This seems an appropriate piece of artwork for the week of Thanksgiving. I anticipate there will be lots of dishwashing going on in our homes over the next four or five days! LOL!
Due to a variety of circumstances, we’re going to be home this year with just the three of us for Thanksgiving. We’ve all agreed to scale back our expectations for the actual feast. To tell the truth, we’re all kind of tired for various reasons. We decided that rather than spend days with the three of us devoting multiple hours each day preparing for one meal for two people, we would utilize many shortcuts and simplifications. Caroline’s one request was her favorite stuffing that my mom started making when I was a girl and we still make in our family – Midwest Sausage Stuffing.
I thought about not putting up a simple living post this week since I’m not sure what other people have going on. But I decided I would suggest one goal this week. In fact, it might even overlap with your holiday preparations so you get your holiday things done and you can also share your goal and maybe encourage someone else to jump in!
My goal this week is to keep working through my recipes stash that I started with last week’s goals. I’m cleaning out so many accumulated recipes, pages ripped from magazines, printouts from online, etc. I made a really good start last week and want to keep going.
Do you have a homemaking goal this week? Please share it in the comments! If you need inspiration, you can find it in A Quiet Simple Life Planner & Guidebook.
Artwork: “Washing Up” by Jessie Willcox Smith
Great Difficulties and the Giants – Streams in the Desert
Last week was not a triumphant one for me. I kept thinking I’ll be able to catch up this week. Now I’m realizing that we’re leaving to visit out-of-state family on Wednesday through the end of the week, which leaves me today and tomorrow to work on all of those things…oh well. One goal seems attainable, at least.
1) I really must clean out those quail cages before our neighbor comes to take care of the critters this week. Nothing like the thought of strangers seeing my disorder to pep up my motivation!
Nothing like company coming to get cleaning done! LOL!
I think a lot of us have experienced that many times. 🙂
My goal for this week is to make a little curtain to cover a hole cut in the wall of our basement family room where a new water shut-off valve was installed. The hard part is going to be figuring out how to hang the curtain.
That sounds like a great job for your creativity!
I hope the shut off valve wasn’t the results of a disaster. Don’t ask me how I know about these things…
First off – LOVE your Christmas header! 🙂
Hope you guys have a lovely Thanksgiving!! (our goal: more condo moving. It’s a slow-moving process!)
Hi Lor,
I’m glad you like the new header! I love the red and overall color combination.
We had a good Thanksgiving. I hope your condo moving went well!
Sallie
I work at a hospital, so I’m working Thanksgiving and also on Friday. My husband and youngest son will handle most of the dinner prep. We’re also having our family’s version of a quiet Thanksgiving, with just our four children and our son in law. Last Thanksgiving was so crazy, so I’m really looking forward to coming home and having a quiet meal with my family. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
Hi Cheryl,
I hope you had a good Thanksgiving with both work and your family!
Sallie
We will have a quiet Thanksgiving,too. It will be the three of us[my twin sister and our older sister]. We make our maternal grandmother’s stuffing. It is similar to the stuffing that is in the book “An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving”. Wishing you and your family a BLESSED and HAPPY THANKSGIVING.
Joan,Marion and Marilyn
Hi Marilyn,
I hope you and your sisters had a lovely Thanksgiving as well!
Sallie
Hi Sallie,
I want to echo Lor’s comment about the Christmas header – I love it too! Our Thanksgiving was over a month ago (in Canada) so we won’t have too much extra happening this weekend.
I am planning to put three pots for our porch together of various greenery and dogwood from my childhood property ( my mum brought some up as I missed gathering it this year – love it because I remember when some of those evergreens were planted,lol) as well as some add-ons from our yard.
Hi Erin,
I’m glad you like the header!
In some ways I wish our Thanksgiving was earlier so it was farther away from Christmas. However, that will never happen so we do what we do.
Your porch decorations sound lovely. If you have any pictures to share, you could add them in the forum! Just drag them to the place where it says to add attachments and it will add them.
Sallie
We’re quietly at home this Black Friday morning, enjoying the long holiday weekend. I will probably venture to Meijer for a few things this weekend, but that will be about it.
I had one goal this week. I was supposed to continue weeding out my recipes which will be an ongoing job for a few weeks. I didn’t make any progress on it leading up to Thanksgiving. I do plan on spending a little time on it this weekend. We’re getting a box of donations ready to take to Goodwill so I’ll allocate ten or fifteen minutes to going through the collection. I will also take a quick glance at my cookbooks and see if there are any I wish to donate.
One thing about clearing things out. We put up our Christmas decorations yesterday and it was the quickest we’ve ever done it. The reason? I went through our Christmas bins either this summer or last. I donated quite a few things. We still have plenty of decorations, but I got rid of a lot of things I knew we would never use. It makes it so much easier. Even with that, I noticed there were still a few things that could be added to the next donation box. But it’s nice to reap the rewards of the work.
My goal was to make and hang a small curtain to cover a hole in our family room wall. It went more quickly and easily than I expected, which was good because cold season has definitely begun at my house.
We had a quiet Thanksgiving at home by ourselves, making good memories.
Oh, good! It’s always nice when something is easier than we expect. In our home, that seems to be the opposite of what usually happens. LOL!
How lovely to make good memories. That’s a lasting gift to your children.
Sallie
My outdoor Christmas baskets are done and it was a quick process. I hope you enjoyed your lovely, quiet day at home:).
Hi Erin,
You’ve inspired me to think about this for next year. Our front porch is really small so I can’t put anything on it other than a single potted plant in a stand.
But I’m going to keep my eyes open for an urn type pot or something I can use for greenery next Christmas.
Sallie
I love the title – “Cozy Homemaking” – I always feel this way in the winter months. Let it snow while I’m indoors tidying up, cleaning up, cooking/baking. It just all feels so warm, inviting, and old-fashioned. : ) We are in the process now of putting our Christmas things up (will finish today) so the house is looking pretty and “cozy” as well. Thank you for your post, Sallie! : )
Hi Mary,
I love winter. I really do. It is the season I truly feel most at home and contented. We received about five inches of snow over the weekend and everything is so pretty right now. It has started lightly snowing while I’m writing this comment so everything will have a fresh white coat.
Sun and heat make me restless. They do that to Caroline as well. We’re really most happy with gray cozy, snowy days at home.
Have a good day!
Sallie