Two posts in one day! I was going to share some of my tips and hints for holiday cooking and hostessing, but I just couldn’t get the wording right. I decided instead to do a little daily journal of what I’m doing to get ready for Thanksgiving. I’ll hopefully have one up every day until the big turkey day.

Monday:

I’m using the little time that I have… Dylan is in school for the morning (his only day this week) and Agnes is napping. I’m putting away laundry, and washing up a quick three loads of laundry. I stopped to do a little exercise on my new gazelle, and flipped on the Cooking channel to give me some motivation to get started. 30 minutes on the gazelle done, and I’ve decided on a pastry

To Do List:

1. Finalize the Thanksgiving menu
2. Check with attending guests, and see what they are bringing (that way there aren’t any duplicates)
3. Write up the shopping list, and add coupons if I can. I am shopping for the next full week, I don’t want to have to go back to the store until after next Monday. I’m going to try and avoid the Black Friday crowds entirely.
4. Start the Croissant dough, first proof in the fridge
5. Make the pie crust, and put it in the freezer
6. Clean out the freezer and clean out the fridge too.
7. Take out the trash, and take care of any icky chores (litter-box)
8. Wash the dishes, and pay the bills. With the kids home from school I don’t have much time on the computer, so I had better get anything that I have to pay close attention to done today.
9. Fold the three loads of laundry tonight after taking Thade to Tae Kwon Do
10. Watch some Football and call it a night

This week I’m keeping our meals simple, and with minimal leftovers. I’m going to need the extra space in the fridge for Thanksgiving dishes. I’m also taking the help on Tuesday, and checking out the new pizza place!

Till tomorrow,

nicole

I haven’t felt good lately. I’ve had really bad migraines off and on for the last two weeks, so I haven’t gotten that much done. I feel bad when I have days like that, when my head aches, and my hands don’t cooperate, it is difficult to get anything accomplished.

Today though, the weather is cool and rainy. So far I am migraine free, but it is extra noisy with the littlest ones at home, so we’ll see how that goes. Back on subject, since the weather is finally starting to cool off, here are a few things on my to do list.

Weather-proof the drafty windows. I weather-proof the upstairs windows that have the window air-conditioning units in them. I should probably do the same to the downstairs windows, but I go a little stir-crazy if I can’t look outside.

Drink lots and lots of Hot Chocolate! I use my mom’s recipe (she makes it from scratch) and it is crazy good. I like mine with an obscene amount of tiny marshmallows.

Come up with more School @ Home projects. I know there will be (lots of) snow days in our future, and I need to keep those busy boys focused on some school work. Dylan and I do School @ Home on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and he getting pretty fast at completing his worksheets. He loves it though, and I love to see him learning.

More projects for me… I am starting to journal again, and clip come coupons every now and then. I would love to get some major projects done around the house, but time is working against me.

Get the Thanksgiving plans finalized. I’m pretty sure I’m hosting, I should probably figure out who all is coming, and get a big meal ready to go.

What about you… Do you have any plans or projects now that the weather is starting to turn cool?

I never thought I would say this but… We have too much!!!

Too much Halloween Candy!

I bought a lot, Grandma brought a lot, and the kiddos trick-or-treated a lot, and well there is just a crazy amount of candy going on in the house.

I decided to dump it all out, and organize it a little bit. Too see just what we are working with.

I moved all of the inedible goodies (pencils, plastic toys, cups) into a big bowl. I then separated out all of the fruit candies, gum, and fruit chews into another bowl. Lastly I sorted through all of the chocolate. Dylan has a peanut allergy, so I separated any of the peanut butter/peanut candies into a gallon sized bag. I put the chocolate M&M’s into another gallon sized bag for baking, and treats. Lastly I combined all of the rest of the candy bars into it’s own gallon sized bag. It is still way too much candy.

O.k. so I know I’m a mean mom, I don’t want my kiddos to eat all of this candy, but I don’t want to see it all go to waste. I’m trying to think of a few recipes/activities to use up some of this candy. I also have to keep my ideas Peanut free for my little Dylan.

• Candy Bar Cake, could be tasty
• M&M Oatmeal Cookies, would use up some of those M&M’s
• M&M Chocolate Chips cookies, another good use of those candies
• A special treat jar: filled with the gum, smarties, lollipops, and tootsie rolls
• I’ve also seen a few Candy Advent Calendars, you use the favorite candies to count down to Christmas

What about you… What are you doing to creatively use up all that extra Halloween candy?

I know it is silly, we are just now enjoying Autumn, and I’m already thinking about Winter. Well Winter stockpiling to be exact. The last two Winters have been pretty unfriendly, and I was left unprepared.

Two years ago, our heater broke on Christmas, and it was over a week before a repairman could make it to our house…

Last year we had back to back to back to back snow storms and we were snowed in for several days. I don’t even remember just how many snow days we had, but I was really unprepared to be snowed in for that long.

This year I want to be better prepared, and stocked up with the essentials just in case. I plan on starting my stockpiling in the beginning of December. I want to make a big Aldi run, and then stock up on paper goods too. Family Dollar and Dollar General both have great paper goods selections, and fair prices. I love not having to wait for a sale to stock up on what I need.

Some of the items that I want to stock up on are:

• Non-perishable items: Cereals, snacks, crackers, pastas, and canned goods
• Batteries: with Christmas on the way and Agnes’ mobile is a battery consumer, I need to have extras on hand
• Pet Supplies: I only have 1 cat, so this should be easy to stockpile
• Coloring books, crayons, blank paper, and books books books. If this Winter is anything like last Winter we are going to be stuck indoors for a long time. I need to keep the kids entertained

What about you… Are you already thinking about getting ready for Winter too? What are your must have stockpile items for the Wintertime?