I'm sure many of us in the US are frantically preparing for family visits or maybe already have family visiting. My son and his roommate are coming home today so I've been doing a little cleaning and then I need to work hard on the annual photobook that I make as a holiday gift for relatives. Tonight, I'm going to a meeting of a local photography club that I am thinking of joining -- they have photography presentations and competitions. Stuff like that always keeps me inspired. I also agreed to do some product photography for a local jewelry business, so that's on the agenda for tomorrow. So, a busy weekend even though we aren't hosting Thanksgiving here! What about you?! What are you doing this weekend?
I'm in Arizona so this is the time of year when we finally CAN go out. And I'll mostly be sitting at my computer anyway.
Errands and homework! My oldest is coming home from college tonight (at UVA) and my youngest leaves for a 2 day school field trip tomorrow, so they account for most of the errands. In a few days we'll go visit family in New York and be there 4 days. After we get home there's only a week left until the end of my semester, so I have a bunch of assignments due and I'm trying to get enough done that I don't have to work on anything while we're away.
It's so hard to find the right balance between staying busy and getting in enough rest. Especially this time of year. There's so much that needs to be done and then it wears you down! Breathing and eating sounds pretty great to me!
It was 21 when I got up this morning and even now it is only 31. This is not normal November temps. But I am at least thankful we aren't getting multiple feet of snow!
I'm trying to do as little as possible. I did a Walmart pick up order yesterday for all the things I need for Thanksgiving. We are dog-sitting for my daughter tonight and picking up something for dinner. I'm exhausted. Work for the last week has been chaos.
Originally, Thanksgiving was planned to be catered. My daughter informed me this morning that the catering isn’t going to happen. So now I’m doing some light cleaning and planning what main entree I’m cooking and hosting. Good thing we are informal. Looking at a pork roast slow cooker recipe.
I’ve been cleaning since we’re hosting my family Thursday. I’ve also been catching up on my daily PL pages so I can print them on a 2022 calendar while Shutterfly is offering a free one. We also watched a couple movies today. I still need to do laundry too. Tomorrow I’ll be playing piano at church and hanging out at home.
Today started out with some light dusting and moving regular decorations in preparation for Christmas decorating. We've decided not to put up our tree this year. Instead, we are giving it to our daughter @LivyBug for her house. With all the things that happened this year, we want the house to be decorated, but something has to give and I'm removing the big tree. We may end up getting a tabletop tree, but right now, we're just going with my other decorations. Other than the light dusting, I watched Alabama football and cross stitched and took a nap. Tomorrow morning I'll pop over to my mom's to see some cousins and their new baby, and then Mama and my sister Anna will come back to my house and help me decorate. So instead of having my holiday decorations out for days and days and the house a mess, I'm hoping that with their help I'll be done tomorrow afternoon.
I got rid of my big tree years ago and don’t regret it one bit. I did get a small (7 foot skinny pre lit) one at Target some years ago. It’s not a high end one, but it is easy to put together, goes easily back into the box. Of course, I’ve got way too many decorations for this little tree, but it’s nice to have each year.
Thanks for making me feel better! We had already moved down to a smaller/skinny tree than the ones we have had before. I think our biggest one was the one that was prelit and turned! I loved that one because you could sit and see all the ornaments parading by. LOL
@gonewiththewind I think I mentioned in one of your scraps that I no longer put up a big tree. With not having any presents to put under it, it just isn't worth it especially since my back can't handle it. What I do have are 3 table top trees. Two of them I've had for a long time, over 25 years because Mom was still alive when I got them. They are about 20 to 24 inches in height and are green. They stay decorated even when I put them away. I just cover them with a plastic shopping bag and stick them on the floor of a closet. The 3rd tree I got a few years back at Hobby Lobby. It is 18 to 20 inches and white. I put small purple ornaments on it and like the others it gets put away fully decorated and covered with a plastic shopping bag. The white tree goes in my office/scrap room. Then one of the others gets put out wherever I decide I want a tree. I usually only put one of the green trees out. Mainly because the other "tree" that I put out is a ceramic lighted tree that I put on a kitchen counter. I found photos from as far back as 1985 that have the lighted tree in it so it is a treasured item. The last few years Mom was alive we had a different table top tree that was maybe 3 feet tall. It sat on a marble table that was in front of our picture window and from the outside, it looked like we had a big tree. We just put presents on the table and the bottom of it. The bottom is an old sewing machine with treadle. I probably ought to scrap the story of the table... not sure I've done it!
@HavaDrPepper Yes, I remember you did mention that in the WCSLIVE! I like how you keep them decorated, but cover them and store them that way. Brilliant!
We also have a skinny, prelit tree from Target! I love it and it’s so much easier to deal with than the much bigger one we had before.
We are supposed to go to our friends’ for Thanksgiving but one of their kids has had Covid so we may end up cooking although I really hope not!
I’ve been resting a lot lately as my “mild” case of COVID that I had 2-3 weeks ago has knocked me around a bit mainly in terms of my fatigue level - I generally have fatigue due to other health issues but this has been next level. I did have a list of things I was going to do but priority was to look after me first otherwise I could “pay for it” this week. I’m quite bad about pacing myself usually and try and do as much as I can when I’m feeling good which usually leads to burning out in a way.
Yes, I've heard COVID can leave you fatigued long after other symptoms have subsided. Definitely a time to take it easy and take care of yourself.