Autumn Updates

As with most people, things continue to be busy. Except for carpet, our basement is done and decorated. The garden is done and cleaned up until spring. The puppy is housebroken (except for some remaining submissive peeing, which is frustrating). I ended up replacing the foam in the ottoman and putting the fabric upolstry cover right in the washing machine. It was the best solution and is nice and clean!

Our little dead-end road has a lot more traffic than usual these days due to deer hunters. There is quite a bit of public hunting land accessed from our road, so we have trucks driving by much more frequently than normal.

Even with all the "traffic," I've learned that if you live rural and want to meet people other than your 2 neighbors, you have to DO something about it. People don't just walk up the sidewalk and say, "Hi! I'm ___ and live a few blocks down the road" like they do in suburbia. I've been attending church and a few people are remembering my name (if only I could remember theirs). I joined the school improvement team at my son's school to meet the teachers. I am also co-coaching 2 activities this fall--an academic reading team that will compete in a literacy "game show," and a a team for Odyssey of the Mind in which students use creative thinking, team-work and problem solving to complete in a problem-solving competition. Already I'm getting to know a few more people. Even though our "town" is small, the school district includes children from 5 different towns and lots of rural space in between, so the school district actually has a lot of students. Many more than I anticipated when we first moved here.

My meal planning is going pretty well thus far. I put all my meals in my Windows calendar on a rotating basis, so I have 5 meals planned automatically for each week. I just match up my grocery list with my menu for the week and I'm good to go! I do mix things up a bit. I might have Wed's dinner on Monday or something like that, but it sure helps to know I have all the ingredients on hand for 5 different meals. It's not too convenient to run to the store if I run out of something!

I would like to be making more things from scratch to avoid preservatives and eat healthier, but I have some roadblocks. 1st of all, it takes TIME to make everything from scratch and in case you didn't notice, I'm a little busy right now! 2nd, SOMEONE in my family prefers processed foods over homemade!!! This person would rather eat blueberry muffins from a mix or pizza from the chain, rather than completely homemade. How sad! : (

We will be hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year for 22 of our relatives. This is my first major Thanksgiving dinner, so I'm looking forward to it. It takes a lot of planning and organization. I have purchased everything except for the potatoes and we've borrowed tables and chairs, so we're on our way!