Week Twelve - Dining Space

[Holiday_Mom]

Whew! Got through my goals for this week. It's the earliest to date.

Now to start on a pie and cookie ingredient mission. I find that if I can gather the dry ingredients and store them in a labeled container, it makes the baking that much simpler when I'm ready to bake.

Mary

 

[Holiday_Mom]

Well, I added "Clean Oven" to my list after I burned food and started a fire. <sigh> The oven is sparkling now. I've got a busy weekend ahead so it feels good to have the dry mixes for baking set made up and set aside.

Mary

 

[happy2bme]

Sorry to hear about the fire, but great job on getting the oven cleaned!!!

 

[Cindylouwho]

The oven comments remind me I need to do that too. DH exploded a potato in it a couple days ago by forgetting to prick it with a fork.

I woke up very stressed this morning. Bad dreams about being surrounded in clutter. Really I only have two rooms that need work (kitchen and mudroom entry). They are always the ones that need work. And then another hour or two for a whole house once-over. Won't be perfect but it will be "good enough". If I can pull these off tomorrow I will feel so much better so this is my plan. The kids have are having friends over (the "nice" kids that don't wreck the place), so I'm hoping to have time on my hands. Want that mudroom DONE because it is my wrapping space. And to do it I will have to let MORE go to trash and donations. (Its the land of family arts and crafts projects from school.... soooooo hard.....).

Anyone else's December calendar packing in? I got like 10 events added to it in the last 2 days! Holy cow! It's freaking me out! (Cleaning the house will calm me down....)

 

[happy2bme]

Christmas cards for the exchange are done!!

I will buy the stamps tomorrow and they will be ready to be mailed next week.

I still have a few card to do for family, but waiting for pictures to be printed.

 

[sweetpumkinpye]

Gosh you girls are fully in the swing of things,
Holiday_mom, you did make me laugh with adding clean oven to the list. Mi hope the fire wasn't too bad.

 

[Cindylouwho]

Everyone is doing AWESOME! I'm so jealous of you that have your purchases done or near done. I don't purchase a thing anymore til after Thanksgiving after too many "mind-changes" and additions from the kids that come in at Thanksgiving. Now Thanksgiving is the deadline for The List.

HOUSE: No clutter-filled nightmares last night. In the short hour we had between getting home and guests arriving, DH and the kids all got recruited to clean up the house as was the only time we'd really have before the holidays kick in next week. The Calendar is just jam packed with end-of -year appts, teacher conferences etc. Crazy. They were such good sports about it when I put it in the context of cleaning for the holidays (and it always helps to have people coming over). The kitchen and mudrooms are both put back together - the house is back on track for FlyLady maintenance and Mom is much much happier. One hour and such a HUGE difference. Just amazing. And got all the surfaces wiped down in the dining room.

BAKING: Today DD is helping with the cookies recipes (the new Gluten Free ones). Think we are going to put the dry mixes together for baking later. We'll see what we come up with. But today is the day we are starting on it. Will post on the Gluten Free threads whatever we come up with.

Shopping: Only thing I have purchased so far is the new Zelda 3d/3d-DS which I pre-ordered for DS (a GameStop promotion and came preloaded with some games that ought to save money for other things). DH and I nailed down the list for all the big gifts and I have a pretty clear plan. A little fine tuning. Wish I was a little further ahead on my 5 significant items for the stockings. (In each stocking Santa does 5 not-terribly-expensive but "well-thought-out" things and the rest small, silly and sweet).

 

[Holiday_Mom]

Our December is starting to fill in quickly too. I just said to my husband that we better pencil in "Get Tree" into one of our weekends. Last year, we were so busy that we almost forgot a tree. 10 days before Christmas the kids asked when were we getting a tree. I'm the girl who used to put up an artificial tree in my apartment the day after Thanksgiving when I was single. I never dreamed I'd forget about getting a tree.

The fire did no real damage. Fortunately, I was in the kitchen and noticed it early on. Thankfully, I also knew exactly where the baking soda was since I had recently organized the kitchen shelves. I think from now on, I'll keep baking soda front and center.

I've shopped here and there on items along the way especially if I see something that "screams" someone's name. I tend to wait until after Thanksgiving for the rest of the shopping. I enjoy shopping early on Black Friday morning for the kid's gifts. I just stay away from certain stores. I noticed that last year with stores opening on Thanksgiving night that shopping on Black Friday seemed a bit more quieter than in the past.

Mary