It Is All About the Planning

I am such a planner. I love to do lesson plans for school, plan vacations, and plan trips to town. I really love to plan meals when family is coming.

I find so much pleasure in diving into my old recipe boxes, scouring cookbooks, searching Pinterest, and referring to my notebooks of favorite recipes. I really love to cook for my husband, but sometimes it is nice to add some special dishes when family comes.

My mom and brother are coming for Thanksgiving. I spread out all the recipes, magazines, my computer, my recipe holders, and cookbooks a few nights ago and narrowed down the choices for Thanksgiving Day, plus the days before and after. Color me crazy, but I love to create grocery lists also.

The first shopping trip is done; Food is organized and stored. The turkey is still frozen, but will come out to thaw soon. Another trip early next week will fill the cart with fresh produce, flowers, and last minute items. We will miss our niece that still put olives on her fingers, but maybe we will need to restart the tradition. We will also miss the rest of the family that will travel to southern Idaho. We will miss the family "back east."

I love having family here at Thanksgiving, I love preparing the meal, and I really love this quote.

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow. "

~Melody Beattie