Happy Thanksgiving Again.

One of the sesame street movies, I think it is Elmo Saves Christmas, they go around singing a song called "It's Christmas Again!" and that is what is on my mind today as we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving with my immediate family, having celebrated with my husband's family yesterday.   There will be a lot fewer people at mine and my kids are the only kids, but we will have a good time anyway.  I see Rock Band and board games in this afternoon's future.  :-P  Yesterday, we played Taboo and Catch Phrase. Have a great black Friday everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am up early because I just woke up but I realized right after I woke up that the sweet potato pie really needs to be in the oven by 9:00 a.m., so it's a good thing I am up.  Since 3 of us are gluten free now, we need to bring our own dressing, our own turkey/chicken (due to the cooking method of throwing wheat flour into the baking bag), our own gravy and our own desserts.  Luckily, I have taught my husband to make gravy and now he makes it better than I do, so he did that and baked the cornbread, which I made into stuffing, my daughter made a cheesecake with a gluten free graham cracker crust, so I only have a few things to do this morning, do the sweet potato pie, the rolls and bake the stuffing which is already assembled.   I made a list last night because lists help me.  I love a good list.  :-) 

Gluten Free?

If you are here looking for gluten free Thanksgiving recipes, take a look here at my other blog, here at Gluten Free on a Shoestring and here at Gluten Free Easily.  It's not that difficult to make a wonderful meal that is gluten free. 

I am going to be cooking a chicken, sage and onion cornbread stuffing, crustless sweet potato and pecan pies, and gravy and my brother and his girlfriend will be making the vegetable side dishes.  My daughter may also make a cheesecake.  I use the Pamela's baking mix and just substitute it cup for cup into my recipes for most things. 

Thank goodness.

For my homeschool group.  We met at Burger King yesterday, sat there and played UpWords and talked while the kids played Settlers of Catan, Apples to Apples and Telestrations.  We all had a good time and I felt renewed when I left there.  I'm still carrying my burdens, but sharing with my friends has made it feel lighter.  Today, we've got baking and cleaning to do, along with a lot of other people here in the US, I'm sure, preparing for tomorrow. 

The struggle continues.

WARNING:  THIS BLOG POST CONTAINS A LOT OF WHINING and some sarcasm.

I'm trying to work at this tedious, awful voice recognition job that my job has turned into while dealing with multiple phone calls regarding my mom.  She's still not happy but she wasn't happy at home either.  No matter what we do, no matter how much we visit and call, she's not happy.  I don't know what to do.  When my aunt called me about it this morning, I told her that she was asking me for the impossible.  No matter how long I stay, one minute after I leave, mom will be lonely.  No matter how long I talk to her on the phone, as soon as I hang up, she will be lonely again.   I can't bring her into my loud, rowdy rambunctious home of teenagers, dogs and cats.  I can't imagine that she could stand that and I know I probably couldn't, not that we have room.  If she went to live with my brother, she would still be alone 12 hours a day and in another city so that I couldn't visit her as often.  It's just an all around lose/lose situation for everyone involved.  It's sad.  You can love a person and try to please a person, but you cannot make someone else happy.

Meanwhile, my brother and I are trying to get her mail transferred, trying to get her subscriptions moved out to where she is now, trying to manage her money, trying to winterize her house, trying to cope with it all while also dealing with a situation that has come up with mom's caregiver that I don't feel comfortable sharing here, but it is bad, trust me.

And with all of that, we are heading into the holidays when we try to have so much fun and do so much extra stuff and I personally just end up feeling more stressed, every year.

Yay.
 

A couple of pictures.

My daughter is practicing learning to draw eyes.

Freckles begging for turkey from my oldest son.

Thanksgiving week begins!

My son came home from Mississippi yesterday.  Usually he stops a lot of times and calls me a lot of times, but yesterday I knew I was going to be at church  so I told him not to call until after church.  He called around 2:00 p.m.   The younger kids and I took grandma to church, bought lunch, took her back home and ate lunch with her, then got some things done around the house.  Later on, I thought "He should be calling again".  My daughter said "Call him." and I said "I don't like to call when I know he's driving.  It might startle him." and then about 15 minutes later he was home!   It was great.  :-)   He's getting better at the drive and he's got GPS now and a good vehicle. 

As for my mom and how's she's adjusting, well, she's a little more forgetful than usual in some ways.  She couldn't remember who had brought her to church (me) and at church she said to me "I think you probably should put me in assisted living or something." to which I replied "You are in assisted living." , but she also said a few comments like "Whose idea was it for me to come and live in this place?"  She doesn't love it, but she's warm, she's safe, she has someone to talk to in her cousin, plus she has quite a few visitors.  I was up there every day last week except Wednesday and Saturday and my brother's girlfriend was there on Wednesday and my brother was there on Saturday, also 2 of my mom's sisters visited and her brother has went up there every day, for a little while each morning.  Also, she is learning some things about her new place and remembering them reasonably well like which button on the remote is to turn the TV on and off.   It is a struggle when your short term memory is impaired and also, I'd just like to point out, not fair. 

We are looking forward to getting together with family and friends for Thanksgiving.  We're going to see the homeschool family on Tuesday, then on Thursday, my husband's parents and brothers and then on Friday my mom and brother and then on Friday the kids have another party with a kid from the homeschool group.  It's going to be here and gone the blink of any eye and we all know who I turn into after Thanksgiving ...

Another day.

Today my daughter had another sale.   She did pretty well.   She sold 69.00 worth of merchandise;  3  scarves and a crocheted bunny.   I dropped her off at the sale and then came back home to do some medical editing which is a lot of what my job is now.   I kinda hate it.   Imagine having to type an important document and getting a 5 year old to type it then having to correct what they have typed.   It would be easier to just type it yourself, right?  It is a giant pain in the behind.  It is extremely annoying. 

In other news,  Mom has made it through one more day in the assisted living facility.   She doesn't love it but I am still of the opinion that it is a safer place  for her to be and I am still hopeful that she will settle in.   Her cousin being 2 doors down is good and bad.   It means that she is not as lonely but it also means that we are not alone to visit with mom much.   oh well.   The most important thing is that she not be lonely so it is fine.  

I'm looking forward to thanksgiving week even though it is going to be very different this year since my mother in law is also not hosting so we won't be going to grandma's or mamaw's this year.:-(