A Thanksgiving Wish and Some of My Daily Faves

How was your Thanksgiving? I hope it was blessed with lots of family, friends, food and fun.

Our Thanksgiving menu was the traditional fare, roast turkey, cornbread dressing, giblet gravy, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole & rolls. Our daughter Riley made the green bean casserole and her favorite Thanksgiving dish, the “pink stuff”. I was craving Waldorf Salad so I whipped one up real quick. Justin, Riley’s beau, made two pecan pies and I made two pumpkin pies.

Well, I really made three. One never made it to the table.

 Wednesday night, Jim and I ran to the store to pick up a few last minute items. While we were gone, our dog Rudy decided to help himself to one of my pies.

He’s such a naughty dog.

So it was back to the store to get another pie plate since he broke the other one as he pulled it off the counter, then I was rolling out pie crust and mixing the pumpkin recipe around 9pm. So much for cooking ahead of time.

I know better than to leave food out on the counter, but I forgot to put the pies away. Maybe this time I’ve learned my lesson.
As I write this post, Jim is heating up leftovers,the very best part of Thanksgiving!

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Do you have favorite things you make or use everyday?

I have several but some are my very very favorite.  Like my iced lattes, I love my iced lattes and I look forward to my daily treat from the time I get out of bed.

But I have to earn my treat.  Before I indulge I make myself drink at least 48oz of water.  If I don’t do that then I will struggle for the rest of the day trying to reach my 64 ounces of water intake.   Goals are great.  Rewards help me meet my goals.

I say indulge but really my lattes are not that bad.  I found away to have my daily latte and keep it low fat and low calorie.

My secret is Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk!  It’s only 30 calories per cup.  My other little secret is the Chocolate Low Fat Natural Bliss Creamer by Coffee Mate , it’s only 20 calories per Tbsp.   My latte consists of 1 cup of cold coffee, 1 cup of Almond Milk and 3 Tbsp of Coffee Mate poured over ice. It’s delightful and only 90 calories!

 I keep a carafe of cold coffee in the fridge because I cut back on my coffee habit last September, I no longer drink a 8-10 cups of coffee a day, but I still make a full pot for Jim every day.  What he doesn’t drink, I let cool and pour into a glass carafe to use for my iced coffee.

psst, don’t tell… but some times I cheat and have two, but not very often

Another one of my faves that I (we) use every day is cloth napkins.  I love cloth napkins, they’re soft, they don’t fall apart and they save trees.  I have several different sets, patterns and colors but these green napkins are used everyday with each meal.  Since I do laundry a few times a week anyway, it no big deal to toss the napkins in with a load of clothes.

Another reason cloth napkins are so dear to me is because they are perfect for teaching.  I taught all my little ones how to fold clothes and iron with cloth napkins.

Let’s face it, folding clothes is a bit difficult for little hands, but folding square napkins is easy and it makes them feels so awesome to help mommy fold clothes.  As for the ironing…what could be easier to iron than a square piece of cloth.  So I used napkins to teach my kids how to iron.

Soooo, do they iron their clothes now that they’re older?  Probably not, but at least they know how if they have too.

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Are you a Black Friday shopper?   I’m not so today I stayed tucked in my cozy quiet home. I really don’t like to shop unless it’s a flea market, yard sale, antique shop or salvage barn.  Since you don’t see many of those advertising Black Friday sales I was content to stay home and enjoy a warm fire and left overs.

Enjoy the rest of your Thanksgiving weekend.

We will be decorating the tree that’s already been up for a week, sprucing up the yard and eating leftovers.

Blessings,