Ate well today? Check.
Got outside and enjoyed the 61-degree day? Check.
Went to the gym and stayed on the elliptical for longer than 8 minutes? Check.
I am ready. I swear, I declare… I vow to lose weight over the holiday season.
Category: Funny Little Thing Called Life
Recap.
And then I forgot that I owned a camera. Imagine: Me carving the turkey (and only swearing at Alton Brown a little bit for making it look deceptively easy), making the gravy, mashing potatoes, and Mr. Thor carrying all of the dishes out here.
And then.
Giving Thanks.
What are you most thankful for this year?
I am thankful that I have a place of my own, where I can make blueberry muffins whenever the mood strikes and wander around in my pajamas at all hours of the day and night.
I am thankful for my wonderful, hilarious, supportive husband, who makes every day better.
I am thankful for my friends, who have encouraged me and stuck with me when it seems that, in reality, maybe I do have the thickest skull of any human, ever.
Thank you for the part you play in my life. You have helped me along, even if you don’t know it.
Y’all…
I don’t think my house has ever been this clean. I think I need more guests so that I can stay on top of this place.
I am beat, exhausted, totally sapped… and Thanksgiving isn’t here yet. I still have so much to do, like shoveling the turkey and stuffing the snow (name that movie).
Actually, I don’t stuff my bird. Not with stuffing, anyway. I put onions and apples and stuff in there. I just kind of wing it, you know, with whatever scraps I have laying around the house. Craft projects, balls of yarn, old candle ends, whatever. It all goes together and really lets you explore the flavor of the bird.
At any rate, in all seriousness, moving right along… My mother-in-law and my brother-in-law are coming tomorrow night and staying for two nights.
May we all bow our heads for a moment of silence.
Actually, I can’t say I’m dreading them coming at all. I used to live with them, and I know from past experience that they are REALLY fun holiday-ers. Low key, easy to please, and game-loving.
I have planned a super-simple meal this year. I am not making candied yams. Sacrilege, in some circles, I know. But, I am on my quest for collarbones, you know, and I can’t lose sight of my goal. Especially not in a sticky-caramelized-marshmallowy pile of yams. Sigh.
Anyway, my super-simple menu. Turkey. Steamed green beans. Stuffing from a box. Mashed potatoes from scratch.
Yeah, I also bought boxes of mashed potatoes in case I chicken out and decide I don’t have it in me. When I confessed that to Mr. Thor, he immediately replied, “You mean TURKEY out!” Sometimes it’s like living with Satchel from Get Fuzzy.
So, I guess, other than cleaning like a madwoman, I really am not stressing over this whole thing. I’m just kind of tired. I just want to keep eating right, and I also want to enjoy myself, have fun, eat a few tasty morsels, and also? lose weight next Thursday when I go to my next Weight Watchers meeting.
Is that too much to ask?
Amen.
Surprise, surprise.
Well, contrary to my own denial about how much I had to do over the weekend belief about how much free time I would have over the weekend, I did not do any pre-blogging. So, dear readers, this week you will just get me, on the fly, with whatever catches my fancy or my eye.
This morning, it was my brand new stack of mismatched dinner plates. I’ll just say that they were inherited form the living, and they came like this, all together. And they are all brand new.
Most people probably wouldn’t care for this, but I have actually dreamed of having a set of mismatched dinner plates for about 15 years. Because of the transient nature of my life since then, I actually only came to own any glass plates for dinner about a year and a half ago. They are cute and square and perfect for me and Mr. Thor and the small meals we frequently eat. But they are not quite fancy enough for Thanksgiving.
The one on top there is my favorite, due to its coupe style and its totally rad pattern. I shall eat turkey from that plate.
The other plates that I have had for a few years, but have been in almost-constant storage, are some adorable brightly colored glass dessert plates. Of course I had to choose them all in different colors; that’s just the way I am. I know it’s hard to see under the glaring overhead light in my dining room, but the plate on top is actually a different color from the plate on the bottom.
So, there you have it. My fancy plate collection in its entirety. Aren’t you glad that you tuned in today?
Married life: Billy Mays
Mr.: I just saw an Oxi-Clean commercial with someone else doing it.
Mrs.: Well, yeah, Billy Mays is dead. Did it suck?
Mr.: I just watched it for a second. It didn’t do anything for me.
Mrs.: Did Billy Mays do anything for you?
Mr.: HE WAS AWESOME!
Frenetic Friday
This post is sponsored by my achy front tooth (because my sinuses hate me), too much coffee (because I was hungry), and too much to do (why I drank more coffee rather than eat).
