make a pumpkin pie again.  From now on, that's her job.  If I need a pie off-holiday, I'll call her.  

We love pumpkin pie and I really should make it more often.  But, I also love apple pie and chocolate pie and peach pie, pecan pie and cherry pie and...well, you get the picture.  

I've learned better than to try to feed Rob turkey for a week, so I splurged and bought a roast.  And, it was quite a splurge.  Over the last week, I've been reading about why beef is so expensive.  People don't think enough about how fragile our food supply is.  Another example is cranberry sauce.  I pointed out that our can was 2.50 this year, way up from last year and commented that it was probably because there was no one to pick the berries.  He said a machine does that, but while I continued grocery shopping, he looked it up and turns out it's not pick the berries, it's a shortage of workforce to can them that's affecting the cost.  Anyway, this year I plan to make all the traditional dishes because I can, and because I may not be able to next year.  

Eat, drink, and be merry...

I'm always looking for new ways to use my spaces and have recently rearranged furniture in my sewing room and yoga/music room.  Is it better?  Yes, it's a more efficient use of the space.  But, mostly, it's change.  I crave change.  The unofficial motto at work as long as I've been there has been 'the only constant is the change.'  And, that has carried over into my personal life.  Rob grew up with constant change, so he craves stability.  I grew up with an oppressive level of stability and I crave change.  We are who we are.  Anyway, some things in the house that should be in the garage now have places out there, and a whole lot of stuff has gone to dumpsters and Goodwill and it feels like there's some space to breathe.  I swear, this is going somewhere.

It's resulted in some new places for plants.  I've had this little gossip bench (phone table) for many years.  Many, many years and it came from a couple of friends that sold all their stuff and moved to California.  I wonder what happened to them.  Anyway, there was a little corner that it fit perfectly, but we decided to do something else there and it came into the yoga room and sat there with nothing on it, or when it had something on it, it wasn't the right thing.  I used it to create this plant emergency room.  There's a grow light in the lamp and it's on a timer and the sickest of the houseplants are there.  It was an idea I had on a lark in Lowe's one day when we were shopping for lightbulbs.  And, it worked out.  I had my first graduate the other day that moved into a more visible place.  It's not fully recovered yet, but it's not dying anymore and has put on a good bit of new growth, so that's a win.  

When I moved furniture around in the office/studio, I created this plant station in front of a sunny window.  Some of these plants won't like it in summer, but they'll love being here this winter.  

And, yesterday, I cleaned in the greenhouse (yes, this is clean).  I had to so I could work on those two pencil cactus in the back right corner.  Pencil cactus love it here.  Right now, we have 5, one 7' tall, one 5' tall and three 3' tall.  We started with the big one in a 2" pot, 25 years ago.  They've been in tall slender lightweight plastic pots for years but have gotten so big that the slightest breeze knocks them over, so we bought larger, heavier pots with wider bases.  To help with the transition, I wanted to get them in the greenhouse where I can tie the tree to the rafters where it will be steady as the roots get used to the new pot and the soil compacts.  I sure won't need it tipping over in the greenhouse this winter.  

Bella on a good day.  She had a couple bad days last week and I was pretty sure it was time, then the next morning, she attacked her breakfast like it was going to try to escape and put weight back on and got back to normal and wanted to be walked.  Like Lazarus, y'all.  She may look sad, but she was feisty enough to both lick me on the nose and bite my hand this morning, before she peed down my pants leg on the way out the door.  (the things old people get away with...)

Today is my only "work day" this week.  I'll work my butt off the rest of the week, but it's not the work I get paid to do.  Sydney's the only one coming, so I'm not quite sure what I'm doing all this housecleaning for.  Being prepared, I guess.  I have some back yard chores to do to give us a better view, and some inside chores to do, and then Wednesday is prep and Thursday is cooking, Friday I'll put away dishes and decorate the first Christmas tree.  Saturday is swag day and Sunday is big Christmas tree day.  Rob has already put the lights on the outside of the house.  Other people put theirs up and he couldn't let us fall behind.  But now, what's he going to do while I cook on Thursday.  That's traditionally been how he stays out of my hair.  I might have to teach him to knit...

Everybody have a great week!  I'm intentionally not focusing on negative thoughts...but what about that Lindsay Halligan, y'all?  I'm glad I'm better at my job than she is at hers...wait, is that wrong?  No, it's right.  I'm glad she's so bad at hers, which makes me even prouder to be good at mine.  

Eat, drink, be merry, be kind.  Be thoughtful.  Be uplifting.  And do your best to ignore cousin Durwood, who you know is going to be an asshole at your dinner table.  Because he is every year.  But, you love him, so you keep inviting him.  And, on Black Friday every year, you wonder why.  

Lane