What are you doing this weekend? I am cleaning like a madwoman, hanging a cutain or two, and washing about 50% of my sheets and blankets. I am going to try to prepare as much as possible in advance, because I AM HOSTING THANKSGIVING at my place. Mr. Thor’s mother and brother will be coming down to stay with us for a couple of days.
This is me, not freaking out.
Also, I am going to try to pre-blog for next week. I know I have been leaving some of you hanging on The Story of Us… Next week I will post more.
Thank you for reading and commenting, and encouraging me. I am very thankful for the thoughtful feedback you have taken the time to give, both here and on the Mrs. Thor facebook page. I am not exaggerating when I say that many days, it keeps me typing here.
I guess, what I’m trying to say is…
I love you guys!!
The little things
This weekend, it really has been the little things making me happy.
I took a vacation day yesterday and spent the day “tooling around” with my husband. We cleaned and organized, took a load to the Salvation Army, and dropped our old TV for recycling at React.
Then we went shopping for a few things at Target, and my list had the following written on it: “new welcome mat?”
I hate, hate, hate the welcome mat that was here when we moved in. It was one of those bristle kind, but that’s all it was – no pattern, and practically worn down to the nub.
I found a new welcome mat. It’s nothing amazing, but it was exactly what I was looking for. And, I took a picture, but my SD card reader seems to not want to read my SD card at the moment. Let’s just say that IT MADE ME HAPPY.
I can leave you with a picture of another little thing that made me happy, just this morning:
I finally used my grandma’s old egg poaching pan. The picture is only of the tray that goes in the pan. The actual pan is positively ancient, and beat all to Hades, dinged and dented and the lid barely fits right. But when I saw it in my parents’ garage, I begged to have it. I fondly remember this thing and the delicious poached eggs that used to come out of it when I was a little kid staying overnight at the farm. I realize that I am lucky to have this memory.
Happy eggs.
The “October’s Over” blues
Between Halloween Thanksgiving, I usually experience a serious lull. The weather starts to move from “crisp” to “cold.” The leaves are mostly gone from the trees by this point, and the ones that are left are about as inspiring as pieces of torn-up paper bags.
This is pretty much how I feel this week:
This year I have been trying to stave off the blues, but – here they are! I don’t want to do much, I don’t want to work out, my sinuses are throbbing, and I want to eat 3 boxes of Girl Scout cookies and never look back.
I have been taking walks, though, because the weather has been pretty warm and sunny. I know that I’ll regret NOT taking walks once the snow comes, and that’s what motivates me.
Lately, the days have felt like spring. Too warm, too sunny, too blue. It’s been absolutely wonderful.
I hate to wish away any chunk of time, but I long for Thanksgiving. All of that cooking and baking puts me in a wonderful mood. And then – well, then, there is a whole glorious month of anticipation and a growing landscape of twinkly lights to pull me through.
There ain’t no easy way out.
So, I just spent the past 20 minutes writing a whiny post about having a bad day, and guess what? Just writing it out kind of turned my day around. Thank you, schedule, for making me sit down and write.
The title of this post is from the chorus of a Tom Petty song. Someone once asked what the theme song for my life would be, and I answered, with no hesitation, “I Won’t Back Down” by Tom Petty. Every time I sit down to write a blog post, this is my ritual. That is the first song I play. It reminds me of how far I have come and how far I still have to go. It makes me feel 100% positive that I will get there some day. And it also reminds me, as if I really need it, that the only way out is through.
I love Tom Petty for a multitude of reasons. He has principles and beliefs about his industry, his craft, and himself that he does not violate. He knows his boundaries and he flourishes within them.
I once did an exercise in a creative writing class where we, the students, were given pictures of doorways. The exercise, doled out to us piece by piece as we wrote, was to walk up to the door and notice all the details. Then it was to receive a note from our muse saying that “the muse” needed to talk. Then, it was to open the door and see our muse there. I saw Tom Petty. Then, it was to imagine and write out the conversation that we had with our muse. In my writing exercise, he just asked me what was up – why wasn’t I writing? I gave him some excuses about life being hard and work being sad and awful, and it being winter. And me feeling depleted. And do you know what he said to me? “Bullshit, man.”
And do you know what I said back? “I know.”
But here is what Tom Petty as my muse left me with: You have everything you need for the dream in your heart. You just need to take one step. And your muse is there for inspiration, whenever you need it.
Mrs. Thor 